Chapter Four: No One Misses a Mime
"I'm going for it."
That's Cedric on Thursday. The day before the "delegations" arrive. As prefects, we are supposed to be helping the staff set up the decorations. I'm helping Cedric put up the house banners. Otherwise I'd have to work with Perfect Prefect Benjamin. Ew. There are four of them --banners, I mean-- one for each house. Red with a gold lion for Gryffindor. Rawr. Blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw. Yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff. Green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Another banner is put up behind the teachers table with the school crest on it.
"For what?" I ask, adjusting the tassels on one of the banners.
"Hogwarts Champion," Cedric says. "I'm going to enter the tournament."
Wow. I've heard along the line of gossip that he was talking about entering, but I didn't think it was true. Since when do people willingly enter a tournament where people have died? Then again, the thousand galleons in prize money must be a great compensation for losing an arm or something equally disgusting. And it will look good on his résumé.
Everything would look great on Cedric's résumé. If he has one.
"Cho thinks it's great that I'm entering," Cedric continues. "She says that she hopes I get it."
I freeze. Cho? As in Cho Chang? Are they dating? Words want to tumble out of my mouth. I try to compose myself. "Hmm," is all I say.
"You know Cho, right?" he asks. "She in your year I think."
My next words are strained. "I've met her a time or two."
"She's really nice."
I shrug. "I guess."
Cedric falls into a thoughtful silence. Probably thinking about Cho. God, thinking about Cho makes me mad. What does he see in her? She won't even talk to me, her best friend for over four years. Who would want to date that? But Cedric doesn't know about Cho or what happened. Something at the pit of my stomach claws at my insides.
Oh shut up.
-----
Trina is in the bathroom when I walk in. No, scratch that. Kat is in the bathroom when I walk in. She refuses to go by Trina anymore. That is so last year. She believes that going by Kat will make her seem more mature. I think it makes her seem even dumber. What was it that we were reading in Muggle Studies? Romeo and Juliet. A rose by any other name will smell as sweet. Maybe Trina/Kat should listen more instead of drawing all over her sneakers. Her brain cells may begin to function again.
I hold my contacts up as a way of explanation. She grunts something inaudible and goes back to applying her lip gloss. I'd hate to be near her when it was sunny outside. She'd probably blind me. I consider bolting back down the hall, but McGonagall is walking down the corridor and I forgot to turn in my essay on The Disadvantages of Inanimate vs. Animate spells. Or attend her class. I'll put up with the Hairy Eyeball.
After a minute, I can't stand it. You should say something, a voice inside of my head tells me. She was one of your friends last year. That's just the point, I think. Was my friend. Just say something. You'll regret later that you didn't say something. I poke myself in the eye with my contact.
"Ouch," I say. Cool as an iceberg, Tacey. Good going.
Kat snickers. She smacks her lips together, admiring herself from all angles. I try again.
"How was your summer?" I ask.
She jerks her shoulders in a non-committal sort of way. I'm just a fly to her. A small insignificant fly. She waves hand, as if attempting to swat me away. "Ciao."
I've been dropped like the last Weird Sister's single. I rub my eye and put my contacts in. I think I'll wear my glasses from now on. I'm getting tired of this.
I seriously need a friend. Not a serious friend. One that I can pretend to like. I could pull it off. I'm a good actor. If I wanted to drop out, I could be a mime. I'm quiet like one. I can pretend I'm in a box. My name could be up in lights. TACEY SNAPE: THE FREAK AMONG FREAKS. I would sell out places everywhere I go. People would try to get me to talk. But I'll just give them a razzle dazzle smile and they'd leave me alone. And wouldn't care one bit. Because mimes are supposed to be silent.
All this planning is making me sleepy. When I leave the bathroom, I go to my hole-in-the-wall and take a nap during lunch. Nobody will miss me. Nobody ever misses a mime.
-----
Marietta Edgecomb corners me after Potions, right off the side of the Entrance Hall. She wants to know what the hell I was doing with Cedric this morning. I try to explain, but the words get stuck somewhere along the way. She laughs and says that he's seeing Cho and that he wouldn't want to date a freak like me. I'm a nobody and who would want to date someone that everybody hates?
I bite my lip even harder. A small trickle of blood seeps down my chin. I wipe it away, hoping that Marietta doesn't see. She does. She looks at me disgustedly.
"You really are a freak, you know that?" she says. "Well, nobody likes you. Not even Cedric. He only puts up with you because of Snape. We all do. You're pathetic and if you had any common sense, you'd go off somewhere and die."
Something inside of me snaps. I don't know what it is. Maybe it was the fact that I knew that what she was saying was true. They all do hate me. If my father wasn't feared and hated by most of the school's population, I would have probably dropped out by now.
Anyway, I snap and lunge at Marietta and she shrieks. I try to punch at every part of her that I can reach. Punch punch bite bite pull pull. People hear the commotion and find me pulling her hair. A teacher has to break us up. It's Moody. I know I'm in trouble now, but I don't care. I've left my mark on Marietta. Her nose is bleeding. Probably broken. Not so pretty now, is she? I smile and wipe my mouth.
She is furious. "You mitch!" she screams at me. "I'll get you mack for dis! You mroke my effing nose!" I can still hear her shrieks as Moody drags me up the marble staircase. Both of his eyes are bulging out of their sockets. He's really ticked off. He gets me to his office and yells at me for several minutes while I study the ceiling.
"I've been alive for along time and I know when someone is a troublemaker," he tells me. "It's in the eyes." He points to his good eye, the brown one. "I've given you all the chances that I'm going to. Fifty points from Ravenclaw and a week's detention. My choice. And be lucky it isn't more!"
