Scarlet Scarves
Chapter 6—The Second Task
I was late meeting Viktor the next morning. I had told him ten, figuring that would allow plenty of time for the other girls to clear out of the room to get breakfast but everyone had stayed up late the night before and so it was almost ten thirty before the last one left and I could get up from my feigned sleep. I dressed quickly but warmly.
I had fallen asleep with the new boyfriend feeling but when I woke I felt only empty. It might have been just the fact that I was very hungry but I don't think so. My curls, which had been so perfect the night before, were all mashed down from the night of sleep. That's how I felt I guess, like a perfect hairdo that's been carelessly slept on. I had dreamed that night of fun times with Lana. I had heard them talking that morning while they though I was asleep.
"I cannot believe Viktor picked her! She's a certifiable freak."
"I can't believe he has that bad taste!"
"Well you can't have everything! He had to have a flaw."
"Oh shut up you lot! I know you guys are jealous but isn't it about time to give up this whole Viktor nonsense. I mean Tennessee got the guy. That's the end so why don't we just drop it?"
That last one was Amanda.
"Oh honestly Amanda, I don't know why you still hang out with her. She's turned into such a self-righteous little freak." Painfully, that was Lana.
"Seriously."
I don't understand, honestly I don't, how girls like that can get along. It's such an irony that they're all competing against each other for something but yet that's what draws them into solidarity, while the girls like Amanda and I are the ostracized ones. Do they even think about what they're doing? I guess they've heard that cliché about keeping your enemy's closest. Too bad they didn't hear the first bit about keeping your friends close too.
But at any rate by about ten thirty they had all tramped out and so I was free to get up. I washed my face and threw on my winter clothes and a little make up and then ran downstairs. My stomach protested as I ran by the tempting smells wafting from the Great Hall but I didn't stop.
"You are late." Viktor said when I finally made it to the Pitch. He was sitting in the bleachers looking, if it was possible, even more tired than me. His eyes were sunken slightly, with purple bags beneath them, and his lips were tinged with green. Good thing I didn't pick him for his looks. He had a stack of French toast, thick with nuts and raisins, but he hadn't eaten any.
"Yeah, it was unavoidable." I said. "Listen, what the hell happened to you? Can I have a piece of your toast?"
He held out the stack. "They are for you."
"Cheers." The toast tasted strange in my mouth, which was somehow dry, but delicious. "But seriously, what happened?"
He rubbed his bloodshot eyes. "No one was ready to go to bed vhen ve vent back to the ship." He said.
I could guess what sort of end the Vodka had met.
I giggled. "Really? That's kind of funny."
"I am glad you are happy." He said dryly.
"That's really good Viktor." I applauded him. "That's called sarcasm. I bet it's hard to do in English."
"Vell I vanted to…how do you say it? I vanted to put my best foot forward this morning." I laughed even harder at that. Apparently hung-over Viktor is even funnier than regular Viktor.
I was almost through my second piece of toast and starting to feel full. "So…" I prompted. "What are you scared of?"
"Vhat?" He asked.
"You know it's a good second date question. What are you scared of?" I repeated. "Here I'll go first. I'm scared of scary movies, water I can't see the bottom of and cockroaches."
He considered for a second. "I am scared of tall buildings."
"What like they're going to fall on you?"
"No, vhen I look down off the top of them I feel like I vill fall."
"No way." I said firmly. "You are in no way scared of heights. I've seen you fly, you're fearless on a broom."
"It is not the same."
"It is too. Heights are heights."
"No it is not." He said very finally.
I shrugged. "Okay." I agreed but when we'd fallen silent I muttered, "if you want to be a big, fat wierdo."
He laughed at that, his first laugh that morning. "You are very funny Tennessee."
As we sat I thought about that night so many months ago at the Cup when I'd bought a poster of Krum. Lana had said that he looked cute and I'd just rolled my eyes. I wondered if Krum and I were really even supposed to be together. I mean first there was the fact that Lana, my best friend, who had taken me under her wing when everything in the magical world was new and scary, loved him. And then there was the fact that I myself was in love with Roger, Lana's brother and a jerk in the first degree.
I pushed those thoughts back. "What are you thinking about?" I asked him.
