Chapter 63: Go Fish

"This cannot be fair."

"hmm?" The innocence of the hummed non-question was made clearly false by his smug grin, but Sans didn't really care. "i dunno what you mean, cass."

"Don't just—" Cassius half-started an annoyed gesture, then thought better of it: instead he carefully tucked his hand of cards together so that the competition wouldn't be able to see them easily. "You expect me to believe the two of you haven't somehow teamed up against me?"

Viktor glanced up from his own cards, but didn't answer the question. Instead, he turned to the short first year. "Sans, do you have any Unicorns?"

"sorry, go fish."

The visiting champion simply sighed and delicately took one of the cards off the top of the stack on the hospital bed. Luckily the card didn't decide to spit sparks this time; they were using a repurposed Exploding Snap deck, which seemed to get a bit petulant when used in other games. Just goes to show that the name was quite appropriate.

Viktor glanced at the card he drew, huffed a small laugh in surprise, and set down another completed pair of matched cards: this time being two Giant Squids. Since he'd got himself a point, he had to go fish again for a new card.

"Seriously," continued Cassius, using his free hand to smooth out the white sheets over his legs, "how is it possible that both of you have five pairs each, and I don't even have one yet?"

"get good," Sans quipped. "and ya got any… uh… bowtruckles?"

With a scowl, the Slytherin handed over a card.

"any pixies?"

"Thankfully, no." As Sans took a card from the deck, Cassius turned and somewhat pointedly asked, "Viktor, do you have any Unicorns?"

He did, of course, and handed it over with a small smile. After setting down his newly-made pair and getting his first point, Cassius took a moment to look over the the rest of his cards. Given how many unsuccessful rounds he'd had, there were a lot.

For the record, Sans honestly was not cheating; somehow the continued lack of card matches—aside from that the last pair—really was just Cassius having a long string of bad luck. It was remarkable, frankly.

"And do you happen to have any Hebridean Blacks, Sans?" he asked, finally.

"that's a dragon, right? nope, go fish." But on that thought: "hey, you're getting out of here today, right?"

Madam Pomfrey had estimated the recovery would take a week or two and, true to her estimate, it was now ten days since the rather calamitous end to the first task: or maybe eleven days, depending on how one counts them up. Cassius had spent that time in painful bedrest, and generally with less than his usual numbers of bones.

Learning that wizards could vanish bones hadn't been surprising, per se… but it had been distinctly unsettling. Skele-gro sounded neat, though its efficacy on bones made of magic more than calcium wasn't something he's keen to test.

"After the last class ends, yes," replied Cassius, nodding as he took a card from the deck. Then he frowned to himself. "Not counting astronomy, which I am to skip."

"And vill you be able to visit the library?"

Sans grinned. "i dunno, it might be too rowdy for him."

He huffed. "Madam Pomfrey might think so, she probably would prefer if I just slept—oh, you have got to be kidding me." Cassius had just checked the card, and apparently, by some cruel twist of continued bad luck, it wasn't a match. "I didn't even know Exploding Snap had this many different cards."

"Neither did I." Sounding thoughtful, Viktor rearranged his small hand of cards. "Vhere did you get them?"

"borrowed from fred n' george."

That earned a small, if somewhat amused, scowl. "Figures," said Cassius. "What're the odds they jinxed the deck before giving it to you?"

"i don't think they did," Sans mused, as he was pretty sure he would have noticed. He went ahead and CHECKED though, just in case, but didn't find anything unusual on the set of exploding cards.

While Viktor hadn't had a chance to really meet the infamous twins—not more than a glancing blow, at least—he'd heard enough rumors to picture what sort of trickery the pair might have done to the deck. "Vhen you got the cards, did they know who you vere going to be playing?"

"i could see them being especially sneaky if they knew their favorite snake was involved," Sans allowed, grinning.

(Again, for the record, there wasn't actually any funny business happening. Somehow.)

