Day Twenty-Three
Everyone is assuming today is a day off from competition, since the reward challenge was yesterday and Tribal Council isn't until tomorrow. But in the late afternoon, the producers tell us that we have to check our mailbox. Sure enough, the immunity challenge is tonight, after dark. This will be the first time we've challenged at night.
Malfoy has been keeping his distance all day, presumably to give me time to think about his comments from yesterday. Although I will occasionally look around and find him watching me, before he quickly turns away. In the lull between dinner and the challenge, I wander over to my usual perch on the rocks to watch the ocean and think about Malfoy.
He seemed to imply that he was only on the Dark side as a spy and a traitor. And that he had somehow chosen to be on that side in order to subvert it from the inside. But if that were the case, does that mean an 11-year-old Malfoy chose to be in Slytherin on purpose, knowing somehow he would be able to bring about the demise of Voldemort? How could that be, since when we were first starting at Hogwarts, nobody knew that Voldemort was still a going concern?
Making the crazy assumption that Malfoy is telling the truth, I have to also assume that he knew Voldemort was still alive. Since his father was practically Voldy's right-hand man, it makes sense that the Malfoy household would have information that nobody else would have. But what on earth would make an 11-year-old boy decide to take down his father's organization from the inside? I have no idea what his childhood was like, but if Malfoy truly put in over ten long years working to overthrow his father's cronies, it must not have been pleasant.
So then, if he was working undercover for our side, there's still the issue that I never heard a single mention of Malfoy's name during the war. And working in intelligence, I was probably more knowledgeable about the participants in the war than most. Almost all of our agents used code names in their communications, but most of their real-life identities were made common knowledge after Voldemort's death.
I'm sitting on my rock, staring out to sea and trying to remember the names of agents whose identities were never revealed... Jester, SilverHawk, Isis... when a shadow falls across my face. I look up to find Pete smirking at me. It's strange how he seems to have taken over the dirty smirk after Malfoy discarded it. It certainly doesn't look as good on Pete's face -- not sexy, not cocky, merely menacing.
"Thinking about your boyfriend, Hermione?" Pete sits next to me, definitely too close for my tastes.
I glance around for a cameraman. One is coming across the beach toward us, but isn't in range yet. Apparently I'd been so boring here by myself that they abandoned filming me. "Pete, I don't want to get into this with you. Obviously you believe something is going on, and I'm getting tired of telling you the truth, that there is NOTHING going on."
"Well, at least after tomorrow, there won't be anything going on." He glances over to make sure the cameraman can't see him yet, then grabs my upper arm and squeezes hard. I barely manage to contain my gasp of pain. "Your little buddy loses tonight, we're voting him out. Tell the other girls he's obviously a threat, because he's strong." My arm is released and suddenly Pete is smiling and friendly, because the camera is now turned on us. "So I'm glad you agree with the plan. Make sure to tell the others who we're voting for, OK?"
I nod and walk away. Pete's threatening behavior has been increasing, but he's always exremely careful to keep it off-camera. I hurry back to camp to find Kiki and discuss the situation with her. Even with my wand, I don't feel entirely safe around Pete, since I'd be afraid to use it except in the most extreme situation, should my non-Muggle status be revealed. Back at camp I find out from Carla that Kiki and a couple of others have gone on a water run.
As I near the water, I can hear voices and laughter. Entering the clearing, I see Chet and Sheryl filling one water jug, and off to the side, Kiki and Malfoy filling the second. Kiki is laughing, apparently at something Malfoy has said, and I feel a hot surge of jealousy. I clear my throat and they both look up at me.
"Hey, speak of the devil," Kiki grins. "Draco was just telling me a little story."
"Now, that was between us, Kiki!" Draco acts put out. He rolls his eyes as Kiki starts telling me the little story anyway.
"Apparently, Hermione, you remind our Draco here of someone he went to school with." I raise one eyebrow at Malfoy. "They were in the same year, but traveled in different circles. She was the smartest girl in school, and Draco had a HUGE crush on her. And you remind him of her! Hermione, you're Draco's secret school crush!" Kiki starts shaking with giggles. I look at Malfoy, and he's staring at me with a quiet, steady calm.
Ugh. I do NOT need this now. I smile sweetly at Draco. "Well then, Draco, maybe you could take your mooning somewhere else? I need to speak to Kiki for a minute. Perhaps you could just admire me from afar for a while." This causes Kiki to giggle even more. Draco looks at me without speaking for a moment, then turns and walks away. I instantly feel guilty for dismissing him so abruptly, but he doesn't know that if he's going to stay in the game, Kiki and I need to strategize.
"Kiki, has Pete talked to you about the next vote?" Her giggles cease almost instantly.
"Um. Well." She looks around to make sure nobody else can hear us. "Yes. He wants Draco to go next, under the pretense that Draco is too strong, and will win too many challenges. But... um..."
"What? He told me about Draco too. But what else?"
"It's just the look he gets when he talks about Draco. Like he wants to rip the guy's head off. But he told me he'd already discussed it with you, and you agreed about taking out Draco."
