Back again! Woo, go me! The second task is fast approaching...oh dear...that can only mean one thing...ANGST! YAY!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Chapter Thirty-Two
By Rosa241
Oliver POV:
Watching Percy I can tell he's nervous. You wouldn't think it if you didn't know him well enough but I can see it. To the unknown eye he'd look as cool as a cucumber. Honestly you wouldn't think that he had any worries at all but if you look closely enough you'll see it.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
The tapping.
Whenever he's nervous he taps. It's a habit I'd noticed early on in our friendship and it immediately spelled worry in me. Usually of course because his nerves seemed to come to a head on one of three occasions:
Firstly there was Fred and George. Contrary to what people might believe those three care a great deal about each other. The fact that they argue and fight like cat and dog means nothing really. They're brothers after all, isn't that what brothers do? Sure the twins are totally different personalities from Percy but they're brothers which of course is why their antics drive him mad pretty much all the time. The last thing he wants if those two getting themselves into real trouble, not detentions or letters home, but actual real life trouble. Ministry trouble. He'd once told me that his biggest fear was the twins ending up behind bars if one of their pranks went wrong.
Secondly, and the one that worries me the most, is Flint. It doesn't take a genius to work out why Flint made Percy so nervous. After all the years that he'd made my best friends life a living hell the Slytherin got him nervous. I hate that he hasn't shaken that yet. Thankfully Flint had seemed to forget all about his existence after their 'fight' ended badly for him. Since then he's gotten better but the thought of the bully was enough to make Percy nervous as all hell.
Thirdly there's stress. Yeah that's right Percy Weasley gets stressed out just like every other human being on the planet. People think he's some kind of robot but deep down he's no different than anyone else. He's a person and people get stressed.
Right now though none of those are the reasons he's nervous.
The second task is in the morning.
In a few hours he'll be going head first into that lake, at least we assume he will, and his life will be in danger again.
"Seriously both of you go to bed." Right now though he has bigger trouble, getting Fred and George to go to sleep.
"Not tired." George mumbles from his position on my bed. Yeah right!
"No not at all." The sarcasm in his voice doesn't surprise me. "Look you two need to head off to bed if you're going to be in any fit state to cheer me on tomorrow and I need to get some sleep. Go on." They've been battling for twenty minutes now and I'm surprised they're still here. Truth be told I shouldn't be. Those two had been basically glued to Percy since his name was put in the goblet and things had only gotten worse since they'd found out that he'd been poisoned. It had been hard enough getting Ron and Ginny off to bed.
"Sleep. Now." It takes another fifteen minutes before they finally give in and accept the fact that however stubborn they are Percy is ten times worse. He'll always win in the end.
"Finally. I was starting to think they'd never leave." He smiles tiredly at my words and flops down onto his own bed with a sigh.
"I know they're just showing they care but merlins beard…" Trailing off his shakes his head but the smile remains. Although he might say differently I know just how much it means to him to have them all with him on this. This whole thing has been hard enough and I can't imagine how much harder it would have been if they were fighting as they had done in previous years.
"You ready for tomorrow?" He nods at my words as his face settles into a blank expression, his mind no doubt running through his plans. "You remember the spell?"
"No problem. Got it all up here." Tapping the side of his head he sits up slightly and stares at me for a moment. "Thanks. For everything."
"You don't have to thank me for being a friend." Rolling his eyes he sits up fully.
"I'm not. I'm thanking you for being here, for not giving up on me when I acted like a complete prat." Oh no! No!
"You can stop right there. I know why you're doing this and you can forget it. Nothings going to happen to you tomorrow, you'll be fine no matter what." He did this before the first task and it still unnerves me now.
"Oliver I just…I just don't want to leave anything unsaid. This tournaments dangerous is all." Leaving it at that he begins getting ready for bed and for a moment I'm left wanting to say something, anything but I can't. Deep down I know he's right. The tournament is dangerous so there's always a chance that…
No!
He's going to be fine.
Bill POV:
"So where's Oliver? I would have thought that he'd be down here with you." It surprises me that he's not here glued to my brothers side.
"McGonagall said she needed to speak to him before the task starts. Shouldn't be long now…" He trails off and I can't help hearing the hope in his voice.
Those two really need to get their act together.
For a moment we descend into silence and I find myself cringing at the eerie silence that seems to have settled over Hogwarts. Everyone had gone down to the lake as soon as it had been announced that the task would take place there. Since they had the grounds were strangely empty. It was weird.
