Yo! So, here's that bonus Sev scene I mentioned at the end of the previous chapter. I don't want to explain again, so read the end chapter AN in the previous chapter if you're not sure what I'm talking about. This scene is canon to this fic. Basically, this is what Sev was seeing and thinking while Violet was competing. You'll notice similarities between the two scenes-this and Violet's because I wrote this first and then switched it up to hers. I'm rambling. Thank you to all readers so far!
"And now our fourth and final challenger, Violet Potter!" Bagman announced.
Severus watched closely as Potter walked into the stadium. Her long hair was tied back into a plait to keep it out of the way and she already had her wand at the ready.
The flag this time was dark green, but after noticing it, Potter's attention went to the doors the creatures were being let in through. Did she know what to expect? Did she know what the others had gone through?
The door opened seconds later and the first of three creatures emerged, officially starting the first round. Severus blinked, surprised. A runespoor. He relaxed slightly. This was fortunate. It wouldn't be for anyone else, but his Potter was a Parselmouth.
Potter watched the runespoor, but she didn't move, nor did she lower her wand. It was smart of her to not take her ability as a Parselmouth for granted.
The three-headed serpent slithered further into the stadium and then noticed Potter, all three tongues flicking out. It raised itself and reared back, prepared to attack, and Severus tensed again. Runespoors were venomous as well.
Potter, however, raised her hands in surrender and started to speak, expelling a series of hisses. Severus stiffened. Parseltongue was an uncomfortable language to listen to, for more than one reason, but at the same time, he didn't hate hearing it. He glanced around him.
Most people looked uncomfortable, squirming in their seats as if Potter was cursing them instead. The Slytherins, meanwhile, were practically leaning forward in their seats, and Severus sighed softly, a little amused. They were well used to this, he knew. Potter had a pet snake, after all. And Slytherins were always a little weak to Parseltongue. He was no different.
But it was Moody who caught his attention.
Moody's eyes, real and fake, were fixated on Potter and there was a peculiar expression on his face. Unless he was imagining it, he thought it was interest. No, not just interest. Was it glee? Why would Moody think Potter being a Parselmouth was a good thing? Perhaps he was wrong. Moody's face was badly scarred, and his expressions weren't always clear.
The runespoor's three heads looked as if they were arguing with one another, one seeming angrier than the other two, but Potter remained amiable, even sitting down cross-legged in the dirt, wand still in hand but not at the ready.
She continued to talk, expression open and friendly, and Severus wondered what was being said. He rubbed his left forearm absently, noticing Bagman's commentary (that he'd been ignoring), which had been going on incessantly during the task, had stopped.
Finally, a few minutes later, Potter raised her wand again and, to Severus' surprise, conjured a mouse. One of the runespoor heads snatched it from her hungrily, but Potter didn't appear bothered at all. Instead, she conjured a second mouse, offering this one to the second head, which accepted it quickly. Then she conjured a third mouse for the third head, though this one took a moment before it finally accepted it.
As the runespoor settled down to enjoy its (their?) meal, Potter stood, dusting herself off and said something to the snake before walking past it and climbing the rock to claim her first flag.
"Well," said Minerva a little stiffly. "That went well."
"She was lucky," Filius agreed. "I didn't expect her being a Parselmouth would come in handy."
Severus hadn't either, but for what was probably the first time, he found himself grateful that his Potter had the ability at all. Unfortunately, her luck ended there.
The doors opened and there was a loud roar. A dragon emerged-a Hungarian Horntail this time, and it didn't wait. It sent fire at Potter immediately and, eyes widening, Potter literally threw herself off the rock she was on and behind the closest boulder, which was barely large enough to block the fire.
"Why is the dragon second!?" Severus questioned with a hiss. The other three had gone through dragons as well, yes, but not until the third round. Why did Potter have to deal with it in the second round?
