The second task for the triwizard tournament was in the water, and Petra was both relieved that Cedrick Diggory wasn't to die quite yet, but she also knew that only a few months away was the third and final task and that his time was near. She had sought out Dumbledore the morning after her dream and had let him view it in his pensive. His white eyebrows had knitted together and she could tell this development disturbed him terribly, although he tried to play it off as a dream and nothing more. She assumed he did not want to frighten her but she was more than frightened.
Each new vision, no matter how small or fuzzy or insignificant it seemed, sent her into an anxiety attack, because she knew each one could easily be life or death for someone, and living with this burden was almost too much for her. She had always thought that turning 16 would be a joyous time; that she would feel like an adult and life would start to make sense. Instead she felt like a child with an adult's secret, trying to make sense of it all without the wisdom to understand it.
She had turned 16 three days before the second task, on the 21st of January. Her grandparents had sent her a few small gifts, including a small lemon and blueberry cake from Minny. Her mother had sent her a gold necklace with her star sign on it, and her siblings had sent her the photos they took at the theater. All in all it was a good birthday, but the impending second task had weighed heavy on her.
Fred and George could tell she was down about something, and after failing to pry the information out of her, they had decided that a prank was the best way to celebrate her birthday and get her mind off of whatever was clouding it. So they planned the ultimate prank. Fred had argued that the new joke wands would really piss a teacher off if they could manage to switch it with a real one, and George wanted to use the improved skiving snackboxes to make Mcgonagall cancel class early. Petra had argued against both. Where would they put the real wand after they managed to snag it, and how would they get the antidote to Mcgonagall? So they all hit the drawing board and after a couple minutes the perfect prank came to Petra; using the new fireworks in Trelawny's tower to really send her through a loop and prove that she had no idea what the future was. Petra was constantly told by the divination professor that she didn't have what it took to see the future and while it was almost funny it was also extremely frustrating and she had been looking for something to prove a point for quite some time.
Both boys agreed this was the best plan, and the three of them put together some fireworks and snuck up to the tower that night. They placed the fireworks in a few spots around the room and set them on a timer to go off during her second class the next day, right in the middle. They chose this class because Fred knew a boy who was in this period who could tell them Trelawny's reaction later. It also had the advantage of getting out of transfiguration early, a chance that none of them could pass up.
The next day, while Petra sat in her second period transfiguration class, a couple loud bangs were heard, and excited screams were heard throughout the castle. She smiled at the twins across the room and then she looked toward the door like her peers were doing. A few minutes later Professors Snape and Flitwick burst through the door, asking Mcgonagall to come help with a problem in the divination tower. Mcgonagall bustled out of the room, with her class close on her tail, pressing forward to see what was going on.
A large blue hawk swooped through the hall, amid shouts of teachers and students, and the bug eyed Trelawny came running down with her class close behind, who were all shouting and looking around in wonder. Her and the boys had tried to construct a zoo out of the fireworks.
Soon an elephant and a tiger followed down, and after them a few monkeys swung around on the stones. Penguins hopped out of the trapdoor and waddled here and there. Altogether it was fantastic and even if it was just for a few moments, her mind was only in the present, not the future or past.
The second task was over, and five months later, on the lawn where the quidditch field normally was, and an impressive labyrinth had been placed, Petra sat waiting for two boys to come back, at least one of them dead. And she knew that when they arrived, it would mean that the Dark Lord Voldemort would have returned, and that her life would get infinitely harder.
It was like watching a plane crash to the ground. But instead of fire and metal crashing down to the earth, it was the soul shattering sound that a loving parent could make after finding their only child dead. It was heart wrenching. Everywhere people were still cheering, missing what was going on below, lost in their amusement and excitement. Maybe only she could hear because she had been expecting it. She knew Dumbledore had been waiting. How he had worn his smile all day and managed to keep that damn twinkle in his eye was beyond her. He wasn't smiling anymore. He rushed forward to Harry Potter, grasping the boys arms and talking rather quickly to a boy who looked like he was retaining nothing but the sounds that Cedricks father was making while cradling the body of his son. He looked like he would like to be dead too. Other people had moved toward the boy and the headmaster, but Dumbledore was dragging the half alive boy to the castle, with Professor Snape on his heels.
Petra sat motionless among her peers who were starting to realize that their joy was shattering around them. And she wanted nothing more than to run to her dorm and cry and scream and be nothing. But she couldn't, because a boy was dead, and Voldemort had returned, and she knew that now more than ever she needed to look inward, and find the missing pieces to this puzzle she called life.
Authors note: Thank you so so much for that awesome review QuarantineBlues! I'm very glad you like this story.
As always, please review (Helps keep me motivated and warms my heart:) )