Chapter Three: The First Task
Natali K. A.
Nearly a month later, the Marauders were lounging about underneath one of the indoor trees in the grand fortress of Beauxbatons with roughly fifteen girls about them. While the matching outfits were a tad dramatic and silly, it made for a very nice male fantasy.
Just as James glanced up from the adoring face of some girl-Jenny, June, or Carla, he couldn't remember-he saw Lily pass by with her two mates, looking positively disgusted with them.
The conversation McGonagall had held with the three champions last week came to mind. The Yule Ball. He was supposed to have a date-had to have a date. The other students didn't know about it yet (for which he was grateful, as the girls had already been suffocating him without that looming in the near future), but it wouldn't be long.
He had to ask her soon. He didn't like it one bit how all the Durmstrang blokes were oh-so-attracted to her. They flocked to her like bloody flies to a bright light at night. It was positively revolting, if only because she was going to be his and he was a very possessive person.
He'd never mastered the "sharing is caring" principle they'd tried to teach him back when he was younger. Never saw the point of it. Why should he share with others what was his?
But what especially irked him was that he knew for a fact that Horace Ivanov had his beady little eyes on her. The idiot had told James himself, right after the meeting with McGonagall, that he was thinking about asking "the redhead" to the Ball.
Over James' dead body.
"Be right back," James muttered as he stood up and brushed off his backside, leaving behind the gaggle of girls and walked in the direction of his lady love.
He was damned nervous. He hated it.
"Lily, could I have a word?"
She turned around at her name and seemed to debate denying him that small pleasure. But in the end, she nodded and waved her friends off.
"Yeah?"
"In private?" Without waiting for an answer, he took her elbow and directed her to a corner behind a pillar where they could be somewhat apart from the rest. Had it not been negative ten degrees Celsius outside, he probably would've preferred that.
"I don't think that you've heard about this, but there's a ball coming up. It's called the Yule Ball and it's traditional to hold it on Christmas Eve during the Triwizard tournament." He paused for breath then continued. "As a champion, I need a dancing partner. I was wondering if you'd like to go with me."
It was hardly an articulate proposition and his voice had been too high for his comfort, but he felt it had gotten the job done.
Now why did she have that look on her face? That look could not bode good news. She needed to drop that look.
"James, I'm sorry. Horace asked me yesterday and I agreed."
His heart plummeted. "Oh."
She smiled sympathetically and reached out to pat his arm. "But you won't have any trouble finding a date, and she'll probably be a better dancer than I. I have two left feet," she admitted.
He nodded, silently thinking that he didn't give a fuck if she have five left sodding feet, so long as she went with him.
"Totally understandable. He's a very nice person," he said instead.
"I'll save you a dance though. Got to run, I told one of the Beauxbatons girls I'd help her hem her robe. It tore when she fell today. See you around and I truly am sorry."
James watched her run off, his earlier task of flirting with the other girls gone from his mind.
What he needed now was chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.
*~*
"James, cheer up," Sirius said, smacking him on the back jovially. "You've got a task to look forward to in just five minutes! Aren't you excited?"
"Thrilled," James muttered dryly. "Just bloody thrilled." They reached the tent where the champions had been told to meet. "See you lot later." He waved off Remus and Sirius, stepping into the tent. The warmth felt good against the contrast of the ice cold air outside. His eyes instantly fell upon Horace, the only champion to have arrived yet.
"Congratulations. I heard you and Lily are going to the Ball together," he said sharply, realizing too late that he sounded like a jealous boyfriend.
But the dense Bulgarian didn't seem to catch on.
"Yes. I am very glad."
Sure you are, you ugly oaf, James thought, throwing down his bag. Can't see why on earth Lily would agree to go on your arm. Maybe she thought no one else would ask her out and she was desperate?
It took only a moment for him to realize the improbability of that idea. Not only did Lily never lack for dates, she wasn't that sort of person. She had a confidence that was beyond even him, though she wasn't a bit conceited. No, she'd accepted his offer because she had wanted to.
That wounded him even more for some reason.
"Bonjour!" Evette said chirpily. "Good day, non? Bit chilly."
"A bit, do you think?" James asked sarcastically, in a thoroughly sour mood. "Surprisingly, my toes weren't completely frozen this morning."
"'Zactly! Varm day," Evette smiled, pulling on some kid gloves.
He was surrounded by complete idiots.
At that moment, Dumbledore stuck his head in. "Ready? Would anyone like to volunteer to go first?"
"That'll be me," James said immediately, unable to stomach the idea of possibly having to be in the same tent with Horace any longer. "I'll volunteer."
Dumbledore nodded at him encouragingly as James practically ran out. "Mr. Ivanov, you may go next then. Good luck to you both. I'll come fetch you when it's time."
