ix. Blow 'Em Away!
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NINE TAKE ALL OF 'EM FUCKERS
(AND BLOW EM' AWAY!)
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"WHEN THE AUDIENCE has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag, from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face!" says Bagman, smiling from ear to ear. It's obvious to Holly that he isn't the one facing the creatures, considering his grin, and the light-hearted way he's swinging the purple bag to show it. "There are different — er — varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else, too... Ah, yes... Your task is to collect the golden egg!"
Holly nods. She goes back to what she was like, right before she left Durmstrang. How she'd walk around with a constant poker face — that's what her dad called it, when he went to collect her at the end of the school year, and she couldn't make herself smile until she was away from anyone affiliated with the school. Her mind still thinks that, sometimes, it's easier to keep her face expressionless. To make sure others can't see what she's feeling, what's she's thinking.
She looks over at Viktor, who has the same expressionless response. The one that's mastered by Durmstrang students, even without a lesson on it. It's essential to know at Durmstrang, how to stop frowns and smiles, looks of panic. It's especially essential if you're one of the students the teachers keep their eyes on — the clever students, the ones at the top of their classes, the ones they bring to the side and ask to help at detentions.
So the task is what she figured it would be. Collect an egg. That seems simple enough, all she has to do is out-smart a dragon, slip past it. Holly's in the house of the snake, she's going to have no difficulty being a little cunning, sneaking past and getting what she wants. She can do this. She can do this.
Holly stands at the side of the tent, holding onto her necklace to seek some comfort. It's relaxing to her, to reach for the little diamond and hold onto it, feel the edges against her fingers. It helps take her out of this situation, ignore the last of the butterflies in her stomach.
For the most part, she isn't nervous. Her stomach has some butterflies still, but over the course of the day, she's tried her hardest to get rid of them. At one point Daphne mentioned that chocolate can help with nerves, and thus, Holly shoved as much as possible down her throat during morning break. Then at lunch, after an hour of feeling full and still nervous, she was walking down the hallway, on her way to try and stomach a sandwich, and she had a thought. An epiphany, even.
I can do this, why am I nervous?
She can do this. After skipping afternoon lessons yesterday, and practising until the early morning, she knows she can do this. She knows different dragons, and if she needs a recap, she's left a textbook open in her dorm room, so Susannah can double-check for her. She knows how to get past them, last resorts for dragons sensitive to light, dragons with a taste for blood.
Holly knows she shouldn't, but if she needs Susannah, then she needs Susannah. She's up against three people three years older than her, and someone that's had countless run-ins with evil villains, both wizards and creatures. She's merely using her resources, just like they're using theirs — three years' worth of lessons, ones that she hasn't been taught yet, experiences of mishaps against trolls and basilisks.
Back in the centre of the room, Holly sees Bagman hold onto the bag again. He tells them to go back to him so they can all pick their creature. They all know it's going to be a dragon. It seems silly that Fleur and Viktor don't know that the rest of them do. Earlier this morning Holly passed Cedric on her way to her lesson, and he spoke to her quickly, making a little comment about dragons. (She's made a friend!)
"Ladies first," says Bagman. Holly nods at Fleur, gesturing for her to go first. She's being polite... She also doesn't want to go first, but no one needs to know that.
Fleur picks out a little model of a Welsh Green dragon. As the model sits in her hand, Holly sees Susannah appear, a huge smile on her face. Obviously, Susannah's excited. She's a muggle, she's never seen a dragon before — and, knowing Susannah, she's probably excited for the possibility of death.
Bagman then offers the purple bag to Holly. She draws out a model of a dragon with copper scales, the candles around the room reflecting off of them. "A Peruvian vipertooth!" says Bagman, in the same way he excitedly exclaimed Fleur's dragon. The number five sits around the dragon's neck.
Susannah gives Holly a look, but Holly shakes her head. She knows about this one.
The boys all choose a dragon from the bag, holding it carefully in their hand. At one point, Holly starts to pet the little dragon, as if it's the same as a little chick at those farms she'd go to on school trips in primary school. But she can't help it. It's a tiny dragon! This is wonderful!
"Well, there you are!" says Bagman. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating." Susannah reappears. Holly continues to stroke her new friend, the little dragon. She hopes they don't want the dragons back, because she's keeping hers. "Mr Diggory, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, all right? Now... Harry, Holly... could I have a quick word? Outside?"
Holly nods, still holding onto her new little friend as she walks out of the tent, along with Bagman and Harry. At one point she exchanges a look with Harry, who still, doesn't feel entirely like a friend, more like a person she keeps on being around, and most of those events include them both thinking, what's going on?
