AN: I still own nothing, but I'm certainly happy you seemed to appreciate the duel. I hope it wasn't too unbalanced (considering both Chandra's and Pansy's skillsets and backgrounds).
CHAPTER 15 - Back from the brink
Pansy awoke an unknown amount of time later to a stinging sensation in her right arm. She opened her eyes to look it up, but found to her dismay that she could actually move and use only the left one. What she saw though made her cringe: she was in the infirmary, laying on a bed, with her right arm done up in bloody bandages soaked in some foul smelling potion. Moreover, judging by the light it was well past curfew.
She raised her left hand to check on her eye when a voice stopped her.
"I wouldn't do that," said the obviously female voice "You're in a right sorry state now, touching your eye might... Well, there's little left to damage there actually."
She turned her head to see the woman often accompanying Potter, the one with the golden tiara, sitting on the bed next to hers and reading a tome of some kind. The fact that she was doing so with only the starlight filtering from the windows was apparently of no consequence to her.
"What do you mean?" asked Pansy feeling dread mounting in the pit of her stomach.
She didn't wait for an answer, she moved her left hand and placed it on her right eye, but felt nothing beneath the bandages. She had lost her eye. She felt the sting of tears pooling up.
"Now now, there's no need to cry," said the woman closing her book.
Purple, unnaturally luminous eyes bore into Pansy's only one as her skin lit up with what looked like a massive runic array, casting an eerie glow on the room.
"I'll ask one question to you, only one, only once. If you answer," stated the woman bringing up a hand to show she was holding an eye "I'll provide compensation your local healer is reticent in giving. Fail to answer and you'll stay disfigured. Now, why did you challenge Chandra? Hermione says you're not stupid, and you saw my companion in the arena with the dragon. Why face a superior opponent then?"
Pansy's mind raced, just like her heart. On the one hand she shouldn't tell, on the other the woman was holding an eye as if it was normal, it spoke volumes of how dangerous she was.
"I…" started saying the witch, only to be stopped by the other.
"Think a bit on it, Parkinson," said the woman twirling the eye between her fingers as one would juggle a marble "I'm no selfless Samite healer, you've got only one chance."
Pansy paused. She had no guarantee that Draco and his father would keep their betrothal standing after her defeat, and with one less eye it was sure she wouldn't find a husband unless she begged the likes of Vincent and Gregory. She had no guarantee of getting her eye back either.
She decided to voice her concerns on this last topic.
"I guess asking you to trust me like that would be too much..." admitted the woma, tapping her free index on her chin in a pensive manner and looking upwards before focusing back on the girl "Very well, I'll restore the eye first, then you'll give me what I ask or you'll discover why you don't mess with Liliana Vess."
That said she got up and snapped the fingers of her free hand. Pansy felt her good arm and her head seized up by strong hands far too thin and cold to be human. Two other hands that looked made out of pure darkness tore the bandages off her eye and blocked her mouth. Without much ado, Vess grasped the eye, took aim and slammed it in place, the gesture followed by her runes flaring up for an instant.
Pansy felt an intense pain, far more intense than anything she had ever experienced and screamed despite the hand keeping her mouth shut, but as soon as Vess' hand left her face she could see once again.
"Now," said the woman sitting back and snapping her fingers again "Time to talk."
The cold grasp keeping her in place let her go and she fell back heavily on her bed, panting as if she had run from the common room to the top of astronomy tower.
She took a minute to compose herself and think things through once again. It didn't seem to bother the woman too much.
"It was Draco's idea," Pansy said staring at the ceiling as if mesmerized by it "He was planning on doing it himself, I just acted to salvage his plan. I would have faced Potter and forced her to show her hand. I honestly thought we were more evenly matched than that."
"Very good Parkinson, very good. One last thing, why would your boytoy risk his perfectly coiffed head to force Chandra to, as you say, show her hand? Who cares?"
This was the turning point. Pansy knew she could feign ignorance, the eye was paid for after all. There was no real reason to say anything more. It would most certainly be her undoing if anybody got wind of her talking.
"It was Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy," she said, hoping to be able to pull one over Vess, who didn't look exactly impressed.
"Very well," finally said the woman getting up and gathering her book "If you feel the need to add anything, you know where to look."
And with that, she turned around and, made to leave. She paused a second to add:
"Oh, and try not spilling the beans on who gave you that eye. The consequences would be… Dire."
It was only the following day that Pansy learned how Vess had pulled one over her: the eye, despite functioning, had a sickly yellow iris and looked to be terribly ill or old. It was only her crippling fear of the woman's last warning that stilled her mouth and hand.
