Gale: "You root for your favorites, you cry when they get killed-it's sick!"
Me: "Yeah, it is. But killing people off is kinda my job so..."
District 1 - Peter - The Chronicles of Narnia
District 2 - Thorin - The Hobbit
District 3 - Four - Divergent
District 4 - Percy, Annabeth - Percy Jackson
District 8 - Morgana Le Fay - Merlin
District 9 - The 10th Doctor - Doctor Who
District 9 3/4 - Harry Potter, Hermione Granger - Harry Potter
District 12 - Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark - The Hunger Games
Also, some things in the chapter about Morgana were originally copied from MerlinWiki. :D
Chapter 9: The Annoucement - Harry Potter
Harry gathered bundles of wood at the edge of his and Hermione's campsite. He stayed alert. Looking around his shoulder, every few minutes. Going further into the dark forest, he searched for more twigs for the fire.
It impressed Harry how beautiful everything was. The forest's leaves were a dark green, as was the patches of grass on the ground. Bunches of moss laid perfectly on old grey rocks, sometimes as tall as Harry himself. It was all an illusion, Harry knew. The beauty of everything was just a distraction from the real problem. Harry bent down to get some more wood, he decided that he had enough to get back to camp so he-
"Harry! HARRY!" Hermione screamed.
Harry dropped his bundle of sticks and sprinted towards Hermione's voice. He pulled his wand out of his pocket and prepared himself for the worst.
"Harry! Get over here! Now!"
Harry ran faster, "Hermione?! Where are you?" He shouted bursting through the foliage. Harry threw himself into their campsite, unsuccessfully landing on the ground. Hermione sat on a log perfectly unharmed holding a book. Well, not exactly a book. More like a pamphlet.
"Harry? What are you doing on the ground? Honestly, get up, there are cameras." She said leafing through the pamphlet.
Harry pulled himself up, brushing dirt off his shoulders, and trying to pull leaves out of his hair he said, "wait. . .so you're not getting attacked, right?"
Hermione ignored the comment, "Harry, in your opinion, who's our biggest competitor in the Games?"
Harry shrugged, adjusting his glasses he said, "Um, Four I think. The way he took his fellow Tributes death was kind of scary. Either him or District 12. They have more experience. And... Where did you get a book, Hermione?"
Hermione grinned as Harry took a seat next to her on the log. "It's a sponsor gift from Dumbeldore!" Hermione said giving Harry the note that came with it. He quickly read it,
Learn your competition. It shall help you more than you know. Keep each other alive,
- Big D
"Big.. D?"
"For Dumbeldore." Hermione stated.
"'Learn your competition?' What's that mean?" Harry asked.
"This book," Hermione explained, "shows all of the tributes still alive! Not only that, but it shows us their history, advantages, disadvantages, and background information on the Fandoms they come from!"
Harry took the pamphlet, "Dumbeldore's a genius! We can use knowledge against them!" He remarked looking through the book, he stopped at a page with a deathly hallows mark on the top.
"Wait, what's this?" Harry asked showing Hermione the mark.
"Maybe Dumbledore wanted to show us who to look out for... Um... 'Morgana Le Fay.'"
"Who's that?"
Hermione stared at him, "honestly, don't you read? She's from the Arthurian Legends."
"What?"
"'King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? Or in her case, some TV show called, 'Merlin.'"
"Well, what's it say about her?"
Hermione began to read,
"Morgan Le Fay: popularly known as Arthurian sorceress, benevolent fairy, priestess, dark magician-"
"She's a witch? So she has magic?"
Hermione gave Harry a wary look, "It seems we aren't the only ones."
They sat in silence for a moment. The Games weren't going to be as easy to win as they'd thought.
She continued to read,
"Dark Magician, and the Kings Ward. Originally a kind-hearted individual, Morgana turned evil after being corrupted by Morgause and being betrayed by her friends. After that she betrayed her family and friends, even being involved in the death of her own father."
"She killed her dad?"
Hermione bit her lip and continued to read,
"Morgana, being of the King's blood, was the rightful heir to the throne but was banished from the kingdom of Camelot. Very determined to win back Camelot, if the Victor of The Fandom Games. With the wealth and earning of being Victor, she could easily take back her kingdom from her half-brother Arthur. The present king of Camelot."
"Read about her background," Harry suggested.
"Um... Let's see... Ah, here we go. At a young age, Morgana discovered that she sometimes dreams of terrible things that afterwards come to pass."
