A/N: Chapter 2 was a bit short, and I didn't expect myself to write that certain happening. And I have to apologize myself for all the misspellings in the last chapter. And I noticed I wrote something that didn't make sense at all there. I think I was tired or something while I wrote that part. Sorry. And about the accents; I'm cutting down on Seamus' and Fleur's accents, and I'll try my best to get Viktor's accent better. ALSO, I'm not sure if Luna Lovegood is in the year below or in the same year as Seamus. But in this story she's in the same year. And I know, the first conflict is a bit lame... OH and by the way, in the northern countries of Europe they actually write/say Qwidditch. I mean, the northern characters inside the HP universe does. But when the books were translated into Norwegian, Quidditch got named Rumpeldunk... whilst I'm writing about Quidditch; later in this chapter the Bulgarian people gets some words thrown at them... well they're not my words, I actually stick with Bulgaria or the Nordic team in Quidditch (Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup). So yeah, Go Bulgaria!!
SONG: One of the best songs from Silverstein; American Dream. I love it so much... no words to describe it. But, it's from the album "A Shipwreck In The Sand".
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the HP universe, JK Rowling does. She is a great author, and I envy her for her perfect writing skills. This is my response of her fourth book, Goblet Of Fire, and it's my own version, AKA a fan story. Thank you.
A SHIPWRECK IN THE SAND
Chapter 3: American Dream
"Dragons." Seamus was shocked. Hermione looked dead serious at him, and that was not a good sign. The first task was dragons. Well, predicted, but a bit frightening as well though. "I- I don't know what to say." Seamus fell back into his armchair. But what was the purpose of fighting against a dragon? It would be the same as killing yourself if you came unprepared. Seamus sat there, pale as the snow that would soon arrive outside. He was not afraid of dragons. Not at all. He was rather scared of what would happen. Just walking and thinking of dragons at the same time was hard for Seamus. Arriving to the Great Hall for breakfast at last, the boy had finally calmed down a bit. Passing Krum on his way to his seat, he didn't notice that the older boy tried to speak with him. Krum stood there, thinking that Seamus was ignoring him. And by that thought, he walked down through the Great Hall, passed Seamus and the gang, and went into the Trophy Room.
"How was it last night?" Hermione asked, trying to get Seamus on other thoughts than the little dragon thing, "Viktor just passed by you, and he didn't say hi." Hermione seemed really curious.
"When did he pass? I want to speak with him about something." Seamus looked around himself, trying to spot Viktor, whom was not there. "I think he went to the Trophy Room. But how was last night?" Hermione asked once again.
Seamus didn't want to tell Hermione what happened between the two boys. Not yet. He hadn't gotten it all into his own mind yet, and Hermione liked Viktor after what Seamus had been noticing. "Well, we had loads of fun. We talked and stargazed... sounds cheesy, but I enjoyed myself. They're both wonderful people."
"I can imagine." Hermione smiled, looking at Fleur coming towards Seamus again. "Seamus, you have to come now, Rita Skeeter is here." Seamus nodded and got up, and followed Fleur down towards the Trophy Room.
"I am Rita Skeeter. You three probably know me from my work. Well, whatever, I'm here to interview you all today, and I will stay until we have a champion." Rita started. She was a tall and slim woman, with a curly and fat hair and some dirty teeths. Her glasses made her look like some kind of assistant, but her brown outfit said journalist. And annoying was it that she was chewing some gum really slow and loud. She also wore some bug-jewelery, as she was proud of being a strong minded in fashion. But, she had too much jewelery on, that it made her look bad. It looked bad on her, more correctly. "What a lovely trio, are we?" she said, and a floating camera took a picture of the three champions standing by the fireplace in the Trophy Room. "So, interviewing you guys is something I should take as a further step towards my dream. You see, I have this dream... let us call it my American Dream. I dream of becoming a world wide known author or journalist. And this, this my friends, is just one step towards that dream. So, who wants to go first? You? Lovely." She said, grabbing Seamus by his waist and pushed him into a small room which appeared to be a broom cupboard. "Well, this was cozy." she said, and pushed Seamus slightly further into the cupboard, and he seated, looking at Skeeter with a strange look. She wasn't the best sight, no. Not at all.