Viktor nodded, thoughtful, then turned his attention back to his cards; it was his turn, after all. After a moment of consideration, he asked, "Cassius?"

"Oh no."
"…Do you have any Hebridean Blacks?"

"Yes." Cassius just gave a defeated sigh. "Yes, I do."

=X=X=X=

"Do you have the mistletoe berries?"

"i know we're making a forgetfulness potion," said Sans, pointedly dropping the aforementioned berries into his stone mortar with a raised brow, "but the whole forgetting thing should be after we finish, right?"

Laura leveled off a scoop of some indeterminate potion-herb mix and moved to add it to their cauldron. "Sorry, I know I'm nagging, I'm just a little tense…" Her voice dropped to a whisper, "You've noticed, right?"

With a shrug and a small nod, he snagged the cup before she could dump it. As per the recipe, he added the herbs to his bowl with the mistletoe and started to work at grinding it down to a powder.

And yes, he had noticed: it was like the whole school was a little tense.

That had been the case ever since the champions were selected, technically, but it had become rather more pronounced since the calamitous end to the first task. Some people that otherwise would've remained neutral had rallied behind the injured Slytherin, which prompted a response from the Gryffindors which ultimately swept more students into the stalemate-conflict. It's like they were drawing up battle lines.

Ironic, considering the champions had decided to work together behind the scenes.

For Sans, practically speaking, things hadn't actually drifted too far from the weird normal that had established itself a few weeks into the semester. He went to his classes, chatted, put a modicum of effort into his homework, schemed, and spent long peaceful nights watching the stars; the only real difference was an increasing likelihood of snow getting stuck in his sockets when he laid back on the roof and didn't move for a while.

(Even with everything so different, that, at least, was achingly nostalgic.)

The routine had been tweaked a bit to fit in the occasional visit with Cassius while he was locked up in the Hospital Wing, but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't much of a disruption. Besides, that wouldn't even be necessary after today.

In this specific instance, however, Laura's tension wasn't from the high-strung aftershocks of the first task. It had more to do with the fact that their potions professor had been leveling a lot of scrutiny at their table—more than usual, anyway. And it hadn't just been today, but yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that, too.

As Sans handed off the mortar of now-mashed potions ingredients to Laura, he studiously ignored the uncomfortable feeling of being watched.

"Did you do something?" Laura whispered as she dropped in a few pinches of the ground up berry-herb mixture.

Sans just shrugged. "not that i'm aware of."

He stirred the potion counterclockwise—one, two, three, four, five times—keeping in mind a steady flow of magic: not too much, of course, but as it turns out a bit of magic is needed to mesh the materials. That had taken more than a few trials to work out, and he still wasn't sure how much would be considered ideal. None was obviously not enough, but the one time he'd actively put in magic it had nearly blown up in their faces and the potion came out somewhat singed.

Suffice to say, he took a light touch with it now.

He was hoping to find that balance sooner or later; sooner, preferably, or at least soon enough to at least lessen their atrocious track record in this class, given how unfair it was to his potions partner. Alas, it's been slow going.

With a gurgle of bubbles and a smell like burnt sugar, the liquid in their cauldron darkened to a deep purplish color.

"That looks about right, don't you think?" Laura was double and triple checking the recipe notes, but she smiled as she did so. "Maybe we're actually getting better at this."

Careful to hold the stir-stick still, as per the instructions, Sans nodded. "let's have a round of applause for gradual improvement, woo." It was stated in perfect deadpan, though he couldn't help but grin back.

In the end, the potion they turned in was a little too gloopy but otherwise he thought it matched the target description pretty well. Sans decided to count it as a victory, and made a note to up the magic dosage slightly for next time. He bottled up a sample, dropped it off at the professors desk, then went to pack up his things.

"Mr. Skelton, remain behind after class," Snape said.

Never a good sign.

