September 2, 1996 -- 6:44 a.m.
Gary Montgomery (Program Supervisor) was settling down for breakfast inside of the monitoring room. He was rather surprised to see how many students were already enjoying themselves in the game. Not even six hours had passed and already a fourth of the class had been eliminated. It almost saddened him, though, that he would have to wait another year for the program to be held again. And even then, the school chosen might not be under his jurisdiction. So he wanted to cherish the moment.
Currently, he was waiting for a representative of the Minister of Magic to arrive. That was for certain one of the most annoying aspects of his job. Very seldomly did they share the same passion toward the program as he did. Just the facts, thank you very much. A boring bunch who wouldn't know a good time if it hit them over the head while screaming in their face.
With a loud pop, the representative apparated in. Montgomery sighed and turned around, ready to give his preliminary report. He couldn't quite understand why the Minister couldn't simply wait until the end to hear news of how things were going. After all, he might miss something good while reporting. "You're a little bit early."
Percy Weasley (Junior Assistant to the Minister of Magic) nodded as he took out a quill and scroll of parchment. "It's better to be early than late. Do you have your report?"
Montgomery nodded sadly. "A nice start. Already 13 dead. Four of them since I made the morning announcements, even. But I do have to take responsibility for the first death. One of the students tried to incite a riot, so I had no choice but to make an example out of him. I expect that I'll be reprimanded for that, yes?"
"That's correct."
"Of course." Montgomery looked to the monitor that recorded the forbidden zones and the students' positions. Unlike the tracking device that the late Draco Malfoy had possessed, the monitor did list the students' names. "There aren't any living students left in the zones that will become forbidden, which I suppose is a testament to their limited intelligence, but if your brother isn't more careful, he'll end up in one."
Percy's quill stopped scratching and his face paled. "My... brother?"
Montgomery turned back around and smiled. "Oh, that's right. I forgot to tell you which school was participating this year. Hogwarts. Didn't they play in the first year of the program? I believe your older brother won that one. What was his name? Carl or something like that?"
"Charlie," Percy corrected numbly.
"Ah, that's right. Well, maybe your younger brother will win this one. Although I doubt it. Seemed to have been in a scuffle of some sort in G-9." He smiled cheerfully at Percy. "But one can always hope, right? Oh, don't look so shocked. You know that it's all random, which school gets chosen. If we started exempting people for any reason, there'd be nothing more than chaos, right?"
"I, uh, I should probably go back and deliver the report now."
Montgomery nodded sympathetically. "But I haven't finished with my report, yet. Oh well. Losing a loved one is always hard. Why, my own daughter was killed in the first year. But you go on. Deliver your report, grieve, do whatever you must, and I'll see you later this afternoon, eh?"
Still numb, Percy nodded once, and Disapparated.
Montgomery chuckled softly and turned back to his breakfast. Maybe giving reports wouldn't be quite so annoying this year. It was always fun to tease the newbies. They were always so young and idealistic.
27 students remaining
September 2 -- 6:59 a.m.
Harry Potter (Boy 15, Gryffindor) watched on as Blaise Zabini (Boy 20, Slytherin) finished wrapping the wire around a tree trunk. After Blaise had joined up with them, they had gone back into the forest and settled down in a small clearing. Although Harry's pack and its contents were a loss, they had collected the packs of the late Michael Corner and Zacharias Smith before they left the field. Hermione Granger (Girl 8, Gryffindor) was currently napping a few feet away from Harry. Harry himself wasn't quite sure what Blaise was doing, or where he got the wire.
Blaise must have sensed Harry's confusion, as once he was done, he smiled and said, "Early alarm system. Crude, but it'll get the job done. Anyone approaches, and we'll know beforehand."
Harry nodded. "Where'd you get the wire?"
Blaise sat down, then put his hand behind his head with a sheepish expression on his face. "Ah, well, I nicked it from the shop back there. You really should have checked the back room before you settled down. If I was playing you'd be dead."
Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "You were in there?"
Blaise nodded. "When I heard you approach, I ducked into the back. Followed the two of you when you left. Probably should have said something sooner, but I wasn't sure if you were playing or not. Sorry 'bout that."
Harry nodded, although he was still rather surprised about the situation. "Why did you follow us?"
Blaise shrugged. "Not quite sure myself. Whim, I guess."