"Tell me, since you're the youngest competetor so far in the Triwizard history, do you have any last words before you venture of into the dangerous tasks you will be given? Is there some family members you will miss more than the others? Or are you a selfish little bra whom doesn't care about that, and is only aiming towards the glory of victory?" Seamus was about to anser, but got interrupted. "And the two others, they're not just older than you, but they also have mastered spells you can only dream of! And, they are from other schools, so their tactics would deffinitly be better. Do you have any specific tactics? Maybe you are planning one with your friends? Or maybe you have someone special? Hm? The readers are eager to hear everything that is on your heart. Let it out. Oh, and ignore the quill, it's only taking notes." Seamus looked at the quill that was writing in a memo book, and it stopped up, waiting for his reply. "Uh... I... I don't have any tactic yet. I could probably ask Hermione to plan something with me... And..." Seamus was really ditracted by the writing quill, but didn't want Rita to talk just yet, so he tried his best to ignore it. "Well, I will do my best, for sure. But even though Delacour and Krum is older than me, I still believe that I can win if I try my best and don't give up. If I do win, I hope my family will be proud of me, of course." Seamus smiled, he liked his reply, it was short, not too long and good enough to satisfy the witch sitting in front of him. "Such brave young boy. So who is this Hermione you mentioned? Your girlfriend maybe?"
"No, she's not my girlfriend. She's just a really good friend."
"I love your Irish accent boy." She suddenly said, and Seamus' cheeks turned red.
After a while, the interview was done, and it was Viktor's turn. Viktor entered the small room, surprised by how he could fit into there. Rita slowly closed the door, giving both Fleur and Seamus a blink with her eye. As soon as the door shut, the both bursted out into laughter. "Did she just blink at us?" Fleur said, calming down, and settled down by the staircase. "She's gonna enjoy herself I suppose." Seamus replied, smiling, looking around the room, noticing how different it was in the daylight. "When you were being interviewed by Rita, Viktor was talking about you." Fleur said, smiling a friendly smile. Seamus looked at her, "Really? What did he say?" smiling back.
"He said that you ignored him this morning for instance. Is that true?" Seamus was shocked. When did he ignore Viktor? "No! When did I do that?" even Seamus' voice sounded shocked, as well his facial expression. "He tried to talk to you during the breakfast, or, when you entered the Great Hall. You didn't notice him, he said. He's afraid that you hate him because of last night." Seamus felt bad, since he didn't mind what happened at all. He actually liked it... for some reason. "But, I didn't ignore him! Seriously! I was thinking about the dragons-" Seamus stopped, realising that he was about to tal kabout the tournament. "that we have about in Defence Against Dark Arts."
"Seamus, I know there's dragons in the first task, don't worry. But you should tell him, not me. He's the one who feel left out. You'll get plenty of time when I'm being interviewed, before we have the gathered interview." The young boy just nodded, expecting an awkward silence rest of the time, but suddenly the gate leading to the stairs opened, and in there came a strange little girl with a long, bright and lovely hair. She had eyes filled with adventure, and her face was just as sweet as strawberries. She wore a ravenclaw school uniform and was walking in an easy and playful way. "Have you seen my shoes?" Seamus noticed that she did not have any shoes on. "No, we haven't. I'm sorry. But who are you?" Fleur asked, and the young girl was scouting through the room with her playful eyes. "I'm Luna Lovegood. Nice to meet you, girl I've never met before. Do you have a name?" She looked at Fleur, still with the same face that she had ever since she entered.
"I'm Fleur Delacour, nice to meet you Luna." She said, bowing slightly.
"Pleasure. And you are Seamus Finnigan, am I right?" She asked, looking at the Irish boy and cocked her head. "Yes." Seamus answered, and nodding as well.
"I've heard much about you. Good luck next week. You will need it. I'll see you around." She said, suddenly smiling, and then ventured back up the stairs.
"That is a strange girl." Fleur laughed. Seamus nodded in agreement, and had to laugh a bit himself. "But later when we have the gathered interview, you have to pretend that you're not friends with any of us, ok?" Fleur suddenly asked, walking towards a window and looked out of it.
"I guess. Should I tell Viktor?"
"No. I already told him. But-" suddenly the door to the cupboard slammed open and Viktor came walking out of it, found a bench and sat down on it, looking a bit mad.
"Fleur, you can come now." Rita Skeeter said, waving at her.
As the door closed behind Fleur, Seamus went over to Viktor and sat down next to him. "Hey."
Viktor just nodded, not even looking at him.
"About last night.." Seamus started, "I didn't ignore you this morning because of that."
"But you ignored me?" Viktor asked with a voice that sounded mad, as well his eyes seemed angry.
