Marik
"Please, tell me someone saw some damn fireworks," he panted out. Between the exhaustion, drain on his magic, and the injury to his head it was hard to get the words out.
"No, still no fireworks. Are you okay?" Hermione asked him. He could feel her fingers looking over the back of his head.
"Yeah, I will be fine. Harry how are you?"
"I'm fine, just exhausted as hell,"Harry replied.
"Did my copy drop a mirror piece too?"
"Yeah, it did. It had the letter l on it too," Hermione answered.
"F, o, l, huh?" He put all his effort and strength into trying to get back up to his feet, which was very difficult at the moment. "So what now?"
"I guess we put the mirror back together again," Harry replied and Marik could see Harry picking up the pieces of the mirror and making his way over to the wall where the mirror had been.
"Here." Hermione handed Harry the third piece of the mirror.
"We're missing a piece?" he asked as he made his way over to his friends. Even with the three pieces there was still a large portion of the top of the glass that was missing.
"Seems so," Harry replied.
"Guys look!" Hermione pointed at the top of the mirror. In the spot where the glass was still missing a letter was carving itself into the wood.
"O," Harry read the letter out loud.
"I don't get it," he said. He was beyond the point of being able to think through more puzzles like this.
"Me either," Hermione admitted.
"Lets scan the room again. Maybe something else appeared after all of our copies were defeated," Harry ordered and they all slowly made their ways around the room, looking for anything that might shed some light on where they were supposed to go from here.
"Anything?" Harry asked after a few minutes of searching.
"Nothing," Marik replied. All he had found was dust and stone.
"Nothing," Hermione added.
"Nothing really stands out from the puzzle or clue either," Harry said, thinking out loud.
"What about the letter o, does that stand out at all?" he asked.
"I can't think of anything," Hermione answered.
"What about all of the letters?" Harry's tone changed a little, sounding like he might have an idea.
"Explain," Hermione ordered.
"The letters were important in every room that we have been in so far, so they must still be important in this room too. What if this o is the last letter and we have to spell something out with all of the letters," Harry explained. The pounding in Marik's head was getting worse and it was making it tough to process Harry's words.
"Hmm. . . I don't know. We have been given twenty-one letters since the beginning so it can't be just one word; it would have to be a phrase or something," Hermione replied.
"It's the best idea we have right now, Hermione make me and Marik copies of the letters we have been given and let's all see if we can find something in them," Harry ordered. Hermione took out two more pieces of parchment and copied all of the letters onto them for he and Harry. Marik laid down on the ground and started looking at the parchment, hoping desperately that they would come to the answer soon.
R, y, b, g, o, w, p, w, m, e, a, j, s, e, l, r, l, f, o, l, o. He read the words over and over again in his head, trying to make words out of them. The more he thought the more his head started to hurt. This was almost like torture when you were this mentally and physically exhausted. For a while they all just sat on the ground in a circle in silence, looking over their pieces of parchment.
"Anyone found any words?" he asked after a while, needing to take a break.
"I have found bunch of words, but none that make sense together. Ogres, wager, bears, brawl, wager, barrell, barley," Hermione read off words from her list.
"I think we need to focus more on the context and less on just looking for words. With this many letters we could end up here for weeks," Harry said.
"What is the context?" he asked.
"Well I guess mirrors, puzzles, Triwizards' Tournament, Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore," Harry answered.
"Why Dumbledore?" he asked.
"Well he designed the task, so he had to be the one to decide what the words spell," Harry answered him.
"Yeah, you're right. Which means we are never going to solve this. Dumbledore is too quirky. Knowing the Headmaster it is going to me some exotic type of candy or a fancy robe designer that we have never heard of." He rubbed his temples, trying to alleviate some of the pain behind his eyes.
"That's it!" Hermione screamed out into the room. Marik turned to face her and could see her scribbling out letters like a madman on her parchment.
"Elaborate please," Harry looked just as perplexed as he did as they both watched Hermione work.
"Harry you know a lot more about wizarding candies than we do. What is a type of jelly candy?" Hermione frantically asked Harry.
"Uhh lemme think. . . jelly beans, jelly buttons, jelly skulls. . ." Harry was scratching his head as he tried to think.
"No, none of those are it. Keep thinking," Hermione ordered.
"I don't eat a lot of jelly candies so this tough. Uhh, jelly straws, jelly worms, jelly. . ."
"That's it!" Hermione shouted.
"Did you solve it?" Marik asked. All of this was flying over his head.
"Partially. It has to be something with candy knowing Dumbledore. Everyone who has ever met him or read about him knows he is a candy fiend. I spelled out jellyworms so far with the letters, which just leaves: e, b, p, o, w, l, a, r, g, o, f, g. Harry what flavors of jellyworms are there?"
"I mean there are tons. Strawberry, watermelon, cherry, pineapple, grape, lemon, taffy. . ." Harry started to answer.
"Grape!" Hermione shouted out again. Marik was amazed that she was somehow piecing this together. "Grape Jellyworms. Now we just need to get rid of: f, b, o, o, w, l."
"Hmm. . ." Harry thought outloud.
"Bowl?" Marik said, that being the first word that came to mind with the letters Hermione gave them.
"BOWL OF GRAPE JELLYWORMS!" Hermione shouted! As soon as the words left Hermione's mouth a bright flash of light appeared from the mirror, blinding them all for a second. When the light vanished the missing piece of the mirror had appeared and fitted itself into the mirror.
"Fireworks?" Harry asked, as they all looked around the room, hopeful they would see some sparks.
