Disclaimer: I do not own SM or HP.
Hogwarts Secret Scandal 20
The Broom Race
Following the Christmas concert there were still some Christmas decorations hanging around—including bewitched balls of mistletoe that made whoever stood underneath it remain standing until somebody kissed them. Constantine caused a scene when he discovered Martina standing underneath it and kissed her a dozen times.
"Okay, that's enough!" Martina said, pushing Constantine away, "I can move now, finally, thank you!"
Serena cracked up laughing. Martina glared at her.
"It's not funny!"
"Sorry…would you like some breath spray?" Serena joked.
"I'm going to talk to Grandfather about this!" Martina groaned, marching out of the entrance to her grandfather's office.
Other couples got caught under the mistletoe, Luna and Neville being one of them. Neville gave her a quick kiss on the cheek so she could get away. Luna kept pointing at the mistletoe and flinching.
"I hope there aren't any Nargles in there!" she exclaimed.
Serena herself got caught underneath the mistletoe and she was grateful it was Harry that kissed her instead of Darien. She couldn't imagine all the ridicule she'd get if everyone saw her kissing her Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Harry gave her a soft kiss on the cheek while Darien was watching. When Darien saw Harry kissing Serena, he turned the other way. Martina talked Professor Oleg into taking the mistletoe down which was a relief to those that didn't like getting caught under the mistletoe.
After talking to her grandfather, Martina went to her dormitory and used some divination techniques to check the renovation rods for any curses. She used fire, placed the rods in water, put a ring on a necklace and let it swing over every rod. She used a mirror, flower, and nearly every divination technique she could think of but nothing told her that the renovations were jinxed. All she was able to figure out that the renovation rods were very powerful. The rods would give the girls some sort of new power when they said the incantation and change them into something. She did not know what they would change to, but the names of all the planets were some sort of sign. She just didn't know why she got the one with the Planet Mars on it. She knew that she was an Aries and that the connecting planet was Mars but she sensed that it was more to it than that. Whoever sent these things must've known that Martina was an Aries, that Lavra was a Sagittarius and that they knew the astrological signs for the others girls. They received the sticks for the five inner planets except for Earth and one outer planet: Saturn. Had someone received other sticks for the four remaining planets? She and the others have already asked around and nobody received any. Perhaps whoever got the others be somewhere else? And why was Serena's gift so different from the others? Why didn't Serena get a stick? Why did she get a brooch? There no divination technique Martina knew of that could answer that. All she could say was that it was…
"Fate," Martina said as she handed the mysterious presents back to the girls. They were in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom where they opened their presents the previous day.
"Fate?" Aimee inquired.
"Yes," she said, "I don't know why we got these things. It's just fate. It's our destiny to receive them."
"You found nothing on these things?" Lita asked.
"Not a thing," Martina said, "all I found was that they're really powerful and they'll change us once we use them."
"Change us how?" Mina asked.
"I don't know," Martina answered, "but I doubt it's an animagus."
"Well, only one way to find out," said Serena, holding her brooch over her head. "MOON…"
"No!" Martina slapped the brooch out of Serena's hand.
"Hey, why'd you do that for?" Serena demanded, getting into Martina's face.
"You idiot," Martina said, "whoever gave those things to us trusted us enough to use them properly! The message said 'when all is lost and at its darkest' not 'whenever you feel like messing around!'"
"I wasn't going to mess around!" Serena barked. "I just wanted to see what happened!"
"Then maybe you shouldn't have gotten one!" Martina snapped.
"Hey, calm down, Martina," Lavra said.
"She started it!" Martina hissed, pointing at Serena.
"I did not!" Serena sneered.
"Did to!"
"Stop it!" Mina shouted and everyone looked at Mina. "Martina does have a point, Serena. These things aren't toys, they're gifts. We can't just use them when we feel like it. Besides, it might not even work if we try using them for fun."
Serena grumbled as she picked up her brooch.