There was silence for a while. Harry wasn't quite sure what to think. Abruptly, he looked back up to Blaise. "Hey, um, I can understand why Michael attacked me, but why did Zacharias attack? If you followed us, you must have seen something, right?"
Blaise nodded somberly. "Fear, most likely. Everyone here's afraid to some degree. Some more than others. I guess when you reached for your knife, that set it off."
"But I wouldn't have used it!"
"Maybe not, but he was scared, and I guess he panicked." He sighed and leaned back against the tree he was sitting in front. "In the end, though, he was up for playing the game. Nothing to really understand there." He closed his eyes. "The rules state kill or be killed. You can't really afford to trust anyone under circumstances like that. Doesn't matter how close you are, or how long you've known them. Everyone's in this for themselves. Can't trust anybody."
"I won't believe that!" Harry stood up. Blaise's eyes opened, and Harry sat back down, looking ashamed. "I mean, if we can't trust anyone, then what's the point? Why bother with any of this?"
Blaise studied the other boy for a moment, then asked, "Do you trust me?"
Harry glanced over at him. "What do you mean?"
"I'm a Slytherin, right? I know what everyone thinks about us. We've got a real bad reputation. And how do you know I'm not just joining with you guys to take advantage of all that safety in numbers crap? I could just be biding my time until we're the only ones left and then shoot you in the back. You can't know that I'm not planning on betraying you." He closed his eyes again. "That's why you can't trust anybody."
Harry looked down at the ground, not sure on how to respond. What the other boy said made perfect sense.
"But suspecting each other will get us nowhere!" Hermione said. Apparently she had awakened at some point. "I mean, how do you know that we're not against you? How do I know that Harry's not against me? If we all start suspecting one another, then we'll just end up getting paranoid and lose our minds!"
Blaise smiled. "Now you're getting the hang of it." He opened his eyes again. "I guess it all comes down to believing in someone. Believing that they'll do the right thing in the end, even if you can't be certain. Once you start suspecting everyone, it'll never end." He smiled. "I always envied how close you guys were. You could say anything to one another. Always able to believe in one another. I guess that's why I trust you guys. You're honest."
Hermione smiled.
Harry looked back up, a puzzled expression on his face. "Back at the train station. You told me not to get on the train. You knew what was going to happen, didn't you?"
Blaise's eyebrows raised in surprise, and he shook his head. "Not for certain. I guess maybe I was just a little paranoid that it might be us..." There was a long pause, then he continued. "I had an older sister. Larissa. She wanted to be a healer when she grew up. Couldn't stand the sight of anyone being hurt. Way back when the program first started, her class was the one chosen. She didn't win."
Hermione's eyes widened, and her hands flew to her mouth. "That's just so horrible! It isn't fair that they would make you participate, too!"
Blaise shrugged. "Life isn't fair. If it was we'd all be back at school, eating breakfast in the Great Hall." His stomach growled, and he smiled sheepishly. "Speaking of breakfast, we should probably eat."
As the three of them ate the bread rolls that they'd been supplied, Harry continued to study the other boy. Even though there were still many things that were a mystery, he was finally beginning to understand where the other boy was coming from. That was when Harry realized that he trusted the other boy, too.
27 students remaining
September 2 -- 7:05 a.m.
Ron Weasley (Boy 19, Gryffindor) was finally ready to admit that he was completely lost. He had no idea how long he had been running since he left the clinic, nor did he have any idea of which zone he might be located in. All he could see around him were trees and more trees. Due to the fact that he hadn't run in a straight line, he was fairly certain that he wouldn't be able to find his way back to the clinic to get his map and pack. As such, he was very, very afraid. If someone found him, he had no way of defending himself. If someone didn't find him, without a map he might end up in a forbidden zone and not know it until it was too late. If he was very lucky, he would starve to death or become dehydrated.
After he had left the clinic, he heard gunshots coming from that direction a few minutes later. The same gunshots that he had heard twice earlier in the night. So he wanted to get as far away from the clinic as possible before whoever it was left and went searching for their next victim. Along the way, though, he had realized that he had no idea where he was and was about to consult his map when he realized he didn't have it with him. Of all the stupid things he had done in his life, why did he have to leave the damn map behind?
So he sat down to rest. There wasn't much else he could do. He was hungry, and thirsty, and lost.
He glanced at his watch. 5 minutes after seven. The fact that he was still alive told him that he wasn't in the first of the forbidden zones, which had became so at 7:00. But for all he knew he could be in the next. To make matters worse, he forgot which zone came next. Not like it would matter without a map, though.
