Between the clouds
Seola completely regrets having put her name in the goblet, trying to balance the studies and training for the tournament that her friends are pushing are making her go crazy. With each week that she approached the first task things got busier, and less sleep time she got.
It didn't help that, a week before the first round of the tournament, Dayoung decided it would be a good idea to test a spell on her.
"It's a memorization spell, it helped me a little in some tests, maybe it will help you too" Dayoung said pulling out her wand before Seola could say anything.
There is something important about Dayoung and her spells, most of the time she was so excited about a spell that she didn't train or study it as she should, which caused a lot of confusion. Seola didn't care much about it before, Eunseo and Exy were the ones who cleaned up the mess, it was until she got blonde hair because of one of them.
"Your friend sent a very long-lasting spell this time, she was becoming a better wizard" The charms teacher said when she went looking for help, Seola had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes at the man's proud tone "I suggest you wait until the spell comes undone by itself, it should only take a few days, but I will have a conversation with Dayoung, although it was a good spell, it is still against the rules of the tournament”.
So, in addition to having the 98% Hogwarts against her, she got the nickname Draco, and wearing a hat was useless, everyone had already seen the damage the day that happened while Yeonjung pulled her to the teacher.
The day after the hair incident, Seola ran into Jiyeon in the school hallways, not that it was really an accident, she could feel the girl's curious eyes on her since dinner the night before.
She tried to go unnoticed, walking even faster than normal, but her efforts were in vain, a girl stopped her halfway to her transfiguration class, she was prepared for yet another joke about Draco, so she stayed extremely happy to see the sweet blue uniform in front of her, and a smiling Meiqi preventing her from moving.
“Hi Seola, someone asked to stop you if you saw you,” Meiqi smiled pleasantly at her, Seola wondered if she should feel something like everyone else seems to feel when talking to the girl “there she is, I like the new hair, it matches with you”.
Meiqi left her way as she appeared, as smooth as before, being replaced by someone with a more determined presence. Jiyeon looked at her, squinting her eyebrows, making Seola look for something in her mind that would have made the girl angry.
"Hey! Why are you running from me?" Jiyeon asked with heavy eyes.
"I'm running from everyone”.
That seemed to soften Jiyeon, she stared at her for a few seconds, blinking slowly before opening a smile, small and sweet, her hand reached out to touch the blond strands. Seola may never have realized that she held her breath at that moment, taking a small step forward.
"I like your new hair" Jiyeon seemed quite happy with the girl's proximity.
"Thanks, it wasn't really my choice, Dayoung doesn't have a wand as sharp as her tongue”.
"I think you look beautiful with it, maybe Dayoung's wand is sharper than you think”.
"Jiyeon" A voice cut off the conversation, Seola still kept her eyes on the girl, watching her turn to speak to Xiao, irritated that she had interrupted her "we need to go, we have class".
Jiyeon looked even more irritated, but returned to normal when she turned to Seola, the same sweet smile on her face "see you around, don't run from me anymore".
Seola stayed in the same place, even when Jiyeon was already out of sight. She only started walking again when she felt a hand on her back pushing her to walk again.
"Don't just stand there" Seola looked to the side seeing Yeonjung and Exy, the latter seeming to have even more fun with the situation "Did her Veela thing really get you that bad?"
"I don't think Bona is using her Veela part at Seola"
Jiyeon, as a whole, was a topic that left Seola confused. The girl had become even more popular when she started attending Hogwarts classes, every moment her eyes met the girl in the hallways, they also found someone courting her, which Seola found out it was incredibly difficult to ignore, she also found that the feeling of having the girl deny everyone, her eyes always meeting her and she walking towards her to go together for classes was even better.
Seola was sure that the girl made her feel things and feelings, she was also sure that she made other people feel the same, but not willingly. She had noticed a few times when they were together, even though Jiyeon hadn't been paying attention, people were still behaving strangely, as if they were in a certain trance. She knew that her heart was racing for a different reason, and she knew that Jiyeon treated her much more differently, Jiyeon kept her attention on her in a double intensity, her hands always found Seola, it was as if physical contact was necessary and there were lost looks and smiles towards her during the day.
Seola could be the most introverted, and sometimes just let Jiyeon speak, but it was an easy situation to be read, in fact, she was sure that Jiyeon was making the situation easy for her to read.
