Chapter 64: Team Building

Alas, despite his best effort—that being 'giving up immediately'—the group did not get to play any card games. He could occasionally convince (manipulate, coerce) them to relax and just hang out together, no scheming necessary, but not all the time.

Plus, as it turns out, they did have something to discuss: specifically, the upcoming tournament-adjacent holiday dance party.

To be frankly honest, Sans only had a vague idea of what 'Christmas' even was for humans. It was a big holiday, he knew that much. And although he'd never been familiar with its lore, it had a lot of the same trappings and decorations as the Underground's same-named celebration. That had been a useful frame of reference whenever they got to be on the surface long enough for the holiday season to roll around.

(It hadn't happened often.)

Absently, he wondered if he should get people presents. Probably.

He had the impression that the humans took their holiday a lot more seriously than monsterkind ever did their version—as evidenced by this whole 'Yule Ball' thing.

"is it really that much of a big deal?" Sans asked, genuinely curious.

"Easy for you to say," Harry huffed, "it's not like you need to go."

Cassius, who either hadn't known about the impending Yule Ball or, more likely, hadn't devoted any brain power to remembering it, looked to be in whole-hearted agreement. The celebration honestly sounded more like a chore than a party—especially for the champions, what with all the extra expectations.

When the trio had filled Cassius in on the whole 'champions must attend' bit, he'd looked peeved. Adding on the part about having to find a partner and lead the first dance had him turning a little green.

"yeah, too bad for you—i'm probably just gonna sleep the whole day." Sans nodded to himself, grin turning a bit smug. "the ideal holiday celebration."

Even though he was also on dog-level, sitting on the floor, all the chairs between them meant Sans could only really see Sirius's tail and the tip of his muzzle. Neither seemed enthused at his plan to sleep through Christmas, and the little circle his nose traced definitely indicated an eye roll.

In truth, the wizard almost certainly had some scheme in play to insure a proper holiday hullabaloo would sweep Sans from the comfort of his bed-closet in Grimmauld. Alas.

Maybe not a big hullabaloo, to be fair—Sirius has a loud personality, to put it mildly, but he could be considerate about some things. He wouldn't begrudge a little sleep-in, though a small party after that would likely be unavoidable.

Sans pushed himself to his feet, deciding to migrate up to one of the empty chairs. As much as he liked the floor, he was getting a little annoyed that he couldn't see the people on the other side of the table.

Like Ron, who looked positively jealous of his holiday plans. Grumbling a little to himself, the boy crossed his arms on the table and plopped his head down with a groan.

Hermione sniffed. "You know, you don't have to go either."

"Easy for you to say," he muttered into his arms.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you're not going, are you? Bet you'll spend the whole day in the library." Ron looked suddenly thoughtful. "Although, hold on, you are a girl… Maybe—"

"For your information," she said primly, "I already have a date to the Yule Ball."

At that Ron bolted upright, surprised and more than a little red-faced. "What?!"

"Really?" Equally startled—but doing a much better job hiding it—Harry asked, "So, uhm, who are you going with?"

A glance traded between a rather unlikely pair, amused, and Sans had to hold onto his poker face with both hands. He wouldn't have guessed that, but in hindsight it did make a sort of sense. After all, the two of them had spent a good amount of time together: working on homework and practicing english and so on.

"I asked Hermione earlier this week," Viktor answered, smiling somewhat sheepishly.

Ron blinked at him, the words not computing.

With a sniff, Hermione pointedly said, "Perhaps you should be more proactive, Ron. Don't ask somebody last minute—nobody wants to be a backup plan." Then, looking just a little pink, she added, "It was pretty unexpected… but nice."

"congrats, have fun."

"…It's not last minute yet," defended Ron, somewhat lamely for all that it was true.

"there's, what, two weeks left?"

"Three," Viktor corrected.

Well, in Sans's opinion, that sounds like plenty of time.

But plainly Harry and Ron didn't think so. They shared a despairing look, as if the looming party was going to be worse than facing down a literal dragon.