-----
People glare at me all through the day on Friday. Marietta is obviously very popular. As I'm walking to Muggle Studies, somebody pulls my stuff out of my hands and splits my bag. I try not to think about it too much. It has to blow over soon. Doesn't it?
Muggle Studies is unbearable. You would think that I wouldn't get as many evil looks from the back of the room, but somehow they manage. It's a good thing that looks can't kill. I'd be pushing up daisies at the moment. We have moved on from Romeo and Juliet to Julius Cesar. Professor Donovan is making us each of us read it out loud. It's really dull until we get to the part where he dies. William Shakespeare has a lot of death in his stories. You would think that people would stop coming to see his plays, but they haven't. Dramatized death is very cool. We don't get through the whole story, though. We have about five pages left. We have to stop because the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are to arrive soon. Students are supposed to drop their stuff off in their dormitories and meet in the Entrance Hall. I want to go to my closet and take a nap but I line up with the other fifth years.
It's very cold outside. I can almost see my breath. I pretend to blow cigarette smoke at people. Those who see me try to move away. Don't want to catch my stupid. I hope the delegations hurry up. I'm getting hungry.
"Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons has arrived," Dumbledore says from behind us.
I don't see anything. People are staring around, trying to see them. Maybe they're invisible. I need to ask them how they do that. It would come in handy.
"There!" Several people point at a dot looming in the distance. Others try to guess what it could be. Brooms, dragon, a flying house. No imagination whatsoever. Could this be more boring? If Binns were commentating maybe...
I giggle. People don't glare at me this time because they're focusing on the huge horse-drawn carriage that lands with a loud crash. I can see a Gryffindor jump back on Sterope James's foot. I hope he crushes her toes. Stupid git.
Some boy in blue robes jumps out of the carriage and pulls down small steps. I wonder if he's the school's whipping boy while they're here. That would suck for him. People all around gasp as this huge gigantic woman steps out of the carriage. She has to be about the size of Hagrid. There's no way she can't be.
Dumbledore starts clapping for her and we follow suit. I think many of them are staring at the woman --Madame Maxime, Dumbledore says-- or the dozen or so students behind her. They're all nice looking. I can practically hear the older students sigh with relief. Losers. I hope the Beauxbatons students are boring as hell.
This is getting really boring. I could be taking a nap in my closet right now. Or working on one of Donovan's poems. He gave me an A for effort on my last one, entitled "Life Sucks, Get Over It." I though it deserved an O.
It takes me a moment to realize that everyone is staring at the lake. I stare at it too. A whirlpool forms somewhere in the middle and a ship emerges. Now how did they manage that? Muggles would be trying to figure it out for ages. Dumbledore greets this headmaster too. He looks too stupid to be a headmaster. He keeps twirling his stupid little goatee like he was really hot stuff. Hot as a snowman.
I take my time getting back into the Great Hall. I don't think I'm really up to this whole tournament. The crowds, the cheerfulness. I can't stand it. And you know everyone will be talking if I don't show up. I just want take a nap until this tournament is over. I slip into a seat by Kinkajou and try to pay attention to what Dumbledore is saying. It's really hard too. I can hear people whispering behind me. Probably filling the others in about me. Word gets around fast doesn't it?
"Hi!" a girl sits down next to me. "I'm Marie!" She has a really chirpy voice, like a bird. A really annoying one.
"Tacey," I mummer. I look down at my feet and notice her shoes. They're really nice ones for someone who had to travel across the English Channel. They are black with shiny sequins all over them forming stars.. They hurt my eyes just to look at them. "Nice shoes."
Marie smiles. "Oh thanks. I got them on sale at this really nice store in Paris. My mother didn't want me to get them because she said they clashed horribly with most of my clothes but I simply just had to have them. I think of them as my good luck charms. Do you have a good luck charm? You really should. They help me out. I wore them on the day when Madame was picking out student to come here and she chose me. Isn't that great! I've always wanted to come to England but we never had the time or the money but this tournament is a great opportunity for me. I've been working so hard on my English, so I can make a good impression. Isn't it good? Oh, I hope I'm chosen as champion. That would be so wonderful. Are you going to enter?"
She says all of this really fast. Like it's a race to speak. Kinkajou looks at me funny. I'm dazed. "N-no," I stutter. "I-I turn sixteen in June."
"Oh, well, that's too bad. I would say that maybe next time but you'll be out of school by then." Marie smiles at me apologetically. "Wish me luck though!"
I nod before turning my attention back to Dumbledore. I hope she doesn't get it. That would be embarrassing that would
"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," Dumbledore says. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!" He sits down and the gold plates are once again filled with food. There's a lot of foreign stuff that looks disgusting. I can't believe they actually eat this stuff in France. I grab a piece of meat, mashed potatoes, and a cookie. The perfect meal. I could live on that stuff alone. Marie tries to get me to eat some of her favorite foods, but I refuse. She gives up and goes back to her French cuisine.
Unfortunately, the meal had to end and I am left to listen to the boring official stuff concerning the tournament. Honestly, couldn't they allow those that don't give a damn about the stupid tournament leave? I could be doing some serious sleeping right about now.
"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet. Aspiring champions have twenty four hours to submit themselves. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their school..."
Oh. My. God. This is so BORING! Marie is just bouncing up and down in her little shoesthatherparentsdidntwanthertogetbutshegotthemanywayinparis in excitement. It's sad really. I hope she doesn't have to stay with us in the dormitories. If that's the case then you can just shoot me now.