Freddie lay on her back in the grass in the shadow of the courtyard wall, listening as Ada told her several more Beedle stories. She was in the middle of a story called The Fountain of Fair Fortune when she abruptly stopped talking. Freddie opened her eye and lifted her head to look at her.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Look, Dimitri is back," Ada said quietly. Freddie followed her gaze and saw that Dimitri had just come out of one of the doors. His Koldovstoretz uniform was soaking wet and he was shouting and gesturing wildly with his hands.
"How long has he been gone?" Freddie asked, checking her watch.
"About 45 minutes. How did he get through so quickly?"
"I don't think he did," she said quietly. "Look at him, he looks angry. He must have been forced to withdraw, or something happened and the judges forced him out."
"Ooh là là," she said, her eyes wide. "We should go over there and find out what happened."
"I'm not sure that's such a great idea," Freddie protested, but Ada was already getting to her feet so she got up as well and followed her. As they crossed the courtyard Freddie saw Madame Garnier hurrying over to Dimitri, who had begun kicking and pounding on the door he'd come through. He was screaming in Russian and Freddie was pretty sure some of the words were swear words.
"What's he saying?" she wondered aloud.
"I don't know, I don't speak Russian," Ada said.
Madame Garnier put her hand on Dimitri's back, talking to him in a low voice they couldn't hear. Suddenly the boy rounded on her, striking out with his fist, and knocked her to the ground.
"Hey!" Freddie shouted as she started running towards them. She was going to help her, maybe restrain Dimitri, but by the time she got there Madame Garnier was already on her feet and she was pointing her wand at him.
"Young man," Madame Garnier said in a light tone. "You need to calm down. Your challenge is over. It is done. Come back to the tent so I can check you out."
"No!" he said and then he shouted some more in Russian. "I am not finished! Let me back in!"
He kicked the door again and then he saw Freddie and Ada standing off to the side.
"You! Shluha vokzal'naja!This is all your fault, you stupid bitch!" he snarled, his face livid. He plunged his hand into the pocket of his uniform, going for his wand. Freddie didn't know which one of them he was talking to but she had her wand drawn in an instant and she put herself between him and Ada.
"Arrête!" said Madame Garnier loudly and Dimitri's wand flew from his hand as he raised it to fire a curse. "That is quite enough of that."
Dimitri's face grew even more furious, if that were possible, and he lunged at the Healer.
"Incarcerous," the old woman said and ropes flew from the tip of her wand, winding themselves around him, effectively binding him in place. He wiggled on his feet a moment before falling to the ground with an 'oof'.
"Oh wow," Ada said softly from behind Freddie.
"You will not be attacking me or anyone else in this courtyard, young man," Madame Garnier said. "You need to accept the loss gracefully. You are embarrassing yourself. What would your Potion Master think?"
Dimitri started growling and muttering in Russian. Definitely swears, Freddie thought. Or he's threatening us.
"Do you need any help?" Freddie asked the Healer who was clicking her tongue at him, shaking her head.
"No, cherie, thank you. I'll give him a Calming Draught and he will be fine in no time. He's just upset," she said. She flicked her wand and levitated Dimitri into the air. Water dripped from his wet clothes as he hung there.
"Past' zabej, padla jebanaja! Let me down you stupid French whore!" he yelled, struggling against his bindings.
"Hey! Shut up!" Freddie said loudly and behind her Ada whispered "Oh my goodness."
"Enough," Madame Garnier said, flicking her wand again. Dimitri's mouth clamped shut suddenly and his face grew red as he tried to yell, but couldn't make a sound. Madame Garnier looked to Freddie and Ada with an apologetic smile. "Please excuse me girls. Normally I do not condone restraining patients in this manner, but in cases like this it is necessary to prevent them from doing harm to others or themselves."
"Of course," Freddie said, following behind as she levitated Dimitri over to the tent. Akinyi was staring at them with her mouth open. Across the table from her, Andrei looked ever so faintly amused as the Healer put Dimitri's body down on top of the table. When the bell rang again the scowl returned to Andrei's face and he got up. He said nothing to any of them, did not even look at them, and he turned and made his way through the door that had opened for him.