New year came and went with much excitement for many at Hogwarts but not for Chandra and her group. It wasn't that they hated the festivity or anything, it was just a grim reminder of time passing. January brought along a wave of cold and biting wind and the return to routine for all the castle occupants. Only two notable events occurred.
The first was that Chandra, following a lead that the others had defined fruitless, found a way to face the second task. She had remembered hearing from Nissa that explorers on Zendikar, when no merfolk was on hand, used a plant to breathe underwater because biting on it released the oxygen it had stored. Her first instinct had been asking someone to procure some of that plant, but instead she decided to try a local option and went to the herbology professor, asking if a similar plant existed on Earth. When the woman refused adducing the turnament rules, the redhead knew she was on to something and asked Hermione and Fleur. All that was left after that was buying some Gillyweed via owl. Moreover, Liliana came to them a couple of days later claiming to have solved Chandra's need of defence underwater, but that it would be prudent to implement it closer to the task; unfortunately, in Jace's favoured cryptic manner, the necromancer said nothing more on the subject.
The second event that caused a stirring in all the castle was the return of one Ronald Weasley.
"Who?" asked Chandra staring at the trio of redheads embracing near the doors.
"A git, that's who," bit back Hermione trying to emulate a gorgon's gaze.
"Wasn't 'e ze little boy arrested for using ze dark mark?" asked Fleur, who had become a fixture of their group due to her relationship with Liliana.
"He is," replied the English witch in a tone that expressed what she thought of him "Got sent to Azkaban for that, but got released before time for good behaviour and, apparently, spent the last month recovering. I would have preferred him staying there."
"I sense no love lost between the two of you," commented Chandra humming, a spoonful of scrambled eggs halfway to her mouth.
"For some reason he was of the idea that I would do his homework despite the insults and the belittling he dished out daily, and when I refused he kept singling me out. He's just as bad as Malfoy."
"I already told you: you have to stand up for yourself, didn't I?" said the redhead shrugging and resuming her breakfast "Otherwise bullies will never leave you alone."
"I know, I know..." sighed Hermione crossing her arms on the table and resting her chin on them.
Her pet phoenix hopped closer and started rubbing its head on her cheek.
"Let's just see how it goes, ok?" suggested Liliana "Maybe prison did him good. Otherwise, we can just silence him."
Ronald Weasley succeeded in keeping his foot out of his mouth for a grand total of two days, during which he soaked being the center of attention for having been to Azkaban. Professor Lupin even used him as first hand witness for a class on dementors. Once most students had heard of his harrowing tale and weren't interested in talking to him, he went back to being the way he had been before.
One thing that essentially nobody knew of Ron was that he was very observant, he had to be to hold reserve keeper position for the Gryffindor quidditch team and to be as good as he was at chess. He simply never acted on those observations outside those two fields or the dinner table, but that was his choice too.
What he did notice though –and considering where he had spent the previous months it was perfectly understandable– was that many girls had matured in cute young women. He consequently decided that it was high time he did his mother proud and found himself a good reputable girlfriend since none of his older brothers looked to be interested in doing so. The problem was that no Gryffindor girl –for where else was he to look? Everybody knew that the Ravens were braniacs, the Puffs were a bunch of lesbians, and the Snakes were dark witches in training– would tolerate his presence for more than two minutes except the chaser trio who he knew were interested in Fred, George and Wood so no deal. He knew his mother disliked French women for some reason, so the cute Beauxbatons contingent was out as well. The Durmstrang contingent shared a table with the Snakes, so they were all obviously dark except Krum of course: he was too awesome for that. This left exactly two women, one of whom was dating the French champion.
This was the reasoning that brought him to sit in front of Rose Potter one morning at lunch and give her his best pick-up line.
"Hey there, sweet cheeks," said a male voice Chandra did not recognize from in front of her "This weekend is a Hogsmeade weekend, want to go together?"
The pyromancer looked up from her scrambled eggs and bacon to see a lanky Gryffindor boy with hair as red as hers and a face full of freckles, so much that he could have been her long lost brother if she had ever had one. He was giving her a small grin and an half-lidded look that made him look decidedly stupid but that he probably thought very seductive. It was one of the rare moments she was alone, and after a long, sleepless night spent listening to Fleur's squeals she was in a decidedly bad mood. The normal castle residents had felt that –hard not to since her hair was smoking– and had chosen to a give her a wide berth. The guy in front of her hadn't, evidently, been so wise.