Three days before the first task, Seola received a paper from Jiyeon via Yeonjung. Just telling her to meet her a little earlier than breakfast in the dining room the next morning.
The Beauxbatons girls used to close themselves when the tournament phases got closer, they no longer walked down the castle corridors, or played with people who were brave enough to get close. They disappeared as soon as classes ended, some classes even stopped being given in the castle itself. Cheng Xiao went unseen for long days.
The Durmstrangs were different, they were even more present when the phases approached, Seola could feel some smiles that they gave her were very mocking, after all they had a lot more Hogwarts fans than she did.
Jiyeon should really be someone special for her to have given up precious hours of sleep to get up earlier. She almost fell twice in the room alone while trying to dress in the dark.
"Say hi to your girlfriend for me" Yeonjung whispered before she left the room, Seola was too tired to think of anything to answer.
Seola did not know how the girl did that, it seemed as if she had left a fashion week, the sun was still rising. Seola felt small because she looked like a zombie in front of her, but Jiyeon smiled at her, the same warm smile she always had, stretching hrt hands so she could deal with her mess of hair.
"You look tired" Jiyeon commented as she lowered her hands to the girl's uniform, Seola felt her face burning when she saw that the girl was unbuttoning the first buttons of her shirt so she could fix the button she had jumped on, then she turned her attention back to the tie, pulling it until it was properly "now it looks like a Slytherin".
"Should I take this as a compliment to my home?"
"Don't pretend you don't think high about your own home," Jiyeon took her hands off her tie to caress her face, Seola stepped forward, as she always used to do unconsciously in her last encounters with the girl "you look tired, you could have told me that”.
"It's hours of accumulated sleep, I think that sleeping two more hours wouldn't make me look less like a zombie."
"But they would make you look more awake, you should take a day to rest, I don't want you to burst in the middle of the task, the tournament is already too dangerous alone" Seola didn't answer, she knew she couldn't answer someone like Jiyeon, even more on that state "well, I need to show you something, so let's go".
Seola let herself be carried away, Jiyeon's hand remained on her wrist the whole way, the physical contact that Jiyeon liked so much. They left school and when they were almost reaching the Quidditch pitch they turned left, Jiyeon squeezed her wrist a little more as she slowed her steps, paying even more attention around her, until they stopped behind some trees, Seola pulled the girl behind her, the wand in hand ready for whatever danger Jiyeon had put her in.
"That is the task, I mean, it is part of the task" Jiyeon whispered, her hand now clutching the side of Seola's coat, who tried not to pay attention to the whirlwind of feeling for having the girl even closer to her.
She looked at the whole situation, there were some boxes with huge padlocks, some even seemed to be shaking as if there was something wanting to come out, she looked more to the side, there were some boxes already opened with a large cloth covering them, Seola made a move to them to get off the top, but it seemed that what was there was protected by a strong spell.
"It's a race," Jiyeon whispered again, "there are some animals that they are going to play in the middle of an open field at a school with several students, a very reckless idea, but if we look at the tournament's history it seems that everything makes sense."
"How did Xiao discover this?".
"One of Durmstrang's boys has a crush on her, he couldn't keep the secret from his home champion and ended up telling it a few days ago".
"And you didn't manage to keep the secret too?".
"It's what it looks like, I think crushes really move people" Jiyeon seemed to appreciate the reaction of surprise at the sudden confession, but soon tried to pull the girl away from the place, the wizards who take care soon should be there.
"Isn't that breaking the rules?" Seola asked when they were far enough away and when she was back to normal after the confession.
“And when was the tournament fair? Come on, am I going to put you to sleep?”.
"What?".
"You don't think I'm going to let you enter a tournament like that, missing a few classes won't hurt you."
Seola just let the girl pull her through the castle, watching as the girl's hair went back and forth as they walked, and how the girl greeted the other students as they passed by, but her grip never left her wrist. It wasn't that Seola didn't know how to argue with the girl, it was that she was scared, the same fear she felt years ago when her life was surrounded by people from the ministry of magic, asking her a thousand questions while she saw her family being taken one by one.
Jiyeon stayed beside her even when they arrived at the Slytherin dungeons, indicating to the girl to show the way to her room. They attracted looks from the other students.
