Chapter 5 – The Training Center
"Draco?" I hear from outside my door. That doesn't sound like Umbridge, but I'm still half asleep and can't make out the muffled voice. "Draco, its Pansy. Open up, I've been worried about you all night." I sit up slowly, holding my head in pain. "Coming." I say irritated. Standing up, I realize something. I slept in my clothes from the parade all night. I roll my eyes. Great. Whatever, I have to take a shower anyway…
After I open the door, I lean against the doorway, tiredly. I probably look like a ship wreck by the look on Pansy's face. "You look sick. Wait…" She says and pushes my bangs out of my eyes, "Have you been crying? Draco what's going on with you and Goyle?"
I shove her hand away, "That's none of your business."
"It is my business! Draco, I don't want to see you get killed. Not by him."
"Yeah, well, it looks like it's coming to that." I sigh, "When will you get it? I'm not cut out for this. Goyle even said I'm weak, so maybe I am."
"Don't listen to what he says! Are you forgetting what you said to him yesterday? You know right from wrong – you know better not to kill."
I look down and hold my left arm, "Do I?" She looks down with concern and pushes my hand off of my arm before looking up at me, "You do. Just because you have that mark doesn't make you any different than who you really are. You're my friend, Draco and whether or not we lose during these Games, we'll still be friends."
"You say that now… But as soon as we get to that arena you'll turn. Trust me; you'll want to kill me just as much as Goyle does."
"I would never even think about hurting you. Listen, just try to stay away from him until the Games. If you don't, he'll kill you before you can lift a weapon." She places her hand on my face, gently, where Goyle hit me yesterday. "Besides, he's already hurt you enough." I finally lift my head up and see her leaning in slightly. I don't know what makes me lean in after her but as soon as I realize what's going on I swallow hard and pull away.
"I'll um… I'll meet you downstairs for breakfast soon."
She pulls back and I see her face flush up, "R-Right." Nervously, she pushes her hair over her ear and smiles at me before I shut the door. Well, that was awkward. Now I need a shower.
I'm the last one to get downstairs again, but this time I'm actually hungry. Snape is in deep conversation with the other Slytherins and I don't think Goyle even notices me walk in. Pansy on the other hand does see me and gives me a soft smile before turning back to the conversation. For some reason I feel slightly better today. Maybe it was because I needed to get that anger out last night and I finally had that chance.
When I sit down I decline the apple and take some pancakes. "Oh, Malfoy, there you are. When did you get here?" Snape asks, finally drawing his attention to me.
"Just got here." I say as I put some syrup on my pancakes, "Thanks for noticing. What are we talking about?"
"Training. Oh, and last night you missed the overview of the Reaping and Parade so we'll watch that tonight." Snape says.
"Right." I say, remembering how I stormed to my room out of anger.
"Anyway, after breakfast, change into your training clothes and we'll meet down here and head to the training center together. Now, when we get there, there will be 20 or so stations set up. Each one will be of some use to you in the Games. Most are for just normal combat, the others can range from obstacle courses, duels and even setting up different traps."
"You said duels right?" I hear Goyle ask. Something about his tone causes me to swallow without chewing.
"I did. Why?" Snape asks.
"Just making sure." He says, with a look at me. I just sink, pawing the pancakes with my fork. I feel Pansy elbow me. "I know." I drop my voice, "I'll stay away from him."
"Are the houses combined?" Marcus asks.
"Yes. Every house will be there so you can duel other people aside from your own house, but only if you choose to."
Umbridge, who was reading the newspaper on the living room sofa, starts walking over, "And no funny business, do you understand!?" She says, pointing her rolled up newspaper at each one of us as she speaks, like she's about to swat a fly.
"What?" Crabbe asks with a face full of blueberry muffin. I roll my eyes at how stupid he looks as muffin crumbs fall out of his chubby mouth while he speaks. He looks like an overweight chipmunk… an ugly chipmunk… I try not to laugh.
"She's right." Snape begins, "If any of you try to jump the gun and attempt to kill another tribute, you'll be sent to train alone until the Games start."
I drop my shoulders. Not so bad, I guess. Goyle wouldn't want to train alone since he probably wants to see what other tributes are training for and try to find their weaknesses. He can't do that if he attempts to kill me and is put in training solitude. Even still, I'm keeping my distance.
"There's a few days' worth of training before your interviews so make good use of it." Umbridge says.
"Don't forget your individual sessions. The day before your interview you'll have to do some impressive stuff for the Game Keepers. And Mad Eye is strict so plan out your tactics well. I'll be surprised if any of you get a score above 5 with Moody being judge." Snape says, leaning back in his seat with a smirk as if the thought of us failing amuses him.
"What's the highest score you can get?" I ask.
"No one has ever received a score over eight. But the highest is a twelve." Umbridge says, "But you'll have to do something pretty impressive to get a score like that!" She giggles.
Count me out then. I'm lucky to get a 4… maybe a 5, but that's pushing it.
"Alright, Slytherin, it's 12:00! Upstairs you go! Your clothes should be up there waiting for you." Umbridge says, tapping the newspaper in her hand.