"I vas thinking about the Quiddtich World Cup." He said.
"Oh? What about it?"
"I vas just thinking that the first time you saw me I had just lost and had a broken nose." He said.
I giggled. "Well the first time you saw me my friends were making total asses of themselves."
He looked as if he might try to deny this but then burst out laughing, "that is true." He put his arm around and kissed me.
This, I thought, this is what the Triwizard Tournament is all about really. Before I met him I thought all Durmstrang kids were Dark Wizards in training, twisted and disturbed. I realize now that without thinking I just sort of assumed that they spent all their time thinking up torturous spells and I dunno, eating raw human flesh or something.
And now I knew better.
8888
January and February came and went in the mockery of normality we all came to accept. It was a bitter, uneasy and tacit truce (more like trench warfare than a proper truce) but the most that could be hoped for. Like me I think Lana didn't know how she wanted us to behave around each other. If she thought up something particularly cutting to say to me she would but other than that she didn't want any contact with me. Once, when I forgot for a second and called out to her when I saw her back in the hall she turned but, seeing who it was, froze for a second before just turning back around and acting like it never happened. Sometimes I thought about cornering her in the library and trying to make pax but I couldn't, not while I still had Viktor. I had won (I guess, it didn't feel much like a victory) and she would have been patronizing and snobby to ask for a renewal of our friendship. I've always suspected that she more than once talked to Viktor, either to chat him up or tell him nasty rumors about me, during those months, though he always denied it when I asked.
Fred, George and I made a few more products, but nothing that we felt were good enough to be released. The backstab brownies were put on the shelf because of a lack of funds (the quality of liquor required was very expensive). Fred and George were distant and secretive for the first week of January until they finally broke down and admitted that they were working on a new product: exploding quills. After that I was allowed in the room with them while they were working on it but was sworn the secrecy again and I was only allowed to get involved during the testing stages (not that much fun anyway).
For our part Viktor and I had a marvelous time. On Saturdays we went flying (actually I mostly sat in the stands and did my homework but it was still relaxing), or explored the castle, or read in the library or went out on the lake boating. His schoolmates were always polite to me, but there was an awkward tenseness to them, as if they were all veiling a very deep hatred of me. Once, when Viktor left me alone for a second a boy named Sobakov tugged my hair very had and muttered something I'm very sure was a very nasty curse in Bulgarian. And, after I didn't rat them out, they felt free to be very cruel to me whenever he was gone. Whatever animosity they held though was always carefully concealed the second Viktor returned. I didn't mind the pinching and the nasty words as much as the fact that no one ever spoke English when I was around. I knew that they all could but it was the biggest sign of disrespect they felt they could get away with.
And still February marched on.
I asked Viktor once if he'd managed to understand the egg's meaning but he just pressed his lips together. "We should not talk about that." He said.
"Why?" I asked, my interest peaked.
"You go to Hogwarts. I am the Durmstrang Champion."
"Okay." I said. "I guess it's not really any of my business anyway." But it turned out to have more to do with me than either of us could have ever imagined.
8888
I was in the library when Dumbledoor came for me. I was pretending to do my Charms homework while Viktor and I flirted, knocked feet under the table, and every once in a while dissolved into kissing. Fred and George were there too but they weren't paying much attention to us—they were on the fruitless quest to make Polyjuice Potion tasty.
"Hello Miss Scarlet." He said. "Mr. Krum, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Weasley." He nodded to Fred and George.
It was such a shock to see him there in the library, such an unexpected thing that we all just blinked vacantly at him for a few seconds. "Good evening Professor." Fred recovered first. "What can we do for you?" Under the table Viktor took his hand off my knee. Dumbledoor's arrival probably felt like my father had just showed up to him.
"Well I'm afraid to say that I need to see Miss Scarlet right away." I was as surprised as the twins to hear that this wasn't about them, though much less relieved.
"What did I do Professor?" I asked.
"Nothing my dear, just follow me." He waved me off.
Viktor's hand returned to my knee. "Vait Professor, I vould like to talk to Tennessee for a second."
