A/N: Hey, so here's the update I promised, and the Chapter you're been waiting for, the First Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament! I was going to update yeasterday, but then I found out I got accepted to my first choice program at one of my first choice universities, and my parents wanted to go out to celebrate. But here it is, enjoy!
There is a bit of swearing in this chapter (it's one word and it's in French but still). Also, I fidled with POV in this chapter -kinda-. I write in Third-person point of view, but it's usually third-person limited, I only show one person's inner thoughts per chapter, and in this one I switch between Teddy and Vic, because I thought it'd be good to see what each person was thinking. Plus, they're both in two different places, there's page-breaks between each POV, so I hope I didn't make it too confusing.
The beginning's a little slow, but everyone just keeps begging me to let them speak, and they gang up on me until I let them so here it is . . .
Disclaimer:If it sounds like JKR it's not mine and I do not take ownership of it . . . although I will take the blame for Cecilia and any and all damage she does ;)
The First Task
Teddy walked a little faster to catch up with Bill Weasley, now that he was outside the Champions' tent; he finally saw the huge mass amounts of people wandering through the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch looking for their seats. As they climbed a few staircases, Teddy wondered how all of the people he saw were going to fit in the school stadium. As if to answer his question, he saw a group of wizards in bright yellow jackets directing the traffic flow of people, many of them had their wands out and were conjuring up new whole sections of benches and bleachers for the overflow of people to sit in. Wow, it's like the entire Wizarding World is here today, Teddy thought, as he finally understood Victoire's aversion earlier this morning to the Task.
He was startled out of his wandering thoughts when he felt a heavy arm lay across his shoulders. Bill knew that he had momentarily surprised Teddy, but he started talking anyway, "She's going to be great Ted. Don't worry so much."
Teddy looked up at Bill stunned. "How did you know . . ." he trailed off, not really wanting to finish the sentence he was just about to say to his girlfriend's father.
"That you were thinking about Victoire?" Bill chuckled, "C'mon Ted I have been there before. When you're at your age, fifty-percent of the time your mind will be on the special girl in your life. Add in the fact that she's about to start the first of many tasks in a dangerous magical Tournament that many people have perished in . . . well, it's easy to see that your mind would be on her."
Teddy shook his head lightly, "I never really thought that it would be possible to think of her more than I did when we were just best friends. She proved me wrong though."
Bill laughed again, "Yes, that is one thing my daughter's good at, proving that she's right and everyone else in wrong. That's why I know she'll be fine today in the Tournament. I'm not going to lie, I'm worried too, but I just have to have faith in how I raised my daughter."
Teddy smiled at Bill, "Trust me, you did an amazing job, she's perfect."
Bill smiled but didn't say anything because they'd just reached their destination. There was another man in a yellow jacket standing at the entrance to the bleachers, holding his hand out for people's tickets, and then directing them to their seats. When Bill and Teddy made it to the front of the short queue that had been ahead of them, Bill handed the man two crimson red tickets. The man nodded and then directed Bill to where their seats would be.
Bill gave Teddy one of the tickets after the man in the yellow jacket let them pass, "Make sure you don't lose that, you'll need it to get back in if you have to leave for some reason."
Teddy nodded and took the ticket, a shocked expression coming across his face when he looked at it, "Is that . . .?"
Bill laughed as he noticed Teddy's inspection, "Yes, that's her."
Teddy was still looking at the ticket confusedly. Printed onto the crimson coloured paper, along with the seat and section number, was a picture of Victoire. It wasn't one of the moving one's from Wizard photos, it was one of the two dimensional non-moving ones from Muggle photography.
"Why is she on my ticket?" Better question, Teddy thought, is she on half of the other people's tickets too?
Bill seemed to be able to read Teddy's mind today though, "They thought it would be a good promotion. And no, she's not on everyone else's tickets either. They thought it would be fun to customize tickets, and sections, for which champion you were going to cheer for, if you have a particular one. Safer too, that way you wouldn't have loud-mouthed people insulting the views of others, because no matter how upset rational people are with this Tournament, to many it's just a fun game."
Teddy nodded, "So all of Hogwarts has her on their ticket?"
Bill chuckled, "No, I'm sure most of the Slytherins would absolutely loath that. Most of Gryffindor does, and then her friends and family that are sitting in her section. The outsiders have normal tickets, unless they're family of the Champions, or unless they're higher up in Wizarding society and are allowed to sit near us."
"Sit near us?" Teddy asked confused.
Bill nodded, but instead of elaborating, he just waved his hand in front of them gesturing to the area they had arrived to. Teddy's first response was to gasp loudly. The second was to roll his eyes at his foolishness for thinking that the Weasleys' would have any worse seats for the Tournament today. Their section was absolutely amazing. It was halfway between the ground and the top level, giving them a spectacular view of giant screens where they would be watching the action today. They were at a good level to see the middle of the pitch where the Champions would walk to. And they were directly next to the raised platform where the judges would sit to watch the task. Also sitting with the judges was Percy Weasley, Kingsley, Harry, Fleur, and Viktor Krum.
Teddy followed Bill up a few more steps and past a few seats until they got to their own seats.
"There you are Bill! Oh, hey Ted!" Teddy tried not to sigh, Bill hadn't been joking when he said that Teddy would be sitting between him and Charlie for the day.
"Hi Charlie," Teddy said politely shaking the hand that Charlie had stuck out for him.