He froze, not tensing up so much as just stopping in place. When he looked back to the professor, frowning slightly, the man was quietly focused on the bottled potions on his desk. Stuffing away the rest of his things at a much slower pace, Sans shared a somewhat confused glance with Laura as he settled back onto the stool.

"uh, sure thing."

The Hufflepuff looked worried, but offered a small thumbs up and a quiet 'see you later' before following the rest of the class out.

Soon enough it was just Sans and Snape.

And a whole lot of quiet.

"…so, professor," he started, after a minute or so of waiting in heavy silence, "am i here for any particular reason, or…"

It was a valid question, seeing as Snape hadn't even been looking at him since class ended. Well, not exactly; he'd still been keeping an eye on him, much like he'd been doing during the entire period. But other than that, the dread professor had just been working through the class's potions and scribbling onto a long roll of parchment.

The question did actually get a response, somewhat surprisingly. Sans hadn't really expected one, and though it wasn't much of a response, it was still something.

Snape looked toward an object on his desk—a small hourglass. The details were a bit hard to make out from across the room, but the top and bottom halves were shaped like animals: a serpent and a bird respectively. At first the bird half seemed like an odd design choice, but then again the man does have a very impressive beak-like schnoz.

Stranger still was the color of the sand in the hourglass, which, given it belonged to a Slytherin, was an incongruous red. The fine ruby grit had almost completed its fall from the top into the bottom.

They both watched the last of the red sand run down, and the quiet sounds it had been making fell away to silence. Only then did Snape properly look at him: a long, searching sort of look—the expression of someone who got one answer and found several more hiding behind. Then he just waved him off.

"You may go now," the professor said, once more shifting his attention to organizing the bottled potions the class had turned in.

"wha— well, alright?"

Not one to linger, Sans quickly grabbed his things and made for the exit. He elbowed the door open—with a touch of blue to ease it along, he didn't exactly have a lot of weight to throw around for these heavy castle doors—and slipped into the hallway before the professor could change his mind.

That had been… weird.

"he was waiting for something," he muttered to himself, making his way through the halls of the castle, "but what?"

It was probably worth being concerned over, but, seeing as nothing had actually happened when the time had run down, it could be put aside for the moment. Whether Snape had seen something suspicious or he hadn't, either way the disguised skeleton couldn't do anything about it now.

Given the potions professor had let him go in the end, the odds were that, whatever Snape had been looking for?—he hadn't found it. Which is good.

Sans just wished he knew what it was in the first place.

He shrugged to himself, taking a shortcut of the non-teleportation variety to cut through the walls without running into anybody. The usual school hall hubbub was always a mess to try and navigate, especially on Fridays when all the students were excitedly looking forward to the oncoming weekend.

A worn tapestry depicting a spindly tower was hung over the other end of the hidden passage, and Sans stepped out from behind it just in time to startle a pair of familiar voices.

"Gah!" Cassius jerked backwards, catching himself on the wall with one hand while the other slapped against his chest. "How in Merlin's name—"

"just a normal shortcut this time." With a shrug and a vaguely traced line through the air, Sans sketched out the route through the walls. "opens here and over near the potions classroom," he said. "good to see you got out safely."

At the Slytherin's peeved expression, Sans just grinned. He wondered if this chance encounter counted as good or bad luck in his eyes. They were all heading to the same place, of course, but that was planned ahead of time; Cassius seemed like the kind of person to appreciate advance warning of any imminent social interaction.

"Vhat count's as not a normal one?" Viktor asked, glancing behind the tapestry to see a plain stone wall—it needed a special tapped pattern to open up from this end.

Sans, of course, simply ignored the question. "let's get going," he grinned, "the others are there already."

The library was especially quiet today. Typically, the kind of people to visit immediately after the last class of the week were studious sorts and therefore not inclined to cause trouble. Like Neville and Luna, for example, who Sans spotted sharing a table near the first set of shelves.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had claimed a table tucked quite a bit farther into the rows upon rows of literature, with a golden retriever sitting guard beside the only entrance to their book nook. It took some twisty turns through the shelves to get there.