Cassius was staring at his hands, clasped together on top of a thick book. His small frown was deepening to a grimace, mentally going down the short list of everyone he felt he could ask and coming up blank. He's a Slytherin, after all, and not one who enjoys the power plays in his house—it really limits the options.

"I still don't see why you're so worried about it, Ron." Sitting back a bit, Hermione regarded her friend with a baffled look. "Like I said, you don't even have to go if you don't want to."

"I can't be the only one not to go!"

"You'll hardly be the only one not going."

"But—!"

Whatever he'd been about to say, it was cut off when Sirius abruptly pushed his way out from under the table with an 'excuse me' bark. Nose at attention, the golden retriever trotted with purpose to the entrance of their little book nook, where—

"Oh!"

"Uh…"

"Well, this is a surprise." With a suspicious squint to his eyes, Cassius only tilted his head in a half-greeting. "Hello, Delacour."

Indeed, Fleur Delacour was standing beside one of the tall bookshelves that framed their table. She was staring at them, one after the other, expression newly surprised.

"Vere you looking for us?"

Sans kept his grin pinned in place. Honestly, he'd been caught off guard by this turn of events—it didn't happen often, given he could get a little… obsessive about monitoring his immediate vicinity. This time, though, he hadn't noticed her approach at all.

"And," Cassius added, "rather more to the point, why?"

She paused, and then said… well, she said something. Sans—and everyone else at the table, presumably—could not actually make out what she was saying. Her mouth moved but didn't make a sound; lip-reading clarified that it had been a statement and a question, both to do with the fact that she couldn't hear them.

Fleur nervously shifted in place—a move that would have looked a lot more awkward if her whole charm magic deal didn't smooth it over. Instead, it probably came across as more haughty or condescending.

Unknowingly echoing her, Cassius asked, "She can't hear me?"

There weren't many reasons why they shouldn't be able to hear each other, and only one that was actually probable.

"apparently so. hold that thought," said Sans, one hand raised and head tilted as if listening for something.

He turned his attention to the invisi-blue curtain he'd set up—as usual—to keep their often noisy discussions from attracting unwanted attention. Less usual, however, was that he'd apparently been catching all sounds that crossed the line, both ways. Oops.

Well, at least that somewhat explains how she was able to sneak up on them.

"okay." Giving no outward sign that he'd done anything, Sans tweaked the blue magic to be one-way. Then he pushed the unseen boundary outward to include Fleur as well. "i think you can release the thought now."

Viktor raised a brow, watching Sans with a curiosity the disguised skeleton was becoming quite used to; it was only to be expected, given how much time Viktor spent with the group as a whole, that he'd notice enough peculiarities to wonder. Maybe Sans could have put more effort into not being weird—he could've made sure that he didn't stand out. He has a lot of experience with that sort of thing after all, he can adapt.

But he was also getting tired of that old song and dance.

Besides, at some point Viktor will need to be brought into the partial-know. Given that the big bad was still likely to mess with the tournament, all of the champions would need to be informed of some things for their own safety. How much they would be told, of course, depended on how much they could be trusted.

And that did include Fleur, so it's for the best that she chose to reach out first.

(Or perhaps second, since technically she had been invited at the start.)

Sans noticed that, like Viktor, Fleur was also giving him a puzzled look—getting a strong start on that front. She might be new here, but she was already spotting points that didn't line up: like, say, how they'd turned suspicion onto the first year almost immediately when something strange was afoot. He gave her a small salute.

"Ah, and… 'oo is this?"

"all my paperwork says 'sans ian skelton'," he remarked, with the flavor of a joke, "so that's what i'm going with."

On the other side of the table, after rallying himself, Harry stood up. "This is Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley," he introduced, quickly pointing them out. "They're my friends."

"oh, and that's paddy paws," Sans added.

Sirius woofed.

"The trio came as a package deal," Cassius said, apparently feeling the need to explain their presence. "As for Sans, he just… is here, too."

"that i am."

The sour-lemon expression on the Slytherin's face was actually kind of funny; plainly he hadn't previously considered the particulars of their odd group. It was just taken for granted that Sans would be involved, even if, by the usual metrics, he really shouldn't have been.