After he dropped his hand and took his seat, he was bombarded with a chorus of hellos from several other people: the adults of the Weasley family including Audrey, Hermione and Ron, Ginny, Angelina and George, and Molly and Arthur Weasley who were sitting with Teddy's grandmother Andromeda. Little Lily Potter and Hugo Weasley had to step over some of their families' feet to get to Teddy so they could hug him before going back to sitting with their mothers. The Weasley's that attended Hogwarts were also sitting in the same section Teddy was, just not with their parents (with an exception of Lucy who was sitting next to Audrey and was looking like she'd rather be in the library studying then watching her eldest cousin). Rose and Albus were sitting a few rows in front of Teddy with one or two of their first year friends, and trying not to react to Fred and James who were sitting in the row directly behind them and throwing popcorn at them until it became stuck in Rose's bushy hair, or fell down the back of Al's shirt. Molly and Dom were sitting a few rows behind Teddy, chatting amiably with some of their girlfriends. Teddy smiled when he saw that they were each wearing a dark red long-sleeve tee that flashed through the words 'Go-Victoire-Go!'. As Teddy glanced around the section, he realized what Bill meant about 'high-class wizards' in their section. He noticed many bigwigs from the Ministry, along with many of Harry's friends who were very high up in Wizarding society. He also saw Viktor Krum's wife Julia and his other son Valentin along with a grouping of other people whom he took to be friends or family of Konstantin, and he recognized a group of foreign looking people who he vaguely remembered from the Halloween party, and guessed was Noëlle's family and friends. The people Teddy couldn't see from where he was sitting was Louis, Ally, and Victoire's other friends who had come into the tent earlier to wish her luck.
"Bill, where's Louis and Ally?" he asked still looking around in case he just missed them. They were really cutting it close time-wise; the task was scheduled to start any minute now.
Bill frowned, "I'm not sure . . . they were here earlier . . ."
Teddy didn't have time to question Bill further because Ally and Louis decided to make their debut. Ally came up the stairs first, she was laughing with a dark haired women while Xavier trailed behind frowning slightly. Teddy cracked a smile as he recognized the look on Xavier's face. He was nervous. Not without reason either, Teddy thought as the three came to a in the row directly in front of where the Weasley's were sitting.
"Katie-bear!" George yelled from his seat next to Charlie. He stood up to pull the dark haired woman in-between Xavier and Ally into an embrace.
Katie Bell laughed as she extricated herself from George's grasp to receive her hug from Angelina, "Hi George. Hi Angie!"
"Hi Kates, you don't mind my daughter sitting with you do you, the rest of us have sorta already taken up this row," Angelina responded apologetically.
Katie smiled and threw her arm around Ally shoulders, "Of course I don't mind. I love getting a chance to talk with the girls. Xavier never actually does tell what's going on in his life; I always have to hear it from a second source."
Xavier groaned as he moved to his seat on the other side of Ally, he could just tell that this was going to be a long day. Shortly after Katie, Ally, and Xavier were seated, Louis and Cecilia made their way to their seats, with Oliver attached by the hand to Cecilia.
"I told you this was where our seats where," Cecilia called in a singsong voice.
Not only did Louis and Oliver end up rolling their eyes at the exact same time, they answered at the same time too, "Yeah, we know."
Katie, Xavier, Ally, and Bill started laughing. Oliver sighed as he stepped over a few people's feet to sit next to his wife. Cecilia followed her father down the aisle, dragging a reluctant Louis behind her.
"Where are we going Cecilia? I can see Baxter and Danielle down a few rows," Louis said as he, unsuccessfully, tried to shake Cecilia's grip off of him.
Cecilia stopped where she was and placed her hands on her hips, it was a rather intimidating pose for the thirteen-year-old, "Merlin Louis, are you really that oblivious?"
Louis looked at her confusedly, as he proved her point, "Oblivious to what?"
Cecilia palmed her forehead. "Just sit down before they see us," she said somewhat demandingly as she gently pushed Louis down into the closest empty seat.
"To late," Ally said amused. She pointed to the redhead two rows ahead, a few seats down from Fred and James, who was turned around beckoning to Louis and Cecilia. Louis gave a wimp wave back so he could avoid the look of anger on Cecilia's face. Cecilia growled quietly, grabbed Louis wrist again, and pulled him away while mumbling under her breath about how 'slow-stupid-chivalrous-Gryffindor-boys-were'.
Ally looked quizzically at Xavier, "She does know Baxter's in Hufflepuff right?"
Katie answered, "I think she was talking more about Louis in that circumstance when she was talking about oblivious Gryffindor boys, Sweetie."
"Well . . . she's not wrong," Angelina said as she shared a specific look with Katie.
"Hey!" Oliver, Xavier, George, Ron, Charlie, and Bill said offended. The females giggled at the men's response. Bill turned to Teddy and raised an eyebrow questioningly when he didn't seem affronted.
Teddy shrugged, "Victoire's been saying that about me since before I got into Gryffindor."
Bill chuckled, "Yeah, I guess you'd be used to hearing that by now . . . and I guess she wouldn't be wrong either."
"Is she ever?" Teddy questioned.
"Nope, besides she's a Weasley, if she was wrong she'd never admit it," Charlie said jumping into the conversation, "Stubborn as a Hungarian Horntail that one is."
"I'm going to tell her you compared her to a Hungarian Horntail, Uncle Charlie," Ally said from her seat in front of Bill.
Charlie actually had the decorum to look scared at Ally's playful comment-turned threat. Teddy looked at the seats around him before turning to Ally, "Where's the rest of your friends?"
Ally shrugged but Xavier answered, "Chris had to go find someone else he promised to sit with . . . and Sandra and Kyle were going to go grab his parents before finding their seats up here."
Katie jumped into the conversation, "Were Marshall and Genevieve able to get seats in this section? The last time we talked to them they were having a hard time finding some so close."