Freddie stood against the wall near the tent, with Ada beside her, watching somewhat curiously as Madame Garnier prepared a dose of Calming Draught. She removed the Tongue-Tying Curse she'd placed on Dimitri and before he could start shouting again she had poured the potion into his mouth. He coughed and sputtered but most of the potion went down and the witch looked satisfied.
"I have never heard anyone swear like that before," Ada said quietly to Freddie, seeming mystified. "If any Beauxbatons student said those things, they would be expelled."
"So you don't swear at all?"
"Not like that," she said, cheeks pink. "You have heard me say 'merde' it means 'shit'. That is the only swear I say, really. It's not like it's a particularly bad one, I would not get expelled for saying 'merde'. Are you allowed to swear at Hogwarts?"
"Eh, we are not supposed to, but we do. We get reprimanded if a teacher hears us, maybe lose a few house points...hey, you should teach me to swear in French!"
"Oh no I can't," Ada said, her blush deepening. "I only use the one swear."
"But you know others, don't you?"
"Well, yes, I have heard others but I do not want to repeat them," she said bashfully. "I am not supposed to swear at all."
"You could write them down then. When you send me letters to help me learn french, you can write down all the best french swears for me."
"Oh my," she said with a slight nervous chuckle. "Yes, I suppose that would be okay."
Dimitri had stopped struggling on the table and he was no longer yelling but was muttering under his breath in Russian. His face went sort of slack and he fell silent, a far-away look in his pale eyes. The Calming Draught was doing its job.
Madame Garnier nodded approvingly and vanished the ropes that held him in place. She used a spell to dry his clothes and Freddie wondered what had happened to him in the Enchanted Garden. He didn't seem to have left of his own accord, so the judges must have forced him out. Maybe they had to intervene in one of his trials, like they almost had to intervene to keep the Devil's Snare from killing her. He looked like he'd been dunked in a lake when he first came through the door, could it be that he almost drowned?
Dimitri didn't seem to notice at first that he had been released, but then he slowly slid off the table. He got to his feet a little unsteadily and then staggered off, muttering again but the words didn't sound angry.
"He will be okay now," Madame Garnier said as they watched him. "But I think I will hold on to his wand for now, just to be on the safe side."
"Should he not be lying down, Madame?" Ada asked timidly. "I thought Calming Draught made one sleepy."
"It doesn't affect everyone the same," Freddie told her before the healer could respond. "I can take Calming Draught and not sleep. It just relaxes you."
"Do not worry, ma cherie, he will be okay," Madame Garnier said. "He cannot hurt himself in the courtyard and there is no way for him to leave this area."
And leave is exactly what Dimitri was trying to do. He had staggered over to the wrought iron gate and had his face pressed against the bars, looking out.
"You shouldn't worry about him anyway, Ada," Freddie told her. "He is a total jerk. And a sore loser to boot."
Of course, she reflected silently. I may not have reacted much better if the judges had forced me to leave either. I wouldn't have attacked the nurse though – at least, not on purpose.
"I suppose the judges made him leave the Garden," Ada said, looking to Madame Garnier. "Has that ever happened before?"
"Oh yes, it happens on occasion," the witch told her. "Although they only step in when they absolutely must – usually to prevent a lethal injury."
Freddie rubbed her bandaged neck absently. A lethal injury.
"Dimitri did not look injured," Akinyi piped up from the other table. "Certainly not injured enough that he could not continue."
"Looked to me like he almost drowned," Freddie said. "Why else would he have been soaking wet? The judges probably had to pull him from the water to keep him from drowning."
"And once they do that, that is it. They make you leave the Enchanted Garden," Madame Garnier confirmed with a nod. "Honestly he is not the worst one I have seen who had to leave this way. Some 30-odd years ago – or was it 40? – there was a girl from Castelobruxo who refused to leave the arena after the judges intervened to prevent her from consuming a deadly poison. She kept insisting that there was no way she would have actually drank the potion, that she would have noticed it was poison beforehand, but the bottle was already touching her lips when they intervened. You see the judges never show themselves in a challenge, until a majority agree that it is necessary. She kept saying they 'should not have interfered' and demanded she be allowed to continue. She threw an absolute fit and the judges had to carry her, kicking and screaming, from the Garden. She was crying and hysterical when they brought her to me and I had to sedate her until they end of the Championship. This was no child, either, this was a young woman of 18 curled up on the ground sobbing. I felt so bad for Master Silva, she looked so embarrassed by her student's behavior."
