Chapter Six: The Second Task
By Natali K. A.
"The task is what?" Lily asked, staring hard at James. "It can't be just that. It's too easy."
James narrowed his eyes at her. "Would you like to see the missive for yourself? It says it quite plainly. I have to be in combat with another person, using either swords, wands, or knives. What I use will be chosen out of a hat." He pulled out a chair for her which she sat in.
"But what's so hard about that?"
"Well, for one, if it happens to be a giant that I'm combating, I can see it being very difficult. It warns that the other opponents will be fighting for my death, but I'm not to kill them. Not if I can help it, anyway. Accidents do happen."
Lily looked at him. "But the chances of your fighting a giant is very small. Remember, they're very unstable creatures, and I don't think they'd be willing to be a pawn in the matter of wizards."
James shrugged. "For all I know it's over a ring of fire or something equally as difficult."
"If it's combating, why do you need a potion? You told me that you wanted me to help you with the formula," Lily said, looking at the box of ingredients James had had shipped over by his parents. "I can't exactly make a sword that kills on it's own. That's too advanced, not to mention illegal. The magicking of weapons to kill without a human wielder was prohibited in 1876. I will do a lot for Hogwarts, but I won't risk imprisonment."
"Nor would I," he informed her. He stood from his seat and opened the box, taking out a sheet of parchment that looked worse for wear. He handed it to Lily.
She looked it over, scanning its contents. It was indeed it a very complex potion that would require a total of about five days to complete. Timing was very crucial here which made Lily cringe. The problem with timed formulas was that just a mistake of two minutes could have horrible consequences.
Such as death, should it have to be drunk.
"This is risky," she told him somberly. "Potter, I don't think it's smart to do this."
He nodded, playing with the cap to one of the vials. "I have no other choice. If it's a battle with wands, I'll win. Fencing I'm pretty good at too. But what if it's the knives? My father doesn't agree with such crude forms of fighting and refused to have me taught in boxing or wrestling or anything of the sort. It's not a gentleman's sport."
Lily raised her brows. "But the chances-"
"I don't trust the numbers, Evans," he told her softly, eyes averted. "And whilst I'm not afraid, that doesn't mean that I'm absolutely jumping at the chance to get killed."
Lily's green eyes met his hazel ones and he saw something unreadable in them. It was as if a spark had passed between them, though he knew that was impossible.
"You won't die," she said, full of conviction. "You are the one of the champions who would never die in this."
He stared at her. "You don't know that."
"Of course I do, Potter. You're too stubborn to die."
One of his black eyebrows rose up. "I think it's okay if you call me by my first name. As we're going to be spending a lot of time together for the next five days."
Lily smiled slightly. The thought almost scared her.
"But that would involve admitting I'm ready to be friends with you. Our apathy for each other is such a fun thing, you see. I look forward to our arguments."
A wolfish grin spread over his face. "I feel a lot of things about you, Lily Evans. I don't think apathy is one of them."
Though it didn't show on her face, Lily could feel herself flush throughout her body. It unnerved her that he was so calm while professing such things to her.
"I suppose we should get started. I just thought I'd mention that if you get poisoned it's not my fault," she muttered, sitting up straighter and looking through the box. "It says here to start with the eye of a red-back grasshopper."
He reached into the box and came out with a little bottle with a single eye floating in it. "Got it!"
This would no doubt be interesting.
*~*
Lily tapped her quill against her desk, checking her watch anxiously. If she didn't add that bile of eel in the next five minutes, the potion would be ruined. She raised her hand and said when McGonagall called on her, "Professor, please. I really need to use the toilet."
The professor raised her eyebrows, and Lily guessed that she didn't necessarily believe her. But for whatever reason, or perhaps no reason at all, the head of Gryffindor nodded her consent.
"The winds outside are ferocious, Miss Evans. Mr. Potter, would you accompany her? I fear she will get knocked off her path if she goes on her own."
Lily had to hand it to her professor. She was slick and sly. With a little smile, Lily and James exited the classroom.