"Yes, we should treat them with respect," Aimee added. "We should be proud we got that we received gifts like these, especially now that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back. We will need all the extra help we can get."
"There's got to be another four of these things somewhere," said Angelica, looking at her Planet Renovation Rod and sliding her finger over the orb of Saturn. "One for each planet."
"Yeah," said Aimee, "we've got the inner planets here and one outer planet. I wonder who got the one for Earth and the other three outer planets."
"But we've asked around already," Serena said, heaving a sigh. "We would know, wouldn't we?"
"Well maybe whoever got them aren't here," Martina muttered.
"Then how can we reach them?" Mina said.
"No idea," said Martina, "but I think once we use these things, we might be able to locate them."
The next two days were for practice and Martina competed in the Ice Melting contest. The contestants were placed in an enclosure of ice those that melted through the quickest won. Not all the contestants use fire or heat. Neville Longbottom used a spell to make the plants grow rapidly enough to break him through the ice. Neville got an award for the most creative escape and Martina won the most for speed. Following the Ice melting contest was the Biathlon where skiers had to stop and shoot target with a spell. It wasn't easy when the target blew raspberries at the shooters when they missed. There was the bobsled and the luge which was a sport the Durmstrang students excelled at. Finally, after these tough sports was the toughest one of them all: The Broom Race. It was going to be an hour of flying in intense conditions. Mina was more worried about her teammates than herself.
"Draco, if we don't live though this," she said, hugging him around the middle, "I want you to know that I will always love you!"
"Don't talk like that, Mina," Draco said, "it's just a little broom race."
The fliers came outside meet the cold wind and snow. Draco was wrong. This was more than just a little broom race. It was a long broom race in a blizzard. Each flier had to fly five miles which made the race a total of thirty five miles long. It wasn't just the length that made it tough but the conditions. They had to fly their way through snowballs, stalagmites emerging from the ground, an ice cave and who knew what else. There were mediwizards at a couple spots of the race to give aid to the fliers when they hurt themselves so they could go back to finishing the race.
As it was cold, the fliers all wore insulated robes to keep them warm along with goggles. Instead of wearing their house quidditch robes, the Hogwarts fliers were all black with the Hogwarts shield of colors on the front and their names on the back. The Hogwarts baton was black with four colors at the top indicating the four houses.
For Hogwarts, Jimmy Peakes was the first to start the race. He mounted his broom and elevated a couple of feet waiting for the whistle. When the whistle blew, the three racers took off and the race started. Snowballs pelted at the fliers from all directions and the fliers used their batons as clubs to beat the snowballs out of their bath. The crowd was shouting but noe of the fliers could hear the shouts through the wind. Jimmy was glad he was the first to fly so he could get his time done with. He felt sorry for his captain Harry Potter—Harry had to finish the race and he was going to be frozen by the time he got the baton. Jimmy smashed his way through the blizzard. It was hard to see. He had never played quidditch in a blizzard before and it was only his second year on the team. He couldn't believe Madame McCloud picked him for the Hogwarts team. The two other fliers were ahead of him. Speed wasn't his strong point; it was smacking stuff. Eventually his arm was feeling like lead and it was hard to keep hitting the snowballs around. He was sure that it was about to fall any time soon and then finally, he could see the flag in front of him where the three other fliers were waiting. He could barely make out Leon Bradley of Ravenclaw.
"Peakes, hurry up! Just a little closer!"
The two other fliers had already handed their batons off and they plummeted down to the snow to rest. Grunting, Jimmy smashed Bludgers out of his way and urged his broom forward. He could barely keep his arm up to hand the baton to Bradley.
"Good man," said Bradley as he took the baton and went to do his segment of the race.
"Oh, good," Jimmy moaned, sliding off his broom and hitting the snow. "I don't need to fly anymore."