Overall, it was a very 'how did we get here' sort of feeling.

With introductions out of the way, the Slytherin wanted to move right along. "Assuming you were indeed looking for us," he said, "I suppose you sought us out for a reason?"

"Zat is correct." Fleur nodded, clasping her hands together at her front. The pose made her look very prim and in-control, but she probably just didn't know what else to do with her hands. "After ze first task, I realized you 'ad been genuine. And…" There was a dusting of pink across her cheeks. "It was rude of me to brush ze offer away."

Cassius looked surprised, more than capable of reading between the lines.

"Oh!" Viktor raised a brow. "Are you vanting- no, wanting now to join us?"

She nodded somewhat stiffly, looking like she was second or maybe even third guessing herself.

"this will require further deliberation," Sans said, pretty sure that he knew what the answers would be even before he turned to the rest of the table. "team?"

Harry shrugged. "I was suspicious of the offer, too, at first. If she wants to join now, I'm not going to hold that against her."

From his spot by the entrance—retaking the guard position he'd wandered away from earlier—Sirius's tail thwapped against the floor. He smiled at his godson, proud, and softly barked a welcome to the newcomer.

Though she didn't look particularly thrilled with the idea, Hermione still nodded in agreement. Then, finally noticing the slack-jawed look on Ron's face, she rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the side. Flushed redder than his hair, the boy muttered a vague affirmative of his own.

"We were the ones to give the offer," said Viktor, with careful pronunciation and a glance to the remaining champion in their group. "We vould not take it back now."

Cassius just gave a curt nod. "Welcome to the group."

"nice, sounds like we've got a consensus." Then a thought struck, and Sans couldn't help but grin. "hey, cass, dya' know what this means?"

"I can guess. But no," he preempted, "we're still not playing cards."

Sans shrugged, not bothered to have the idea shot down before it even properly got to the table. Besides: "i was actually gonna suggest sport ball or something."

"…Sport ball?"

Ron slapped a hand to his forehead. "I've told you, it's called Quidditch."

"that's what i said, sport ball."

"While it's a good idea to switch over to something less… strategic," Hermione started, which was a generous way to describe their earlier floundering about the Christmas party plans, "I will not go flying around on a broomstick in early December."

"a fair point," he allowed.

They'd not had many team building exercises, but the ones they'd had typically took the form of Sans commandeering a normal meeting to joke around or play games: usually cards, since there weren't that many other good options given the size of their group. Sport ball could work, being a team game, but not everyone played.

And, yes, at the moment there was another point against it: the chill of mid-winter.

Skeletons don't really register temperature, hot or cold, and Sans had gotten no few weird looks about it lately: not noticing snow accumulating on his head, not layering up properly when going outside, that one time he'd been caught wandering a snowy courtyard in his hoodie, shorts, and pink slippers. Stuff like that. He needed to keep that in check.

(Snow was just… nostalgic.)

Harry had turned to look in the general direction of the castle's outer wall, plainly thinking of flying. "But it is a beautiful day outside."

Sans felt his smile brittle, and hoped that didn't get translated through his glamour.

"Not for long," Hermione rebutted. "The sun's probably already setting."

"Drat."

"Besides," she continued, "presumably we're doing it to get to know Delacour better, so we should do something we would all enjoy."

"Like?"

The table fell silent for a long moment.

Sans, grinning again, reached for one of his pockets and pulled out a deck of cards. But Cassius shook his head, and he slowly put them back. He didn't even really like the game that much, but annoying the always-too-tense student would never not be funny.

Somewhat surprisingly, it was Fleur to speak up next. "The golden eggs, 'ave you figured out what zey are saying?"

A bit of a topic shift—but then again, since they were coming up blank on activities, talking about the tournament was the logical next step.

Viktor shook his head. "We were waiting for Cassius to return."

The Slytherin himself looked a little abashed about something. "Ah, right, thanks for reminding me." He sighed, carding a hand through his hair. "I'll need to get the egg back, I don't actually have it at the moment. It was… confiscated."

"Confiscated?"