"That's a lie. He only just spoke to me." I look around again, just to make sure Pete isn't nearby. "Has Pete seemed a little strange to you lately? No matter which old member of Fetia Rai is eliminated tonight, it will give Miti Matai a 5-to-3 advantage. We should probably drop Pete next. We'll still have the advantage, but I'm getting very uncomfortable with him around."
"Yeah." Kiki grabs her water jug. "We should head back, it's almost time to go to the challenge. Let's see what happens tonight, who wins immunity. Frankly, I'd rather see Pete go before Draco any day, but we have to keep our tribe larger than Fetia Rai."
We get back to camp in time to put on warmer clothes, then leave for the challenge site. The darkness and difficulty in navigating the jungle keeps conversation low. When we arrive at the challenge site, Pete shifts around until he's between me and Malfoy. Marcus appears and explains the rules of the game. There are nine different stations around the dark clearing, each with a trivia question about one of the nine remaining players. Each question has four boxes with possible answers painted on them. The box with the right answer contains a bracelet, the others nothing. We're only allowed to open one box. If we answer wrong, we have to move on to another station then come back later and try again. The first person to return to Marcus with nine bracelets will win immunity.
This one will be very easy for myself and Malfoy. We can just spell the boxes to be transparent, revealing the hidden bracelet to our eyes. As we move to the start line, I can finally make eye contact with Malfoy. He raises his eyebrow in a questioning manner. I know what he's asking -- am I on the chopping block? I give him a tight nod. In the flickering firelight of the torches, it looks like surprise in his eyes, and I am again hit with a wave of guilt.
We begin the game. I'm not too concerned with playing hard. Obviously since I let Malfoy know he's next, I must want him to win. I decide not to barrage my psyche with questions of motivation for now, and just concentrate on helping him if I can. He dashes into one of the stations, quickly gets the bracelet, and moves on. I enter the station he just vacated, and take my long, sweet time reading the question and all possible answers in order to keep that station unavailable for anyone else. Marcus is shouting out a running tally of the scores, and by the time he shouts out Malfoy's victory, I've only gathered four out of nine bracelets due to my slow performance.
We gather around as Marcus latches the immunity necklace around Malfoy's neck, then tells us to meet him at Tribal Council tomorrow night. I try to make eye contact with Malfoy, but he turns away from me and heads back to camp. I stand for a moment until I realize that Pete is watching me watch Malfoy. I desperately want to let Malfoy know that the decision to vote him out wasn't mine, but I know that Pete would then make me the next target. Kiki comes up behind me and links her arm in mine, giving my hand a quick squeeze. Tomorrow we'll figure out our next move.
Everyone is assuming today is a day off from competition, since the reward challenge was yesterday and Tribal Council isn't until tomorrow. But in the late afternoon, the producers tell us that we have to check our mailbox. Sure enough, the immunity challenge is tonight, after dark. This will be the first time we've challenged at night.
Malfoy has been keeping his distance all day, presumably to give me time to think about his comments from yesterday. Although I will occasionally look around and find him watching me, before he quickly turns away. In the lull between dinner and the challenge, I wander over to my usual perch on the rocks to watch the ocean and think about Malfoy.
He seemed to imply that he was only on the Dark side as a spy and a traitor. And that he had somehow chosen to be on that side in order to subvert it from the inside. But if that were the case, does that mean an 11-year-old Malfoy chose to be in Slytherin on purpose, knowing somehow he would be able to bring about the demise of Voldemort? How could that be, since when we were first starting at Hogwarts, nobody knew that Voldemort was still a going concern?
Making the crazy assumption that Malfoy is telling the truth, I have to also assume that he knew Voldemort was still alive. Since his father was practically Voldy's right-hand man, it makes sense that the Malfoy household would have information that nobody else would have. But what on earth would make an 11-year-old boy decide to take down his father's organization from the inside? I have no idea what his childhood was like, but if Malfoy truly put in over ten long years working to overthrow his father's cronies, it must not have been pleasant.
So then, if he was working undercover for our side, there's still the issue that I never heard a single mention of Malfoy's name during the war. And working in intelligence, I was probably more knowledgeable about the participants in the war than most. Almost all of our agents used code names in their communications, but most of their real-life identities were made common knowledge after Voldemort's death.
I'm sitting on my rock, staring out to sea and trying to remember the names of agents whose identities were never revealed... Jester, SilverHawk, Isis... when a shadow falls across my face. I look up to find Pete smirking at me. It's strange how he seems to have taken over the dirty smirk after Malfoy discarded it. It certainly doesn't look as good on Pete's face -- not sexy, not cocky, merely menacing.
"Thinking about your boyfriend, Hermione?" Pete sits next to me, definitely too close for my tastes.
I glance around for a cameraman. One is coming across the beach toward us, but isn't in range yet. Apparently I'd been so boring here by myself that they abandoned filming me. "Pete, I don't want to get into this with you. Obviously you believe something is going on, and I'm getting tired of telling you the truth, that there is NOTHING going on."