Dumbledoor nodded. "If you like you can just walk her to my office. The password is Plum Drops Miss Scarlet." He turned to leave but then turned back. "Oh and could the two of you," he gestured to Fred and George, "locate Mr. Ron Weasley? We will be needing him to join us as well."
Viktor was silent as we walked down the corridors to the Headmaster's office, my footfalls numb on the stones. I was running over and over in my mind what I could have possibly done but could find nothing. It wasn't about Viktor was it? They couldn't tell me not to date him, could they? I wouldn't let them! It wasn't fair! International relations was what this tournament was about!
"What is this about Viktor?" I asked when we arrived at the doorstep and he still hadn't spoken.
He sat me down on the bottom of a statue of witch with a very dreamy expression: "Doris the Dazed" was the name inscribed on her pedestal. "I am not sure if I am meant to tell you Tennessee." He said slowly.
I blinked. "Why not?"
"Vell I am not sure I am right." He said but his voice trailed off as if he had another reason too.
I waited for him to explain.
He waved me off. "I can not talk to you about this." He said firmly. "But remember this. If you do not want to participate in the tournament, you do not have too. I read in a book the rules. Your name did not come out of the Goblet."
"What are you talking about Viktor?" I asked, bewildered.
"Just remember that." He said firmly, kissing me very hard, as if to press his point home. "You do not have to participate."
"Okay." I said. "I'll remember.
Inside the office were a few of the judges, Madame Maxime, Karkaroff, Cho Chang and a little girl of about eleven who was looking about as confused as I felt. I was seated on the couch next to the girl and Cho and offered a drink by a floating tray. Karkaroff glared at me. "What is this about?" I asked as politely as I could.
"I think we should wait until Mr. Weasley joins us. It will take less time if we only have to explain it once." Professor Dumbledoor said kindly.
Dumbledoor made a noble stab at sparking conversation in the room but we were all silent and stubborn. A few long minutes Ron came tramping up the stairs. When he had been seated on the couch Dumbledoor addressed us all. "Miss Delacour speaks no English but the rules have already been explained to her." The girl, I realized now was Fleur's sister. "On to business then. As some of you may or may not know," did I imagine it or did his eyes flick toward Ron? "the next phase of the Triwizard Tournament will take place in the lake. The golden egg the champions received has given them all the same clue that should have pointed them along the path to preparing for their task—rescuing you."
We all started slightly at that. Ron sat up a little bit and Cho and I exchanged glances. The younger Miss Delacour gazed at the rest of us, simply in awe. She looked as if she couldn't believe she was being allowed do this with the big kids. I knew how she was feeling, I used to feel it too when my older brother Darren used to bring his friends over. They seemed so glamorous and clever to me that I was completely star-struck. I gave her a small smile, which she returned. Whatever I felt for her sister I felt a tender protectiveness for her. "Sorry Professor?" Ron said.
"Hostages Mr. Weasley." Karkaroff said very huffily. "We have promised the Champions and you four," he let his poisoned gaze linger a little longer on me, "have been selected."
I glanced at the little girl, who couldn't have possibly been older than eight. "Hostages?" I said. "But…" I wanted to ask if that was fair, if it was legal, if it was sane but I couldn't get myself to quite say it. Not to Professor Dumbledoor.
"It is perfectly safe Miss Scarlet." Dumbledoor said, his eyes twinkling down at me. "I will put all four of you into an enchanted sleep and the Mermaids of the lake will take you down to their village and protect you until your champion comes to free you. If, for some reason, you Champion fails to arrive, they will bring you back to the surface just as good as new." Then he turned and repeated his explanation to Fleur's sister in French.
"Sirène? Vraiment?" She breathed.
"Oui." Dumbledoor assured her.
"Will we remember being in the lake?" Cho asked.
"No, you will be in a dreamless sleep for the duration." Dumbledoor said.
"But we don't have to do it right?" I said very pointedly. "I mean our names didn't come out of the Goblet so aren't bound to play."
"Of course not." Dumbledoor said.
"Does she know that?" I asked, pointing to Fleur's sister.
"She does." Dumbledoor said.
"Sirenes." Fleur's sister sighed again.
My mother insisted I learn at least rudimentary French in my school before Hogwarts so I knew what she was saying was "mermaids" and I smiled at that. I too was excited by the prospect of mermaids, even if I would have to sleep through them.