"Madam Pomfrey thought it would be too much of a disturbance in the Hospital Wing."

"mhmm. that explains it."

"Did you figure something out, Delacour?" asked Cassius, quirking a brow. With a gesture, he silently invited her to join them at the table.

She hesitated, slightly, but then stepped forward. "If we are working together, you can all call me Fleur." Taking the empty chair to his left, she added, "And I 'ave not noticed much, only that ze eggs speak mermish."

"Mermish!" Cassius smacked his hand on the book, exasperated with himself. "I knew there was something about it I recognized."

All three of the older champions seemed to know what to do with that information, but Harry was looking a little lost. "What's 'mermish'?"

"I think it's the language merpeople speak," offered Hermione, hands already reaching for one of her books to check.

Viktor nodded. "Da, it is a strange language. Underwater is fine, but above water it becomes… er…" Apparently whiffing on the word he wanted, he finished, "like the sound from the eggs. Loud and messy."

"Shrieks, screeching, raspy," Hermione provided.

"Okay, so," Harry started, connecting some dots, "then can we just dunk the golden eggs in water before we listen to them?"

"We might have to be submerged as well." While he didn't sound completely sure, Cassius was still pretty confident. "One way or the other, it should work."

"Good, now we have a plan," Ron cut in, sounding distinctly uninterested in the breakthrough. "But the next task isn't until next year, so I think the Yule Ball stuff is more important right now."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him again.

Still, that was apparently enough to drag the whole group back onto the Christmas party topic. Even Fleur, for all her magically-charged charm, seemed to be nervous about the prospect of finding a date.

Sans just sat back, content with letting the newly embiggened group attempt to work out a plan of action. That is, until an amusing thought struck.

"ey, i have a concept."

"About what?"

"your little party problem," he replied, grinning. "the champions all need somebody to go with, right? well…" Sans pointed first to the Slytherin and then to the Beauxbatons student. "we kinda got a built in combo here, two-for-one."

The pair blinked at each other, as if neither of them had even considered the option. Fleur, in particular, seemed rather taken aback.

"Is… is zat allowed? Two champions?"

Sans shrugged. "i haven't heard anything against it in the rules. granted, i haven't really looked at the rules, but whatever."

Plus, given this particular Triwizard Tournament had four champions, doubling up one pair would just drop it back to the number implied by the name. It should be fine.

"That would be convenient," Cassius said, slowly. "Although it would likely raise suspicions about us working together for the rest of the tournament."

"which you are."

"Which we are," he agreed, wryly, "and even then, they may not consider that all four of us are cooperating. Still, I'm not sure how that will be taken."

"i don't think that's technically against the rules either, by the way."

Watching their quick back and forth, Fleur seemed increasingly surprised—leaning towards pleasantly surprised, even, though it wasn't clear what that could be about.

Looking hilariously relieved that he might not have to hunt down some girl and actually ask unprompted, Cassius turned to Fleur. "Would you be alright with that plan?"

She tucked a long strand of platinum hair behind her ear, considering him carefully for a long moment. Then she smiled. "Oui, I think zat may work quite well."

"Good for you." Harry dropped his head into his hands. "But what am I supposed to do?"

Ah, teenage drama—terrible stuff.

Sans just shrugged. He'd shared his one idea, and now it wasn't his problem.

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Undertale.

How to make new friends:
1) Hold a secret meeting
2) ?
3) Profit

We've reached a full stack of chapters!
Ah man, conversations involving six-then-seven people and a dog are quite… they really are a whole thing, aren't they. I usually talk with, like, two people at a time. Maybe three, but that's pushing it.

Bit of an in-between chapter, but still important! Next time: a holiday happens! Probably!

Next update will be for TU2ndC in June, and UtV will return in July. Who knows, maybe summer will present a chance to pick up the pace again for a bit? We can hope.
As always, thank you so much for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites!

(Recent pokémon obsession has filled me with writing energy, but alas it wasn't pointed anywhere I wanted it to be!)

Join the Discord if you're interested! Invite code: m3CFXnC

Stay safe out there, and I'll see ya on the flipside, everyone!