"It's no surprise that you all look like ghosts living in such a dark place" Jiyeon commented as he closed the door and watched Seola take off her shoes and tie to throw herself on the bed.
"It's part of our concept," Seola felt her pet jump on the bed, looking at Jiyeon as if she were an enemy, Seola reached out her hand to scratch behind the animal's pointed ear, causing it to look at her "Uzzu, it’s all right, please don't hurt her".
"You have a pure Kneazle, I didn't know that they allowed such a dangerous magical creature around here”.
“Yeonjung has a snake and sometimes I catch them talking, I think my Kneazle is not that dangerous, you just have to keep a considerable distance from them, and that's advice for you too, Uzzu doesn't like anyone very much, muggles or wizards”.
"Nonsense, I think we can be good friends".
Jiyeon stayed with her until she fell asleep, she could see before closing her eyes Jiyeon and her Kneazle, the girl seemed to have fun while trying to pet the animal, which was trying to scratch or bite her.
She really should be thankful for the forced sleep she had, the more than 24 hours of sleep seeming to have more positive effect than she expected. The fear was still there, but she felt ready not to die in the first task at least, at least now she felt more prepared for what was coming.
Dawon found her in the library as soon as she woke up, throwing some books on the table in front of her, she took a quick look at the titles, all about animals.
"Did Jiyeon tell you about the task?"
"Jiyeon?" Dawon picked up one of the books, flipping through the pages looking for something.
"Bona".
"Your girlfriend? No” She finally found the page she was looking for, giving Seola the book so she could see the creature that was there, it was blue and looked small, it had a XXX rating in the book “A Pixie ended up in our dorm, it even tried to get up Soobin by the ear before I arrived, I heard one of the Gryffindor boys saying that they also saw them around, the principal Minerva would not leave creatures like these wandering around here if they had nothing to do with the tournament”.
"That sounded really smart, why aren’t you at the Ravenclaw?".
"Because I also spent the entire night wandering around in this library trying to help you”.
"Yeah, that also sounds like Hufflepuff".
Dawon just smiled at her, indicating some names that she and Exy had separated as potential animals that could be in the tournament. Something between the harmless ones and the ones they would never put in the tournament because it could be used for a mass murder if something got out of hand.
The other girls came up one by one, Yeonjung and Exy were the first ones, the first pointing her wands at the girl's uniform “you are a Slytherin, stay like one”, then Seola can feel her tie tightening around her neck; Dayoung was next, only to leave with a list of spells to try to do them, Soobin went with her to try to stop her from begin expel from school; Eunseo stayed focused on a page in one of the books for long minutes, then focused on the tournament rules, then immediately ran out of the library, she came back before they went to dinner, she hugged Seola and whispered “there are several flying animals, I think you’ll have to battle them in their elements, I know you don’t like flying, but I left my broom in a place that you can easily call it”, Seola felt her heart heat up with that, Eunseo was a Quidditch player, and like most of them, she was very proud of her broom, letting her use her broom was perhaps the greatest proof of love she could give; Xuanyi arrived while she Eunseo was still out, it was normal to see Hogwarts students with messy hair and rumpled clothes, but seeing someone like Xuanyi in the same conditions was something extremely unusual, which ended up calling Seola's attention, and Exy too, who nudged her rib before whispering "don't worry, her smile is too big for something bad to have happened".
"Maybe it would be better to go by the lake" Seola commented the day before the tournament, she felt her brain almost exploding with so much information about animals "I think it would be the fastest way".
"If I were you, I would stay away from the lake," Seola looked at the Beauxbatons girl near the table, Luda, Jiyeon had introduced her a few days earlier, the smart girl who helped Xiao understand the Hogwarts map for the first task "They are big animals over there".
"Thanks for the tip" Seola smiled at the girl before she left.
“Should we trust her? I mean, she's a Beauxbatons, and they're competing with us” Soobin commented when she was far enough away.
"Well, it was a Beauxbatons that gave me the tip about the first task”.
"Well, Bona is a little different," Yeonjung commented while hiding the candy she was eating hidden.
"We're just going to change plans”.
Seola spent long minutes looking at her uniform on her bed on the bid day, and longer minutes looking at her bedroom door. She didn't even know where she was going until she stopped in front of the champions' locker room.