"No! I wasn't! I was thinking about the first task, and therefor I didn't notice you! I'm sorry. I was scared..." He said, putting his arm on Viktor's right shoulder since he was seated on Viktor's right side. Viktor just pushed Seamus' arm off, not taking any chances here, since the camera was in the room, but faced the other way.
"I am sorry, Sheymus..." Viktor said, trying to smile. "Thanks." Seamus smiled back.
"But forget vhot happened last night, ok?" Seamus seemed a bit shocked, but he just nodded in agreement, clapping Viktor on his shoulder and stood up. "Friends?" Seamus smiled a bit wider and stood in front of Viktor. Viktor looked up on Seamus' face and nodded, "Friends." he said.
"You know, for being a Bulgarian, you're pretty nice." said Seamus and walked over to the Quidditch trophies. "Vhot do you mean?" Viktor asked, joining him. "Bulgaria is Ireland's arch enemy in Quidditch, ye know?" Viktor simply nodded, as Seamus continued, "And I love Ireland."
Once again, Viktor nodded again. It didn't seem to bother him. "I know. I saw you at the World Cup."
"Really?" Seamus asked surprised.
"Yes. You cheered loud." Viktor smiled and looked down at the trophies again.
"But I've got a question about Hermione. You like her, aight?" said Seamus, walking around the room in a slow speed, looking at all the awards and victories Hogwarts had received.
"I think so. Hermy-own-ninny is cute. I vas vondering iff I could meet her sometime, vith you?" Viktor said, looking at Seamus and smiled a delightful smile for a short moment, then looked back down on the beautiful trophies in gold, silver and many other colors. "I could make that happen. But right now I'm too much worried about the first task." Seamus replied.
"It is ok. I vill vait." Seamus found it funny in a good way how Viktor's accent sounded cute, yet hard to understand at times. But he was from a foreign country.
The door to the cupboard slammed open again, and Fleur's face was showing that she was huffy. "A'ight, gather up kids. Groupinterview or whatever you would like to call it."
The interview progressed, and Rita still sat there, looking at the three of them. They were seated pretty close, but sat in different poses. Seamus, who was sitting on the end, was leaning back against the wall. Viktor, who was seated in the middle, was leaning forward, holding his head up with one of his arms. Fleur was sitting on the other side, and she was fixing her nails and her feet were crossed.
"There is something I just can't get right." Skeeter suddenly said. They all looked at her with visible question marks in their faces.
"Are you all friends? Or is one of you dating Delacour?" Fleur looked at her with a mean face, "no, there's somethin' I can't put my finger on here. Oh well, the interview is over. Hope to catch you doing something embarassing sooner or later." she said, and left the room.
"What a bitch." Fleur said, looking after her with hatred in her eyes. Viktor nodded rapidly, something Seamus found hillarious.
"Bellatrix escaped from Azkaban? Wow, she's the first!" Someone from Ravenclaw yelled in wonder of how she managed to do it. Seamus ignored it, since he knew that she was only a murderer. Nothing special. But he found his way to Hermione who was sitting by herself on the Gryffindor table inside the Great Hall.
"Filthy half-blood!" he suddenly heard, of course, it was Malfoy, but he ignored it.
"Hermione, have you read the Daily Propget?!" Seamus said in anger. He flung the paper down on her book, and she saw the headline: NOT TO YOUNG FOR A TOURNAMENT, NEITHER LOVE. Hermione's eyes widened as she saw the text. In the text it said that she and Seamus was dating Hermione and had a love life so hot that even the elderly students was jealous. It also stood that the three competetors had a special bond, or at least two of them, but that it was going to be revealed later.
"What the hell?!" she shouted and jumped up from her seat. Everyone looked at her. Awkward silence, so she sat down again. "Did you tell her that?!"
"Are you stupid? I only said that you were a good friend! And keep your voice down, please."
"Didn't know you guys had hot sex every night." a really familiar voice said behind Seamus. He turned around and to his surprise, it was Luna. "We don't we're just friends. Rita is a liar!" Seamus hissed and tore out the page about him and Hermione.
"Well, if you say so. But there's a Howler for you here. Howlers are sepperated these days, and my assignment is to deliver them. Here you go. And please, don't get scared. It's just your mother." Luna simply said and walked off. But a Howler from his mother was fear itself...
"From your mother? What is it you haven't told her?" Hermione asked concerned.
