Chapter 7 - The Tributes

Training had been dreadful for the Potters. Albus had been practising archery, and managed to miss the target completely on his first go. The Career tributes had almost died of laughter at seeing this, slapping their knees to express their high levels of amusement. They calmed down a bit after Lily managed to shoot the target right in the heart. Albus went to practice sword fighting, while Lily thought she'd try and make some allies. She spotted the boy from District 3, Cole, trying to tie some knots, and went to sit next to him. She sat down, and tried to catch eye contact, but he was either enthused in his knot or extremely shy.

'Hey,' said Lily, unsure of what Cole was thinking.

Cole stared at her. He seemed to examine her and then look around, until he replied with a faint 'Hi'.

'You're doing well,' Lily praised him, happy that he wasn't going to kill her.

'Thanks,' he said, feebly.

'I'm Lily, from Seven,' she said, admiring how Panem she sounded.

'Why make friends?' he said, his voice without any hope. 'You'll only miss them.'

Cole turned back to his knot. Lily thought about her next move. Before she said anything, Cole looked up and offered his hand to her. 'Cole,' he said, 'From Three.'

Lily shook his hand, and they gave each other a small smile. Then, there was a clatter from behind them. They turned round, and didn't see what had caused it. Lily stood up, and saw a girl with blonde hair on the floor, next to the stand on which bows and arrow were kept. Albus had already run over to help her up, which Lily deemed as the signal to turn away and presume it was all fine.

'Poor girl,' Cole said, still looking over in her direction. 'It must be so hard.'

'What must be?' Lily asked without hesitation.

Cole turned his stare back at Lily, and the world seemed real again. In his eyes, there was only oblivion. She realised she was training for a fight to the death, and that any odds there might be were not in her favour. Then he left, and she was no longer imprisoned in his hopeless eyes. She put her head in her hands and wondered what had just happened. She tried to forget it while tying knots, but it was impossible. How could looking into his eyes cause such a terrible revelation? She was aware before that she was to fight to the death, but it had always felt like there was hope, a chance of life. Why had it not sunk in until now? How could she ever not feel so hopeless ever before? Lily just sat, staring at her rope, and time flew by. Albus appeared next to her, and sat down.

'Hey there,' he greeted her.

Lily turned her head. 'What was wrong with that blonde haired girl?' she asked him.

'She didn't see where she was going and tripped, that's all.'

'Cole said "It must be so hard".'

'What? Who's Cole?'

'The boy from Three, over there.' She nodded in the direction of the archery practise area where Cole was standing next to another black haired boy, only the other boy had spiky hair, his ears didn't stick out and he was a little bit taller. They did not seem to talk or even make eye contact, and Lily seemed to understand why. If she remembered correctly, District 3 was the technology district, and a little bit of knowledge with gadgets could mean a lot in the Arena. So, tributes might save anyone with some of that knowledge so they could help them later or, alternatively for Careers, keep them hostage and torture the information out. Lily was surprised about how the cruel sciences of the Games were making sense to her now, and she felt a little bit more optimistic. After all, she did have a one-in-twenty-four chance of winning.

Training finished for the day, and the two Potters headed back up to their current home on Floor Seven. They sat down in front of the television set and Lily explained all that she knew so far to Albus.

'So,' she said, 'One, Angora and Dynamo, not friendly; Two, Olida and Marcus, very not friendly; Three, Hayley and Cole, remember them, they seem like potential allies; Four, Kristen and, oh, what's his name -'

'Isn't that Eric?' Albus assisted.

'Yeah, Eric,' realised Lily. 'They would seem sort of alright, but they're Careers, and that's where I last got up to.'

'Alright then, so, on we go?'

'On we go.'

They started off at the reaping in District 5. Both of the tributes were of the youngest age and appeared pretty helpless. The Potters agreed they would help them if they made it past the beginning. Then, it was District 6. The girl's name was Etta, and she looked as though she could be a valuable ally. She was dark blonde and probably about 10 centimetres smaller than Olida and five less than Angora, but she had a fighting look about her. She didn't look like the type to run away to die, she looked liked she wouldn't give up easily. Albus and Lily made a mental note to look out for her. Then, the male tribute was reaped. He was about fifteen centimetres taller than Etta and about the same height as Dynamo, but about nine centimetres shorter than Marcus. It was at this point when Albus asked Johanna, who was passing by, to give them a list of the tributes heights. She agreed to try and do so, then walked off. The boy from 6 had quite fashionable brown hair and his name was Tait. Lily liked the sound of that; Etta and Tait, Tait and Etta. She wondered if the people of the Capitol would be thinking the same. Next up, District 7. Albus and Lily looked at each other, gave a faint smile, then turned back to face the screen. As they recalled, Lily was called up by Hilaria, but then, something strange happened. Everything appeared to skip a moment, and then it was the male reaping. James had been cut out. His little revolution had been removed from the clip. Lily and Albus turned to face each other again, each with a look of disgust. They didn't really want to see James get taken away by Peacekeepers, they just wanted to have the chance to see him.

'Let's do it for him,' Lily suggested.

'Yeah, for James,' Albus replied enthusiastically. 'Let's get back to see him, he'll be missing us.'

James was indeed missing his brother and sister, but he knew if they saw him it would only make things worse. Albus found it hard to hide his knowledge of what James had been subjected to by the Peacekeepers from Lily, and Lily found it hard to stop herself from asking if James was alright because she feared the answer. Even though Lily had not been told, and even if Albus had not been told, they would both have known something was wrong. They were like a triangle, a golden trio; with one third removed, they were like a partially built structure or a key that hadn't been completed. Albus grabbed Lily and hugged her tight, hoping that her bright energy of innocence would protect him from the dark feelings growing inside of him.

'Ah,' said Lily, 'we missed Eight.'

'I met the Eight tributes today,' said Albus. 'They're convinced they can survive going to the Cornucopia at the beginning. After hearing that, I didn't pay much attention to them.'

It was now District 9 on the screen, and the escort was searching for a girl's name. The unfortunate female tribute was revealed to be Natalie Skeater and, for some reason, gasps went off all around. Soon, a blonde girl approached the stage slowly, her long hair nearly reaching her waist. She seemed to lose her balance on her way to the stairs, so a Peacekeeper came over to help her. Surprisingly, he held her hand and walked her up the stage. He put his hands on her shoulders and seemed to point her in the right direction. Then, he gave her a little kiss on the cheek and walked back down the stairs, seemingly wiping a tear away from his eyes. The escort started talking to Natalie, but the poor girl couldn't seem to form any words out of fear and shock. The glamorous escort concluded that she was lost for words as a result of being so honoured, and went away to reap a male tribute.

'It's a shame, isn't it?' Albus said.

'What is?' Lily replied sharply. 'Cole said that too!'

Albus didn't reply, he didn't seem able to. Lily grabbed the remote for the television and re-winded to try and find a close up of Natalie to see if there were any clues about the 'shame'. She paused at a close up of Natalie and made such a large gasp that she because short of breath. It appeared that instead of eyeballs, in Natalie's eye sockets were two large, misty pearls. There were no pupils or irises, just a cloudy white all around.

'Merlin's beard,' breathed Lily. 'She's blind.'

Lily rose and walked off, tears forming in the eyes she had become a lot more grateful for. Albus followed, but Johanna stopped in front of him and handed him a sheet of tribute names and heights. Lily ran into her room, dug her face deep into her pillow and realised how ignorant, or indeed, blind she had been.