Freddie was silent a moment, wondering if Snape had been embarrassed by her in front of the other judges. In front of the other Potion Masters especially. She remembered the smug look on Lady Karen's face when they had showed up to save her from the Devil's Snare. No doubt the Beauxbatons teacher had been pleased at the thought of Freddie being unable to complete the challenge. Freddie stared down at her books, at the dried flobberworm mucus on her robes, and she felt ashamed of herself. Everything she did here was a reflection on Snape and his abilities. If she failed it meant they would think that he had failed as well. She felt sick to her stomach at the thought.
"Well," Akinyi said with a note of cheeriness in her voice. "At least with Dimitri out of the running there is less competition for first place."
"Yeah," Freddie said absently, nodding, and Ada smacked her arm lightly. "...What?"
"What happened to Dimitri could have happened to any one of us," she pointed out.
"Oh please," Freddie said, rolling her eyes. "If it had happened to one of us Dimitri would be over here taunting us, making fun of us, acting all superior. You know he would."
"Just because he is awful does not mean we should stoop to his level. We should 'rise above' as my maman always says," she said. "We should not take comfort in his misery."
"He didn't seem 'miserable' when he was calling Madame Garnier names and trying to attack us," she replied.
"Yeah he seemed more angry than sad," Akinyi said and Freddie nodded her head in agreement.
"Well of course he is! You guys have trained basically your whole lives for this. You are telling me you wouldn't be angry if you were forced to leave before you got a chance to finish the whole thing?" Ada said, looking from Akinyi to Freddie skeptically. She was right, of course. "Dimitri is angry, but he is hurting, too. Boys just show it differently," Ada continued. "And yes he has been a jerk to me from the moment we met, but I still feel bad for him. Even if he was not going to win, being forced to quit is just..."
"It sucks," Freddie finished for her, looking towards Dimitri who was slumped against the gate, staring out through the bars. She was actually starting to feel bad for him, just a little bit. She looked back down at Ada. "You have a big heart, Adalene Leroux."
"Thank you. And please don't call me that," she said with a faint smile.
"I mean it with the utmost affection," Freddie assured her. "And it's such a pretty name to say."
"Uh-huh," she said in a disapproving tone, but she was still smiling.
A flash of blue caught Freddie's eye and she saw that someone had just appeared in the middle of the courtyard. It was a young witch wearing the same blue robes as the other French Ministry officials and she was walking towards them with a large paper box in her arms.
"Who is that?" she wondered aloud. She wasn't one of the judges but she had a Ministry badge pinned to her robes as well.
"Bonjour!" the french witch called cheerfully as she approached. "I have something for you all. Monsieur Benoit instructed me to bring you refreshments since you have been out here all day. Just a snack to hold you over until you return to Auberge du Lac for dinner."
"Well thank you, Gabriela," Madame Garnier said as she put the box down on the table. "How kind of you."
"C'est pas un problème," she said brightly. "Madame Garnier, comment ça va?"
"Ca va bien,merci. Et vous?"
"Trés bien."
"What are they saying?" Freddie muttered to Ada.
"Just polite conversation,"she whispered back. "She asked her how she was doing and Madame Garnier said 'I'm good, thank you, and you?'"
"Come on over, girls," the witch named Gabriela called, waving to them for they had not moved from their spot by the fence. "I know you must be hungry!"
"I am starving!" Akinyi said, already waiting eagerly by the box. "Breakfast seems like ages ago."
Freddie wasn't really hungry – she still felt sick over the way her challenge had gone – but she and Ada joined Akinyi as Gabriela opened the box. She took out a platter that was piled high with various pastries and cookies, then she pulled out a bottle of water.
"Let's see, how many goblets?" Gabriela said, pulling her wand from the pocket of her blue robes. "Four? What about that young man over by the gate, do you think he wants to eat?"