"Everything." Hermione went pale, and covered her ears since she knew that Seamus' mom would easily get pissed. And he hadn't told her a thing? Seamus slowly opened the letter, and then it flew out of his hands, and shaped itself into a mouth, and was ready to speak.
"Seamus Finnigan! Are you mad?! Why are you in the Triwizard Tournament? How? When? This is madness! And this Hermione! What is this all about? How did all this happen? I am very, very mad with you mister! You will have to break it off with her at once! And not just that, there are Bulgarian's at Hogwarts? Well give them a pleasent surprise by spitting on them! All of them! No matter what comes back at'ya, I am saying you have to! And that Viktor Krum who is you opponent, no matter what it takes, you have to beat the crap out of him! It doesn't matter if you end up as second, just if you beat him! You better listen to me, young man! You even said yourself that he was just a stupid and ugly jackass when we were at the Quidditch World Cup! You even said you wished all the Bulgarians dead! And remember these words my son; when you come home, hell awaits you!" And with that, the letter tore itself appart.
Seamus sat there, fully disturbed by what his mother just said in that letter. There were Bulgarians in the room, and they were starring at him. Viktor was there as well. He seemed surprised as hell. His eyes were swimming between all of the other Bulgarians in the room, and it looked nervously at Seamus, who got more and more frightened for every second that went. All of the Bulgarian students that heard the letter gathered around Seamus. They were about 6 or 7 people. "Who was that? In the letter?" one of them asked, and all of them crossed their arms, looking down at Seamus.
"Here here, drink it all up." Seamus was now in the Hospital Wing, lying in the bed that was furthest in. Both his eyes were blue like the night sky, and he had one broken bone. His face was scratched up, and he could barely feel his arms. Madam Pomfrey was of course there to take care of him, and a concerned Hermione was sitting by his bed. Seamus wasn't crying. He felt too weak to cry. His eyes hurt as hell, and all he wanted to do was to fall into a slumber and wake up with all the pain gone. But who was he kidding? He wasn't living in a fantasy world.
"Should I tell Dumbledore?" Hermione asked, and grabbed Seamus' hand and stroked it carefully.
"N... No..." Seamus could barely talk. His chest hurt as well too, just breathing made him want to die. "Oh boy, I have no idea how you managed to get into such trouble, but you have to be more careful! But because of this, you have to spend at least 4 days here to fully recover, understood?" Pomfrey asked, and started to mend him so the wounds would heal quicker. Seamus nodded as a response, and laid there, feeling that all of his wounds were being healed, and that his blue eyes slowly lost the blue color. But he needed to rest there for several days to fully recover, and he didn't mind that.
Madam Pomfrey left after a while, but Hermione stayed. "The first task is only 6 days left, Seamus." she said with caress in her voice. Seamus just nodded again. It was easyer to breathe and talk now, but he was so tired. "And you know I have to report this to a teacher. Or else Pomfrey will. I will go and seek up Dumbledore."
"Fine..." Seamus managed to puff out, before dozing off into a rough night with sleep... or, a rough day of sleep.
Two days went by, and the boy was still slumbering in bed. Sleeping two days in a row was not a good sign, but his body showed improvement. It was now only four days left until the first task, and Hermione was worried that Seamus wouldn't be able to perform any good. She told Dumbledore the day he got beaten up. There wasn't much Dumbledore could do but speak to the Durmstrang students. As for Viktor, he felt both sad and concerned. Those things that Seamus's mother said her son had said about him, was not pleasant to hear. He wanted to talk with Seamus, but decided to wait until the night when there weren't too many people out wandering in the halls. He didn't know why there were different student walking about Hogwarts at night, and they walked alone. He had met around six of them, and they called themselves "prefects".
Viktor snuk his way up to the Hospital Wing. He wasn't sure how to tell Seamus what was on his mind, but he couldn't leave it be. Opening the doors, he could not see Seamus. The room was dark, but the moonlight streaming in from the windows made mostly everything visible. Slowly walking inside the room, and quietly closing the door after him, the Bulgarian checked every bed, and none contained Seamus, nor any other student. But reaching the last bed on the left side, he could see a person lying there. The face was covered with shadows, but Viktor had to make sure it was Seamus. He used Lumos to light up, and yes, it was Seamus. A sleeping Seamus. Viktor didn't want to wake him either, but he had to get this of his mind. He sat down, took one of Seamus' hands and held it with both his hands.