She could hear the deafening noise from the stands, created next to the Quidditch pitch, she had even taken a look at the crowd, bad idea, there were about 4 cheering posters for her, all from her friend, she could even see the other students cheering for the other schools. Maybe that was how Harry Potter felt for real.
"Come on, Miss Kim" Minerva grabbed her shoulders and motioned for her to enter.
She wanted to pay attention to the inspirational speech that Minerva had given her, but a pale blue shape in the background caught her attention.
"You really don't like to follow rules" Seola commented when she managed to lose sight of the others in the tent, she smiled as she approached, feeling Jiyeon's fingers tighten on her uniform, she liked how Jiyeon's eyes had a sparkle on them.
"I told you, nobody ever follows the rules of the tournament, you look nervous".
"I'm nervous".
"I know you're going to do well, and you know that too."
Seola only took her eyes off Jiyeon when she heard Minerva approaching her, Jiyeon adjusted her uniform before turning her around and pushing her towards the principal.
“I hope the Beauxbatons student inspired you, you will be the second to go, Miss Cheng will be the first” Minerva said as she led her to the other champions “Go towards the portal when you enter the arena, it will send you somewhere in the castle, you need to get back to the arena as soon as possible”.
Seola's legs were shaking when she stepped into the arena, the battlefield all empty, just a door in the middle. Seola took that moment to look at the bleachers, found her friends looking at her with concern, she could see Exy's fingers turning white with such strength that she pressed the poster, the Beauxbatons were right next to them, Eunseo seemed excited to be sitting next to Meiqi, Seola wondered if she should tell that the reason for Xuanyi's sudden disappearances and Meiqi's big smile were linked together, when her eyes stopped in an apprehensive Jiyeon she decided it was time to end this already, speeding up the steps and walking through the door.
She was transported to a familiar place, the long tables and the transparent ceiling showing the cloudy sky quickly indicated where it was, the dining room, which made everything more hideous, she was expecting to be much more difficult.
She came out of the castle with her wand clenched between her fingers, with small, doubtful steps, remembering the boxes moving in the morning a few days ago, something big and bad.
And it was really something big and bad that appeared, as soon as she found herself outside the castle, turning one of the ways was a Graphorn, much bigger and more horrendous than the books told her it would be. Seola put her wand in a fighting position, just as the animal put itself in a fighting position.
She tried one. She tried two, but no spells seemed to have an effect on it.
'The leather is even thicker than a dragon's and repels most spells'.
She finally remembered a passage that talks about it, great, she thought, just one of the animals she can't use spells on it. 'Extremely aggressive nature', the book also said.
She tidied up her posture, more rigorous and cruder than before, but her wand lowered, without showing the exaggerated fear she was feeling. The animal also seemed to feel the change, stopping brutally before the attack, Seola took advantage of the animal's moment of confusion to point the wand up, then turn and run, she could hear the animal chasing her even when she jumped in the air, holding on Eunseo's broom when she passed under it.
She could see the animal getting angrier down there, she held her wand on even more tightly, she really didn't like to fly on broomsticks.
She only realized that she was going the wrong way when she realized she was flying over the lake, Luda's words hammering in her head. She started to see a blue cloud approaching, Pixies, she raised her wand before they could reach it, casting a spell so that they would stand still in the air, having to fly a little lower so that she didn't hit any of those.
A big mistake, very close to the lake.
So close that she was paying attention to what could have come from the lake and not from the sky.
It was all very fast, in one moment she was accelerating the broom to get out of there as quickly as possible, the next a shadow took over her, followed by a loud sound of a bird, she looked up ready to defend herself, but it was too late to do much, she could already see the claws of a griffin coming her way, the only thing she managed to do was get out of the line of attack, which ended up resulting in her crashing into the lake.
The water was cold, a sad way for her to remember that they were almost welcoming the winter, and denser and heavier too, enough for her to sink further, the light on the surface getting more and more distant. Then she saw something in the distance, the silhouette looking like a human with a tail, it moved fast, getting closer and closer, she prepared her wand, a quick spell that made a strong light come out of her wand, which was enough to not only blind the merpeople and herself, so she pointed down, feeling the upward momentum, until she left the lake completely, flying for a few meters before returning to it, this time she made an effort to stay in the surface, she knew she hadn't been underwater for a long time, but her lung was extremely tired, which made it even more difficult to get out of the water, she had to spend long minutes on the river trying to breathe normally.