She took a moment to think if it was better to send the guy scurrying before she ignited the scene or viceversa. Meanwhile, she kept her glare trained on the boy, who seemed unable to get the message by eye contact alone.
"Ok, it's going to be a long day already so I'm going to be diplomatic and give you one chance," she finally said sighing "Who are you and what do you want?"
Or that's what she had planned to ask; instead, the boy got up saying he'd see her on Saturday as soon as he had heard the first phrase, leaving a slightly interjected Chandra behind. Deciding that going after the boy to disabuse him of his illusions that come the weekend would shatter anyway was too much work, she shrugged and went back to eating.
Later that same day, Chandra and Fleur had gathered their fellow champions into one unused classroom to discuss strategy.
"Ok, here's the thing," said the redhead sitting on a dusty desk "The idiots that pitted us against dragons want to take something or someone important to us and place it in the lakebed for us to retrieve. I'm not pleased with that."
"Nor am I," added Fleur "And since ze two of us are at disadvantage down zere, we decided to join forces."
"There is no point in competing anyway, since none of us is scored fairly and I didn't want to be part of this. So, do you want in?"
"Vhat do ve get from this? I can do this alone!" protested Krum scowling.
"I admit that dragon came a bit too close to roasting me... I'll join you two," said Cedric nodding "And you should too, Victor. The Black Lake is home to some vicious creatures."
"But vhat of the fame and money?"
"You're famous already, no? I personally care nothing of either, so you can just share everything equally as I see it," suggested Chandra, her eyes trailing a falling speck of dust.
The Bulgarian champion took a minute to ponder his options before answering.
"Very vell, a joint effort be it," he acquiesced "The tournament is meant to foster cooperation after all."
"Good," said the English champion smiling "Let's talk strategy then. I'm going to use the bubblehead charm and swim my way to the merrow village since I guess that whatever they'll take will be there. And remember warming charms, the lake is freezing cold."
"Liliana is providing defense means for me and Fleur, I'm not sure what exactly. Both of us are using Gillyweed, but Fleur is ready with bubblehead too if need arises. I can provide warmth and light."
"I vill transfigure myself into a shark, but I'm not sure hov vell that vill vork... Bubblehead charm is a fallback plan."
"What worries me now," said Fleur sounding decidedly scared "Is who zey're going to take."
"Vho? The clue spoke of vhat ve'll sorely miss," said Krum suddenly sounding less than confident "Right?"
"I'm friend with a merfolk girl. She said it can mean both a person or a thing in mermish," explained Chandra placing a hand on his shoulder in a reassuring gesture "That's one of the reasons for this collaboration. They might not be able to use my family, but yours might end up in danger and I won't stand for that!"
"My little sister is visiting me," said Fleur visibly worried "I'm sure zey'll try using her or Liliana... I have nothing so personal to take in zeir place."
"They'll take Cho then," said Cedric nodding his head, a grave expression on his face "My father is ill, it's too dangerous to place him in the lake in February. The Ministry won't endanger a wealthy, well connected pureblood like that. Cho has no such strings attached."
"I'm not very close to anybody in Durmstrang, none of the delegation at least," muttered the Bulgarian visibly displeased "Luna and Herrmyoninni are my only friend here."
"They'll take my goggles if they know what's good for them," said Chandra pointing at said accessory "Liliana and Ajani are the only two of my friends and family they can reach, and I don't see Liliana going quietly. Not that we're that close either... Hermione maybe?"
She concluded with a shrug, as if it explained everything.
"It doesn't matter vho they'll take, ve'll save them all the same. Our teamvork vill save them," stated Krum breaking the somber mood.
"Victor is right," said Cedric clasping his fellow male champion on the back "We'll save all the hostages anyway, even if they force us to compete or if one of us gets incapacitated."
The four nodded in grim determination.
"Albus, are you sure it's a good idea?" asked McGonagall looking worriedly at her old friend and colleague "Living hostages?"
"My hands are tied Minerva," said the old man sighing "The Ministry is out for Chandra's blood, as they say, after the first task, and this grants a good spectacle in their opinion. The fact that Karkaroff supports them and they succeeded in convincing Madame Maxime has tied our hands. was pretty enraged too."
"Tell me at least there are going to be safeguards in place," begged the deputy headmistress.
"Fortunately, me and secured the right to set the protections for the hostages," he said conceding himself a small smile "I've already advised the merrow chieftain of the consequences of hurting any hostage through action or inaction."
"Let us be thankful for small graces then," muttered the old witch "Who are they going to be?"
Dumbledore sighed again.