Pressed against the boulder, Potter shut her eyes. but whether it was to block out the jeers of the non-Slytherins or the roars of the dragon, Severus didn't know. She remained that way for a barely moment until the dragon began to approach with heavy, stomping steps.
Opening her eyes, Potter stood straight and held up her wand. She wasn't aiming at the dragon though, Severus noted.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Light burst out of the end of Potter's wand, forming the same snow leopard Severus remembered from last spring. The feline was so bright it quickly distracted the dragon and Potter directed the Patronus away from her, the dragon following after it.
The dragon was attempting to swipe at the Patronus, but Potter wasn't watching. Instead, she was moving in the opposite direction, heading towards the flag on the rock at the other end of the stadium.
She was going slowly, perhaps trying not to make any large movements that would garner the dragon's attention, but she was making progress.
But then the Patronus dissipated, no doubt because Potter wasn't focused on it enough and the dragon noticed her. She dropped to the dirt when flames were sent at her and was forced to roll away quickly when the dragon swiped its tail at her.
Feeling pain in his hands, Severus looked down and realized he had his fists clenched so tightly his hands were shaking. Hearing another roar, his head snapped back up, eyes again on Potter and the dragon.
She summoned her Patronus again, this time using her wand to guide it until it got the Horntail's attention again. Slowly, carefully, she pushed herself to her feet and started walking again, but she never stopped guiding her Patronus, making sure it stayed well away from her.
Potter inched her way around the stadium, taking the long way around behind the dragon, struggling to clamber up the rock with one hand, clearly unwilling to lower her wand lest her Patronus disappear again.
"You have it, Violet, just a little more," said Minerva encouragingly, though Potter, of course, was too far away to hear her.
And she did have it.
Though she nearly lost her grip and slipped more than once, Potter made it to the top of the rock and her Patronus dissipated just as she grabbed the green flag.
"And she's gotten through the second round!" Bagman announced. "One more round to go!"
Severus felt a lurch in his gut. He'd forgotten that this was only the second round. Why had his Potter faced the dragon in the second round instead of the third like the others? He found himself wondering that again and judging by Minerva and Filius' mutters, he wasn't the only one.
Potter lay panting on the rock as the dragon handlers hurried out to take the Horntail away and the crowd continued to boo and jeer, though the Slytherins, three Gryffindors, two Ravenclaws, and one Hufflepuff were doing their best to voice their support.
Potter smiled slightly, but the calm didn't last long. The doors opened again, this time to admit the third creature, and when Severus saw what it was, he nearly had a heart attack. Next to him, Minerva gripped her chest as if she had had a heart attack, and Filius looked just as close to one, as did most of the other professors.
The creature was a nundu.
These were so incredibly dangerous that Severus couldn't believe the Ministry had even managed to get their hands on one. If ten wizards were required to work together to subdue a dragon, at least a hundred would be needed to do the same to a nundu.
It resembled a leopard or a lion and would be taller than him if it stood on its hind legs. Its fur was yellow with black spots and it was already showing off impossibly sharp fangs as it growled at Potter.
Severus was, quite literally on the edge of his seat, gripping the railing in front of him so tightly he could barely even feel his hands. There was nothing Potter could do against this creature. There was nothing anyone could do against it on their own.
Eyes wide and face pale, Potter backed away. Did she know what this was? Did she know how dangerous it was? Did she know how quickly and silently it could move? Did she know how deadly its toxin-filled breath was?
She must have because the first thing Potter did was cast a bubblehead charm. And then she ran, making a break for it, aiming for the flag on the rock. But she didn't get far.
With only three bounding steps the nundu leapt over her and was in front of her again. Potter stopped abruptly, forced to back away as the creature stalked closer. Severus was just relieved it hadn't landed on her when it had jumped.
Potter looked around, desperation painted across her face, but there was no one to help her and Severus didn't see anything she could use either. Bagman was commenting away loudly, cheerfully, and enthusiastically, as if the fourteen-year-old girl in the stadium wasn't standing across the deadliest magical creature in existence. It was making Severus feel sick.