Even though the likelihood of him being discovered was far greater if he stayed where he was, he was starting not to care anymore. Even if he didn't have a weapon, he was going to die fighting. Not because he ended up in some stupid forbidden zone. He was considering the possibility of just shouting out and summoning whoever wanted to go after him, but wasn't quite sure that he was ready to die, yet. He still wanted to see his friends for one last time, if only to say goodbye.
27 students remaining
September 2 -- 7:18 a.m.
After the trio had finished eating, things had become quiet once more. None of them could really think of anything to say, so they ended up staring into space. Harry idly wondered if any of his classmates were under attack at the moment, but didn't want to speak up lest he destroy the peaceful mood they had going right now. It might have been an awkward peace, but he would take what he could get.
"God dammit," Blaise muttered as he took out a pack of cigarettes. Harry and Hermione looked at him as he took one out and lit up. "Hope you don't mind. It's just when I'm stressed out I find smoking helps me relax."
"Those things will kill you, you know," Hermione blurted out before she could stop herself. Realizing what she just said, she covered her mouth and blushed.
Blaise chuckled. "Here's hoping, right?"
Harry tilted his head. "I didn't know you smoked."
Blaise raised an eyebrow as he blew out some smoke. "Where'd you think I was going at the train station?"
Harry furrowed his brows in concentration. "At the train station...? Oh, when you stepped out for fresh air?"
Blaise nodded. "What can I say? I'm a no-good delinquent." He smirked. "Not the only one, though. Never really bothered to count, but there's a bunch of us that hang out at the Grassy Knoll."
"The Grassy Knoll?"
"It's what we call the place where us smokers go to smoke. I have no idea how it got the name, because it's neither grassy nor is it a knoll. It's in back of the school, kinda in an alcove of sorts. We're not supposed to smoke inside. Against the school rules or something. But outside the teachers don't really seem to care all that much. Hell, some of them have even tried to bum smokes off us." Blaise smiled. "Not gonna name names, though."
Hermione frowned. "Who else smokes?"
"In our class?" Blaise leaned back against his tree, a thoughtful look on his face. "Let's see, I know that Vicky Frobisher does. I've seen a couple of the other girls, too, but not on a regular basis. Wayne Hopkins smokes, and I've seen Malfoy and his goons around occasionally. I think he was just looking to deal, though. I think that's it for our class. It's mainly the older students that smoke."
"What do you mean, Malfoy was looking to deal?" Harry asked.
Blaise looked at Harry seriously, then took a puff of his cigarette. "Drugs. Minor stuff, mainly, but even so."
Hermione blinked. "I didn't know there was a drug problem at Hogwarts."
Blaise chuckled. "You didn't know there were people who smoked at Hogwarts, either, but who's counting? I don't know if anyone actually uses or not. I wouldn't touch the stuff if you paid me. So I'd have no idea who might be using, or where they go to hang out."
Things fell silent once again. Harry broke the silence by asking, "Which teachers bum cigarettes off of you?"
Blaise started laughing. "I told you I wasn't going to name names. Let's just drop it, all right?"
27 students remaining
September 2 -- 7:21 a.m.
After having left the clinic, Neville Longbottom (Boy 11, Gryffindor) had used the tracker he had found to follow the student that was running away. He had no idea who the student was, but they might be able to help him complete his mission. Well, assuming that they weren't a hostile. If they were hostile, he would deal with them.
The student had stopped moving about half an hour ago, which made it a lot easier to initiate contact with them. They'd been running around haphazardly before, occasionally coming dangerously close to F-6, the zone where the school was located. It made Neville wonder if they even had a map. Oh, well. If they were friendly, he might give them one of his spares. Aside from the map he had been issued, he had about three others. He didn't need any of them, not with the tracker he now had. It contained a map of the island, with the forbidden zones being marked as they were announced. But it was best that he keep the tracker a secret. Who knows how many people would want to get their hands on it if they knew he had it?
He wore his robes over his shoulders like a cape, hiding his Ingram from sight. No sense in scaring whoever it was he was following. They might have a gun. Even if he was wearing the bulletproof vest he had been issued as his 'weapon', Neville didn't feel like being shot at anytime soon. And if they were friendly, he didn't want to have to shoot them just because they got scared.