"Well, at least after tomorrow, there won't be anything going on." He glances over to make sure the cameraman can't see him yet, then grabs my upper arm and squeezes hard. I barely manage to contain my gasp of pain. "Your little buddy loses tonight, we're voting him out. Tell the other girls he's obviously a threat, because he's strong." My arm is released and suddenly Pete is smiling and friendly, because the camera is now turned on us. "So I'm glad you agree with the plan. Make sure to tell the others who we're voting for, OK?"
I nod and walk away. Pete's threatening behavior has been increasing, but he's always exremely careful to keep it off-camera. I hurry back to camp to find Kiki and discuss the situation with her. Even with my wand, I don't feel entirely safe around Pete, since I'd be afraid to use it except in the most extreme situation, should my non-Muggle status be revealed. Back at camp I find out from Carla that Kiki and a couple of others have gone on a water run.
As I near the water, I can hear voices and laughter. Entering the clearing, I see Chet and Sheryl filling one water jug, and off to the side, Kiki and Malfoy filling the second. Kiki is laughing, apparently at something Malfoy has said, and I feel a hot surge of jealousy. I clear my throat and they both look up at me.
"Hey, speak of the devil," Kiki grins. "Draco was just telling me a little story."
"Now, that was between us, Kiki!" Draco acts put out. He rolls his eyes as Kiki starts telling me the little story anyway.
"Apparently, Hermione, you remind our Draco here of someone he went to school with." I raise one eyebrow at Malfoy. "They were in the same year, but traveled in different circles. She was the smartest girl in school, and Draco had a HUGE crush on her. And you remind him of her! Hermione, you're Draco's secret school crush!" Kiki starts shaking with giggles. I look at Malfoy, and he's staring at me with a quiet, steady calm.
Ugh. I do NOT need this now. I smile sweetly at Draco. "Well then, Draco, maybe you could take your mooning somewhere else? I need to speak to Kiki for a minute. Perhaps you could just admire me from afar for a while." This causes Kiki to giggle even more. Draco looks at me without speaking for a moment, then turns and walks away. I instantly feel guilty for dismissing him so abruptly, but he doesn't know that if he's going to stay in the game, Kiki and I need to strategize.
"Kiki, has Pete talked to you about the next vote?" Her giggles cease almost instantly.
"Um. Well." She looks around to make sure nobody else can hear us. "Yes. He wants Draco to go next, under the pretense that Draco is too strong, and will win too many challenges. But... um..."
"What? He told me about Draco too. But what else?"
"It's just the look he gets when he talks about Draco. Like he wants to rip the guy's head off. But he told me he'd already discussed it with you, and you agreed about taking out Draco."
"That's a lie. He only just spoke to me." I look around again, just to make sure Pete isn't nearby. "Has Pete seemed a little strange to you lately? No matter which old member of Fetia Rai is eliminated tonight, it will give Miti Matai a 5-to-3 advantage. We should probably drop Pete next. We'll still have the advantage, but I'm getting very uncomfortable with him around."
"Yeah." Kiki grabs her water jug. "We should head back, it's almost time to go to the challenge. Let's see what happens tonight, who wins immunity. Frankly, I'd rather see Pete go before Draco any day, but we have to keep our tribe larger than Fetia Rai."
We get back to camp in time to put on warmer clothes, then leave for the challenge site. The darkness and difficulty in navigating the jungle keeps conversation low. When we arrive at the challenge site, Pete shifts around until he's between me and Malfoy. Marcus appears and explains the rules of the game. There are nine different stations around the dark clearing, each with a trivia question about one of the nine remaining players. Each question has four boxes with possible answers painted on them. The box with the right answer contains a bracelet, the others nothing. We're only allowed to open one box. If we answer wrong, we have to move on to another station then come back later and try again. The first person to return to Marcus with nine bracelets will win immunity.
This one will be very easy for myself and Malfoy. We can just spell the boxes to be transparent, revealing the hidden bracelet to our eyes. As we move to the start line, I can finally make eye contact with Malfoy. He raises his eyebrow in a questioning manner. I know what he's asking -- am I on the chopping block? I give him a tight nod. In the flickering firelight of the torches, it looks like surprise in his eyes, and I am again hit with a wave of guilt.
We begin the game. I'm not too concerned with playing hard. Obviously since I let Malfoy know he's next, I must want him to win. I decide not to barrage my psyche with questions of motivation for now, and just concentrate on helping him if I can. He dashes into one of the stations, quickly gets the bracelet, and moves on. I enter the station he just vacated, and take my long, sweet time reading the question and all possible answers in order to keep that station unavailable for anyone else. Marcus is shouting out a running tally of the scores, and by the time he shouts out Malfoy's victory, I've only gathered four out of nine bracelets due to my slow performance.
We gather around as Marcus latches the immunity necklace around Malfoy's neck, then tells us to meet him at Tribal Council tomorrow night. I try to make eye contact with Malfoy, but he turns away from me and heads back to camp. I stand for a moment until I realize that Pete is watching me watch Malfoy. I desperately want to let Malfoy know that the decision to vote him out wasn't mine, but I know that Pete would then make me the next target. Kiki comes up behind me and links her arm in mine, giving my hand a quick squeeze. Tomorrow we'll figure out our next move.