February 2015

Valentine's Day, approximately 9:10 PM.

Helena waited all day to 'get with' Katie, as all the other times they just simply couldn't get away. Firstly, they both had a lot of homework to catch up on as it was getting nearer to the Second Task. Secondly, they couldn't sneak off to the Hufflepuff Common Room as so many people decided to go back to the Kitchens to get more food. But finally, the time came. And Helena couldn't wait.

Helena pushed Katie into the soft sofa. They had been spending more time here than usual. Ever since Christmas, this was like a magical place for the both of them. It was like it was engraved across their souls and Katie finally felt like she was at home.

Helena proceeded to nibble on Katie's ear and Katie pushed her away, indicating for Helena to stop. She wasn't in the mood.

"No, Helena," she stated clearly.

Helena took it as a sign of teasing and carried on.

Katie flipped out.

"Jesus Christ!" she shouted suddenly, startling Helena. "Didn't your parents teach you anything about consent?" Rage pulsed through her vains and took over her body.

Helena looked like as if she was just slapped hard in the face and her eyes narrowed to slits. She looked like she was going to spit fire.

"You were completely fine with it two months ago, when you took control of me and as soon as I take control over you, you act as though I've been tought consent by my two dead parents who died long before I knew what consent was."

"I - I," Katie stammered.

"Don't apologise," she snapped. "It's not my fault you can't handle a little dominance once in your life."

"It's not dominance, it's rape."

"Did you ever consider even for a second that I wanted what you did to me?"

"You seemed to like it."

"Yeah, whatever. You'll be begging for it soon enough and I'll be like 'Um, no, Katie, because I can't handle a little fun.'"

"Not everything is about you, Helena!" she screamed at her.

"I didn't make it about me," she replied calmly, even though she didn't feel it. "I just think that you don't love me enough to give me pleasure."

"Th-that's not true," Katie replied, her voice soft and hoarse. "Of course I love you, I always will."

x

A few weeks later...

The Riddle.

They were in the corner of the Slytherin Dormitory, figuring out the Riddle for the Second Task. It was past Midnight and everyone had gone to sleep. Most people wished Katie good luck, for she would need it. The Riddle was released just one day before the Task, another cruel joke of Voldemort's, Helena expected, since the Riddle proved difficult to solve, especially how half of it seemed to hardly make any sense at all.

The Second Task is to become your mask,
Not to harm yourself, but your dearest charm,
Pick up your wand, then proceed to your task -
You will probably be forced to disarm,
But this is not your concern, just begin.
For time flies when you're having fun,
Time will be an eternity for him.
But sooner than later, you shall be done,
Or suffer the wrath of what proved to be none.
After all, the ones you love must be saved,
But you can only do that at their pain -
Or else be in complete disdain with you.

"What I can gather from this, Katie, is that you'll be surrounded by the other Champions, you'll have to pick up your wand to disarm either the Champions or your victim, you have to save someone you love by giving them pain and the person you torture will probably feel it for ages but it'll only take like ten seconds. To summarise, we're both screwed," Helena said in a massive monologue, droning on. She'd been looking at this for at least five hours, her voice hoarse from all the possible theories it could be.

"Great. How exactly will we both be screwed?" she answered slowly, not giving her words much thought. She was tired, but she couldn't sleep. The Task was tomorrow.

"Because, I'm someone who you love, dumb ass. You'd have to torture me."

Katie froze. There was no way she could do that.

After Christmas... After Valentine's Day... She couldn't.

"What if I can't do that?" she pleaded.

"'Or else be in complete disdain with you.'" Helena quoted.

"But what does that even mean? It could mean a thousand things. Like who's going to hate me? You? Or Him?"

"Most likely both of us, a potion or a serum could make that happen... Trust me, Katie, you don't want Him hating you."

Katie sighed.

"Is there even a serum for that? I mean, I've never heard of a potion like it... Plus, serums aren't that common as they're so tricky to make..."

"You're forgetting he has Professor Snape, Katie."