The snowballs in Bradley's segment were bigger but as Bradley was a more experienced Beater than Jimmy Peakes, he was able to keep them off him. As he continued his portion of the race, the snowballs got bigger and they flew at him faster. He got hit in his left side and wavered a bit, nearly dropping the baton.
"Stupid snowball," he hissed, glancing up to notice the fliers representing Durmstrang and Beaxbatons passing him. As he began to rub his rib, a mediwizard hurried to Bradley, trying to mend his side.
"I'm fine," Bradley told him. "It's just a bruise. I didn't break anything.'
"Just let me have a look," said the mediwizard.
"I told you I'm fine!" Bradley grunted and he waved the baton. "I've got to finish the race!"
Bradley flew off before the mediwizard could examine him. The wind blew harder into his face and he had to take in breaths over his shoulder because it was so hard to breathe against the wind. (Don't you just hate it when you're running against the wind and you have to breathe over your shoulder? just hate it!) Bradley took in a deep breath of air and pushed himself further. He was gaining on the Beaxbatons student and he about caught up with him when the Beaxbatons flier hit a snowball and bits of snow landed in Bradley's eyes, causing him to stop and shake the ice crystals out of his eyes. When he opened them, he could see the two fliers passing the baton to the other two players.
"No!" Bradley shouted, grunting and zooming forward. Bradley smashed the snowballs coming at him and before he handed the baton to Dan Summerby of Hufflepuff, he hit a couple more snowballs.
"What're you doing?" Summerby demanded.
"I hate those stupid things!" Bradley said, "one hit me in the side!"
"Gimme the baton," said Summerby, "we're already behind, forget about the snowballs—I can just dodge them!"
"Fine because I won't be there to hit them for you!" Bradley shouted at Summerby as he flew away. Bradley groaned, clutched his side and plummeted to the ground. "Stupid snowball!"
Sumerby was able to dodge a couple of snowballs. He kept an eye on them as he raced after the two other fliers. It was easier than hanging in one spot looking for speeding small winged ball. All he had to do was fly as quickly as possible without getting hit in the head with a snowball. He caught up with the Beaxbatons flier and handed the baton to Demelza Robbins. Demelza thanked him and took right off. She dodged the snowballs with ease and flew around the stalagmites and other snow obstacles. The flier of Durmstrang was so impressed with her skill that he forgot what he was doing and slammed right into an ice wall. The Beaxbatons flier laughed at him and he too flew into a wall of ice. Demelza glanced back at them, grinned and looked back ahead. Whether Hogwarts had already won due to the two other contestants knocking themselves "out cold" or not, Demelza continued to finish the race. She had to hand the baton to Draco Malfoy and she knew she shouldn't keep him waiting. Her news about the two other players should make him happy. Every so often, Demelza looked behind her to see if the other players had gotten back up but she couldn't tell because of the snow. She kept her eyes forward. She made it to the entrance of the ice cave where Draco was waiting.
"'Bout time, Robbins!" Draco exclaimed and then to himself he added, "I was freezing my ass off!"
Robbins laughed as she flew toward Malfoy. "Relax Malfoy, I think you can take your time. The other players decided to look at the detail of the ice walls..." Robbins thumbed behind her.
"What?" cried Lavra, representing Durmstrang and Andre Corjette of Beaxbatons.
"Really?" Draco said with a grin. "I've got a feeling I'm going to like this race."
"Look out for walls!" Robbins said as she handed the baton to Draco.
Lavra glanced over at Draco and then to Demelza Robbins. "Did Demitri really hit a wall?"
"Yes."
"You think it's serious?"
"I'm not sure," Demelza replied, "but the mediwizards should be working on him right now."
"Look!" Lavra cried. "I see Demitri!"
Demitri, healed from smacking into an icewall, was flying to Lavra with the baton in hand.
"Are you all right?" Lavra called to him.
"Yes," Demitri replied, "a mediwizard healed my face for me. Just go!"