Xavier nodded, "Kyle said something about them having to sell their souls but they were able to get seats . . . I'm not sure, I just really hope he was joking about the selling their souls part."
"Doesn't look like it," Katie said bitterly looking to the staircase closest to her. Coming up the staircase holding hands and with apprehensive looks on their faces were Sandra and Kyle. Behind them looking like they were trying their hardest to keep a polite facade were Mr. and Mrs. Line. Directly behind Kyle's parents (and Teddy guessed was the reason why Kyle's parents were wearing courteous masks) were Mr. and Mrs. Knott, with their son Colton trailing behind them with a glum expression.
Oliver sighed and placed his hand on his wife's knee, "Play nice."
Katie crossed her arms over her chest with a dejected expression, "They never did." He gave her a look that further demonstrated his earlier words and she exhale noisily before plastering a too-wide smile on her face. In reciprocation, she gave her husband a look that asked 'are-you-happy-?' before saying loudly, "Gen, Marsh!"
Kyle and Sandra squeezed down the aisle and into seats on the other side of Xavier. Mr. and Mrs. Line stopped to greet Oliver and Katie. After a few polite words in greeting, Oliver finally asked the question that was on everyone's mind. Only slightly more polite than how his wife would have put it, "So, where did you guys end up getting seats?"
Mr. Line opened his mouth to speak, but Mr. Knott answered first, "They were actually sitting in one of the lower levels, but we ran into them before we went to our seats, and offered them two extra seats in our section."
"We wouldn't have minded sitting in a lower level. The important part is that we got seats to begin with," Mrs. Line said having a feeling that this might turn into an argument.
"Yes, we're just lucky that our seats are in better company," Mrs. Knott said giving Katie a scathing look. They had some history. Some rather bad history.
"The company doesn't really matter in this case though does it? We're all supporting the same person after all; I mean, what Hogwarts alumni wouldn't want their school to win the Tournament?" Katie shot back raising an eyebrow daringly.
Mr. Knott glanced at the Woods and the Weasleys, "It's a little premature to figure out allegiances, this early in the Tournament isn't it? The Champions haven't really shown what they're capable of yet. But if I was going to go by what the press has been saying about each Champion, I'm certain that Hogwarts would not be the school I'd be supporting."
Bill, Charlie, Ginny, Ron, George, Angelina, Katie, Ally, and Xavier all opened their mouths at the same time to angrily retort, but they were hampered by what occurred next. Mr. Knott, smiling smugly because he was about to get the reaction he was hoping for, was hit by a small spherical shaped orb, which exploded with a splattering of red and gold coloured paint as it slammed in the side of his face.
Everyone looked a few rows in front of them to where the orb had come from. Ginny and Angelina, though they were both impressed, played their roles as mothers as they yelled in synch.
"James Sirius!"
"Fred Alastor!"
"That wasn't us!" James yelled indigently as he turned around to face his mother.
"Yeah! We don't have that good of aim!" Fred answered, snickering as he watched Mr. Knott try, and fail, to vanish the paint that had slid down his face and onto his black blazer jacket and white dress shirt.
"Well then who was it?" Bill asked, "Louis doesn't have any aim either."
Katie burst out into uncontrolled laugher as she put two-and-two-together. It took her husband only a second later to come to the same conclusion.
"Cecilia Kathryn!" Oliver scolded playing the role of the good parent because everyone knew that Katie would support wholeheartedly what her daughter did.
Cecilia turned around in her seat and smiled brightly, "Yes Daddy?"
Oliver's resolve (which was rather shaky at best seeing as he felt that Knott got what he deserved) broke at the innocent look his baby girl was giving him, "What do you say?"
Cecilia put on a completely contrite face, "I'm sorry I was aiming for Xav, I guess I missed."
"Hey-" Xavier started to say but was cut-off by Ally clamping her hand over his mouth. Both of them knew that Cecilia didn't actually miss her intended target.
Mr. Knott shot Cecilia a scathing look before turning to give Oliver and Katie a look of disdain, "What a charming child, although I would expect no less coming from one of your offspring. You do make it easy though; your children are a perfect example of how children turn out when their parents don't have the time or just don't care enough about them to teach them how to behave properly to their superiors."
Katie, who was about to stand up and do only Godric Gryffindor knows what, only stayed seated because Oliver was holding her hand so tightly she knew he was giving her a warning to behave. Oliver regarded Mr. Knott coolly with his hazel coloured eyes, "Our children know how to treat their superiors, but I don't see how that has anything to do with how my daughter treated you."
Mr. Knott frowned and opened his mouth to speak. Thankfully, Mr. Line broke in, "Well would you look at the time, the Task should have started five minutes ago, they must be waiting for everyone to take their seats. We should probably help them with that."
"Yes Marshall's right, shall we?" Mrs. Line asked as she gestured for the Knotts to continue moving up the stairs to where their seats were. Teddy was amazed at Mr. and Mrs. Line's virtually perfect manners and mediating abilities.
Mr. Line patted Mr. Knott (still coated in red and gold paint and hadn't figured out how to get it off yet) and moved him along up the steps. Mrs. Line was the last of the group to leave, when she saw that the Knotts were far enough away she winked in Bill's direction, "Don't worry, we're still going to cheer for Vic from where we'll be sitting, even if the uptight bigwigs get upset."
Bill smiled at her words and she left soon after.
Katie was still fuming after Mr. Knott insulted her parenting skills, "How dare he claim that we haven't been a part of our children's lives! All purebloods know about parenting is how to had a crying child off to the nanny . . . no offence," Katie added after remembering that many of the Weasleys were technically purebloods.