"So are all of you agreed to go into the lake?" Dumbledoor asked.
There were several glances cast between the three of us (Fleur's sister seemed to have already made up her mind). "Yeah, all right then." Ron said bravely.
"Me too." Cho said.
I had to think about it for a second. I didn't mean to be fussy of cowardly but I was thinking of what Viktor had said to me outside. What had he been trying to tell me? Had he not figured out how to get into the lake? And yet if I didn't go they would simply take on of his friends from Durmstrang. I would just have to trust him to find me. "I'll go too." I said firmly.
Dumbledoor conjured us a fine dinner of sandwiches, crisps, pumpkin juice and cake and we were left alone to eat it in his office. We ate with gusto, knowing it would be our last meal until the next day. Perhaps it was the odd, parental dynamic we all adopted toward Gabrielle, or the isolation from the rest of the school, or the promise imminent f adventure but Cho, Ron and I developed a strangely strong bond. Neither of them spoke any French so it was my job to tell Gabrielle (Fleur's sister) where the lavatory was and ask if she wanted another sandwich or more pumpkin juice. I was glad to note that both Cho and Ron felt much the same way toward her as I did, smiling and reassuring her as best they could. We were all nervous but we never talked about it. Even though she wouldn't have understood us it felt wrong to talk about it in front of her.
Cho and Ron talked a lot about Harry and Cedric and asked a lot about Viktor. I was disappointing on that subject though. They were only interested in him as a Quidditch player and I, knowing nothing about Quidditch, couldn't answer half their questions. "I'll ask him." I kept saying.
When we had eaten our fill Dumbledoor returned to collect us. The chatter that had flowed all through dinner was suddenly dry. We walked down to the banks of the lake in silence. Out on the lake the Durmstrang ship was alight. I knew it would be impossible for him to see me from this distance in the dark but I looked out at it anyway. "I hope this is what you wanted." I said to the lake.
The merpeople met us on the west bank. They were not at all how I expected. They had gray skin and long, wild, green hair. Their faces were ugly but joyful as they waved at us and screeched at Professor Dumbledoor. Around their necks they were broken necklaces of pebbles and bones. Gabrielle pressed herself against my leg in fear. I was just trying to phrase in my mind the sentence, "you can still go back," in French when one of the younger mermaids, who looked to be almost Gabrielle's own age, swam forward and raised her webbed, scaly hand to Gabrielle. In it she was offering a necklace much like her own. She screeched two words.
Gabrielle went and sat on the bank with her, letting the mermaid splash her and show her tricks. "I think one of us should go first." I said to Cho and Ron. "Just so Gabrielle can see she won't be alone."
"And then she should go next." Cho agreed. "So she won't be alone when she goes."
"I'll go first." Ron offered bravely.
Dumbledoor came back to where he had been conversing with what seemed to be the chief merperson. He called Gabrielle back from her new friend. "Who wants to be first?" He asked.
Ron seemed to just go limp the second Dumbledoor muttered his incantation. Cho and I lunged for him and caught him before he fell flat on his back in the mud of the bank. We lugged him to the bank and let him down to the gray hands reaching up for him. Two mermen took Ron by the arm and dived, disappearing down into the inky darkness of the lake. I shivered. It was an eerie sight.
Next Gabrielle went, her blond hair fanning out for just a second before she was pulled below and then Cho next, slipping down and down into the unknown. "See you in a bit." She said, smiling at me. She didn't seem afraid at all. By this time my heart was pounding very hard and I was almost quaking with fear.
"Are you ready Miss Scarlet?" Dumbledoor asked.
"Yes sir." I nodded.
Insane things were coming across my mind. I was glad that I hadn't worn a beloved shirt that day. I was wondering if George and Fred would remember to take my book bag, which I had left in the library, with them when they returned to the dormitory. I was guilty for feeling so much fear but what was mostly on my mind was what Lana would think of my being picked as Viktor's hostage. It was a romantic thing—to be rescued from the lake from him. It was an honor—to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. It was a new level or our relationship —to be selected as the one thing at Hogwarts to be his hostage. Would she even worry for me? Were we so far gone?