"Sheymus. It is me, Viktor." He started, taking a short break to think of how to say this. "I haff to say, vhat your mother said hurt me. It hurt me bad. And vhat happened that night... I vas hoping, you vould not forget. I did it because I vant you, not Hermy-own-ninny. But I am too weak to tell you that. And those vords I heard your mother say that you haff said about me, vants me to forget you. But I vill tell you sometime. Please, do not become mad." and with that, Viktor leaned down and kissed Seamus' forehead. Viktor didn't pull back at first, he didn't want to. But as everything comes to an end, he did. But he made sure he inhaled the scent of the boy, a sweet smell that he had never smelled before, and then he walked off. What he did not know was that Seamus was only half asleep. Seamus did not really catch up on what happened, and dozed of into sleep once again.
"Seamus, wake up." he opened his eyes to see a happy Hermione. That was a pleasant sight of course. He sat up, feeling that almost all of the pain was gone, but there wre some bruises left, and some parts of his face still had a faded blue color. "How are you?" A familiar voice said. It was Fleur. Sweet her came to visit her. Not that Hermione wasn't sweet, but Fleur was 'the enemy', so he didn't really count on her to show up. "I've been better. Still hurts though, but I'll survive." Seamus replied wilsht checking his arms. "Good to hear. But do you think you will be okay in two days? That's when the first task is." Seamus was rather surprised by the fact that he had been sleeping for such a long time, and now he could feel that he was darn hungry. "I sure am a sleepyhead... meh stomach hurts, kind of hungry." he said, making a weird face epxression. Hermione simply laughed and gave him a chocolate frog, which he more than loved to stuff into his mouth, not caring about who was watching. The only people in the room was him, Hermione and Fleur anyway.
"I've talked to Dumbledore, and he took care of it, he talked to the Bulgarian students and their headmaster. They said they were sorry, and will behave better now." Hermione said, watching how desperate the boy was for food in awe. "Where's Viktor? And how is he?" Seamus suddenly said, looking up at both Delacour and Granger looking a bit disappointed by the fact that Viktor wasn't there. "I haven't seen him around lately..." Fleur said, and scouted towards the door to check if he was coming.
"Hermione... I had a weird dream..." Seamus almost whispered, as he wanted to make sure that there were no one else there.
"What was it about?"
"I dreamt that Viktor was here, alone... at ngiht... and he wanted me to remember something, and that he was feeling bad. I don't really remember, but the he did something and left. One of the weirdest dreams I've ever had." he said, scartching his forehead. Fleur and Hermione looked at him with weird looks. That is one strange dream indeed. But as time passed, Seamus put on some clothes, and left the Hospital Wing with the two girls. Fleur left them when they got by the Great Hall, since she had to meet up with her friends. Hermione and Seamus started to head for defence against the dark arts, and because of Seamus' absence, Hermione obviously had to help him a bit with the homework.
The library was near empty during the evenings. This evening though, Hermione and Seamus were the only ones there, the night before the first task. They were sitting almost as deep inside the restricted section as you could, where it was both cozy and scary at the same time. Suddenly, there were a sound, a door slamming by the entrance of the library. The library wasn't just a normal library, but a gigantic one. Seamus and Hermione were seated on the second floor.
"Did you hear that?" Hermione whispered concerned, putting down her book.
"Yeah..." Seamus replied, also whispering. There were now footsteps. Quick and loud footsteps. Most likely, it was Filch. But he usually didn't walk like that. There were a few lit torches around the library, and Hermione and Seamus decided that they'd try to walk out silently, by going to the staircase leading down to the main room and sneaking out the door. Suddenly, someone took a hold of their shoulders, and held them back.
"Up late, are we?" it was professor McGonagall.
"We're sorry. We were just studying for Defence Agains The Dark Arts." Hermione answered, removing Minerva's hand from her shoulder.
"Very well. But may I borrow you for a bit, miss Granger?" Minerva asked, looking at Seamus. "You can head back to your Common Room, Seamus."
"I'll see ya, Hermione." Seamus smiled at Hermione, before leaving the library.
"Hermione, you're late." Seamus said, sitting in an armchair by the fireplace in the Gryffindor Common Room. "Yes, McGonagall wanted me to help her sorting some tests. The poor lady feels very sorry for you." said Hermione, settling down to the armchair next to Seamus and laughed.
"What? Why?" Seamus said, grinning.
"She believes you might get badly injured during one of the tasks. I'm rather more concerned about how injured you've already become." said Hermione, still laughing a bit.
"Yeah..." Seamus said, laughing a bit and looked into the weak fire in front of them.