"Don't worry about it Mum," Xavier said soothingly, "They don't know what they're talking about. Personally, I feel as though you have too much influence in my life as it is." Ally's resulting smack at Xavier's chest furthered to instil the joking atmosphere he had been trying to return to.
Katie smiled fondly at her son, "Thanks Xav."
"Hey I think it's about to start!" Kyle exclaimed excitedly as he looked up at the screen closest to him. Everyone else followed his lead. Teddy felt his stomach clench tightly as he saw Minister Flannery step up to the podium and magical microphone. After a (boring in Teddy's mind) speech and a polite applause, the entire stadium went quiet. Teddy hadn't realized that he was bobbing up and down in his seat until he felt Bill's hand pressing down his shoulder. He blushed and looked apologetically at Bill while he chuckled.
"You know better than anyone that she's going to go last," Bill whispered as a loud rumbling of applause started. Teddy guessed that Noëlle had stepped foot on the Pitch, but he wasn't able to see her yet.
"Yeah, but I think the waiting might kill me," Teddy groaned. It had only been about fifteen minutes since he saw Victoire, but he was aching to see her again.
Bill chuckled, "I just hope that nothing will happen to make me regret letting her compete today."
Teddy could now see that Noëlle was about three metres away from the silver box in the middle of the Pitch, which he assumed was the portkey.
"You wouldn't have been able to stop her even if you wanted to. She's a force to be reckoned with," Teddy said smiling just a little.
Bill laughed again, "Why do you think I let you date her so easily, because she can handle herself, and because you've got your work cut out for you."
Teddy grinned back, but didn't answer because Noëlle had just entered the middle of the Pitch. She stood there for a minute to acknowledge the applause before bending down to touch the portkey.
And now it starts Teddy thought.
Dear God, Merlin, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, heck, I'll even call out to Salazar Slytherin in he'll help, Victoire thought, just please, don't let me go out there and make a fool of myself!
"Miss Weasley?" Professor Cooke asked, breaking Victoire out of her inner desperate pleading.
Victoire opened her eyes and saw Professor Cooke kneeling in front of the chair she was sitting in. His bright blue eyes and young face was twinged with worry.
"Yeah, you look like you're going to blow some chunks," Kurt Williamson added cocking his head to the side as he inspected Victoire.
Jilly slapped Kurt across the chest, "First, that's disgusting. Second, I don't see how in anyway stating that would be helpful to the situation if she were actually to get sick. And third, if she does get sick or if something happens to her in anyway, Shacklebolt, Potter, Weasley, and Ted are going to murder you."
Victoire's nerves calmed down with the mere mention of Teddy's name. She took a deep breath and then stood up from her chair, "First, I'm fine, and second, I didn't actually eat anything this morning, so there would be nothing to regurgitate."
Professor Cooke tried to smile reassuringly, "Mr. Krum has been gone for almost an hour. Miss Varens before him was gone for about an hour and a half herself. I popped out of the tent a minute ago to look at the screens, and it looked like Mr. Krum is very close to being finished, you'll be up soon."
Victoire nodded, and then started to hyperventilate, "Oh Godric what have I gotten myself into, I can't do this."
"Calm down Victoire," she noticed Professor Cooke's slip-up when he called her by her given name but ignored it as he moved on, "you can do this. If you couldn't, your parents and you uncle would never have let you enter the Tournament. C'mon Victoire, you know more about the last Tri-Wizard Tournament then even I do, and I'm the History of Magic teacher. You are the most ready Champion for this Tournament. You'll be brilliant, just remember everything you've learned, and that sometimes a simple spell is better and more effective than a poorly executed higher-level spell."
Victoire nodded, appreciative that he gave her some last minute advice. She closed her eyes and took one more deep breath as she collected herself, she could feel that she'd have to leave soon.
"Ahem, Miss Weasley?"
Victoire's eyes popped wide open and her head snapped to the mouth of the tent. Professor Longbottom was standing there, looking at her expectantly. He had been the one to come and collect both Noëlle and Konstantin when it was time for them to go. She took the first few steps toward him slowly, before giving up and running full tilt to Professor Longbottom. She closed her eyes as she threw her arms around him in a quick hug. He stood stock still for a moment as surprise at her embrace flooded through him. He stood there for a minute before hugging her back gently, and very quickly.
When Victoire stepped back he was smiling slightly at her, "You're going to be fantastic Victoire, we all trust in you, so now you just need to trust in yourself."
She smiled and nodded for him to lead the way. They walked out of the tent and several paces out until they got to the beginning of where the floor level seating was. Victoire's breathing had begun to pick up again. Professor Longbottom stopped for a minute and turned to face her, "I'm going to be leading you until you get to the edge of the field, to part the crowd, after that you're by yourself. Walk straight out to the centre of the Pitch wait two minutes until they announce your name one more time, then touch the portkey, good luck."
Victoire nodded, and followed Neville. He quickly parted the way, and the quiet stadium began to get louder as people began to cheer. When they got to the edge of the field, Neville moved to the side to allow Victoire to walk forward. She steeled herself for a minute before stepping onto the Pitch.
Victoire had been playing Quidditch on this pitch since she was a fifth-year, and as a rule, she told herself that it's okay to be nervous before she stepped on the pitch, but to never be afraid of it. Now, she might be terrified of failing the Task, she might be nervous as hell that she'll embarrass her family name, but there was one thing she was not, she was not afraid to step onto that pitch, and consequently, give this Task her all. The minute her foot touched the grass the cheering of the stadium turned deafening. Never, in all her regular season or championship Quidditch games, had she ever heard a crowd cheer for her as loudly as they did as she walked to the pitch; not even when she helped win the House Cup last year her first time as Captain.