"What about the advantages and weaknesses?"
"Well, obviously she has magic on her side. So, she can do about as much damage as we can to her. Also, I think she has good friends so she must be easily getting good sponsors. Like kings and other wealthy people who can afford to lose a coin or two... But on the bright side, she has a lot of nightmares. Also, anybody smart could see that she's not exactly safe to be around. I'll bet you she doesn't have any alliances."
"That's good,"
"Yes, but I think the safest thing we can do in the Arena is stay away from her."
"Yeah, and if she does have any alliances, I don't think they're a safe as they believe."
Hermione nodded, and they sat in silence for a period of time. It wasn't awkward though, Harry knew her too well for it to be awkward. Hermione bit her lip, very lost in thought.
Somebody else has magic? Harry thought. That could be really bad, the worst part is they didn't know how good she was. She could either be insanely good, or really unstable. There were good answers.
"Hermione," Harry began, "we don't know how good Morgana could be. I think we need to find out."
"How's that going to happen?"
"We need to spy on her. Find out how she reacts to things... Her weapons... If she has alliances. I don't know, Hermione. But, I have this bad feeling if we don't do something about her, she's going to win."
Hermione nodded. "Where do you think her campsite will be?"
"I'm guessing she might be moving a lot, but I also think she's smart enough to stay by a plot of water."
"Can't she just make water like we can?"
Harry shook his head, "isn't she from a different Fandom?"
Hermione's eyes widened as she got what Harry was talking about. "You're right, she might have different spells. Or..."
"What?"
"She's in an alliance with people who don't know she can make water. It could be a secret she's trying to hide."
"Why hide a gift like that?"
Hermione turned to the pamphlet again, she skimmed over Morgana's Fandoms' history. She stayed quiet for a couple minutes quietly speed reading the story. Harry patiently waited for her to finish. After a couple minutes her mouth dropped.
"What is it?"
"You know about when I said she had magic too?"
"Yeah,"
"Well, her kingdom made the practice of sorcery illegal-as it turns out Morgana's biological father, King Uther Pendragon, made the practices of magic punishable by death. Harry, that was her father. Do you think he knew?"
"Not a chance," Harry said. "She must've kept it a secret."
Hermione bit her lip, "she must have been so alone..." Her voice drifted off.
"Does it say why the king made it illegal?"
"Well, all it says it that the King's wife died of magic, so I'm guessing the King didn't want anybody else to dies by the rights of magic. But here it says that whenever somebody practiced magic, or was even accused of it, they were either burned at the stake, or faced the guillotine."
"Like the Salem witch trials," Harry suggested.
"Exactly like the Salem witch trials," Hermione said. "Harry, we need to go find her now."
"You're right, but the sun will be going down at any minute so we don't have much time left."
"Actually, I think it will be better at night, the darkness will conceal us,"
Harry grinned, "And, it will conceal... This broomstick!" He cheered holding up the broom like it was a trophy.
Hermione's eyes widened. She hated flying.
"Um... Harry... I think that traveling on foot will be safer...and well, you know how I feel about flying,"
Harry smiled at her, "It'll be easy, 'Mione," he said. "And it's much faster, and much safer. Besides, there was hardly anything in the Cornucopia that could take down something that could fly. And like you said, nobody will see us."
"But I really don't feel comfortable-"
"Hermione," Harry said. "It will be fine. You can hold onto me the whole time and it'll be perfectly safe."
Hermione gritted her teeth, and sharply inhaled. "Fine... If we must..."
Harry grinned wildly. "Great! We can wait until nightfall. But first, let's get some to eat, I'm starving."
Hermione threw the chocolate frog at him, "you sound like Ron," she said irritably.
Harry chuckled lightly, and broke off the chocolate in half, and gave Hermione the bigger piece.
"Yeah, that sounds like something he'd do."
xxx
Harry grabbed his broomstick and threw one of his legs over the stick, he waited for Hermione.
"You coming?"
She let out a sad grumble and stiffly put herself on the broomstick. She hated flying so much. Harry kicked off the ground and the broom hovered. Hermione yelped and threw her arms around Harry's neck. She buried her face in his jacket. Harry laughed, but stopped when Hermione gave him a hard kick.
"Stop laughing, this is an idiotic idea." She scolded.
"Alright," Harry surrendered, throwing his hands up.
"Put your hands back on the broom!"
Harry did as he was told. The broom began to fly higher into the air. Harry pointed the broom upwards to give them flight. Harry kept notice of Hermione and tried to keep the broom from shaking. Hermione yelped louder a second time, so Harry tried to calm her down.