Though the ladies of Beauxbatons had been so nice as to borrow two of their classrooms so that the students could learn, they had been very finicky about their restrooms, as girls often were. Something about the boys dirtying their spotless toilets. But because of this, they were asked to use their own toilets. She didn't understand the French.
Or Bulgarian jocks who were overly clingy, for that matter.
"She knows what we're up to," James informed her. "I think she came upon us sneaking into the classroom earlier today and went in after to check what it was that we had there."
"Why do you think that?" Lily asked, nodding her thanks as he held the door open for her.
"I found a breach in the security spell. It was neatly covered up, and had I not been searching for it specifically, I would never have noticed it."
Lily shrugged. "She's not going to turn us in if she hasn't yet. I think McGonagall wants to win just as much as the rest of us do."
"More. Her cousin is married to the headmistress of Beauxbatons. They've a bet," he chuckled, undoing the spell they'd formed around the brewing potion. "Is it supposed to be that bright purple color?" he asked nervously.
Lily smiled. "Yes. Do you doubt my Potions ability?"
"Not at all, my dear."
They had spent nearly three hours the night before, doing everything precisely as the directions indicated, only preparing the brew. It was early this morning at six that they'd added the first ingredients. The eye of the grasshopper had to be in the liquid hours before everything else.
Lily checked her watch after adding the bile. "Just in time. With a couple minutes to spare. You need to ask special permission to be excused from class, P-James. People are going to notice and start saying things."
"What things?"
"It's odd how we keep disappearing together."
James didn't reply, only concentrated on stirring the potion fifty times counter-clockwise.
"Do you mind what they'll say? I already heard one of the Beauxbatons girls asking Sirius if it was true what one of the Ravenclaws had said that we disappeared to a classroom to shag. I'll understand if you don't want that blight on your name."
His eyes were still on the cauldron, so Lily couldn't read the expression on his face. Even if she did have a clear view, she didn't think she would be able to tell what he was thinking.
"People will gossip. I don't care what they think," she told him quietly, looking away and out the window.
Having reached fifty, he put the stirring stick down and turned to look at her, only to find her face averted. He stepped closer to her, trapping her between the table and another. "Lily…"
Her green eyes snapped back. "No. There are people who will be hurt. No, we can't do this. I'll be back to add the nail clippings from the dragon at seven thirty-three this evening. Can you add that elixir we brewed yesterday at eight-oh-six?"
"Yes."
She left without another word. Her self-control angered him-especially when he had difficulty restraining himself from throwing her down on his bed and having his evil way with her.
He would wait it out.
*~*
The morning of the second task bloomed dark and cloudy, an all-around ugly day. Ever since the potion had been completed, Lily had avoided him as much as she possibly could, which he didn't understand since they'd only grown closer.
"'Ello! Vell, choose your vepon, please!" the headmistress of Beauxbatons chirped. James found her way too perky for it being nine A.M. on a Saturday.
Horace and Evette looked at James expectantly. "Mademoiselle Gademot, I insist you go first."
She smiled flirtatiously at him and muttered her thanks with a titter. She placed her hand in the bag and pulled out a little paper. Opening it, she read, "Zee sword."
James went next and pulled out a scrap of parchment that read, to his disgust, the word knife. Of course. It was just his luck.
Something Dumbledore had said nearly three years ago entered his mind unexpectedly then.
I stopped believing in luck a long time ago, James. There is nothing that doesn't happen for a reason. It depends on the person whether it would be some Higher Being or some scheming misfit that's out to ruin your life. But never think it's pure luck.
James smiled. How very correct that was.
"Twenty minutes until we go," Dumbledore said, popping his gray head in. "Alphabetical order, by surname."
Thinking quickly, James determined that it would be first Evette, then Horace, then him.
Last, again.
*~*
In the stands, Lily wasn't talking like the rest of her classmates. She didn't call out for popcorn or for so-and-so to sit next to her. She was worried. Very, very worried.
"Your potions have never failed yet, Lily. It'll be fine. Potter's too strong to get any more than a little scratch on his arm," Ashley said soothingly, patting her friend's back. She shared a glance with Betty over her head. "Relax and enjoy the sport."