"No. . ." Marik answered first, not attempting to hide the tone of the defeat in his voice. This task was killing him, literally.
"Guys look, the mirror has writing on it now," Hermione said as she examined the mirror more closely.
"What does it say?" Harry asked, moving over to join Hermione near the mirror.
"Mirror of Erised. Harry we read about that mirror didn't we?" Hermione asked Harry. Marik was too exhausted to participate in their discussion and continued to just lay on the floor.
"The name does ring a bell. Give me a second to think," Harry replied. For another long silent moment they all remained quiet inside the dungeon room, Hermione and Harry deep in thought and Marik just trying not to pass out.
"Mirror of desires. . ." Harry mumbled, breaking the silence after a while.
"Its reflection shows what you most desire! What do you both see in it?" Hermione finished Harry's thought. Marik painfully lifted himself up from the floor and made his way awkwardly over to the mirror to look into it.
"I see all of us, Alina, and my family in my living room. We are all sitting together, talking, and laughing. And there is a copy of the Daily prophet on the tea table. It says Voldemort Truly Dead in big bold letters," Harry whispered out as his eyes widened and looked deeper into the mirror.
"I'm with Dumbledore in his office. He's just told me personally that I was ranked the number one witch in Europe. I look so excited. Dumbledore's asking me if I would do him the honor of being his apprentice and studying directly under him too. What do you see Marik?" she asked him.
Marik approached the mirror and looked into it; at first only seeing himself before the visage before him faded. He looked deeper into the mirror and spoke of what he saw.
"I'm in the middle of a stadium, thousands of people are seated around me cheering. I'm standing above Flitwick's body. I've just conquered him in a duel and been named Dueling Master of Europe. I look older and I'm holding a wand different to my own. . ." his voice trailed off as he spoke and continued to look into the mirror.
"Maybe we have to desire a door to get to where the cup is?" Harry asked.
"Hmm. . . maybe. . ." Hermione thought outloud.
"The cup!" he mumbled, as he dropped to the floor from exhaustion. He had bleed so much he was sure he would pass out soon.
"What was that?" Hermione asked him. He lifted his head up.
"We desire the cup!" he shouted, and returned his head down to the floor, too exhausted to keep it up.
"That's it!" Marik heard Harry shout. Whatever his friends did next Marik missed, but he did not miss the sound of fireworks being fired off into the air. It took all the energy he had left in him, but at the sound of the sparks somehow a smile and a grin found its way to his lips.
"We did it!" Hermione screamed out into the room.
"Yay!' he half-heartedly mumbled as his world started spinning and he felt himself getting sucked through a tight hole. The spinning of the familiar portkey sensation combined with the spinning already going on in his head was too much for him to handle. As soon as he felt his back land on something soft he leaned over and emptied his stomach. Thankfully someone had foreseen that this may have happened and all of his stomach's contents found there way into a bin by the medical gurney's side that he was now laying on.
"Nice," Harry joked from beside him. Marik's eyes took a few moments to slow down from all the spinning and puking but once they did he could see that they were inside the champion's tent again. The champion's tent was bustling with people and staff attending to what he assumed was other champions. One of the Durmstrang medical staff already was pushing him onto his side and was poking and prodding the back of his head.
"Who else is here?" he asked Hermione and Harry in between winces of pain as the medical staff poured something into his hair.
"Both the other teams are," Hermione answered.
"Does that mean we came in last?"
"Looks like we might have," Harry answered him sounding gloomy.
"Damn, even when we were the only team with a clue too. Do any of them at least look in bad shape?" he asked again. His world was still so foggy and wavy he could barely make out his friends in front of him.
"Champions listen up!" He never got his answer as the voice he recognized as Dumbledore called out into the tent. Marik sat up and had to fight off the medical staff from trying to pin him down so he could see and hear their Headmaster.
"Congratulations to you all for completing the second task of the Triwizards' Tournament. Each team's performance had once again proved that you are the best team's in your schools. We all must admit that your strategies and teamwork were all quite inspiring to behold. Please give yourself a round of applause for what you have achieved." The champion's tent was filled with applause.
"Now on each team's performance. Beauxbatons was the first team to to finish the task and did so a full forty-three minutes before the next team. Durmstrang came in second place, and Hogwarts was the third to finish and did so fourteen minutes slower than Durmstrang. Out of all the teams Hogwarts suffered the greatest amount of physical injuries. You will now be awarded points based off of your performances on the task from each Headmaster. The scores from this round will be added to the scores from last round to give you your current total scores.
"Starting with Beauxbatons, I award you nine points," Dumbledore announced.
"I also award Beauxbatons with nine points," Durmstrang's Headmaster said.
"Nine points as well," Beauxbaton's headmaster added with a large grin.
"Next is Durmstrang, I award you eight points," Dumbledore continued.
"I award Durmstrang eight points as well," Durmstrang's Headmaster added, looking much happier with his team's performance this round.
"I will also award Durmstrang with eight points," Beauxbaton's Headmaster said.
"And lastly, for Hogwarts, I award you seven points," Dumbledore said.
"I too award Hogwarts seven points," Durmstrang's Headmaster announced.
"I will award Hogwarts with seven points as well," Beauxbaton's Headmaster added.
"With these points tallied the new totals are such: Beauxbatons now leads all schools with fifteen-point-seven points. Hogwarts is in second place with an even fifteen points. And Durmstrang is still in third place with fourteen-point-three points.
"Congratulations again to you all, and we all wish you the very best of luck on the third and final task. Trust me when I say that you will need it."
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