It didn't work that well.
"I don't CARE what you say, let's just find Morgana so we can go on SOLID GROUND!"
Harry stayed quiet for the rest of the trip. He even refused to talk when Hermione half choked, half suffocated him by pulling on his neck.
After sailing low through the tops of trees, they discovered her camp to make a long story short. It was tedious and took most of the night to find it, but they did.
Harry found an opening through the tree, and flew through. He carefully landed on a spot on the ground, a few feet from Morgana's campsite. He quietly jumped off the broom, and helped Hermione off because she was too frazzled to do it herself.
"Okay," Harry whispered. "Morgana's camp is a few feet away. We need to be really quiet. You got your wand out?"
In response, Hermione held it in front of her face. Then went to her beaded bag, and got the invisibility cloak. They threw over themselves and began to slowly walk over to Morgana's campsite. Quickly, they began to pick up conversation, which Hermione noted, telling her she in fact did have alliances. They bent down on the ground, just in case.
"But I don't want her taking watch," came a voice that belonged to a boy. "Katniss, she could hurt you."
"In all the time she's been with us, she hasn't put a finger on us. I would be dead on the first day if it weren't for her." Another voice argued, it was a girl's.
"She's planning. I don't trust her, I can't afford to lose you. I won't have anything else if you're gone. My family is dead now, and you have your mother. You have people who still care about if you live or die!"
"Don't talk like that. I care. Peeta, please trust me on this."
"Can I? I want to trust you, and I will. But can we trust her?"
"Yes!"
The couples talking was interrupted when another girl came into the campsite, a bundle of sticks in her hand.
"I saw something in the sky," said the girl.
Hermione flinched, it was the woman in the pamphlet. Morgana. They exchanged glances. If only they knew would she was, thought Hermione. They wouldn't have the alliance.
"What did you see?" Asked the girl.
"It was probably a bird," said the boy.
"No, it was a tribute. I don't know how they did it, but they did." Morgana said.
Hermione punched Harry's arm as hard as she could. Harry opened his mouth and mouthed a scream. No scream came out but it sure did looked like it did. She stared at him and whipped her head back to the alliance. Obviously peeved.
"You're probably just tired, I'll talk first watch." Said the girl.
"I'm not tired, besides, I get nightmares every time I close my eyes. I'll take watch." Morgana said.
"No," said the boy. "I'm taking watch, both of you get some sleep."
Morgana opened her mouth to object, but the boy stared her down. She shook her head, "then I shall take the second watch when you grow weary. Please, Peeta. Trust me,"
"She doesn't sound like a blood thirsty murdering witch!" Harry whispered to Hermione. Her nose scrunched as she whipped her head to him.
"Does anybody? She's like a terrorist, " Hermione whispered turning her head to Morgana. "You can never tell,"
The blond boy Morgana referred to as, Peeta spoke again.
"I'll trust you when I want to," said the boy. Hermione was confused. His face was too kind to say such mean things. Hermione looked at him harder. He was handsome enough and his general features seamed warm and comforting. The only thing that was off were his eyes. Pain were in them. They were dead and had no light, despite the light color of blue. Hermione decided when she was done with spying, she would read his chapter in the book.
Morgana furrowed her brow, "look, I understand if you don't want to trust me, I do. You have Katniss to think about, but if I wanted to kill her, I would have left her to die on the ground on the first day!" Her hands glowed, which were noticeable in the cool dark night air.
Hermione smugly grinned at Harry. Harry blew his dark bangs out of his face.
Peeta grabbed the girl with the dark brown hair in a braid, and out her behind her back. "Peeta, it's fine. She's not going to hurt us," she said.
"Is she? Look at her hands! They're glowing!"
Morgana flushed and the glowing stopped. She gritted her teeth.
"It's nothing." She lied. Harry knew she was lying.
"Is it? On the first day in the games, you started that stupid fire. How do you do that?"
"It's nothing," Morgana said with a more icy tone.
"Peeta, stop. This isn't like you," the girl said, pulling him aside. In a quiet voice she whispered to the boy, "I know you're still dealing with the after effects of the Tracker Jacker venom. But you need to get it under control. Please Peeta." Pleaded the girl, she kissed him. Peeta didn't faze. He brushed her aside.
"I can't get it under control when our 'friend' is hiding something from us!"
"I told you... IT'S NOTHING!"