We all pile upstairs and sure enough my training outfit in on my bed, neatly folded. It's just a plain black jumpsuit with the Slytherin shield on the back and one green and one silver strip running down each sleeve and leg.
I get dressed quickly and meet Snape and the others downstairs.
"Perfect, you're all on time. Now, training lasts for three days – if you ask me that's not enough time to prepare, so work hard."
We all nod before following Snape and Umbridge down a different hallway that passes the Gryffindors section.
I spot Harry and the other Gryffindors about ready to leave with they're mentor, but I turn away just when Harry notices me. I'm sure he's still angry about what I said to him on the train, and I'm not in the mood to argue with him about it.
The Training Center is a single tower just for tributes. It's at the very far end of this building and it'll pretty much be out home until the Games begin – since we'll be spending most of our waking moments there. Suddenly we stop when Snape presses a button to call the elevator. It smells of sour milk in here, but the plus side is the walls are made of crystal and you can see everyone below shrink to the size of ants as it shoots up.
When it opens, we pile out and Snape and Umbridge lead us down a white corridor to the training center. They'll be staying, obviously, to monitor or progress and asses us if we need them to, even though there are guards around, but they're there just to make sure we behave.
Finally, we stop at two white doors and when they slide open, I slowly step inside so I can get a look around. I can see that the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws have already made it here before us – some on obstacle courses, some brandishing weapons, the others look like their getting a lesson about making nets. The building is high and there's every type of station you can think of. Like Snape said, there's obvious section like, weaponry, obstacle courses… but there's also something I haven't seen before. On the far end, near the bleachers is a section for camouflage. Different colored paints are lined up with every sized brush – there's also some artificial trees and bark to test it on. I've never seen anyone use this, but if you're a good artist I guess it can be very helpful when it comes to hiding.
When we set foot inside, Goyle runs to the weapon rack and pulls off a long thick sword. I smirk when I see an axe there, similar to the one I used to kill the cobra back at the parade. But all I can do is look. I'm keeping my distance since Goyle already took that section over with Crabbe, Marcus, and few Hufflepuffs – those poor Hufflepuffs. They don't know what they're up against and they're all so young. I think the youngest is actually twelve and the oldest is fourteen. I'm seventeen and I'm not cut out for this. I can't help but feel bad. Last year, most of them died in the blood bath at the beginning of the Games. The others that made it to the arena alive ended up getting killed anyway. Even most of the Ravenclaws don't make it at the beginning. Last year it came down to a Slytherin and a Gryffindor. The Slytherin won by… I'm not even going to tell you what she did – it was brutal.
"Draco." I hear Pansy say. "Wanna do an obstacle course? It might help improve our running. We can learn about weapons later."
"Sure." I say before I start to follow her.
A few Hufflepuffs are doing this course. It looks like a sort of long hill with ridges and slopes going every which way. This won't be easy – this course just looks confusing, and these Hufflepuffs are small but determined and rough. They keep ramming into us and shoving me over to the point where I end up falling on the mat a few times, sometimes even landing on the course itself and it hurts. After a while I get the flow of this since I'm only practicing several times until my legs begin to ache. Pansy keeps telling me to take a break, especially when she sees me shaking since I'm starting to get exhausted. I tell her no or just ignore her before I keep going.
I'm tired, sweating and thirsty but as soon as I'm about to stop, I see Granger coming over. Now's my chance to put all that training into action. The Hufflepuffs were good practice. When I started to get good at this course they became like little rag dolls and I ended up being the one to shove them over, even Pansy was surprised when we raced each other and I beat her. But now I can take on someone a bit tougher. I know Granger won't go easy on me – she despises me.
"Well, hello there, Draco. Pansy."
"Mudblood! What are you doing here!? Go play with your little ginger boyfriend!" Pansy snaps.
I'm surprised to see Granger being calm about this. If it were me she would have probably had a knife in my stomach by now… or another punch to my face.
"I'm not here to fight. Do any one you want to race?" She asks.
"I'm out." Pansy says and grabs my arm, "Come on, Dray, we got better things to do."
"Actually, I think I'll stay here." I say. She looks at me shocked and even Hermione blinks.
"Well, alright. I'll see you later. When you're done, meet me by the weapons, Goyle moved to a duel." She says before walking away.
I turn back to Hermione, "Listen, before we start, I just wanna say-"
She looks at me, "It's okay, Draco… I don't want to fight either. Maybe we'll never be friends, but right now let's just… focus on living."
She's actually being nice to me and I'm actually being nice to her. Either way, it's probably better to make alliances than enemies. Seriously, Goyle is more than enough.
"Well, Draco Malfoy, good luck!" She says and we position ourselves at the beginning of the course to start. "On three." I say. She nods. "We'll count together. One…"
"Two…" I say.
We pause for a moment but I don't take my eyes off this course, "Three." We say together and run off. I'm surprised at how good she is – I've never seen her run so fast and I've never jumped over objects this quickly either. Where both neck and neck and attempt to shove each other off the course. I stumble a bit, but quickly regain my balance just in time to jump over a large bump in the course that pulls me ahead of her. I'm panting and I can hear her getting out of breath as well. I'm pretty impressed with her. I never thought after all these years I'd get the chance to compete against Granger and now that I am I finally get to see how strong she really is.