"Feeling all right?" says Bagman, once they've reached some trees near the tent. "Anything I can get you?"
"What?" says Harry. "I — no, nothing."
Bagman looks at Holly, who shakes her head.
"Got a plan?" says Bagman. He speaks a lot more quietly for this. If anything, this is an insult to Holly. Of course she's got a plan! "Because I don't mind sharing a few pointers, if you'd like them, you know. I mean, you're the underdogs here, anything I can do to help..."
"No," says Harry. He sounds standoffish. Which makes complete sense. If Holly's annoyed that he thinks they need help, of course he's going to. "No — I — I know what I'm going to do, thanks."
Bagman smiles at them. "Nobody would know—"
"You seem to be forgetting that we were still picked to be in this tournament, by the same object that chose the older champions," says Holly, cutting him off. She glances at Harry, who looks surprised, and she turns back to Bagman, who's eyes have widened slightly. "If anything, I'd say it's an insult to both me and Harry that you think we need any help — because we both do not, thank you very much. Come on, Potter." I've got a task to win.
Holly turns on her heel. Harry's walking next to her, and she waits until they're closer to the tent before she turns to him. "He's weird, isn't he?" she says, but she chooses to leave out what Draco told her about him, about how he used to be a Death Eater. Or at least, how he said he was under Imperius. "But I mean, it's fine, now I can blackmail him if he can't find this little guy." She points towards the dragon in her hand.
"You want to take it?" says Harry.
"Why wouldn't I?" says Holly. "Dragons are cool."
She slips back into the tent, finding Susannah idly floating in the air. Holly glances up at her, as she walks towards the edge of the tent, where Bagman's commentary is slightly audible. "I give you — CEDRIC DIGGORY!"
There's an uproar of applause. Holly starts to go through her brain of what she knows about Peruvian Vipertooths dragons. She knows that their fangs are venomous, which isn't much of a worry to Holly, she doesn't intend on being anywhere near their teeth. She also knows that whilst they're the smallest breed of dragons, they're also the fastest, with a taste for human flesh.
Human flesh might be an issue?
But it's fine. It's fine. She can distract them. Dragons must be on the same level as dogs and other animals when it comes to sensing ghosts, she saw the way her little friend looked straight at Susannah, like all of the little dragons did.
Wait a minute! She remembers one of the spells she learnt at Durmstrang, one she found in an dusty old spellbook and practiced, because why not? Disillusionment. She's done it enough times to remember how to do it, she knows she can. She'll use that, but before that—she's got this.
It soon gets to the point where the other champions have had their turn. Harry's up before her, and before he leaves the tent, she quickly says, "Good luck."
He turns around, surprised. Again. "You too."
Holly nods. She smiles.
As he leaves the tent, Holly starts to pace up and down, having spent the past hour or so standing to the side, trying to remain calm and collected around the others. She's alone in the tent now, and she's using this to her advantage. If anything she's glad that she's the last one to go, because she can spend the next few minutes figuring her life out, giving herself a pep talk.
"I can do this," she says, under her breath. Her hands start to shake, and her stomach ties into countless knots. Part of her wants to cry and disappear into the forest and move to a foreign country with her dad. He'd like that. Maybe they could move to Hawaii, she's always wanted to go there. "Fuck, fuck, I can do this—"
Susannah appears in front of her, amused.
"If you're going to make fun of me—"
"Why would I do that?" says Susannah.
"Because—because that's what you do," says Holly. She frowns. "But that doesn't matter, not right now — how do you stop feeling nervous? What do you do?"
Susannah frowns. "Why are you nervous?"
"Why'd you think?" says Holly. "What if I lose, what if—"
"You're not going to!" says Susannah. "You're going to go out there, and you're going to beat all of them fuckers — you aren't just some random teenager, you don't just know a few spells. You're Holliday Lippincott. You're the one that got out of Durmstrang, you're the one that resisted Imperius — you can do anything you put your mind to, and you're going to, when you go out there!"
"Yeah," says Holly, a little hesitantly. She looks away, and she nods, turning back to Susannah. "Yeah! You're right!"
Why did it take Susannah, of all people, for her to realise this? She's Holliday Lippincott. She's a jack of all trades, the girl that could muster the strength to perform Cruciatus when she was eleven and two weeks, that could fully resist Imperius by thirteen. She's the girl that escaped Durmstrang with nothing but a scratch on her hand, leaving nothing but a thank-you card and a storm of terror. She's the daughter of a war-weary muggle and a Death Eater; she's the daughter of a genius and a tragedy. She may be only a witch, but every great witch, every great wizard, is just that.
