Revenge of the Misfits
Chapter 12
"Does my hair look okay?" Pavarti's girlish voice resonated clearly through the crisp October air as all the seventh years lined up outside the castle. The day was finally here! The day Hogwarts seventh year students left for Australia's Hockadey Magical School to compete in the Triwizard Tournament! Sarah's breath quickened again, forming a tiny cloud of gray mist in front of her mouth with excitement. Grier Academy for Boys would be competing, which meant she would see James!
A grin split wider across her face, then Pavarti waved her hand in front of Sarah's face. "What?"
"Does my hair look okay?" she whined, and Sarah groaned.
"For the thousandth time, it's PERFECT!" Her hair was perfect, in long black curls with an ornamental butterfly baratte stuck in the side. Sarah looked in the reflection of the lake, and poked at her hair, which was all windblown and fell everywhere in messy blonde strands. Her make-up was just usual black eyeliner, making her brown eyes look darker than usual.
"Attention everybody!" Professor McGonagall called over all the student's heads. "Put your uniforms on, and I mean it!" All the students groaned, straightening ties and pulling on the thick, gray wool sweaters, along with the long, black robes. Sarah was grateful for the warm uniform, England was getting very chilly. She pulled the black cloth around the thin frame of her body, and walked over to Ron before McGonagall called their attention again.
"We will be traveling by Portkey, since it's too far to ride in carriages. Everybody divide into groups of five, and prepare for my count."
"What? I hate these things!" Neville cried, Seamus and Dean pushed him over to their friends.
"I guess we have our group." Ron commented, bending down to look at their portkey. Everybody stood in a circle, and stared at it in disgusted wonder with confunded looks on their faces.
"Is that a-" Dean muttered.
"Yep." Seamus confirmed, not particulary wanting to touch it.
"But how are you sure?" Neville asked curiously. The portkey was a...a...condom wrapper?
"We know." They all said at the same time.
Sarah's face contorted, while Ron poked it with his shoe, jumping back like it was toxic waste. "I ain't touchin' that!" she cried in disgust. "It's not fair, why didn't we get something normal like a tea kettle like the Slytherins did?" It was true, everybody else had other varieties of trash, all less disgusting. Neville reached down, flinching back with every inch, but placed the tip of his finger on the corner of the object.
The group looked horrified at the crouching teenager. "Well, we have to touch it to get to Hockadey!" Sarah and Ron exchanged looks, and they all bent down to put the smallest part of their fingers on the thing.
"What are you lot doing?" Professor McGonagall called to them, stalking over. "Oh my..." She said, looking at their portkey.
"It's our portkey!" Seamus defended, and the group nodded. Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes.
"No it's not, your portkey is the broken iPod!" she hit Ron on the back of the head before walking away. The group paused in their activities, locking eyes.
"Eeew!!" Dean yelled, running to wash his hand off in the lake.
"GROSS!" Ron and Neville yelled at the same time, running after him, trailed by a whimpering Seamus. Sarah wiped her hand on her robes, and shrugged. So what if it was a used condom wrapper? The group gathered again around the no longer functional iPod a few minutes later, when Professor McGonagall began to count, holding on to a portkey with Professor Salotti, the only other teacher coming along.
Earlier that week, he had announced since McGonagall had to travel back to England for reasons with the war, he was assinged to control the Hogwarts students.
"Three...two...ONE!" she called, the one never quite reaching Sarah's ears. The earth suddenly dropped out from under her feet, and she screamed, drowned out by the roaring wind. It was like apparating almost, a feat Sarah didn't master quite yet. You feel like your being squashed between dimensions, only with Portkeys it was more likely you would come out in one piece.
"AAAAAHHH!!!" she yelped, the group clinging to each other before they separated and began falling through the vortex alone. Just when Sarah's head felt like if she had to take one more second of falling it would explode, she hit the ground with a loud thump!
"Oof!" she grunted, landing sprawled on her stomach. With a loud crash, Neville landed beside her.