"Oh, right," Lavra said, taking the baton and flying off after Draco. The Beaxbatons flier that had crashed was flying to give the baton over to Andre.
"I'm all right," he cried, "I'm all right!"
He handed the baton over to Andre and Andre took off into the cave. The Beaxbatons flier rubbed his head, looking at Demitri as if his injuries were all Demitri's fault.
As Draco was flying deeper into the cave, the stalactites from the ceiling were getting lower and lower. He had to slow down to prevent from ramming into anything. The cave was huge and dark and it was difficult to find his way around.
"Why couldn't I go first?" Draco wondered out loud. "How am I supposed to get to the next point?"
"Hey, Draco!" called Lavra.
"Lavra?" He heard her voice echoing all around him. "Where are you?" He stopped and looked behind him.
Lavra flew up next to Draco.
"Hey there," she said. "Are you lost?"
"No," Draco muttered, "I'm just trying to figure out which way to go. Looks like you were able to get the baton finally."
"Yeah," Lavra said, " the mediwizards worked on Demitri. Andre should be on his way."
"Really?" Draco asked. "I'd better find Mina. She's probably worried about me."
"Oh, how cute," Lavra teased, "well I guess we'd better find the next check point."
Lavra looked at the arrows on the wall. "This way!" She followed the arrows on the wall.
"Hey, wait up!" Draco shouted as he went after her with Andre bringing the rear. Draco glanced behind him. "Oh great."
Draco, Lavra and Andre weaved thorough stalagmites and stalactites in the ice cave. Water was dripping from the ceiling onto the fliers.
"We should be getting closer," Lavra said to Draco as he caught up to her. "Point six is in the middle of the cave, right?"
"Yeah," Draco said, "but I'm going to get there first, sweetheart!"
Draco sped right past Lavra and she stopped dead in midair. "Sweetheart? Did he just call me sweetheart?"
Andre flew up behind Lavra. "Zis is no time to be dilly-dallying!" he cried at Lavra. "It iz dangerous in here!"
However, as Andre was not looking where he was going as he was talking to Lavra and his broom hit the tip of a stalagmite.
"Sacre Bleu!
Andre was hurled over his broom and he slammed into the cave floor, causing Lavra to wake up. "Huh, oh!"
"Do not mind me," Andre said, waving his hand, "I will be all right."
Over at point six, Mina was tapping her broomstick impatiently. "Oh where's Draco? I'm getting worried!"
"Zey should not have us waiting in zis cave," said Melody, the brunette witch from Beaxbatons who was hovering at Mina's left. "It is much too easy to get lost in here."
"At least we're nt in the blizzard," Martina stated. "The caves are actually very nice."
"Draco!" Mina called out. "Where are you?"
Mina paused and called out again. "Draco! Can you hear me? ANSWER ME!"
"Be quiet!" Martina hissed. "You'll cause the stalactites to fall on top of us!"
The three girls looked up at the ceiling and the stalactites gave a little shake.
"Oh, sorry," Mina said sheepishly.
"Mina!" Draco's voice echoed through the cave.
"Draco!"
Draco came from around the corner and Mina's heart leaped for joy. Instead of waiting for him, Mina flew out to greet him.
"Wait!" Martina cried, "you can't do that!"
"Draco, I was waiting for you," Mina said, "I was so worried! Oh, are you hurt?"
"I'm fine, really," said Draco, "you don't have to---ack!—worry." He gasped out when Mina hugged his neck and began sobbing.
"Oh Draco!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're all right!"
"Mina, take the baton," Draco grimaced, poking her in the ribs with it. "The baton, take the baton!"
Mina however began smothering him with kisses just as Lavra turned the corner. She grinned at the couple and flew out to Martina.
"Mina, Durmstrang is passing the baton!" Draco said, pointing at Lavra and Martina. "Mina, I am all right, just take the baton and get to Potter!"
Once Lavra handed the baton to Martina, she flew off to the exit of the cave where point seven was waiting.