"You know Miss Scarlet that standing up to your friends is a far nobler thing than standing up to your enemies." Dumbledoor said. "And you should be commended for it."
And then he must have said the spell because I remembered nothing else.
8888
I was only fifteen when my wisdom teeth came in. It was summer too and I didn't know how to get in touch with a magical doctor so my mother and father took me to my long forgotten dentist. I remember him saying that he was going to put me under, and I remember breathing in the gas but the next thing I remember was being in the car. It wasn't exactly like waking up, because I hadn't exactly been asleep. The only way I can describe it is this: it was like I had been standing on a train platform with the train rushing by me and then suddenly my sleeve had caught on the side and I was jerked along with it. I had existed for those hours but I hadn't had any thoughts.
That is how it felt to wake up in the lake.
The lake water was icy cold and I could feel it like little pin pricks all up and down my legs, which felt weighted in my jeans. I couldn't feel my feet at all, which were numb in my sodden shoes. My shirt had floated up and around my waist was Viktor's arm, which was rough and strong and unbelievably warm in the cold water was keeping me afloat. Amanda would later tell me that Viktor had used partial transformation to breath underwater but by the time I came too his head was returned to normal (good thing too because I would have flipped out if I woke up with a shark in the water).
He looked so handsome and determined with his short hair beaded with water. My body was pressed full flush against him. "Are you okay?" He asked hurriedly. He was brushing my hair out of my face, eager to see that I was okay.
I kissed him softly and slowly and he kissed back. I opened my mouth slightly and he did the same as one hand squeezed my side. It wasn't a passionate kiss but slower, sweeter. I broke apart and realized, for the first time, that everyone in the stands was watching us. And that a huge cheer had gone up. I shook the water from my ears and the sound magnified. I blushed very hard but Viktor simply smirked.
I was still sluggish from the hours in the spell but Viktor kept me afloat until we made it to the bank. He climbed out and then jerked me out of the water by my hand. My waterlogged clothes, which had been baggy in the water, were suddenly clingy and sagging under the weight of the water. He put his arm back around me and kissed me again but Madame Pomfrey swooped in and separated us. She wrapped us both in blankets and sat us down in a little tent on the side and poured up cups of steaming liquid.
"Where are Harry, Cedric and Fleur?" I asked him.
"I do not know." He said.
He was obviously more interested in me than anyone else who may or may not have come out of the lake but I stood up and walked back out of the tent. A little bit down the bank I saw Cho and Cedric, who were snuggled together, and Fleur was also back but Gabrielle was no where to be seen. Roger was with her and looking bored and mad as she sobbed into her hands. Her silver bathing suit was ripped off of one shoulder and she had scratches on her magnificent legs.
She looked so young, so helpless and so like her sister that my heart went out to her. I ran up the bank to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She had given me such a dismissive look the first time she'd seen me but that day there was only hope and despair in her eyes. "Fleur," I said, "Gabrielle will be perfectly fine. The merpeople will bring her up when the last champion come us."
"'Ow do you know?" She asked.
"They told us last night. They never would have let Gabrielle get into that lake if she had been in any danger." I told her firmly. "In a few seconds Harry will come back with Ron and then the merpeople will bring her up."
She flung her arms around my neck. She wept. "Do you really think so?"
I patted her back gently. Two months ago she had been the woman I most hated but that day she was just a girl in distress. She had tossed away the blanket Madame Pomfrey had given her and she her knees were muddy from sitting on the bank but she hadn't noticed. "She will be so happy to see you." I told her. "She said she was so proud of you for competing." It was nonsense that I made up, my French was nowhere near that good, but it didn't seem to matter to her.
"She did?" Fleur asked.
I nodded. "Of course. Who wouldn't be proud to have you as a sister?"
I gave her a couple of sips from my cup of pepper up potion and she stopped crying. Her eyes were still red and her hair was still wild but she was calm. "The merpeople seemed very friendly." Viktor said. He had followed me out of the tent apparently. Later he would tell me that this was a very big lie, that he had been very glad to have a shark's head when he approached them, but like I said, it didn't really matter.
"You saw her? Was she all right?" Fleur asked him.
