Victory

Celia had been the first and only person to congratulate Beth, as well as to offer her to help her win this thing. To start that promise, they had decided to spend their first weekend searching the castle top to bottom. Beth needed at least one clue, without it she would undoubtedly make a fool out of herself and her family on Halloween. Beth had not been able to sleep, her mind replaying the events of the previous day over and over again. It was now only five in the morning, and Celia was still happily snoring away in her four-poster bed. Beth wasn't about to go wake her up just yet, she still needed to do something else first.

She changed into a grey jumper and black pants and left the dungeons to head to the owlery. She had brought some parchment and a quill with her, she needed to write to her father. He would have probably heard it already, he was friends with some of the school governors. Still, it was best to let him know through letter.

She encountered a fellow Slytherin on her way out. His name was Severus something, he wasn't one to talk much to people younger than him so Beth had never spoken to him. "Good morning." He greeted her.

"Good morning." She answered, a tad bit surprised.

A few minutes later she entered the owlery. She sat down near a window where she could see the sun rising, and got to writing.

'Dad,
You have probably heard by now, but they chose me. I am the champion for house Slytherin! Everyone entered their name, even the first years, but mine was the one that came out. I do admit that I am rather intimidated by my competitors. There is one other girl named Kaeley Frye, she is only in her second year, so I know she won't be a problem. It is the other two I am worried about. Cephas Hackett (from Ravenclaw) is supposedly top of his year, and he is a seventh year, so he has studied far more magic than I have. The other champion is Sirius Black, son of Walburga and Orion Black. Though he is in Gryffindor. They are older than me, so they know more magic. But I am determined to make you proud dad, to live up to the name of Batley. Dumbledore has already revealed that we must look for clues, so that is what I shall do now. Hopefully I will see you soon.
Elisabeth'

The sun was already over the horizon when she was done. She tied the scroll to a barn owl's leg and watched it fly away. She did truly wanted to make him proud, but both the shock and happiness had passed and the worry had started to settle in.

There were several people entering the owlery, undoubtedly to tell their parents of their failure to secure a spot in the tournament. A Ravenclaw boy roughly bumped into Beth's shoulder as she walked down the stairs, causing her to fall the last few steps.

"Try that again Maeleana and I'll hex you into Mungo's." A voice said. Beth quickly scrambled to get back on her feet and saw that it was a seventh-year Slytherin by the name of Elias who had defended her. He had his wand ready, pointing at the Ravenclaw.

The Ravenclaw boy simply shrugged, and entered the owlery as though nothing ever happened. Elias picked up Beth's wand, which had fallen on the ground when she did, and handed it back to her.

"Elias Danvers." He shook her hand. "Snape told us you went this way. Come on."

"Where are we going?" She asked back. It wasn't that Slytherins were unkind, there were some really nice ones. But there was a hierarchy in place. Those who had important parents were at the very top, after which followed the eldest. All the way at the bottom were the first years, who still needed to learn the ropes. The house of Batley had an impressive name, but her father had long been forgotten. Beth had simply skated by, never really causing a stir.

"The common room." He answered, setting off towards the castle. "We're having a house meeting."

Beth followed Elias into the common room, where she was greeted by every single Slytherin in the entire house. All the seats were taken so most of them had resorted to sitting on the floor. From the corner of the room, she saw Celia grinning widely at her, though she was sitting separated from the groups of friends around her.

"Found her." Elias announced and sat down next to the prefect, Lauren Marcier. Beth took a few more steps into the centre of the room, feeling eyes poking into her at all sides. She wished she had done something to her unmanageable, black hair this morning. She looked nowhere near the worthy champion standard they undoubtedly had.

"I know that we all wanted to be champion." Lauren said, breaking the silence in the room and looking directly at Beth. "But we need to accept the fact that the goblet chose her." No one seemed entirely happy about that.

"What we cannot accept, however, is letting any of the other houses win." Lauren said, to which most of the students either nodded or mumbled words of approval. "So, Elisabeth, we are at your disposal. We'll start searching the castle for clues," she paused, and looked over to the side.

"Regulus." She said. He was leaning against the glass. Behind him, they could see into the black lake. "Your brother is a champion too. Who will you deliver your clue to?"

"Her." He answered without hesitation. "I'm loyal to Slytherin."

"Good." Lauren concluded. "We'll search the castle for clues, and deliver them straight to her. Don't be dumb, when you find it you hand it straight to her. Don't look at it, don't remember the words, don't repeat what you saw to anyone. Not a Slytherin and certainly not any of the other houses. Whatever it takes, whoever you need to hex, we need to get all the clues for ourselves."

Lauren knew how to give speeches, that much was clear. The silence dragged on for a few moments until she said: "Well? Are you waiting for me to kiss you goodbye? Get a move on!" All at once the Slytherins piled out of the common room, some opted to have breakfast first and then search, while others were too scared of Lauren.

"Thank you." Beth said to Lauren as she passed her. "Truly, thank you."

"You better be worth it." Lauren answered. "Doesn't matter how many times we'll beat them in quidditch or beat them with house points in the years to come. This is what they'll remind us of."

Hogwarts was an absolute war zone for the rest of the day. Once the Slytherins had made it clear that they were not above using hexes or playing dirty, suddenly neither were the rest of the houses. No one was safe passing through the hallways, especially the champions.

The first clue was found at eleven o'clock, by a Hufflepuff. It had been hidden in the library, but that is all they found out about it. No one knew what the clues looked like, so they had to look in every desolate corner of the castle.

Ravenclaw was the next to find a clue, though no one heard more than that it had been found. In order to stop them from cheating, six candles had been placed on the teacher's table in the great hall. One had a blue flame, one a yellow one.

Dinner was yet again a quick event, and seemingly the only safe zone in the entire school. Madam Pomfrey was going mad by the amount of students in the hospital wing, though no one was severely injured just yet.

Several heads snapped towards Beth when she entered the Great Hall. She had tried to look as well, but she had been jinxed thrice already. She was just too much of a target and was forced to spend her entire day hiding away in the common room. Sirius Black was sitting with one of his friends at the Gryffindor table, looking highly unbothered by it all. Judging by the reactions on Kaeley entering the great hall, her day had been the same as Beth's.

Beth halted for a moment. Dumbledore had told them to show good sportsmanship. She doubted that he had meant this to become an all-out war between the houses. Perhaps if she spoke to Kaeley they could maybe make peace?

She took a few steps towards the young girl, but it was clear that her plan would never work. Kaeley had been coached by her fellow Hufflepuffs, that much was clear. She looked at Beth as though she was a maggot and swiftly turned away from her. So much for the kindness of Hufflepuffs.

Beth ate her mashed potatoes in silence. Most of her table did not want to sit near her, the chance of getting hexed again was too big, even with the teachers watching. Celia was still out searching, so she was all by herself.

And then suddenly, a candle flared up. It was white at first, the person who took it was still debating whom to give it to. Then, it turned green.

Beth could cry, she was so happy. All day long she could do nothing as she heard her chances of even making it through the first task grow smaller by the hour. But now she could do it, even if it was just one clue.

Instead of bringing it to the common room, the person who took it brought it to the Great Hall. This was no mistake, though it seemed kind of odd at first. The person who had found it was Regulus Black.

He held a small, silver cylinder clutched in his hand. He marched right by his own brother, to hand deliver it to Beth. If there hadn't been a war between Slytherin and Gryffindor before, it sure as hell had started just now.