Then she got up, raising her wand to call the broom back, but she got no answer, she was getting even more frustrated and tired, she still had to find a way to go to the arena, and she didn't even know if she would have enough strength to pass through another animal if she run into one.
Then she heard a noise near her, her heart racing as she saw the animal that landed nearby, half lion, half eagle, she hoped it was the same griffin that had knocked her off the broom, she hardly knew how she could fight with one, two would be impossible.
The animal didn't seem happy with her presence, and Seola couldn't agree more with him.
She didn't raise her wand like she did with the pixies, or improved her posture like she did with the Graphorn, she just stood there, shoulders drooping as she watched the animal.
"This is probably closer to suicide than I can imagine" Seola commented to the animal, it wings were still open, but it seemed confused by the position the woman took in front of it "you don't look big, you're probably still young, it's a little unwise for them to put such a young animal in a competition as inconsequential as this, but I think we have our things in common, two young fools in a competition, I'm Kim Hyunjung, but people call me Seola ” she bowed, revering the animal, but her eyes never left the animal, it seemed to let the guard down too, the wings going down “I'm from the Slytherin house, I hope you haven't heard of me, because I know that you did it’s wasn't good things for sure” The animal made a noise that scared Seola, but she immediately smiled “I think we have this in common too, too many people speaking too many things about us, well, Mr. Griffin, if times were different, like last year, for example, we would have a serious battle now, but this year some things have changed, I fear for my life now, I have many things to lose”.
She turned her back to the griffin, looking towards the arena, surprised when she turned around, the animal hadn't attacked her, in fact it seemed calmer than ever.
“I propose that we give a truce, for the sake of both of us, but if you still want a battle, just like all those old wizards who think they know too much wait, I will still be happy to give it to you, and I would be happy receive your help, from a misfit to a misfit”.
Seola expected everything, but the animal to sat down and then lay down in front of her. She imagined it was the lost hours of sleep that had made her hallucinate.
Heart pounding against her ear, she approached, small and uncertain steps, but the animal didn't seem to care about her presence, even when she was too close to him, or when she reached out to touch him. No, it just moved when she was properly seated, taking flight in a big impulse, which made her hold on to it even more.
"Sorry buddy" She said when it mumbled about the hold.
She looked down again, she really hated flying with a broom, a griffin really made things better.
She took her hand to her left arm while they were up, after her adrenaline was going down, she can see that she hadn't gotten rid of the griffin's first attack, and now her arm had a big cut and it was starting to hurt in an uncontrolled way.
Luckily, she could see the arena getting even closer, and the noise of the crowd too, she held on even more to the animal as it descended, stopping right in the middle of the arena, next to the door. Seola only realized that she was shaking when she jumped off the animal, her hand going from side to side as she pointed her wand at the flag pole, until the Hogwarts flag was raised.
"The task of the Hogwarts student, Miss Kim Hyunjung is finished" She heard the announcer saying, only then realizing that the rest of the arena was silent.
"Miss Kim" She looked at Minerva across the arena with a few more wizards, all then with their wands in hand.
Seola bowed again to the animal before going to her principal.
The griffin only took flight again when it was out of sight.
The cut on her arm gave her a very painful visit to the school infirmary, long days in infirmary with potions that made her hair stand with just the smell of it.
It was only two days after she stayed there that the doors of the infirmary opened to show someone other than directors, teachers and wizards of the ministries of magic.
"How did you do that?" Dawon asked as he stopped beside her bed, her hand going to Seola's forehead to make sure she wasn't in her fever state.
"Did what?"
“Tame a griffin? I spent the last two days in the library trying to understand how that happened” Xuanyi approached her, throwing some goodies on her leg that she carried with her, Seola pulled one of the jelly slugs.
"I didn't tame anything, we just entered into an agreement, listened to Yeonjung talking with her snake for so many years gave me the idea”.
“It was a good deal, you ended up in third place, apparently the judges thought that arriving with a wild griffin was not enough for them to forget that your time was longer than the others, but the students were angry, the other two champions had to face animals much easier than yours, ”Eunseo said, stealing one of the boxes of chocolate frogs for her“ griffin, merpeople and Graphorn are too much even for some more experienced wizards”.