"Right," Katie frowned. Was there a serum that made everyone hate you? Katie thought it unlikely, but who knows what the Dark Lord has. Followers is one thing, but powerful serums? It made her worried. "It's there a way for me to feign me to hurt you?"

"What do you mean?" Helena replied a little too quickly, her heart dropping. She didn't think of that possibility.

"Like, you know, use a spell that looks like a curse that's meant to cause pain but it doesn't cause pain at all. Like a -what's it called?- Flame-Freezing charm."

"No," she immediately said.

"But -"

"No," she repeated. "The Dark Lord will know the spell, he can manipulate fire well, He will know it's not real."

A long silence followed. Katie gulped the air anxiously. She was tired, and when she looked at the clock it was 2 AM. She accepted all of the wrongs of later that day and headed to a dreamless sleep.

x

The Second Task

The Champions were in a tent, waiting to enter the area. The first Champion to enter would be Aveline Roux, then it would be Ernest Hartl, and finally, Katie Fielding. It made Katie think if they always liked doing it in the alphabetical order of each school.

Katie, of course, was scared to hell. After all, Helena had been missing since breakfast and no one had seen her since. It made her wonder if she was already chained to a post and ready to be tortured. Her heart froze at that thought.

How can I hurt her? she wondered. But then a cannon sounded for the first Champion and Katie was brought back to her senses. It didn't take an announcement to say that she failed the task.

"The Beauxbatons Champion has failed to do the task. Ernest Hartl, please enter the arena."

He left quickly, twiddling his wand between his fingers. It was only a matter of time...

Surely enough, roughly five minutes later, an announcement was made.

"The Durmstrang Champion has passed successfully. Katie Fielding, please enter the arena."

Katie took a deep breath. She gripped her wand tightly, even though it felt like it was slipping out of her hands as she was worried. What if Helena won't love me any more after this? What will happen then?

She left the tent trembling slightly, and she gingerly followed a short path to the arena.

She stepped through a large arch moments later, which was the entrance. She barely heard the shouts as her hand subconsciously tightened around her wand. She started to feel slightly dizzy, but she couldn't focus on this for long: someone came out of no where and attempted to disarm her. She blocked it easily and they disappeared in thin air. She was momentarily confused, but she continued walking to where, predictably, Helena was chained to a post. She looked fine on the inside, but it made her wonder what had happened in the past few hours whilst she wasn't there?

Half of the audience was silent in anticipation, the other half were cheering on for her to get on and torture her. She couldn't say which half made her even more anxious. She stepped forward, taking in the surroundings around her. She continued walking subconsciously. Every other part of her body was screaming protest not to carry herself forward, but her legs paid no attention. She raised, her wand, trembling slightly. Anger towards Voldemort struck her like electricity, and the only way to transmit that hatred was hitting anyone in her way, even if it was her girlfriend.

"Crucio!"

And the red curse struck Helena, and she screamed in pain at the curse and she shook furiously, trembling horrendously. Katie wanted to keep going, to maximise the pain, but she stopped and she came to her senses.

She had just tortured the only person that she loved in the entire world.

"Katie Fielding, pass," the voice rung out.

The world spun around her, regret filling her quickly.

She fell backwards and everything went black.

x

Helena was beside her when she awoke hours later.

"What happened?" Katie murmured.

"Well, you kind of passed out... You did pass the Task though."

"But I tortured you?" she remembered. "Did it hurt?"

Helena looked at her blankly and then looked around the Hospital Wing to see if anyone was there. There wasn't.

"Well," she whispered. "That wasn't exactly me."

"What?" Katie almost shouted in disbelief.

"I kind of, um, made a Polyjuice Potion. I was kind of expecting something like this to happen, so I made the potion for future reference, and it came in handy."

"So you cheated?"

"No, I didn't cheat. There was just certain rules they forgot to mention, so I took advantage of it."

"So who did transform into you?"

"It doesn't matter. They're fine now. Honest. I made sure that they were."

"Right," she replied, scowling.

She decided not to worry about it much.

But then Helena brought her news that the Third Task was moved forward to next week, because the other schools have to leave for their examinations.

Katie almost fainted again.