"Oh, right," Mina said, "the race!"
She gave Draco another kiss and took the baton. "I won't let you down, Drakikins."
"Good," Draco said as Mina turned. Draco ran his hand through his hair and another thought came to him. He flew after Mina and called out to her. "And you tell Potter he had better win this or I'll curse his legs together so he'll never fly again!"
A stalactite fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing Draco's shoulder. He gasped and flew out of the way. Andre collided into him.
"Oh just take it!" Andre said, tossing the baton to Melody. Melody lunged forward. The baton hit the ground and slid. She picked it up and went after the two other girls.
"I'm starting to really hate this race," Andre admitted.
"Me too," Draco agreed.
The cave was getting narrower and darker the deeper Mina went. Freezing cold water fell through the cracks and got her wet. She was just grateful there were no monsters in the cave as she flew. Finally after what seemed like hours she saw light at the end where three people were sitting on broomsticks. She breathed a sigh of relief. She had made it to the last point.
"Good work, Mina!" Harry cried. "You made it!"
Mina smiled and tried to move faster but it was hard. She was freezing cold. Her pace faltered. Martina handed her baton to the last Durmstrang flier and Melody passed Mina on her left.
"Come on, Mina," Harry encouraged, "you're almost there!"
"I—I'm just so cold," Mina stammered, out of breath. She couldn't keep a good grip on the baton with her frozen hand. "Harry…"
"Mina, I've got an idea," Harry said, "do that flip thing!"
"Oh, right," Mina nodded and gritted her teeth. She urged her broomstick forward and as she came within five feet of Harry, she pushed her broomstick and flipped in the air. As Mina came back down the baton entered Harry's' outstretched hand. Their fingertips were touching and their hearts were beating. They could not take their eyes away from each other. They remained there in midair, both holding onto the baton.
"Good job," said Harry.
"Thanks," panted Mina. "Good luck."
"Thanks."
"You'll win this, Harry," Mina said, "no problem."
Harry grinned. "You know I will."
Mina grinned back and loosened her grip on the baton. Harry whipped his Firebolt around and zoomed out of the cave after the other two fliers. He had absolutely no trouble catching up with them or passing them for that matter. He weaved through all the ice walls, the tunnels and beat snowballs out of his path. He proved to Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beaxbatons once again that when it came to flying that no one did it better than Harry Potter. When Harry crossed the finish line, all the Hogwarts students stood up and cheered. The rest of the fliers met up to claimed their prizes. Those that were injured were checking out their wounds. The Hogwarts fliers hurried over to congratulate Harry. Bradley shook his hand and Jimmy high fived him. After Demlza hugged Harry Mina threw herself into his arms.
"You were great Harry!" Mina exclaimed, hugging his neck tightly. "You did it! I knew you would!"
"Potter!" Draco Malfoy shouted, stomping through the snow and throwing down his broomstick. Mina stepped away from Harry, afraid that Draco was jealous.
"Draco, I was only--," she began but Draco cut her off. He was looking at Harry with that glare like he always did.
"So, Potter, you really think you're something, don't you?"
"Yeah," said Harry.
Draco's sneer slowly curled up to a grin. "Well, I knew you'd be a hell of a Quidditch player when I saw you catch Longbottom's Remembral in our first flying lesson. If I knew you were going to be so good, I wouldn't have done it."
Harry—for some reason—grinned as well. The other players stood puzzled.
"Well, I guess I do have you to thank, Malfoy," Harry said, "whoever would've guessed I'd become the youngest Seeker of the century all because of a little fight in flying lessons?"
Draco laughed and to everyone's shock, hugged Harry Potter. Harry laughed and hugged his rival of seven years in return.
"I don't believe it," Mina said, watching her two favorite guys hug as if they were best friends. "They're hugging—and they don't even have to!"