"Nice try by the way." Looking over to my left I find him smirking at me.
"Don't know what you mean." Shaking his head at me we sink back into silence for a few more minutes before he speaks again. "Although if you really wanted to distract me then I've got the perfect topic of conversation."
"What?" What topic? As he turns to face me, folding his arms, I get the sinking feeling that I'm not going to like this.
"How about Charlie making Fred and George promise to watch my back? I'm assuming that has something to do with you." Ah…that.
"Well we wanted to make sure you were being looked out for. Plus it gave them something to focus on." The roll of his eyes is enough to tell me what he thinks of that plan.
"We?" Raising an eyebrow at me he shakes his head again. "So you did have something to do with this."
"It was my idea." I confirm as we begin making our way back towards the lake. "They just felt so bad after they found out about everything with Flint. I thought that if they could keep an eye on you, make sure you were alright then maybe they'd calm down a bit and be able to let it all go."
"Well that went really well." Yeah that definitely back fired.
"Sorry. I know you hate being watched all the time but we're your brothers. It was bad enough knowing we couldn't watch out for you when it was just the tournament to think of, then when we found out about the poisoning…" Trailing off I can feel my whole body shaking with anger. How could someone do that to my brother? Who could do that to him? Why?
"I didn't realise they felt so bad about Flint." It's an obvious change of direction but I take it. Right now this is the last thing he needs to be thinking about. "Right first thing tomorrow the three of us are going to have a little chat about all this. I'm through having them feel guilty about something they didn't even know about. Right now though we should head back. They'll be wondering where I've run off to."
As we head back down to the lake we sink into a comfortable silence. I can see the gears in his brain already working, no doubt going through whatever plan has formed in his mind.
Please be safe Percy.
Percy POV:
Looking round at the number of people I can hear the cheers coming from the Gryffindor stand. I attempt to block everything else out and focus on the spell but I just can't. Tearing my gaze from the lake I reach over and squeeze a clearly nervous Harry on the shoulder. He's too young for this. Too inexperienced. Don't get me wrong he's talented but he's not ready for this. Truth be told I don't think any of us are. Krums eyes are on the lake and he looks like he's more than ready, of course looks can be deceiving. Fleur on the other hand…
Her eyes are flickering round to the stands as if she's searching for someone. Between the constant movement of her eyes and the way she pales three shades as her eyes catch the lake I almost think she's going to be sick. Watching Fleurs searching eyes brings Oliver straight back to my mind.
He's not here.
He promised he would be.
I know he'd keep that promise no matter what.
Something's wrong.
Something has to be wrong.
He said he's be here.
"Welcome to the second task." Dumbledore's voice has my eyes snapping back to him and my hand drops from Harrys shoulder. "Last night something was stolen from each of our champions…a treasure of sorts."
Stolen?
What could they have stolen?
Before I can think much on it Dumbledore is talking again.
"These four treasures, one for each champion, now lie on the bottom of the Black Lake. In order to win each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough."
Out of the corner of my eye I see Harry hastily shove something into his mouth but I'm too focused on Dumbledore to ask what it was.
"Except for this. They will have but one hour to do so, and one hour only." By my side Krum gestures to the crowd, which gets his fangirls going yet again, before turning back to the lake. "After that they'll be on their own. No magic will save them."
One hour.
One hour.
Committing Dumbledores words to memory I still can't tear my eyes from the still water in front of me.
"You may begin at the start of the cannon." A second after his words end I find myself deafened slightly by the sound of the banging behind me. Taking a breath I steel myself for what's to come and dive into the lake.
The cold water takes my breath away and for a moment I'm stunned. It's just a moment though before my senses come back and I whip out my wand. The charm comes easily from my wand, thank merlin, and seconds later I find my breath returning to me.
Gazing round the murky water I attempt to get my bearings and notice that I'm alone. Krum and Fleur have already darted off. Looking to the left I see Harry in the distance seeming almost as confused as me. For a second his eyes catch mine and he gives me a thumbs up. He's alright then. Gazing round again I wonder for a moment where to start before thinking back to Dumbledores words.
Bottom of the lake.
Figuring the best thing to do would be to start heading down I begin making my way through downwards towards the darkness below.
And I'll leave it there. How will Percy fair in the task? Will he be alright? Has Moody got something planned for him? Well it's true I love torturing people so you never know and I love leaving you all hanging.
Until next time,
Bye x