"Immobulus! Impedimenta!"
The spells didn't work and Severus knew it wasn't because Potter didn't know how to cast them. The older Slytherins must have taught them to her because fourth-years didn't typically learn these until later. The bubblehead charm was another she shouldn't have known. He was glad his snakes, or some of them, at the very least, had decided to take her under their wing.
Someone had to.
Potter attempted the spells again, but they still had no effect, bouncing off the nundu's body harmlessly. "Incarcerous!"
Ropes flew out of Potter's wand and wrapped around the nundu's body. For half a second, Severus thought she'd done it, but the nundu broke through them as if the thick ropes were nothing more than a bit of thread.
The nundu roared, and Severus felt the painful reverberations of it in his chest. Unfortunately, that was the exact moment Potter's bubblehead charm dropped. Only a fourth year, she couldn't hold it up for too long and she was forced to cast it again.
But it was already too late. She nearly dropped and Severus' heart sank even as he heard his fellow professors release sounds of shock and horror. Potter had inhaled the toxin. She'd managed to get the bubblehead charm back up, but even the tiniest fraction of toxin was deadly.
It was difficult to say how long she had left, as he wasn't aware of how much toxin she'd inhaled, but Severus would be surprised if it was more than ten minutes. Potter had to get this done and fast.
But she was already staggering where she stood. The nundu had stopped, and it stood watching her, but when the girl didn't fall, it snarled again and took one deliberately slow step forward.
Potter raised her wand. "Av-" She broke into a coughing fit. "Avis!" she cried hoarsely. A flock of small birds emerged from her wand and the nundu looked up. "Oppugno!"
Severus watched, amazed as the birds frenzied into an attack and the nundu reared back, trying to get away from the birds at first and then trying to capture them in its jaws. But Potter didn't wait to see any of this.
The instant she cast the second spell she took off running, and this time the nundu, successfully distracted, didn't follow her.
Potter's bubblehead charm fell as she ran but she didn't cast it again. Severus watched, heart in his throat, as she made it to the rock and scrambled up, seizing the flag. But Severus couldn't relax.
Dozens and dozens of creature handlers poured into the stadium as Bagman declared Potter's victory, but even when working together, the handlers weren't able to subdue and contain the nundu.
Through what could only be sheer luck, the handlers eventually resorted to drawing the nundu into a magically reinforced cage using food and were finally able to take it away.
And then, though Potter stood on unsteady legs, struggling to breathe, her face sickeningly pale, her scores were revealed, and those scores did nothing but disgust Severus even further.
Crouch gave her a five. Bagman gave her a four. Karkaroff and Maxime both gave her a six. Albus gave her a four. Her total score was twenty-five out of fifty.
The scores made no sense. Karkaroff and Maxime's sixes were too low but were at least somewhat fairer considering Potter was the competition. Crouch's five was even less fair, but Bagman and Albus' fours were surprising, to say the least. Potter should have gotten infinitely better scores.
Was this bias, because it could be nothing else, simply because Violet Potter, unlike Rose Potter, wasn't their precious Saviour?
"And there we have it!" Bagman announced. "In first place with thirty-six points, we have Viktor Krum! In second place with thirty-four points, we have Fleur Delacour! In third place with thirty-two points, we have Rose Potter! And finally, in fourth place with twenty-five points, we have Violet Potter!"
Severus tuned the voice out and stood, pushing past Minerva to leave the stands. He didn't know what this foolish wait was for, but Potter was still frighteningly close to death.
If the first task had been this dangerous, Severus didn't want to imagine what the next two were going to be like.
And that's that. I love getting into the POV of Severus Cares-About-Potter-More-Than-He-Wants-To-Admit Snape. It's always fun. Next chapter will be a regular one, but as always, who the hell knows when it'll be finished. I've got 1200 words down so far, but that's still another 3k words (at the very least) to go. Anyway, looking forward to reviews! Laterz!