"I'll go ask him," Ada offered.
"No," Freddie said quickly. "Let me do it. Just because you're kind doesn't mean he will be and he doesn't scare me."
She left the tent and walked quickly towards the gate. She kept her hand on her wand in her pocket as she approached, just in case, but all the fight seemed to have gone out of Dimitri. He was kneeling in front of the gate, staring out dejectedly.
"Dimitri," she said cautiously. "Are you hungry? Some Ministry witch brought us some food."
"No," he said and he did sound miserable now. "I want to leave. I want to go home."
"Well," she said. "You can't leave yet. It shouldn't be too much longer."
"I do not want to be here anymore," he said, still not looking at her. "I know I did not win, so what is the point? Why can't I just leave?"
"Believe me, I know how you feel," she sighed and it was the truth. If she could leave and not have to face what was coming next she would. "But we are stuck here for the duration. So, you can stay here and mope or you can come and sit with the rest of us."
"I'm not hungry."
"You don't have to eat, you can just sit with us," she said, but still he didn't get up. She waited for a minute, to see if he would change his mind, but he didn't move a muscle. "Suit yourself."
Freddie walked back to the tent where Ada was sitting at the table with Akinyi. Ada looked up expectantly as she approached but Freddie shook her head.
"I tried," she said as she sank down on the bench next to her friend. "He's not hungry. He said he just wants to go home."
"Thank you for trying. I know you do not like him very much, so thank you," Ada said and offered her a pastry.
"No thanks," she said, shaking her head again. "I'm not hungry either."
"You will feel better if you eat something. Isn't that what you told me this morning?"
"Hm," she said and took the pastry just so she wouldn't have to argue. Ada watched her expectantly until Freddie rolled her eyes at her and took a bite. "Happy now?"
"Yes," she said, pleased.
"Would you like some water, Miss Gray?" Gabriela asked from the head of the table and she poured a goblet for her without waiting for an answer.
"Thanks," Freddie said, accepting the goblet. "Did I hear you say we are supposed to go back to the inn afterwards and have another dinner? All of us together?"
"Yes, after the winner is announced it is tradition for the competitors to have dinner together back at the inn," she said brightly. "That's my understanding anyway. I am Monsieur Benoit's assistant, but this is my first Potions Championship."
"It is not required that they stay," Madame Garnier informed her. "Some of the competitors prefer to leave as soon as they can."
"Yes, of course," Gabriella said. "Those that choose to stay will have a nice dinner waiting on them. We have also arranged for all of you to keep your rooms another night. I know some of you have quite a distance to travel, you might want to get a good night's sleep and start out fresh in the morning."
"I see," Freddie said with a nod. She sipped her water, wondering if Snape would want to stay another night, or even stay for dinner. She hoped that he did not want to. She didn't want to be a sore loser, but she didn't know if she could stand to sit through another meal with these people. She didn't want to have to fake a smile and be nice to whoever won...unless it was Ada. She could suck up her hurt feelings, put aside her self-loathing, and be happy for her friend.
How many of the others would even stay if Ada won? Definitely not Dimitri, who was halfway out the gate already. Andrei and Karkaroff? Freddie wasn't sure it would be good if they did stay. Karkaroff didn't seem like the type to let his student lose gracefully and he might look for revenge. Akinyi might stay...but maybe not. The young woman seemed nice enough, chowing down on cookies and chatting with Ada, but she was two-faced. She hadn't thought Ada would make it through the challenge at all, she thought she was too young to be there.
So Freddie decided she would definitely stay if Ada won. Even though all she really wanted was for this day to be over, to crawl into bed and hide from the world. But it might be the last chance she had to spend time with Ada. Sure she said she would keep in touch via owl, but would that last? Would they ever visit each other? Freddie didn't even know where she'd be living in six months time. If she'd even be working at St Mungo's like she had planned, or if Master Hawkins might withdraw her job offer if she heard how she'd done in the Potions Championship.
But she didn't want to think about all that now. Right now she wanted to just spend time with Ada, who was eating cookies and smiling as she told Akinyi about her challenge. She seemed happier than she had been in the short time Freddie had known her and she wanted her friend's happiness to last forever.