The two boys were talking about the race and Quidditch. Draco kept congratulating Harry and Harry kept thanking him and then when they realized what they were doing they stopped talking suddenly and backed away. Draco cleared his throat.
"Oh, er, what I meant to say was," he held out his hand, "way to go, Potter."
"Thanks, Malfoy," said Harry, shaking Draco's hand.
Mina squealed and threw her arms around Harry and Draco's heads. "Oh, you two! I'm so glad you settled your differences!"
"Ow!" Harry groaned. "Please, not so hard."
"Mina!" Draco winced. "Just because Potter won and I don't have to use the leg locker curse on him doesn't mean we're best mates now!"
"Yeah!" Harry said and he looked at Draco. "What?"
"Oh forget it," Mina said happily, pulling on both of their necks and causing them to bend over. "We've won! We've won!"
"Mina, let us go!" Draco and Harry said together.
After the last event and the Winter Wizard Olympics were coming to a close Oleg announced a New Years party. Everyone was invited, even the first years. The party was casual. No one had to wear dress robes. Everyone was free to wear what they want—even pajamas. Instead of a musical guest providing the music like the previous balls there was going to be a wizard DJ named DJ Spinner (I know, kind of a dumb name for a DJ but I named him that because of spinning turntables).
Lavra and Martina were talking about the Winter Wizard Olympics as they were getting dressed. Because both girls came from rich families they didn't own anything really casual. Lavra wore a black sparkly sleeveless gown with a rose on it. (that same dress she wore in Sailor S—when they were fighting the Amazon trio. I really like that dress so I decided to have her wear it.)
"This whole thing went great, didn't it?" Lavra asked Martina as Lavra put on a gold choker. "Durmstrang came in second place. We made new friends and we got these new powerful gifts!" Lavra patted her Planet Renovation Rod.
"Yes, it's wonderful," Martina said, reaching for the zipper of her red gown. "Oh—I can't reach—can you?"
"Sure," Lavra stepped behind Martina and zipped her up.
"You know, the way things have been going so well lately," Martina said, "it's just seems too good to be true."
"Yeah," Lavra said, "I guess can see how you mean. I wonder if I'm going to wake up and find out if all of this was a big dream."
"That's not what I meant," Martina said, reaching for a brush.
"Then what was it?" Lavra inquired.
Martina turned to Lavra. "The Winter Wizard Olympics went great. We're playing these games as if everything's all right but they're not. The most dangerous dark wizard of the century is back and it's like we've forgotten that. I have a feeling something is going to ruin the Olympics."
"Like what?" Lavra asked. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named isn't going to come here. He doesn't know about the Olympics."
"We don't know that," Martina told her, "these are dangerous times. What if something happens at the ball or when we're asleep?"
"Then we'll have an opportunity to use our stick things," Lavra said, "you always think something is going to go wrong."
"Not always," Martina stated, "but when I do sense something I'm usually right."
"You're probably just worried that Constantine is going to try to kiss you when it becomes midnight," Lavra said, "stop worrying so much. You and your divination stuff. Ever since you started taking it…"
"Hey, I'm the best seer in the school!" Martina exclaimed. "I'm telling you, something really bad is going to happen tonight and I think it has something to do with You-Know-Who."
"Martina, calm down," Lavra said, "if something does happen we'll handle it okay? Nobody's going to die. Now let's just go downstairs and have a good time."
"It's hard to have a hard time knowing that You-Know-Who is out there," said Martina.
"He's after Harry Potter not you," said Lavra, "and if you want my opinion, I'd say he's doing a lot better with all this dark stuff than you are."
Lavra pulled on her hand. "Now quit worrying so much. Everything is going to be fine. Let's go already. I'm starving!"
"I surely hope so," Martina muttered as they went downstairs for the feast.
TO BE CONTINUED
Sorry this chapter is short! I was shooting for above nine pages today but I wasn't sure whether to put the broom race and the party in the same chapter or not. So I thought I'd make the next chapter on the New Years Party.