He turned to James and squeezed his shoulder. "Now, James, I just wanted to let you know that I believe you can do this. I've seen what you're capable of, and if those ingenious pranks of yours are any indication, this should be a piece of cake for you."
"What's the task exactly?" James asked, but the question died on his lips as he saw precisely what was to come. It was a wide field with stands on either side, brimming with students. He could see the Hogwarts students. Dotting the field were large, heavy rocks that must be more than two tons each.
Dumbledore put his wand to his throat and his voice rang out through the stadium. "And now, our first champion will go through the Field of Fears, where his worst nightmares will come true. In addition, there are very large rocks that he has to maneuver around. He must reach the other end within ten minutes still conscious and be able to determine which of the apparitions before him is actually a bogart. Whichever of the three champions is able to complete this first task in the shortest amount of time will get a head start in the second.
"If you fail to complete the task in the given ten minutes, you will not receive the hint for the next task and will most likely be unable to complete it as well as be given a time penalty. If you're unable to determine which of the apparitions is a bogart, you will also be unable to receive the hint for the next task."
Dumbledore nodded towards James and walked him to a bright yellow circle drawn on the white snow.
"May you have the very best of luck, James," his headmaster smiled warmly. His eyes darted to the Hogwarts stand where his classmates were cheering him on, Lily amongst them. "Perhaps this will even elevate your standing in the eyes of a certain young witch?"
Having become accustomed to Dumbledore's amazing ability to read between the lines in even the most private of situations long ago, James only averted his eyes. "She's agreed to go to the Yule Ball with the Durmstrang champion."
Albus Dumbledore sighed and gave him a pat on the back. "Don't let that get you down. You'll find, if you haven't already, that females like to play cat and mouse games at times. But it's time that you focus on the task before you. I shall see you on the other end."
James was left alone and he waited for the bell to sound. When it did, he took off running into the maze of stones. It was going very well until he came upon the very first fork in the road.
"Left or right?" he asked himself, staring around and wondering if it would be illegal to fly over the whole damned thing. "Lily's right-handed." A stupid reason, but it helped him to decide nonetheless. There was a time limit after all.
In the second split, there were four directions he could head in. However, the decision of which to take would have to wait a few moments.
One of his fears had been presented before him.
His old nanny.
"James, what are you doing here?! That will be two hours in the oven for you!" the old woman shrieked, coming towards him with a wooden spoon in her hand.
Gah, what to do? What type of creature could this be, anyhow? He vaguely recalled something about a magical species of serpent that had been cursed by the goblins of the Himalayas long ago that could hazard a guess at one of your childhood fears. While James wasn't so much afraid of old Nanny Castoski any longer, it certainly didn't cheer him any to have to look at her ugly old face again.
But what did you do? When that happened, what were you supposed to do? Kick it in the shin like he used to do to the vicious old nanny? Somehow, James didn't think that would work.
He wondered if the Killing Curse would work at all.
"James Potter, it's into the oven for you!"
The old threat made him wince. Granted, his parents figured out after about a month that he wasn't lying when he said that he had spent hours in the oven as punishment and had promptly made sure she was sent to Azkaban for mistreatment of children.
She was advancing steadily, the old hag, and there was not a thing he could do about it.
Except, of course…
"Gangrenesso!" he shouted, hitting her with the very same disease that had killed her: gangrene.
After much high-pitched wailing and moaning and cries of "I'm melting!", the old nanny returned to the dead form of the serpent he'd suspected.
"Never did like snakes," he muttered, taking the path furthest to the left for lack of anything better to do. He knew the maze of rocks wasn't really that large and that the four apparitions had to be somewhere at the end in the middle.
It was going fairly well (he had to wonder why, it was quite odd) until suddenly the ground beneath his feet was no longer solid but liquid.
Water.
He should have, of course, expected it, but he was caught off guard. Drowning. One of his worst fears. At the age of ten, he'd gone swimming in a lake on his own and had gotten tangled in some of the enchanted seaweed there. Had it not been for Sirius, he wouldn't have been alive.
(It had been, quite obviously, the beginning of their friendship.)
The water closed about his head, dark and cold. His lungs struggled for breath, but he only choked. The light from above was slowly fading away and his head was feeling fuzzy.
It was the gnarled hand that encircled his ankle that snapped him out of his daze. Glancing down, James could see some odd sea creature cackling and bringing him deeper and deeper. There was a sharp burn on his right arm, but he didn't wait to see what it was. He knew he was bleeding.
"Propello," he said with a mouthful of water, choking even more. Thankfully, it seemed to do the trick. He flew out of the water and onto firm ground, gasping and coughing up water. He wanted to lie there for a few minutes, kissing the ground, but knew that his time was running out. There must be only about four minutes left.