He was almost there, now. He just had to be quiet so he wouldn't alarm them. He didn't really feel like chasing after them anymore. Not after how far he had come. Stepping past a couple of trees, he could finally see who it was he had been following.
"Eh? Ron?" Neville walked into the clearing where his dorm mate was resting, and sat down across from the other boy, careful to hide his gun as he sat it on the ground behind him with his robes draped over it. "What are you doing here?"
Ron looked up to Neville. "Lost." He smiled. "How'd you find me?"
Neville hesitated for a moment, then held out the tracker. "I found it at the clinic. I put out the fire, too, just in case you're wondering."
Ron sat up straight, then winced at the pain in his side. "The clinic? You went to the clinic? But that's where the shooter was! Did you see him? Did he hurt you?"
Neville shook his head. "He must have left before I got there," he lied. "Probably didn't want to stay any longer than he had to. What happened to Goyle and Malfoy?"
"Uh..." Ron looked down at the ground. "That was my fault. They attacked me, so I defended myself." He quickly looked up, and said quickly, "But I'm not playing! So you don't have to worry. I don't even have a weapon with me. I think I left it in Goyle's skull." Realizing what he just said, his face paled, and he turned to the side and vomited.
Neville waited patiently for the other boy to continue. He had felt like vomiting too, the first time. But he resisted the urge, reminding himself that it was kill or be killed, and he had a mission to fulfil.
Ron finally sat back up, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. "Oh, god. I killed him, didn't I?"
"If you hadn't, he would have killed you, right?" He pointed at Ron's injury. "Looks like he tried to at least. If you were only defending yourself, then you shouldn't feel too bad about it, right?" He decided to test the waters a little bit. "In the end, that's what they do. The Slytherins are bullies, plain and simple. Just because the stakes have been upped, do you think they'll stop? Not a chance. So if we don't stop them, they'll kill us." Pausing to gauge Ron's reaction, he continued. "If we were to die, who would you want to win? I don't know about you, but I could never rest easy if a Slytherin won." Neville had his say. The ball was in Ron's court now.
Ron looked off into the distance, then slowly nodded. "But even so..." He paused, thinking of what he was going to say. "We can't give up on ourselves like that. I don't think I could ever live with myself if I became a killer. I'd end up losing too much of myself. I don't want to pay that price."
Neville nodded, then stood up. "You're too soft, Ron." At Ron's surprised face, he grinned. "That's okay, though. It's probably for the best this way." He tossed Malfoy's pack at Ron, who caught it. "Malfoy's supplies. Food, water, map. No weapon, though. Oh, wait!" He sat back down, and opened up his own pack. Finding what he was looking for, he took out the katana that had once belonged to Daphne Greengrass and set it on the ground before Ron. "Not the best weapon in the world, but it's better than nothing, right?" Scooping up his gun and robes, he stood back up, and turned to walk away.
"Neville, wait!" Ron exclaimed. Neville turned around. "I can't take this. You'll need a weapon, too."
Neville smiled, and unwrapped his robes to reveal the gun that he had been concealing. Ron's eyes widened as Neville put his robes back on around his shoulders. "I already have one." He waved his hand, and walked off. "Bye!"
Ron stared in shock after the other boy. If Neville had that gun, that meant... That meant...
That meant Neville was the shooter.
27 students remaining
Question & Answer Session #1
1-How long is the story? Are you still writing it?
24 chapters long, and I finished writing about 1 or 2 weeks before I posted the first chapter, so it's done. Just not all posted.
2-Could an Animagus escape the island?
I never really thought of that, to be perfectly honest. Although the idea would tie in with a conversation that was held in the rough draft of Chapter 13. Originally, there was mention that a student who had been in one of the previous games had managed to remove their collar. But since I couldn't think of a good reason on how they could do so, I edited the scene out. It wasn't important to the plot anyway, but maybe if I change some things, I can edit the scene back in and explain it better. (I hope that wasn't a spoiler...)
3-Does anyone have a flamethrower?
I never thought of that... Alas, no. It would have been cool, though. Maybe I should post a list of who was supplied with what weapon to the group, although there are a few spoilers in the mix, so I couldn't post a list quite yet. Not until most of the story was posted. But since I didn't bother to assign weapons to three of the students who die early on (in Chapters 2 & 4), I suppose you can pretend that one of them got a flamethrower, even if it will never come into play.
4-Who dies next?
I can't say, because that would spoil the fun.
5-How do I review?
Click the button below that says "submit review". It's just that easy. ;)