"She was vith Tennessee and the others." Viktor said. "She vas good."
Over her shoulder Roger winked at me and rubbed her shoulder. Now that she wasn't tossing her hair around and flirting he was about as interested in Fleur as she was in him. And so he had turned to another diversion—tormenting me. Once we had talked Fleur into going back to the medical tent and letting Madame Pomfrey give her a blanket and some pepper up potion of her own (she had finished mine), Roger pulled me aside into one of the chambers of the tent.
"You never cease to amaze me Tennessee." He said. He stood in my sphere of personal space, looming a good half-foot over me.
"That doesn't amaze me." I said snottily. I was mad at him for being so insensitive about Fleur. And yet…my heart was racing slightly and the flesh under where he had put his hand on my arm was tingling.
"Fleur has been nothing but cruel to you. I have been nothing but cruel to you. Lana has been nothing but cruel to you. And yet…" he leaned in very close so his lips were about a quarter inch from mine. I stood, eyes wide, neither leaning in or pulling back. He pulled back and smirked, "you never seem to learn."
I sat down hard on the cot set up in the room and cursed myself. Why hadn't I kneed him in the crotch of slapped him like I should have? The answer was of course that I still harbored feelings for him but why was that? He was right; he had been nothing but cruel to me. And then there was Viktor, who was always so sweet and perfect, and who I really, really liked but somehow never made me feel quite like Roger.
"What the hell am I doing?" I mumbled to myself.
"Tennessee?" It was Viktor, standing in the door the compartment. "Where have you been?"
I smiled. "Oh, just trying to get myself together." I said, which was only about three fourths of a lie.
He came and sat next to me on the cot. "I do not like that Davis boy." He said.
"He is a bit of an ass." I said lightly.
"Do I need to worry about him?" Viktor asked.
I tried to look confused. "No. I don't think so."
Viktor stared at me for a second, looking me right in the eyes. I fought to hold his gaze. "Okay then." He said. Then, "You should drink."
The pepper up potion was still smoking on the nightstand. I took a few sips and felt warmth return to my extremities. We sat there for a while. I had my back against this chest and he had his arm around my waist, like he had in the lake. We didn't talk and the crowd outside was silent. I thought about Ron and little Gabrielle and shivered a little bit.
Then there was a knock on the door and before we could respond in burst Fred, George, Amanda and Jack. "Tennessee that was brilliant!" Fred exclaimed.
"I thought you were dead mate!" George shouted, walloping me on the shoulder. "When you came up from the lake floating all weirdly."
"It was so romantic!" Amanda sighed.
"Glad you're all right Tennessee!"
They were talking all at once, a babble of disjointed sounds that I didn't even bother trying to decipher: their faces told me all I needed to know. Though they were all excited I could still see the pale whiteness from the terror under their flushes. I knew they had all been worried about me and I wanted to hug them all for it. "You were awesome!" Fred repeated.
I laughed. "I didn't do anything actually…" I started to say but they weren't even listening to me anymore—the crowd outside had erupted into screams of joy. We all rushed outside.
"Where's Ron?" George was shouting because for a second none of us could spot them in the lake.
"He's there!" I said, pointing to the middle of the lake where a group of three were treading water. "And he's got Gabrielle with him!"
Down the bank Fleur had shed her modicum of calm was fighting as hard as she could to return to the water but Madame Maxime was holding her back. The two boys pulled the girl to the bank where the three of them were hoisted up into the air and swaddled in blankets. Fred and George broke off from us and went to go make sure that they weren't going to have to write their mum explaining that it wasn't their fault their little brother's toes had fallen off from frostbite. I breathed out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. Another task was over and no one was hurt.
Suddenly, I felt all grown up, old even. I felt so very tired and somber standing on the banks I sagged against Viktor. What were all these adults around us thinking? We were too young for this, much too young. "I'm glad you are all right." I whispered to him.
He looked surprised but just kissed me and let me lean against him as we watched the judges give the marks.
The end
AN: Well it has been a while kids and I apologize for that. Anyway please, please, please tell me what you think of this chapter. Tell me about anything you love or hate. All input is listened too. Seriously, you would be so surprised how far a little constructive criticism goes.