"I mean, the merpeople didn't really attack Seola" Dayoung whispered hurriedly, making the others come closer to hear "I was walking around the castles, close to the principal's office, out of pure conscience, when I heard them talking...".
“Have you been using the invisibility cloak to enter the principal's office again? I told you...".
“I don't know what you are talking about,” Dayoung cut Exy quickly, rolling her eyes before continuing to speak “for some reason the merpeople didn't attack you, in fact, they were furious that they released such dangerous animals near them, there were several wizards at the lake taking out the animals they released this late night, I heard one of them say that a kelpie tried to attack you when you were underwater, that’s why you sank really fast, but that they attacked the kelpie before it could do something, like form of protest for what was happening”.
"So I attacked a merpeople for nothing?".
"I think everyone would do something like that if they had it on their skin, I think whoever was down there helping you knows that well" Eunseo assured the girl.
"Your broom...".
"Broken into small pieces, Minerva brought the pieces to me this morning, I don't know what she expected me to do with them, maybe she thought I was going to have a funeral or something."
"I'm sorry, I'll get you another one”.
"Don't worry about it, Dayoung and I are in business now, because of your rise in the competition our business to root for you is wild, within two days I can buy the new nimbus”.
"Your gryphon is also being talked about a lot" Seola turned her attention to Dawon, wasting no time in explaining that it was not her gryphon "it ran away as soon as you went to the infirmary, apparently it is smarter than the men in ministry of magic”.
"One of the boys from Durmstrang said he saw a centaur taking it further into the forest" Dayoung commented.
"Durmstrang boys are very fond of making up stories to impress girls, I don't think you should listen to them" Exy warned, which appeared to be more for Dayoung, but Seola felt it was a message for her too, Seola wondered if she looked that crazy for your friend thought she was going to enter the forest.
Before her friends leave, or the head nurse throws them out and she has to hide the remains of candy under her blanket, she can hear Exy saying that sometimes the night was too beautiful to stay awake. So she stayed up until two in the morning, fighting the effects of the potions.
"You are finally awake" Seola blinked a few times looking at where the voice was coming from.
"You came to see me" She smiled watching Jiyeon approaching.
It was the first time she had seen the girl so small and shrunken.
"I always came to see you, but it is difficult to get here during the day, the only time I can get in is at night, but you were always asleep" Jiyeon caressed her face, Seola plunged into the affection "you really scared me".
"I was also scared, thankfully your gift was heavier than my possible withdrawal”.
"I would be back from the dead if you happen to give up”.
Seola liked the silence in the room, liked the look of Jiyeon on her and how the moon that passed through the window illuminated the girl. She liked Jiyeon.
"I bought this" Jiyeon pulled a button out of her pocket, it went from an image of Seola with a frown to a green message saying 'Hogwarts for the victory'.
"No doubt they would choose one of my worst pictures for that”
"Well, the other one said 'forget that she is a Slytherin, it’s better if someone at home wins'".
"Yeah, I don't know which one is the best, wouldn't Cheng Xiao be angry if she saw you cheering for her rival?".
“Well” Jiyeon pulled another one out of her pocket, an image much better than Seola's, hair blowing in the air while smiling like a champion, the blue message saying 'for the best scenario, the best' “You really have to improve your people marketing".
"I broke the broom of one of my people, I don't think I can fire then right now”.
"Did you get your clue?".
“Yes,” Seola pulled the smooth black stone from her pocket, she had found it in her pocket as soon as she woke up, she had asked Minerva what it was and the principal had told her it was her clue for the next task “I don't know what it means, but I can see a very weak writing if I look at it from a different angle, but I can't understand what is written, Exy said that the stones are related to the animal that we won, that they are the ones giving the clues at the battle”.
“Yours is black? Xiao's is pink, the kid from durmstrang doesn't make much effort to hide his, it's yellow, it's a mystery how he feels so confident for having come in first after only having faced an ashwinder in his race, we had more work convincing Xiao not to keep the ashwinder eggs that she found than him throughout the first task”.
Seola smiled at the girl, putting the stone back in her pocket, she squeezed herself into a corner of the bed, indicating that Jiyeon would lie down next to her. Jiyeon lay beside her, her head on her shoulder and their fingers intertwined.
Seola felt her heart racing like when she was facing the Griffin.