She quickly paced towards the centre of the pitch. Once she was there, she stood with her head held high as she faced the raised platform where the judges and her mother were sitting. Minister Flannery was behind the podium, his mouth to the magical microphone, "And last, Hogwarts' Tri-Wizard Champion . . . Victoire Weasley!"
The answering cheers from the crowd was deafening, Victoire looked forward for a minute as Professor Longbottom had told her to. After she reached sixty in her silent count in her head, she looked down at her feet. She let herself smirk for a second before she placed her calm and cool demeanour back in place. Her portkey was an old jumbo box of a collection of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. She reached down, with her knees bent, and touched the box. After a minute, it started to blow blue. Another minute later and she felt a familiar tug near her navel. Ten seconds later, she closed her eyes and was gone.
"Ughf!" Victoire exclaimed as she landed on her backside. Hard. On the very rocky ground. As soon as the feeling came back into her body (she had decided after the feeling returned that she'd rather it stayed numb, the ground was really hard), she stood up and surveyed the terrain.
The two kilometres of land in front of her seemed to be very flat, before it seemed to start to take a dip down into what she guessed was a valley. The area behind her and to her distant right and left was also very flat and clear, but she could see much farther forward in those directions because they seemed to stay flat. Dotting the dusty brown land around her were large trees with thick trunks; many of them had bare limbs, but there were a few here and there that had rich green foliage. Also dotting the land were large grey boulders (sans-moss, which added to Victoire's theory that the place she was in didn't get much rain), and several puckered looking holes strewn around the ground ranging in size from one foot to about three metres wide. The one thing that kept drawing Victoire's attention back though, was the abso-bloodly-loutely humongous river of red liquid that started two metres ahead of her and ran from what seemed like one end of the entire terrain to the other.
Victoire moved forward to the edge of the river and kicked a chunk of rock into the bubbling red liquid. It sizzled and melted instantly as it touched the red liquid.
"Yup," Victoire said aloud, if her every move was going to be broadcasted back to practically the entire Wizarding World, she might as well make it entertaining, "that is definitely lava."
She took a few steps back and inspected the river. There was nothing telling her that she had to go forward, of course common sense dictated that the hardest route (meaning that in front of her) would most likely be the right route. So she had to figure out how she wanted to cross the five-metre long river of lava. Normally she would just think of grabbing her broom, but they were specifically not allowed to just fly through the task, ever since her Uncle Harry did that back in his first task.
"Levitation spell it is," she mumbled as she pulled her wand out of the holster in her thigh. She pointed it to a large boulder directly to her right as she first cast a feather-light spell. The next thing she did was cast an extra strength Wingardium Leviosa, and jumped onto it as it came flying towards her. She directed her wand carefully like Professor Flitwick with his conductor's baton when he directs the school's choir.
As soon as she was sure that she'd cleared the river, she jumped down off the rock and flicked her wrist, causing the rock to fly off to the side. She took a deep breath and looked at the flat ground ahead of her.
"Thank Godric for Xavier Wood and his insane Quidditch drills or this might have become difficult," she said to herself and her audience before she took off in a steady jog.
She'd been running for what felt like half an hour (and had only stared cursing Xavier five minutes ago for not forcing her to get more into shape for Quidditch this season) when she became faced with one of those puckered holes in the ground. It was large, probably about three metres wide, nothing she couldn't go around or use another rock and levitation spell to fly over, but she still felt herself instinctively slow down and stop with a metre of space between her and it. Once she had stilled, she heard, besides the sound of her own beating heart and heavy breathing, a slight hissing sound. It was quickly getting louder, and taking on a more whistling edge. She stood still for a minute before her blue eyes went wide with realization.
"Bloody Hell!"
She turned and ran towards the boulder that was about five metres away and curved over a bit at the top. She picked it because it was the closest one that looked big enough to shield her body. She was only two metres away from her safe haven when she felt the ground shake in preparation for the explosion. She dove as soon as she felt the heat begin to surge. She landed in a crouched position on her knees and ended up somersaulting until she was safely behind the boulder. She lay down with her back to the ground, and the top of the boulder acting as a canopy above her head. She stayed crouched under the rock until the sound of gushing liquid was over. After it became quiet, she waited for another minute before getting up from the ground and walking back to the geyser. The ground around it was black and scorched looking, even though there was no residual lava around the geyser. However, the hole was still emitting a thick cloud of black smoke.
Victoire looked down at her feet. She realized that the temperature of the ground should still be warm enough to scorch through her shoes. She kicked a foot up behind her so she could look at the bottom of her trainers; it was still hard and leathery.
"Nice fire-resistant charm. Okay, so if my shoes are up to it, I can just run around these geysers. Sounds good." She followed her spoken plan and jogged around the geysers for another ten minutes or so. Dodging a few more geysers as she went. She was close to the edge of the valley when she started to slow down because she was getting suspicious, yes, there was the river of lava, and several geysers of magma, but she hadn't run into any creatures yet. This isn't good. This must mean that my big task is going to have something to do with a dangerous fire creature of some sort.
When she got to the edge of the valley, she took a deep breath to collect herself before she looked down to what was about to come next.
"Well Merlin's fricking pants!"
Teddy let out a collective gasp with what seemed like the rest of the audience as he kept his eyes glued to the closest viewing screen. Victoire had been doing so well, as she conquered the fiery terrain. He was worried when she'd had a run in with her first geyser and had to make a dive for it behind a boulder, but after that, he was able to breathe rather easily as he watched her in the task.