He turned his head sideways and saw that his skin had been ripped from wrist to elbow.
"Hope that doesn't leave a scar," he groaned, throwing off his shirt-a hard thing to do with only one uninjured arm. Wrapping it as best he could around his wound, he continued on his way, dripping blood as he did so.
After a couple dead ends and wild guesses, he reached four doors. They were opened by four different men-helpers from the Ministry sent to keep the apparitions in check.
They were extremely good at what they did. James could feel his heart turn cold.
There lay Lily, on her side and very clearly dead, with a pool of blood all around her. It was so bright red, so… unreal. He felt nauseated.
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, he told himself, trying to dig around for one. But what was happy enough to counteract Lily's death?
Why, Lily of course.
He conjured up in his head an image of him dancing with her at the Yule Ball, the dance they had saved for each other. It wasn't a memory, but it was something. He hoped it would be good enough.
"Expecto patronum!" he shouted. He didn't wait to see if he'd gotten the bogart-the world had gone black all around him.
*~*
"James, you did splendidly today," Lily said, sitting down beside him in an armchair. She handed him a cup of hot chocolate, blowing on her own. "Do you feel alright?"
He looked down at his arm, caught up in a sling. It was still rather sore, though it was the experience that haunted him the most.
"Fine."
She glanced around nervously, as if she wasn't very comfortable sitting next to him and unsure of what she should say.
"I saw what the bogart turned into."
His eyes snapped up and he was half-afraid to find pity or disgust or-heaven forbid-mocking in her bright emerald green eyes.
But there was none of that. It was an emotion he couldn't pinpoint, but one he'd definitely ponder about later on. He made himself memorize what she looked like then, because he was sure it would have some sort of important impact on him in the near future.
"You did." It wasn't a question.
"I did," she affirmed, sitting back. "I… Well, I don't know what I think, but…" She smiled at him nervously. "I truly am sorry that I can't go with you to the Ball. You would have been a lovely date. It would have been a good time."
"It's fine," he shrugged. He was in an extremely dark mood and wished he could just be alone to wallow in his misery. It did not matter to him that he had come out on top in the first task-though that feeling of elation of triumphing over that dickhead Horace had been rather nice. The thought of the box he'd been given after he'd come to rose to the front of his mind. But he pushed it away, unwilling to think about the second task anytime soon.
"No, it's not," she argued. "But that's fine. I'll let you be alone now, as I can tell that that's what you really want. Just get to bed soon, alright? You've had a very long day and you need your beauty sleep so you can flirt with all the Beauxbatons girls on the morrow, eh?" She jumped out of her armchair, leaving her mug on the table.
He watched with miserable eyes as she headed for that part of the tent sectioned off for the girls, where males were not permitted. Where his Lily slept and where she giggled late at night with the others, gossiping over who did what (or in some cases, who) that day, having the occasional pillow fight in just their underwear…
"I'm saving you a dance," he called after her. Her head whipped around to look at him. "I'm expecting you to save one for me too."
She grinned at him. "I am." She had almost reached the door when she turned around once more. He was still staring after her.
"I was so scared for you today," she admitted in a whisper, as if it was some sort of secret she thought very dear to her heart. "And I will never forgive you for doing this."
He nodded. "Understandable."
"If you live through this, James Potter, I will make sure you are castrated."
A slight smile touched his lips. "Also understandable. I'll have to pray that you abstain from giving into those rather mean urges though. I'm rather attached to that part of my anatomy."
"If you promise me that you'll be more careful in the next two."
He studied her for a moment, speculating whether he should just get up and start snogging her like she deserved. But then the moment had passed.
"You have my word. Trust me, I'm not trying to die here."
With a shaky sigh, she entered her room and shut the door, leaving him alone to try to decipher what that look in her eyes had been.
*~*
A/N: No complaining, hear me?! I totally made up for the short chapter last time! Seven and a half pages on Word! Oh, I do hope that first task was alright. Never have been a very creative person…
I'd originally planned to include the Yule Ball here, but decided against it for one of two reasons: A) too much information and events in one chapter and B)I don't have it all written just yet and I'm not going to write it either. Not for a week or so. But I have started it and I do like where it's going so far.
Now, when I'd first started writing this, I had planned on James and Lily going to the Ball together. Changed my mind! Why? Ah, because it makes for a good story and much jealousy between Lily and James and Horace and Josette (you'll find out who she is in the next chapter). [For those of you who know me a little better, yes, that is my dad's girlfriend's daughter's name. But I needed a French name and was too lazy to look it up. My apologies.]
So, review because you love me and because you want me to update!
All my love,
Natali
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