"I have a feeling something bad's going to happen," Lily whispered, scanning the field before them, where they would battle their opponent. Lily's intuition always seemed to be dead on.
"Don't jinx it," Betty hissed. "Oh, look! The Beauxbatons champion just came out. Is that a sword? Yes, it is. Ooh! Look at her opponent. A knight? Oh, she's doomed."
Lily closed her eyes, unwilling to watch. How could they ever give this challenge to the champions? Of course, she knew that Dumbledore would never allow them to battle to the death, but she nearly started hyperventilating when the girl was run through the arm by her opponent's sword.
Then Horace came, and she gave a lame shout of encouragement for appearance's sake, as he'd looked her way. She saw the wand in his hand and instantly went into a cold sweat.
James had gotten the knife.
Though many mean things could be said about the oaf that was Horace, that he was a terrible wandsman was not one of them. He actually beat his adversary in nearly under five minutes with some spell Lily thought came from a long ago Dark Lord. She didn't question it.
Then James stepped out as Dumbledore's voice boomed throughout the stadium.
"James Potter is next and all he has to do, like the other champions, is disarm his challenger and pin him for seven seconds." A big shout went out from the Hogwarts stand, but Lily couldn't join in. She felt nauseous suddenly.
He did not appear to be nervous. On the contrary, he grinned boyishly and winked at his schoolmates. She wanted to slap that smart smirk off his face as she hardly thought it was a time to be cute.
"Lily, don't watch," Betty murmured. "Just look down."
"I have to."
The champions had been allowed to use whatever spell, potion, or charm they wished on themselves, as long as it wasn't dangerous to the person they would fight. From the hard look of his skin, she guessed he'd already downed that nasty-looking potion.
It all went well for the first few minutes. The man opposing him was tiny and wearing a mask. Just by the way he moved, Lily could see he was agile and very good. She was generally fine until she saw blood spurt from the two, though she couldn't tell which. There was a shallow gash along James' right arm that had crossed a major vein and caused blood to spatter everywhere.
He did get his revenge though, as a deeper wound was cut into his contender's leg. It didn't bleed as much, to his dissatisfaction.
Lily looked away then, unable to bare it. The crowd cheered, and groaned, and gasped. They shouted advice and they made her so nervous. A simultaneous "No!" went around so unexpectedly that Lily glanced up, knowing she'd see James, lying dead on the floor.
She was only half right. He was on the floor with a knife stuck somewhere in his stomach. As her mouth opened to let out a scream, the man bent over and drew out the knife, grinning maniacally.
James felt the hard ground beneath him. He'd never felt such pain, not even when he'd fallen nearly ten meters from his broom to the grass below. It was a struggle just to take in a breath. He saw the man looming over him, realizing then that this man did indeed intend to kill him. He wondered who had sent him. There was no such thing as luck, after all. Everything happened for a reason.
With the last ounce of his strength, he rolled over just as the man made to shove the knife through his chest. Somehow-James never knew how or where he got the idea from-the Gryffindor flipped into the air and over the man's head. Disoriented, it took the assassin a moment to figure out where he'd disappeared to.
In that short, crucial moment, James reached around the man's neck and pulled his knife across the man's neck, hard as he could. Just as his world went black, James pushed his would-be assassin away, disgusted.
*~*
A/N: Sorry. Yeah. Beat me with a stick. But I'm here again. Actually, I came up with the second task in Orlando on New Year's Eve, from inspiration from Tamora Pierce's In the Hand of the Goddess. Great book, great series, go for it! I totally recommend it.
So… Yeah. I had to finally devote a chapter to the Second Task. The next chappie should be about James' recovering.
And I need ideas for the Third Task. I have this crazy, nagging feeling that between the chapter before that task and the chapter of the actual task that there will be about two weeks in between any posting. Sorry. Love you all. On the bright side, I bought two finches to add to my zoo!! Their names are Isabella and Aleksandra, though I call them Bella and Allie for short. They're too cute. They're now sisters to my doggie Papito who I think is a bit jealous. He was barking and sniffing at them and yeah…
All my love,
NKA
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