She can do this.
It's her turn to leave the tent. She goes through her game plan in her head, having quickly filled Susannah in whilst the cheers for Harry seeped into the tent. Holly closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and walks out of the tent, her head held up high.
She tightens her grip on her wand, walking between the trees in the forest. There's a small gap in the enclosure fence, and she passes through it, the roar of the faces watching hitting her. Holly feels everything slow down for a minute, and for a split second she wonders if she can just slip back out of the enclosure.
Holly looks at the dragon protecting her eggs on the other side of the enclosure. Her beady eyes are fixed on Holly, suspicious of her. Holly breathes in, out. She can do this. She can do this.
She looks around, where the rocks dip, creating a narrow passage next to the enclosure fence. Holly looks at the dragon again, and holds onto her wand.
"Diffindo," she says, blood pouring out her hand. Holly moves her hand, to stimulate the cut. The Vipertooth starts to inch away from the eggs, as Holly's blood drips onto the rock she's standing on.
The Vipertooth moves closer. Holly knows that the dragon's trying to be stealthy, to inch closer before sinking her teeth into her prey. But she knows what she's doing.
Holly waits for the dragon to be a couple metres away from her before she goes to her next step of action. Vipertooths are sensitive to light, so Holly points her wand at the dragon.
"Lumos Maxima!"
The Vipertooth moves her head, squinting her eyes because of the light. Holly's already darted into the small passageway, pointing her wand at the ground close to the dragon.
"Bombarda Maxima!"
The grass and soil goes flying. The Vipertooth dives forwards, trying to find Holly, but Holly's already running through the gap, saying the Disillusionment Charm as quickly as possible, twirling her wand around her. It feels as if a cold liquid is travelling through her blood, from her head to her toes, and as the air starts to clear from the flying soil, the Disillusionment Charm has already concealed Holly's whereabouts.
Holly climbs back up the rocks and towards the eggs, whilst the Vipertooth is still at the other end of the enclosure, searching for her. Susannah appears, and immediately, the dragon notices her, diving forwards to try and grab her. She's doing it! She's going to win!
She's a couple metres away from the golden egg now. Her right hand's covered with blood and the Vipertooth is looking around, no longer fooled by Susannah being a human to feast on. She can see the dragon sniffing the air, and she realises that the dragon can still smell the blood on her hand.
Holly watches the dragon moving closer, and she loses her footing on the hill of soil and rocks, and falls over. Her knee starts to bleed. The Vipertooth rushes forwards, flying through the air, past the panicking Susannah. Holly's heart beats faster. Time slows down. She grabs her wand, wincing, and shouts, "PROTEGO!"
The Vipertooth tries to bite onto Holly, but the shield protects her. She looks down at her bloody hand and smears the ground with it, diving to the side and running towards the nest, dodging holes in the ground, rocks put there to trip champions up. Whilst the dragon is still surveying the area she ran from, the blood from her hand — and the couple drops from when she grazed her knee — distracting the Vipertooth for long enough that Holly can grab the golden egg.
Holly finally listens to the cheering, having ignored it whilst running away from the Vipertooth. She looks to where the dragon last was, where the dragon keepers were already restraining her. As she walks past, back towards the entrance into the enclosure, she can hear all of the applause, all of the cheering, and for a split second, she thinks she hears Pansy shrieking, "THAT'S OUR HOLLY!"
She did it. She did it!
Once she reaches the entrance she's greeted by Snape and Moody — well, she says greeted, but she doesn't know if that's what she means, considering the fact that neither of them look happy to see her. "That was rather impressive, Lippincott," says Snape. "However, you need to go to Madam Pomfrey before the judges give their scores."
"Uh, will do," says Holly, spotting Harry's two friends walking in the same direction. She reaches into her pocket, and grins to herself. Her little dragon friend's coming home with her!
She walks up to the tent, but she stops herself from entering, when she hears one of his friends talking. "Harry, you were brilliant!" says someone. Holly suspects it's the girl with the frizzy hair. Granger? She still doesn't know her first name, though. Her friends only refer to her as that and the evil word, so. "You were amazing! You really were!"
"Harry, whoever put your name in that goblet—" says someone else. Maybe the ginger one. "I—I reckon they're trying to do you in!"
"Caught on, have you?" says Harry. Holly's eyes light up. Is this an argument? Is it bad that she's excited? Because shit, she is. "Took you long enough." There's a pause. Holly expects to hear someone fall to the floor, but no, instead, Harry continues. "It's okay, forget it."