But now, well now she definitely had her work cut out for her. The screen gave them a split screen view of Victoire's face, and of the absolutely gigantic dragon that seemed to be nesting down in the very centre of the valley.
Teddy's eyes (and everyone else's for that matter) were glued onto Victoire's expression. Her beautiful ocean-blue eyes popped open wide for exactly twenty-three seconds before she sighed and her expression turned into one of chagrin.
"'Can't a guy come and watch his favourite niece compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament', my arse Uncle Charlie," Victoire said clearly annoyed. But whether it was with Charlie for bringing a dragon with him for the task, or for her not thinking of it sooner, they wouldn't hear. Because as soon as Victoire established that she should have seen this coming, she was gone, jogging carefully down the side of the valley to get closer the fire-breathing giant that seemed to be nesting in the middle of the valley.
On either side of Teddy, Bill and Charlie started to chuckle. Bill looked at his brother, "You just can't take a vacation without bringing your work with you, can you?"
Charlie shrugged, "It was a last minute thing. I already had the time for the first task booked off, and then the Ministry of Magical Games and Sports decided to add a dragon last minute. It's a busy season, and the only way they would allow me to have the time off would be if I brought the dragon here and back. I had no idea that she'd actually be the one to face it. I mean, she had a one-in-three chance, and she's the one who has to face it."
Bill frowned, "Yeah, well she's one in a million, so it's not surprising to me that she had to end up facing the dragon."
"Shh!" Ally whispered from in front of them, "She's closer to it now."
As always, Ally was correct. Victoire was at the bottom of the valley now, and about a half a football field's distance from the dragon. She was completely shielded from the dragon behind one of the larger trees that actually had foliage. She was squinting in concentration as she studied the dragon. The screens were split in two again, one giving them a view of her face, the other a view of the dragon. A second later, Victoire's voice filled the stadium.
"Okay, let's see: black scales, bronze horns, black ridges on the back, long and round snout," she flicked her wand and a branch of a tree closer to the dragon flew away and into the dragon's path. With a powerful snarl, the dragon swiped its claws around in a complete one-eighty, reducing the three feet thick branch to a pile of toothpicks.
Victoire nodded once more, "And uncommonly vicious, yup. That's a female Norwegian Ridgeback."
Charlie looked like he was about to burst with pride as he watched the screen, "Aw, that's my girl. You see Ally," he started to address his other niece, "listening to me drone on and on about dragons can actually be beneficial to real-world issues."
Ally looked concerned as she continued to watch Victoire on the screen, "Yes, but knowing about the dragon isn't going to help her if she doesn't come up with a plan soon."
Everyone looked back at the screen to see Victoire still analyzing the situation.
Her blue eyes were squinted in concentration once more, "Female . . . and it's the beginning of November. Perfect, right in the middle of its nesting season. So that would mean that that is it's 'nest'."
That; was a large semi-circle wall of, what looked to be, large broken tree trunks and boulders. It had to be half a kilometre high, so at least half as tall as the dragon itself. As Victoire scouted out the outside of the dragon's lair, she could see no opening except for the one that the dragon was guarding. Well, if I doubted before that I was on the right track, I know for sure now that I am. I just hope that that stupid map is in that lair because there was no other place that it could be.
"So the only way in, is the entrance that the dragon is guarding. 'Kay sounds good, but how do I get past the dragon?"
Beside Teddy, he heard Charlie have a quick intake of breath. It seems that someone figured it out, Teddy thought.
Back on the screen, Victoire was still talking to herself.
"So, what do I know about Norwegian Ridgebacks? Hmm, their claws can grow to be a metre long, and their fangs are venomous . . . yeah, good to know, but not very helpful in this predicament. What else . . . they originate from Norway . . . duh, and they're lactose intolerant . . . wow, how did I even know that?"
She shook her head; Teddy guessed that she was thinking to herself something along the lines of 'I-should-probably-spend-less-time-with-Charlie-in-the-future'.
"C'mon, what else?" Victoire asked herself. She stood there for another minute before she huffed in annoyance, and palmed her forehead, "Well, what I do know is that I need to spend more time with Uncle Charlie at the next family reunion."
The Weasleys' and Potters' ended up chuckling at that.
"'Kay, back to the basics," Victoire mumbled as she looked back to the dragon. She took a deep breath and began her analysis again, "You can tell a Norwegian Ridgeback because of their black triangular shaped ridges on the back, their uncommon bronze coloured horns, and their bright yellow underbellies. They're native to the mountains of Norway, and their nests are usually abnormally tall for dragons, leaving the only entrance point being the front which the dragon guards . . ."
Victoire looked stumped, everything she'd recited she'd been able to tell just by looking at the dragon. She glanced at it again, wondering if she'd missed anything, when again, she felt her eyes drawn to the nest, "Abnormally tall nest walls . . . why are they abnormally tall . . .?"
Charlie was vibrating with excitement in his seat next to Teddy. "She's so close!" He cried.
As if Victoire was able to hear Charlie, the minute the words left his mouth, her eyes widened in understanding. She quickly flicked her wand, and caused a small rock to fly towards the dragon. She kept it low to the ground, because the point of her experimentation was not destruction. When the dragon heard the impact of the rock slightly to its left, it blew out a long stream of fire in a complete one-eighty line, from one entrance of the cave, to another, even though it knew that the sound came only from its left.
Once the dragon was done and had returned to its original place at the very middle of the entrance, a breathtaking smile lit up Victoire's face, "They don't have peripheral vision! The walls of their nests are high so they don't have to worry about invaders. Invaders will only come from the front now. And because of their lack of peripheral vision they turn their body in a complete one-eighty when they sense a danger, to destroy the one they sense, and another one that could sneak by, by breathing fire over the entire entry point!"
