Okay, this was going well, Astoria thought, all attempts to be sneaky abandoned as she stood in the midst of the trees between the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang camps, face to flames with a bloody inferno.
Why is the forest on fire?!
More importantly, why is the forest on fire between me and the other flag?! That was just not fair!
She couldn't see through it to the other side. If she could, she might try surrounding herself with one of those elemental shields Cassie had been teaching their class and making a run for it, but she was going to have to go around.
Which meant she was going to have to take a minute or two and try to figure out how to get around. She retreated a good way before kneeling to meditate on the music playing at the back of her mind, like a song stuck in her head — not annoyingly repetitive, but just there when she wasn't thinking about anything else.
The very first thing she noticed was that there was definitely more of a sense of danger now than when they'd started, a sort of tension fighting with the mad, impulsive, can't wait, must do something energy Lyra had brought to the music. Though she'd calmed down some, now that she actually was doing something.
Oh. That must be what Healer was so angry about.
Lyra and Arte were helping each other now, because, judging by the bodies around them, about a third of the Durmstrang team had attacked both of them. And the Durmstrangers who were dancing with Enyo abandoned her to shoot over toward the Beauxbatons camp, they must've decided not to wait until Hogwarts was taken care of to turn on their erstwhile allies. (Clearly, Healer was upset because Beauxbatons had waited too long to do exactly the same thing.)
There were only three people at Durmstrang's base now, and again, the Twins weren't really focusing on them (because nothing was happening over there, which was good, but made this spying thing not work quite so well). Two of them were working together on something — probably the weather-witch and wind-scrier Lyra had heard were going to be handling their communications — and one was patrolling the perimeter of the wards they'd set up...which would be a big enough problem, but he was patrolling along with half a dozen dog-constructs, which was just double unfair!
She was going to need a distraction. There was nothing else for it. It looked like the only people out here at the moment were Harry and Cedric and Lyra...and Cedric was on the other side of the fire and on the ground, which was no good, and obviously Harry and Lyra were both busy. But everyone was attacking Beauxbatons at the moment, so maybe Hermione could spare a couple of people?
(Waiting for a distraction from Fort Hogwarts would probably be more annoying if she didn't need to go almost all the way back there to reach a more open, rockier area and get around the freaking forest fire, what the hell?! anyway.)
But how to request such a distraction...?
Oh, wait, that would work. It wasn't as though either of the other teams had some way to communicate with the Outside. She thought the veela were using telepathy somehow, but she also thought their range was rather limited. They'd've known to change their plans and go straight for Durmstrang instead of fire-walking into the Fort if they'd known what they were getting into there.
She'd passed an elf not long ago, sitting on a flying carpet and recording the spread of the fire. He hadn't noticed her. She'd been careful not to get anywhere in his recording, because she was pretty sure she would show up on omnioculars. She wasn't invisible, just deflecting attention from herself — the magic wouldn't be recorded and projected, so the audience would see her. And she'd wanted to be so sneaky even the audience didn't know how she'd switched the flags, but if she didn't manage to get a distraction she wouldn't be able to get the second flag at all. That was more important.
She sighed, leaning against a tree out in the open and dropping the magic. "Hello!" The elf spun its carpet to look at her, eyes wide (as only elf-eyes could be) with surprise. "Yes, you, on the carpet. Hi!"
"Does little miss have a question for Podley?" he asked.
Oh! She'd thought he looked familiar — Podley was one of the elves who kept an eye on the Slytherin dorms. "No, I just wanted to say a few words to some of my friends while I'm here. Would you mind recording me for a minute?"
The elf gave her a fond, slightly exasperated grin, but pointed the omnioculars obligingly at Tori. "Podley is recording."
"Hi, everyone!" She gave the audience a jaunty wave, followed by a phrase she'd heard on muggle radio now and again, when people telephoned in. "I just wanted to make a shout-out to my sister — hi, Daphne! — and my parents and cousins out there in the audience and Blaise and Mira because they're practically family too, and Gabbie because she's great, and Professor Snape because he's too serious all the time, and Cari and Mandy and Ria — yes, this is what I've been so sneaky about the last few days, I'm on the Hogwarts Team, how cool is that!" That should be enough time to have everyone's attention, she thought. "And Fred and George and Maïa, I could use a diversion at Durmstrang, please and thank-you!" She gave the elf — whose expression shifted from exasperated to confused and then almost immediately to annoyed — a brilliant grin, throwing a wink at the audience just for good measure before he turned the omnioculars away from her.
"Podley did not agree to help Miss in the game!" he snapped, glowering.
"You didn't help me, we — the Hogwarts Team — took advantage of the mechanics of the arena, and I tricked you. That's not cheating, it's fine." The elf did not stop glowering at her. She gave a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry I tricked you. It was wrong of me and I won't do it again, even though I definitely didn't lie, and I'm sure no one could possibly think you helped me on purpose."
He harrumphed, which was...probably progress? (Elves could be hard to read and hated being tricked even more than humans, even when it was a fair trick and not just humans lying because humans.)
Even if it wasn't, she didn't really have time to stand around trying to placate him. "And I give you my word I won't trick any of the other elves the same way, either. But I really do have to go. I have a diversion to meet up with, you see."
She slipped behind a tree, wrapping magic around herself again as soon as she was out of sight, and darting off toward the Fort as quickly as possible. It wouldn't do for the distraction to get too far ahead of her, after all.