"No, I shouldn't've—"
"Forget it," says Harry. "There's nothing to cry about!"
"You two are so stupid!" says Granger.
Holly figures she should get her cut sorted out, so, she walks in, and just slip past to find Madam Pomfrey. She doesn't know whether to smile, or say something, she knows that two of them know her as one of the girls in Pansy's gang. But she smiles politely at them — especially the girl, she knows the stuff Pansy puts her through.
"Uh, hi," says Holly.
Granger looks a little suspicious, to say the least. "Hello."
"Um, I don't think we've properly met before," says Holly, to both her and the ginger one. "I'm Holly."
"Hermione," she replies.
Holly looks at the ginger one, who frowns, before he says, "Ron."
"Nice to meet you," she says. "Hey, uh, is Madam Pomfrey—"
The woman in question walks out of that cubicle, and spots Holly, who smiles awkwardly at her. "I cut my hand," says Holly. She only grazed her knee, that happened enough times when she was little that she knows it isn't a major issue. Her clothes didn't rip where her knee was grazed, it was just grazed enough that some blood got through the fabric. It's fine. Her hand, however, is a different story, considering Holly wiped the open wound directly across a dirty rock.
Her dad, a surgeon, would be so proud.
Madam Pomfrey raises her eyebrows. "You cut your hand?"
"I needed blood to distract the dragon," says Holly. The other three are staring at her, which is lovely. "Can you, um, stop the bleeding, please?"
"Of course I can," says Madam Pomfrey, as if it's an insult. "Come on... I still cannot believe this. Of all of the things — dragons."
She's guided into one of the cubicles, and she sits down on the bed. Madam Pomfrey takes Holly's bloody hand, looking very disappointed, as she cleans it with a purple potion. Holly watches the liquid smoke, and Madam Pomfrey puts her wand onto the cut. The skin sews itself together, and the little amount of smoke clears to reveal her normal hand. No blood, no massive slice. "Now, just sit quietly for a minute. And then you can go and get your score."
"Thank you," says Holly.
Madam Pomfrey nods. As soon as she leaves, going to check on Cedric, Holly takes the little dragon out from her pocket. She starts to stroke it again, and makes a note to use the enlarging spell on it later on — not so that it's the normal size of a Vipertooth, but a little bigger. Like, in-between the size of a guinea pig and a rabbit. Big enough that she can hug it and it can sit on her shoulder, like how cool pets do.
Holly sighs. She puts her little dragon friend back into her pocket, and she decides to leave the tent. Her cut's healed, she wants to see her friends, too. She steps out of the tent, but before she can properly close the makeshift fabric opening to the tent, Holly sees her friends, and she grins at them. She's lifted into the air a little, when she hugs Harlow, and she's bombarded with various voices telling her how she was obviously the best out of all of them.
"You did it!" says Pansy, hugging Holly tightly. "You were amazing, Hol!"
"Come on, they're about to announce your score!"
Pansy and Daphne have their arms around Holly as they walk back towards the enclosure. Holly hears her cousin scoff, as Crabbe and Goyle snicker over something, and she sees Harry standing with Hermione and Ron. Thank God she knows their names now. She's fought a dragon, got a little pet, and learnt two names! Now it's figuring out Crabbe and Goyle's names.
The judges raise their wands, writing their number of points in the air. Daphne holds onto Holly's hand, as she watches Madame Maxime draw a nine in the air.
"One more than Potter!" says Draco, looking smug.
Crouch writes the same. Nine.
Dumbledore. Nine.
Bagman. Ten.
Holly loves blackmail.
Karkaroff, on the other hand, writes a measly three.
"Didn't he give Krum ten?" says Draco.
Harlow frowns. "Biased cun—"
The cheering around her is almost deafening. She hears one of the Slytherin students shout, "WE'RE JOINT FIRST!" Holly's eyes widen. She starts to bounce up and down, grinning from ear to ear.
"I'm joint first?" she says.
"Yeah, with Potter and Krum—!"
"I'm winning!" says Holly. Happiness swells inside her heart, and she forgets the feeling she had earlier, of butterflies swarming in her stomach. She did it! She did it! This is different to the highest score on an exam, the quickest to learn a spell — because this isn't just a triumph for her, this isn't just a teacher saying well done. When she wins, it isn't just her who wins. It's every Slytherin in the school, all of them win, all of them get to show that look, isn't it good to be cunning, to be ambitious? They all win.
So Holly smiles.
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