About ten days after the weighing of the wands, Rita Skeeter's article had come out. "Viktor, read this," Vlad said, he and Katerina had long ago stopped trying to speak in English; they admitted that they were about as unintelligible as Viktor.
Viktor picked up the paper and scanned the article. He found his name on the very last page, spelt, 'Victor Crum.' He laughed and handed the paper back to Vlad. "You didn't read it," Vlad stated sharply. "You need to read it."
"Fine," Viktor stated and read the article. It was more a biography of Harry's life and Viktor assumed that more than half of it was false. Viktor had dealt with Rita Skeeter before and knew how she would twist what one did or didn't say to make a story. He quickly read the part where Rita hinted at relationship between Harry and Hermione.
He handed the paper back to Vlad, "You can't believe half of what Skeeter writes." Vlad nodded and exited the room.
The article had not deterred him in his mission and he returned to the library everyday in hopes that he would soon gain enough courage to talk to Hermione. The weekend of the Hogsmeade trip drew ever closer and Viktor still could not bring his courage up. The day of the trip he spent in his room on the ship, he really didn't want to see his fan club again.
Vlad and Katerina had went and brought him back some sweets and a couple joke items. "You could throw them into Karkaroff's cabin one day," Vlad suggested as Viktor examined the package of Dungbombs they had brought him.
He laughed as an image of Karkaroff jumping from the porthole in his suit into the lake because of the smell entered Viktor's mind. He spent the rest of the day speculating with Katerina and Vlad what the challenge could possibly be. Katerina definitely had the best idea, she said it would take real bravery for someone to walk around the school naked and then fight a Manticore. Together they had come up with some rather extreme theories: Tackling a troll, fighting a dragon, braving the Cruciatus Curse without going insane or trying to knock out a giant.
They had laughed and joked about the tournament, but Viktor had soon become extremely nervous in face of this unknown danger.
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At two o'clock in the morning Viktor was awoken by a hiss in his ear. Karkaroff was standing by his bed. "Get up," he barked.
Viktor nodded, got up and followed Karkaroff to his cabin. The door snapped shut behind them and Karkaroff looked sharply at Viktor. "Dragons," Karkaroff snapped. "You have to get past dragons for your first task."
"Sir, forgive me, but I do no think that you should be telling me this," Viktor stated.
Karkaroff brushed his comment aside, "So you must figure out a way to get past the dragon. I know-"
"Sir, please," Viktor injected, "I wish to figure this out for myself."
"Nonsense Viktor, you want to win, don't you?" Viktor nodded mutely. "Very good, then, as I was saying-"
"Sir, I truly wish to decide a plan on my own," Viktor interrupted again. "If by the night before the task I do not have a plan I will gladly take your advice."
"Very well," Karkaroff resigned dejectedly.
Viktor bowed hi head and left the cabin. He felt as if he couldn't sleep so instead he gathered him books and went to the common room.
He sifted through them for about an hour when he came across a section in a book he had borrowed from Katerina. It was a small section on spells to divert a dragon's attention. The first few spells were rather difficult, way past his expertise. He found the Conjunctivitis Curse at the end of the page, it was recommended only for those that wished to quickly disable a dragon so that they could get away.
He snapped the book shut and looked around the common room. It was still empty and the sun had just breached through the horizon. His eyelids felt heavy and he resigned himself to his bed feeling confident of the task at hand.
Sorry for the lack of action, but I'm trying to keep to the book and am finding that more difficult than I expected. The next chapter will have him takling the dragon. Ciao.