I'm tired now, but we're almost done. Hermione tries to go after my feet, so I would trip, but I jump just in time, causing her lose balance and fall off the course, onto the mat. I jump off to the end, out of breath.
I beat her… I actually won.
I feel like I'm about to topple over, I'm so tired. I lean down on my knees and breathe heavily before I can stand up straight. Going over to the spot where Hermione fell over, I reach my hand out to her to help her off of the floor.
She smiles up at me before taking my hand and I hoist her up. "That was fun." She says. She's not even the least bit mad that I beat her, and I'm not going to rub it in her face, either.
"Yeah." I say, still panting.
She laughs softly before pushing some hair out of her eyes and holding her hand out to me, "Great job, Draco!" I shake her hand lightly, "You too..." I say with a friendly smile. Just when she walks away some Ravenclaws come over. I've had it with this course so I let them take over and go to meet Pansy at the weaponry.
"Draco, you beat her! I saw the whole thing, I'm so proud of you!" Pansy says.
"She did a pretty good job too, though. It wasn't easy, she was fast."
"But you were quicker! Draco, if you do that in the Games, Goyle will never catch you. Besides, his weight will slow him down."
"I don't know about that. If he's that determined to kill me, he'll run as if someone is chasing him with an axe." Speaking of the axe I remember mine. I turn around to the weapon rack and thankfully it's still there. I yank it off while Pansy is talking. "Draco, I don't think you realize how strong you are. Sure you stumbled the first few times on that course, but that's only because you've never done anything like this before. When you practiced you were like a pro! That only shows that you can do this, it's in you."
"I hope you're right…"
"I care about you too much to lie. Now let's see what you got with that axe! You did a pretty good job at saving my life with it anyway. Let's practice on some dummies for a while."
I'm actually feeling pretty confident right now. Maybe I can do this… Maybe I can at least hold out for a little while in these Games. I'm still sticking by what I said, though… but fighting is all I can do. I'll never kill anyone purposely… and I'm sticking by that.
I have a hard time training with these dummies at first. They move by magic, with wooden rod sticks clamped in each hand. They move with you, as if they can actually tell what your next move will be. I keep getting hit in the ribs, neck, hips and stomach by these stupid things, and I never get a good enough chance to swing my axe. I groan in aggravation
"Take it slow." Pansy says. "If it can see your next move you have to look ahead of that. Try thinking ahead of yourself. Watch."
Pansy steps back a few feet and takes two throwing knives off of the vest she's wearing that keeps the knives in place. Her eyes lock onto the dummy as if she's trying to memorize every move it makes before he throws the first two knives only for the dummy to deflect her weapons sideways. She smirks and takes three more knives from her vest. She straightens up and tosses the first two, only this time she's quicker. The dummy deflects them, but just as it moves to whack the second one away Pansy throws the third. The doll hardly has time to react when the knife hits it square in the head. It stops moving completely and Pansy goes over to retrieve her fallen knives with a triumphant smirk. "Now you try."
I blink at her, a bit impressed. "Okay…" I say with an edge to my voice. The dummy starts to move, flailing its arms uncontrollably. I feel like my head is spinning as I try to concentrate on its movements – blinking my eyes to try and focus. "Draco, hit it." Pansy says from the side.
"No, it'll hit me!"
"Just do what I did! Trick it – think ahead of yourself."
I follow the dummies' arms a few seconds more before raising my axe up. It swipes a stick across my stomach but I stuck in just before it can touch me. Think ahead of yourself. With my axe still raised, I use my leg to try and side kick it, but it's too fast, and it hits my thigh hard with one of the rods. I stagger backwards a bit, dropping my axe to hold my leg, "Son of a – why can't I do this!?"
"You're too aggravated, that's why."
"I'm always aggrieved – you know me!"
"Draco, just try to concentrate."
I grumble and rub my sore leg before standing up right.
"Alright…" I say as I bend down to pick up my axe. I step forward, in front of the dummy, and take a breath. "This stupid doll is gonna die today." I hear Pansy let out a soft laugh from the side and I raise my axe up as if I'm about cut a tree down.
Again, this stupid doll starts thrashing its arms around. I try to control my breathing and grip my weapon tightly as I watch the doll's arms, trying to slow them down with my eyes the best I can. Concentrate. With one quick swig I swipe my axe across the dummies' head but its body automatically shrinks down, making me miss. It's aiming at my feet, trying to knock me over. Just before one of the rods can push my legs out from underneath me, I jump over it and land in a crouched position, so that I'm eye level with this thing. I quickly slice the dummies' legs clean off before it can try anything else. I stand up straight and watch it as it stops moving.
I blink. "Oh, God, I did it?"
Pansy jumps into me for a hug, "See!? You do have it in you!"
"Yeah… only you helped…"
"Oh, you just needed a little motivation, give yourself some credit! Hey, it's getting late. You wanna head inside for lunch?"
I look around the training center and see a few tributes piling out. I catch Harry's eye as he enters the elevator. He looks at me blankly before turning away when Ron calls him over. "Yeah." I say, stilling watching him.