"Yes!" Charlie yelled in excitement.
Ally and Xavier instantly began to whisper back and forth, their comments becoming louder as they argued.
"But what good does this do her; she knows that the dragon will breathe a trail of fire across the entire entry point," Xavier said.
"But once the dragon has breathed fire on the right side, it turns its back so it can attack the left side too. There would be an open space once the dragon had moved its attention!" Ally exclaimed.
"It completes its circuit too fast. Even if she did divert the dragon's attention, she wouldn't be able to get to the weak spot fast enough. And there is no cover any nearer to the dragon that would be close enough for her to run there," Xavier answered back.
"Xavier's right," Katie added in a whisper, "The only way she'd be able to get in a weak spot would be if she stood there while the dragon breathed fire, and then ran in once the dragon had shifted its attention. But she wouldn't be able to do that; she'd be completely scorched."
Teddy was still processing Katie's assessment when he heard both Bill and Ally near him swear loudly.
"She wouldn't," Bill said becoming pale.
"She can't," Ally moaned, also turning white.
"But it looks like she is," Teddy said as he closely watched Victoire's face. She had taken another minute to study the dragon before her blue-eyes began to sparkle mischievously. She had definitely come up with a plan. And sadly, Teddy could tell just by the look in her eyes that he wouldn't like it. She had the same look when she convinced him to leave their camp in Romania just before they ran into the fire-breathing pegasus, and when she convinced him to help her with a little project that summer that ended up with them face-to-face with the Griffin. That look was never a good sign.
As Teddy predicted Victoire broke into action, she ran down to stand to the very right of the entrance to the dragon's lair. She didn't even wait a minute once she got into position, her wand emitting a surge of bright red sparks. The dragon looked shocked and inhaled deeply before letting out a long strand of fire. It started from the very right of the entrance and moved its head and body until it was facing toward the left, with its back to the right.
Teddy's eyes, along with everyone else's, were strained on the screen. As soon as the dragon moved, he squinted through the smoke to see if he could find Victoire. It took him a minute to see through the smoke, and then he saw her, kneeling with one knee on the ground. Teddy wasn't even able to blink until he saw her form begin to move. She had just gotten to her feet when Teddy finally exhaled.
"Are her hands . . .?" Sandra asked uneasily as if she didn't believe what she was seeing.
"Yup there on fire . . . looks like blue flames too . . ." Xavier answered.
They all turned to look at Bill, "Yeah that's her Veela powers, but I still don't understand how she's still standing there without a scratch on her. Fire concentrated that much should still have burnt her to a crisp."
He looked towards Hermione and Angelina, "Right?"
Hermione looked thoughtful, "Yes, but I don't think she just stood there and let the dragon breathe fire on her. You know who she can create fire with her hands, well I think she might have just done that, but with her entire body."
"That would be the only explanation why she's still standing," Ginny added.
"NO!"
Everybody who had been distracted by trying to figure out how Victoire could still be alive, attentions was dragged back to the viewing screen. In the back of Teddy's mind, he recognized the yell as Louis', but that only made him worry more. Louis had an adventurous streak like Victoire, if he thought what she was doing was crazy; then it really was. And when Teddy paid more attention, he saw that his assessment was right.
Victoire had only been onto her feet for about a minute before she made her next move, wand in hand, she jumped up and onto the dragon's tail as it came swishing in her direction with its movement.
"She's lost her mind!" Ally exclaimed as she watched her cousin attach herself to the dragons black scales.
"I wonder who gave her the idea to jump onto a mad dragon's back," Bill said sarcastically glaring at Charlie, Ron, and Hermione.
Back on the screen, the dragon had seemed to realize that there was something going on (whether he could feel the one-hundred-and-thirty pound girl who had climbed onto her back or not). He started to swish rapidly back and forth, to dislodge her.
Victoire yelled, "Confringo!" A large boulder a good distance in front of the dragon blew up with a loud crash. The dragon charged foreword, noticing the larger threat.
The dragon's sudden charge foreword caused Victoire to lose her balance and slide off the back of the dragon. She tumbled down its back and tail, and a minute before she fell into the entrance of the nest; they witnessed her wand flying out of her grip.
Victoire landed on her back with a thud. She lay there for a minute noticing that there was a dull pain on her lower right calf. But she was too busy trying to catch her breath than to care. She jumped up a minute later.
"Accio wand," she said as looked out the entrance, hoping to get her wand and then find the map so she could apparate out of the lair before the dragon came back. Nothing came. Victoire looked at the entrance oddly.
"Accio twig." The twig sitting three feet in front of the entrance to the lair jumped up and came soaring into the mouth of the entrance. Before it reached her, it ended up rebounding and flying off in the opposite direction. Victoire looked at the light red force field that just became visible at the mouth of the lair. She recognized what type of field it was by the colour and ripple like pattern from the impact of the twig. It's an intruder prevention force field. It stops things from coming in. That way I won't have to worry about the dragon while I look for the map. But I will have to exit the lair to get my wand back to apparate back to Hogwarts.
With her plan in mind, basically to find the map as soon as possible and then go get her wand back, she began to look around the lair. Hmm, well this definitely looks like the Room of Requirement when you're looking for a place to hide something. All around her there was a mass of random items and bits of things that was probably mostly trash; she looked to the closest pile of papers and began to rifle through it. She'd been searching for about five minutes, and not coming up with anything helpful when she took a step back to re-assess the situation.