Morgana's hands burst with a neon purple light. The light curved towards the couple, and it burned them. Harry and Hermione cupped their hands around their mouths.
Morgana grimaced, "I tried to be nice, but you forced my hand." She turned, "And you will never yell at me again. Or I shall make you pay,"
Peeta protectively kept his hands over the girl in a manner that Harry made realize how much Peeta must've cared for her.
He felt the same for Hermione. He didn't want anybody to hurt her either.
Morgana strutted towards them, "you know what? I don't need you anymore. Your just dead weight to me now. But I'll spare you. Even though you don't deserve it. Especially you, Peeta. But Katniss needs you." Morgana didn't take the weapons when she left, she didn't need it. She took their food. Peeta grimaced at her.
"I'm going to cheer when you're face is shown in the sky." Peeta said.
"Yes, Peeta." Morgana mocked. "Because I'm so helpless that I'm going to die by the hands of a stupid, inexperienced tribute." She scoffed and left the campsite. After a few minutes, Harry suggested that they needed to leave. Hermione sighed and they got off the ground. Harry's brought out the broomstick and Hermione stiffly got on the broomstick.
"Will you be okay?" Harry asked.
Hermione nodded and gulped before tightly wrapping her arms around his waist-so hard that Harry felt it was hard to breathe.
"Hermione, it's fine." Harry chuckled once they were in the air. How he loved the feeling of being in the sky. He felt so free.
"I know..." Her voice dragged.
"Look, here I'll put the broom a bit lower so you don't feel as bad."
The broom flew closer to the tops of the trees. Hermione felt a bit better but her stomach was a knot.
"It's okay, 'Mione." Harry soothed. Hermione let her arms lose the intense grip on his waist. Harry felt like he could breathe again.
Hermione laughed out of her nervousness. "Yeah, yeah, it's fine. It's all okay,"
Harry tipped up the top of the broom, it flew upwards.
"Yip!" Hermione screamed grabbing tighter to Harry. Her fingers clenched to Harry's shirt. She buried her head in Harry's hoodie again.
"Hey, hey, hey. Wait, look up."
Hermione hesitantly looked up, "what am I looking at?" She asked.
"The stars," Harry said.
Hermione's eyes looked at them. Small silver dots were laid up in a dark velvet background. "But... It's just a hologram." She said.
"Yeah, but the Gamemakers really know what they're doing when they designing."
"...Yeah, they do." Hermione smiled. Her grip loosened.
They flew through the air staring at the sky. Harry's heart fluttered, this is the greatest day ever. He thought.
Hermione laid her head on his shoulder. Harry felt better.
Just then, Hermione began to slide off the broom, but before she could grab onto Harry, she fell off the broom. The broomstick had not been more than a few feet above the trees. But the fact didn't make Harry feel better. He panicked.
"Hermione!" He screamed. He whipped the broom and made the broom go as fast as possible. She would not get hurt. She would not get hurt... The sound of a break drove Hadrys heart into his stomach.
"HERMIONE!" he screamed. When he went on the ground, he saw Hermione lying awkwardly on the forest floor.
"Hermione? Hermione, please be okay..." He bolted towards her.
"I'm fine," she groaned.
"No, you're not. What did you break?"
"I fell on my shoulder very awkwardly. It's really bad,"
Harry's eyes widened and he felt water rising in his eyes.
"Please be okay, I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry. This is my fault, please be okay, is their anything in your pack?"
"Not unless we're counting dried fruit and rope." Hermione said sarcastically.
Harry's eyes lit up, "Your wand!" He cried.
He searched for Hermione's wand in the pack. When he brought it out, he realized he didn't know the proper spell to heal her. His mind was going too fast to think reason.
"I don't know what to do with this!" He admitted. "I can't think of any healing spells!"
"Dumbeldore could get us a sponsor," Hermione said hopefully.
"That wouldn't work, not unless we do something the audience would love. I don't even know if we are being shown!"
As if it were on cue, somebody spoke into the loudspeaker connecting it to the games. A loud scream of feedback was heard. Waking up anybody still asleep.
"Attention everyone, it is time for the Feast. For those in the Games who don't realize. . .the Feast will give you one chance to get something you need desperately. Whether medicine. . .Blankets. . .Or even weapons. The Feast begins the day after tomorrow at dusk. This will be the only announcement,"
Another scream of feedback. Then the microphone clicked off.
Hope surged through Harry.
"Don't worry, Hermione. You're going to be fine."