"Aw...I think I'm gonna be sick!" he choked out, and Sarah rolled over to face skyward. More students were plopping from the sky, a good deal falling much like Sarah did, flailing and screaming, landing in small heaps. The more experianced, a.k.a. pure blood students, gracefully walked through the air, landing perfectly on their feet. To Sarah's disgust, Ron was among them.
"How do you do that?" she angrily demanded.
"Pratice, m'dear." he chided, shaking a finger at her, then helping the blonde witch to her feet. A ways away, the professors landed, Salotti was sitting on the ground in a bit of a daze, McGonagall wiped off her robes and straightened her hat, clapping her hands to catch her student's attention.
"Minerva!" a booming voice called from the opposite direction.
"Deardra!" the headmistress called, and went to greet the other professor. Gregory Salotti was still trying to get up, only he was too dizzy, the air was filled with everybody's curses about Portkeys.
Then it hit Sarah, her distraction of their uncomfortable arrival gone. She was in Austrailia! Her brown eyes widened, and looked around. Scattered trees dotted the bare land around them, brush and tumbleweeds littered the ground. The ground was totally flat, she could see for miles around, but it all looked the same. Cracked mud, with reeds and marshes in different areas. Overhead, large puffy white clouds flew at a blinding pace through the blue sky, and the sun beat down, warming their cold bodies.
"So...this is the Outback." Ron remarked, putting his hands in his pockets.
"I guess so. Cool, eh?" Sarah replied, feeling the prickling sensation you get when somebody's staring at you. She slowly turned around, and saw a group of students staring openly at the new arrivals. They were assorted in races, but they all gawked at the Brits. The French hadn't arrived yet apparently.
"Oh, my students!" the other Headmistress called out. "I am Headmistress Deardra Cobain, welcome to Hockadey Magical School!" She had gray, slightly frizzy hair, and wore faded yellow robes. She was short, and Sarah estimated that the woman was in her late fifties. The headmistress reminded the Hogwarts students a bit of Professor Sprout.
The students wore earth green robes, of light cashmere material. Under the uniform, the boys wore jeans and assorted t-shirts, the girls wore likewise. Hockadey was obviously much more lax on the school uniform policy than Hogwarts. Sarah waved uneasily to her new rivals, and one girl waved enthusiastically back. The rest shot her strange looks, that Sarah couldn't quite intrepret. The school stood behind them, it was a greenhouse like building which was very large. It was made of strong looking wood, trees grew around it in abundance. Housing existed outside the school, small mailboxes rested on dirt lawns with things like Grade 3 Girls written on them, identifying which house was which.
Squinting along the horizon, Sarah could only see endless Outback, and no Muggle cities. Only buildings that appeared to be rambshackle, and an arena that was built much like the school, of creaky wood. This was probably where the 'tasks' would commence. It was a smaller school, but Sarah liked it. Now, to wait for Grier Academy to arrive...
Suddenly, a thunderclap rose from the sky, making students jump and shriek!
"Ah, here come the Grier Academy!" Deardra murmered, watching the show. The sky had darkened, making the younger students of Hockadey panic. Large carriages, pulled along by huge, black horses burst from thin air, toting open hooded carriages full of boys. The horses ran right in the crowd, and all the frightened students flung themselves out of the way! Sarah was jostled this way and that, black shadows of young men climbing out of the carriages were all that she concentrated on.
It was total choas, people running this way and that, scared to get too close to the bucking horses. They were fearsome beasts, taller than Sarah, with red eyes. They were large and muscular, frothing at the mouth since they were fighting against the bit. The Grier boys were shooting spells from their wands to subdue the animals, making the horses rear and pounding the ground with their hooves, making it tremble as if there was an earthquake. Sarah darted through the crowds, searching for her friend.
"Sarah!" a man's voice called, tugging at her arm with great strength. Sarah whirled around, to see...
A CLIFFHANGER! HAHAHAA!!! Guess you'll just have to wait 'till next time...