"Godric am I an idiot. Just because I'm wandless doesn't mean I can't use magic. Accio map!"
The next things happened simultaneously; Victoire felt her feet fly out from under her as she landed, once again on her back, on the hard floor. As soon as she was flat on the ground above her, she saw several streams of flames shoot out around the room, criss-crossing each other. The highest being a foot from the roof, and the lowest being an inch above her nose.
"Okay then, no magic in this room it is," Victoire mumbled quietly. She sat up slowly, her back was really feeling painful right now, and noticed a ratty old Slytherin House banner under one of her feet, and half buried under a pile of miscellaneous things. Of course, she thought, a Slytherin banner tripped me up. Well, on the bright side, being hit with those flames, while it wouldn't kill me, would probably not be good for the condition my back is, no doubt, in right now.
She got to her feet again and started to rifle through the any and every old piece of paper she could find. The fact that she didn't actually know exactly what she was looking for didn't really help her situation.
"Grrrr!"
Victoire jolted. She quickly turned around to face the entrance of the lair, and saw the dragon coming back to its nest. She swore loudly and then went back to looking through the piles, much faster than she had before. The constant thumping of the dragon's claws and tail against the force field was the background noise to Victoire's searching.
"Thump. Thump. Thump. Riiip." Victoire froze.
"Merde," she swore in French. The dragon's claw had sliced through the force field. No. No. No. NO! This should not be happening the dragon shouldn't be able to break through the force field!
But it was, slowly, but surely, its claws began to find purchase against the red magical barrier. She may have been able to survive being hit by its' fiery breath, but those claws and venomous teeth would finish her real soon, especially since she'd made it angry with all of her teasing.
Stay calm Vic. Just find that map, get your wand, and apparate out of here.
She ran to the last pile she hadn't searched yet, looking over her shoulder to make sure she saw when the dragon broke through.
"RIIIIP!"
Victoire jumped, there was only about half of the force field left. She looked back at the pile of papers, and finally, something caught her eye. Just above the stupid old Slytherin banner that tripped her, was an old yellowed piece of parchment paper. What drew her attention were the words Forbidden Forest, she shuffled some other papers away until she uncovered the picture of the forests' bounds drawn around the words.
"ROAR!"
The dragon had broken through the force field. Victoire looked back at the old piece of parchment on top of the Slytherin banner; she grabbed the map. She tucked it away into her empty wand holster, and faced the dragon. Her eyes flickered around the entrance to find a weak point that she'd be able to sneak through. She couldn't see one.
She looked back to the dragon and felt sick; it was inhaling a deep breath. It was about to blow. She didn't have time to get out. Victoire quickly but confidently turned around in a circle. She saw the flames leave the mouth of the dragon just as she disapperated with a loud crack!
Back at the Hogwarts Quidditch stadium, everyone was on their feet. Teddy and the Weasleys' were no different.
"She did not just apparate without a wand," Ally asked in shock.
"But I think she just did," Teddy said robotically still looking at the screen where the dragon was trying to figure where Victoire had disappeared to.
A minute later a loud crack, echoed around the stadium, and everyone looked towards the platform. Victoire appeared in the red circle where Noëlle and Konstantin had appeared before when they finished their tasks.
Victoire's form stumbled a bit as she materialized. She was standing for exactly five point eight seconds before her form crumbled to the ground.
She hadn't even hit the ground before Bill, Teddy, Charlie, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Angelina jumped out of their seats and started running toward the platform. In the back of Teddy's mind, he finally realized why Bill had chosen seats so close to the platform, when seat higher up would have given a better view of the task. It was so he could get to the platform fast in case of an emergency, in hindsight; Teddy wondered if Bill had anticipated an emergency like this.
The stadium had become loud with everybody yelling, talking, and just buzzing around. Teddy saw some of the Aurors already in the crowds trying to control them and telling everyone to take a seat. But he didn't have time to do that. He and Bill were the first of the group to reach Victoire's form, but Fleur and Harry had gotten there first because they'd been sitting on the platform as they watched the tasks. Fleur was near Victoire's head, whereas Harry was near her feet and legs.
Teddy stopped where he was when he took a closer look at Harry.
He had Victoire's legs in his lap.
And they were covered in blood.
'Kay so I hoped you liked it. I'm sorry that it's a bit of a cliffie, but it just ended there so flawlessly and I couldn't help myself . . . Good news, I have the next chap almost complete, and I will update next week, I promise (if I hear some nice things about this one that is)
Important A/N: Um, so like I meantioned earlier, I've got the next one pretty much done, and ideas for the next one after that. But again, school's starting up again, it's our exam month, and I just found out that a very close friend of mine, her boyfriend, her sister, and her father were in a car accident. My friend and her boyfriend had minor injuries, but her father and her sister weren't so lucky. Her sister got the worst of it, (because she was in the front when the airbag deployed, and the person swerved into her part of the lane) and she's got many injuries and is in CHEO right now having an 8hr, opperation. We hope that she'll pull through, but because of this, and of what my friend might need from me, I might not have much time to write and update this week, or the next few weeks to come. So all I ask is that you guys be patient (not that I'd expect anything less because all of you are extremely amazing) and that even if I'm gone for two months (that's a hyperbole, I don't expect to be gone for that long) that I'm not giving up, putting on hiatus, or discontinuing this story.
Thank-you all again, I hope you enjoyed, please review if you have something to say, and thank-you to everyone that has reviewed, you really do bring me inspiration.
An especially big thank-you to redwolf12, for the always amazing and lovely reviews, you always make me want to do my best, thanks for the support. I hope this chapter lived up to your expectations.