Ford Anglia
Group: Fantastic Ferret
Posts: 38
Joined: 26-October 05
From: UK
Member No.: 789
|
BAD BREWS MEAN BAD NEWS
According to the calendar, Spring was apparently on its way. It was difficult to believe this when trudging through muddy slush and being drenched in the sleet and rain which had been falling consistently for two days by that point. The weather was as foul as Fleur's mood, bored of the dull British weather and the dull British school boys - her date for the Yule Ball had been the epitome of boring. To top it all off, she had spent the Christmas holidays brooding over the box she had retrieved from the first task. The last thing she wanted to do in this miserable weather was take a dip in the grey waters of the lake, and yet that seemed to be precisely what she was going to have to do. After all, how could one capture a Giant Squid from the shore? Not that she hadn't considered this possibility at first, but it would be impossible.
Giant Squids, according to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, by Newt Scamander, always stayed in deep water, and rarely surfaced unless something caught their attention. Fleur had been most relieved to find a copy of this staple book for witches and wizards everywhere in the Hogwarts library, where it had provided her with everything she had needed to know, even if it had been dog-eared and covered in graffiti. In fact, a great deal of the book had been so heavily, and apparently recently, graffitied in places, it had been almost impossible for Fleur to read the sections on aquatic creatures. Time and time again she had taken it to the librarian to have it cleaned, only to return the clean copy to the shlef and find it worse than ever the next time she took it out. She'd even gone so far as to ask the other champions about it, which had only raised her suspicions further - Krum's father had sent him a copy as a reward for becoming a champion, whereas Cedric, as with all Hogwarts students, had his own copy. Someone knew she wouldn't have a copy, and someone was trying to sabotage the only copy freely available to her.
Still, knowing where to find the squid was only half the battle - she had yet to find something easy to teach it, or how to capture it and keep it in one place long enough to teach it at all. Time was rapidly running out so, against habit, she returned to the library after dinner one evening to resume her research. Her friends had tutted over her absence for their nightly excursions to Hogsmeade and The Three Broomsticks, but in truth, her opinion of the place had gone downhill after having drunk a pint of ale rather too quickly and had ended up being very ill in the infirmary. The curious thing was that Madam Pomfrey had thought her symptoms had been suspiciously like those of someone having drunk an out-of-date bad luck potion, particularly after Fleur had tried several different Bertie Botts' Every Flavour Beans and managing to pick over-boiled cabbage five times in a row.
Still, she would have liked to have been with her friends that evening. She would celebrate with her friends after succeeding in the task, and that would involve more research first. So deep in thought was she about the good times she was missing out on, that she didn't notice Ludo Bagman until she walked right into him.
"My dear girl! Do watch where you're going!" he blurted out, waving an ink-stained handkerchief at her. "Isn't it past your curfew, anyway? Even champions can't be breaking the rules here, you know." Fleur folded her arms and looked along her nose at Bagman. She had taken a bit of a dislike to the sportsman since the incident with the microphone during the first task.
"I am well wizeen my rights to be up at zis hour," she replied haughtily. "I am a senior student, after all."
"Hmm, yes, well, it's not right for a young woman to be on her own in the evening. She should be with her friends, surely, enjoying all this place has to offer! The ale down at the Three Broomsticks is particularly good, I should add." He sounded very adamant.
"I didn't zink so," Fleur replied suspiciously. "I thought it was foul."
"Spot of bad luck, I'm sure," Bagman said carefully, with a bit of glint in his eye. "Don't let me keep you then, Miss Delacour." With that, he passed her and continued up the corridor away from the library.
Fleur cursed as she mopped up the fresh ink from Fantastic Beasts with her wand, lazily waving it over the page until the words 'Merpeople' and 'Plimpies' caught her eye:
"Plimpies are considered a pest by Merpeople, who tie their legs into complicated knots and cast them adrift, where it may take them hours to free themselves."
Fleur would have bet her wand that the squid had seen the Merpeople do that before, and with all those bendy limbs, she also could see the squid picking up this skill very easily. A similar trick might even work to immobilise the squid. That was it! That was what she would do! All she needed now was a way of luring the squid towards her so that she could capture it and teach it this Merpeople-pleasing skill.
The day of the task dawned, but Fleur had been awake long before the sun rose. Pacing and muttering spells over and over under her breath, she memorised every spell in the order that she would use them - Lumos, Velocitera, Accio. Her friends, annoyed at having their sleep disturbed, and irritably told her to practise in the Ravenclaw common room, but this had suited her, particularly when she had accidentally cast Velocitera for real and had run into the sofa, badly bruising her leg, before she could stop herself. As everyone else began to rise for breakfast, wishing her luck as they left, Fleur lingered a little longer in the common room, waiting until it was empty before heading down to the lake alone. She would not lose concentration and forget a spell because of some ill-timed well-wisher!
"Oh Fleur!" One of her friends, Thea, came hurrying along the corridor. Fleur sighed at this bad luck and stopped to greet Thea with only a half-smile. "You must 'ave somezing to drink! It will be ever so cold out zere!" She proffered a steaming cup to Fleur who sipped unenthusiastically at it while noticing a beautiful brooch pinned to Thea's uniform.