Of course Sirius noticed them first, shooting them a canine grin—tail wag and all—as well as a distinctly sassy barked greeting.

"we're not that late, paddy, relax."

"What can I say, I've been moving a bit slow this past week," Cassius replied, gesturing to himself as if to point out his ability to stand there at all. Though he didn't remain standing for long, gratefully taking a seat. "Ow, my bones."

Harry winced in sympathy. "Skele-gro is… not a pleasant experience."

"To put it lightly."

"Are… are you sure you should be out of the Hospital Wing?"

The Slytherin nodded, stretching a little to ease aches in the recently-regrown parts of his skeleton. "It's the next step. Bed rest is all well and good, but Madam Pomfrey says my bones won't become as strong as they should if I'm laying around all the time."

"a tragedy."

With a faintly amused sniff, Cassius continued, "Now that I'm out, though, can somebody fill me in on what's been happening while I've been indisposed?"

Hermione blinked. "You don't know?"

"madam pomfrey thought it'd be 'too stressful'," explained Sans, foregoing a chair to sit on the floor against a tall stack of books. "his delicate sensibilities would get knocked all out of wack."

"The school has been kinda… tense," Harry had to admit.

"But nothing too bad, really. As for the tournament…" Hermione glanced at Viktor as he sat next to her, then quickly back. "Warrington, you got good scores from most of the judges, but, uhm… Karkaroff didn't give you any, so you're in last place."

"Which was nonsense judging, by the way," Ron vented, hands gesturing to punctuate his points. "You did brilliant the whole round, you only got hit after the blasted thing should have been over and done with." The annoyed slant of his mouth suddenly twisted to a sort of dumbstruck grimace: the expression of an ardent Gryffindor abruptly realizing he was defending a Slytherin, but finding himself unwilling to take back what had been said.

Hermione rolled her eyes and gave Ron a small smack, pulling him back to attention. "It did seem unfair, but each judge can, well, judge how they please."

"Still, I am sorry," Viktor inclined his head slightly, embarrassed. "He is a knowable headmaster, but very compete-ative."

"A 'knowledgeable' headmaster," Hermione corrected for him, "and it's pronounced 'competitive'."

"Knowledgeable and competitive," he gamely repeated back, and she nodded—his english was getting better every passing day.

"I suppose last place is unfortunate, but overall it's not particularly important: I care more about surviving than winning." For want of something to do with his hands, Cassius grabbed one of the books at random and flipped it open. "Anything else I should know about?"

Very briefly, Sans considered bringing up the oddness that had been Professor Snape after class. He decided against it, however. That's more likely a problem to discuss with Sirius and only Sirius… well, maybe Remus too, and extra-maybe their inside man at the Ministry, Mark Perkins, if it became relevant.

(Technically Remus was also working there, but in more of an intern capacity.)

Everyone at the table shared a few glances, trying to come up with any other particularly important things that had happened in the last ten or so days. The matter of Hogwarts splitting its support between the two champions wasn't exactly new, though it'd certainly had a sharp boost—but that might be easier to experience rather than try to explain, anyway.

"well, if we can't think of any other things to talk about right away…" Sans grinned and pulled out a deck of cards. "i have an idea—"

"No."

"c'mon, cass, go fish is—"

"No."

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Undertale.

Anyone up for a game of cards?

Finally, the thrilling continuation after the painful end to the first task! As you can see, our heroes (?) are using their time wisely.
Hey, man, everybody needs a break sometime!

The next chapter for this story will be posted in May.
As always, thank you so much for all the support this story has gotten over the years—every favorite, follow, and review! I hope you all continue to enjoy!

Here's a question that I'm split on—what do you expect to see during the Yule Ball? Will Sans bother keeping an eye on it, or will he have a peaceful Christmas with friends?

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Stay safe out there! See ya on the flipside, everyone!