"Zat is new, non?" Fleur asked, feeling a little odd. What had at first appeared to be coffee seemed have a distinctly malty, hoppy taste. "Thea, is zere ale in zis?"
"Mais oui! To keep ze chills away. Zat Bagman told me it would 'elp you. All ze champions are doing it, so 'e said. 'E gave me zis brooch, too. 'E is a good man, I can't see why everyone says 'e is a buffoon." Fleur groaned inwardly. She could only pray she had sipped little enough of the potion so that it would wear off during the walk to the lake.
After bumping into a couple of first years who had happened to be carrying ink pots which had spilled on to her robes, getting gum thrown into her hair after a chance encounter with Peeves and tripping over a suit of armour which had fallen with a clatter on top of her, Fleur had been beginning to doubt she would ever make it to the lake, let alone find the squid. There was a ferocious wind that day, too, not that it should have affected her plan at all previously, but with this potion in her system, she couldn't be sure of anything. It had even caught a Gryffindor house scarf and was toying with it far above her, until the doomed garment was sent into the eager clutches of the Whomping Willow. Pretty soon after that, only a few sad bits of red and yellow wool were to be seen.
The other champions were already stood shivering by the lake, waiting for the judges to arrive. Fleur had just decided to keep her robes on until the last minute to keep warm when the squid, presumably sensing something would be going on, flicked a wave of water towards them, which left Fleur drenched. The icy water seemed to steal her breath away for a few moments until a helpful student helping with the tournament handed her a towel. By the time the judges arrived, Fleur was ready to get in the water and begin, so her heart sank as Bagman approached wielding a small brown bag. Each champion took their token, and Fleur was dismayed to find she was last. All she could do was watch and wait as the other champions competed first, and to add to her bad mood, Cedric had also chosen a Plimpy-related activity - Plimpy juggling - to teach the squid. Luckily, the squid had managed to drop all its Plimpies back into the water, so Cedric's score was less than impossible to beat. Viktor, on the other hand, had taught the squid to hit a floating target with its ink, which it had succeeded at all too well, drenching the judges with ink too. With a 32 and a 35 to beat, Fleur dropped into the lake and swam out towards the middle.
Having already been caught and pestered twice, the squid was in no mood to play, until it saw the glowing light of Fleur's wand bobbing in the waters. Next thing it knew, another annoying student was pestering it, and it tried to catch her in order to put her back to shore, but this one moved so fast that before the squid knew it, all but two of its limbs were completely entangled.
Fleur swam to the surface, raised her wand and called:
"Accio Plimpy!"
Nothing came.
"Oh what bad luck!" she heard Bagman commentating. "Diggory's play seems to have scared all the Plimpies out of range!" At first it had seemed so, but just as the odd feeling in Fleur's stomach began to fade, one bedraggled Plimpy came shooting through the water towards her, its legs pumping furiously to try and escape. With a few scratches, Fleur caught it, took a breath and dived under the water. She held the Plimpy up to the squid and tied the Plimpy's legs together. A moment later, she untied them again. The squid, watching it, copied the movements with its own limbs, freeing itself, but not fleeing. If only she'd had a second Plimpy for the squid to practise on, but the arrival of spear-wielding Merpeople told her she was running out of time. She tried to pass the Plimpy to the squid, who fumbled it and the creature escaped. Fleur couldn't believe it!
But the Merpeople were grinning. They had watched her efforts with the Plimpy and, of course, she had been doing them a service teaching the squid to tie up these pests, so they had brought along many more to be dealt with! The squid reached out for three of the struggling fish-like creatures and then obediently followed Fleur to the surface. She'd exceeded her time limit, so she knew she would be penalised, but she could only hope that the squid would repeat what it had already seen. To her relief, the squid tied up the Plimpies so tightly they could barely move. Then, as something of an encore, it tried to repeat Cedric's task, but failed again. Still, as that hadn't been part of her task, Fleur hoped that wouldn't affect her score.
The judges conferred for what seemed like hours while the Merpeople below Fleur were batting the Plimpies around like a bizarre game of volley ball. Finally, they reached a decision - 38! That put her in the lead, two points ahead of Krum and four ahead of Cedric! With a warm, tingling wave of relief washing through her, Fleur wrapped her towel around her dripping self tightly and made her way back to the castle to celebrate with her friends.
But something told her she would be avoiding the ale.
-------------------
HARD RIDDLE
Your task is to build from A Tri-Headed Tooth-Ache in 1000 to 3000 words.
Fleur's box reveals that the second task will involve capturing the Giant Squid and teaching it something which it must demonstrate to the Judges. Fast-forward to the second task, which takes place at the end of February. Describe her preparation, journey to the squid and the performance for the judges. Did she have help? How does Bagman behave throughout this?
Include:
a Gryffindor house scarf
a pint of ale
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, by Newt Scamander
-----------------
--------------------
 |
Tri-Ferret Tournament - The Second Task, Submissions
Department_of_Mysteries Tri-Ferret Tournament - The Second Task Nov 11 2005, 09:40 AM
Nov 11 2005, 09:40 AM
