Victory

"Dear Elisabeth,
Congratulations, I knew you would be the chosen champion. I trust you are doing everything in your power to win. The Daily Prophet is covering the tournament, they have written several articles about you already, Mrs Clarview has been collecting them. They seem to favour Cephas Hackett as the clear winner. Show them the power of house Batley.
Dad"

Elisabeth ran her fingers over the ink of her father's letter. She knew the daily prophet had been writing articles about the tournament, Celia had shown her some. None of them went very in-depth just yet. But both Beth and Celia agreed that they are probably saving that for after the first task.

It was only two weeks away now, and it felt like Beth was constantly on the verge of a total emotional breakdown. Once she could not find her quill in her school bag and burst out into tears in the middle of charms class, another time she chucked a book at a first year for talking loudly in the common room. It would have hit him in the face if Celia hadn't caught it.

The tensions were rising again in the castle. No one was safe from the hexes and jinxes that were being cast in the hallways. Beth could go nowhere alone and was always surrounded by several Slytherin bodyguards. The only time they let her be was at the very end of the day when she was getting kicked out of the library by Madam Prince.

She was making her way back to the dungeons when she heard soft voices. She would have kept walking, had she not recognised Kaeley's giggle. She was in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, and she wasn't alone.

"What are you proposing then?" She asked. Even with his back to the door, Beth immediately recognised the back of Cephas, his white hair and lanky posture easily gave him away. Yes, this was definitely a conversation they did not want anyone to hear.

"An alliance, just for this first task." He said. "Together we have five clues. Gryffindor has none and Slytherin only one, which she'll never share."

"But why should we share?" Kaeley asked back.

"Don't you think Slytherin and Gryffindor have won enough?" He argued. "Every year it's the same old song. They either win the house tournament, the Quidditch cup or both. When was the last time Hufflepuff won anything?"

"I'm not stupid you know." She answered sharply. "If I help you my chances of beating Elisabeth increase. I still don't stand a chance against you."

"That is why we fully work together through the first task." He answered. The room fell silent for a small moment, and Beth feared she had been spotted. When she did dare to peek she saw Kaeley grinning widely at Cephas.

"So we win together?" She finally asked back. Cephas nodded. "Then we have a deal."

Beth quickly moved out of the way before they could see her, but she had heard enough. She hadn't expected to come in first, but if they go in as a duo then she would come in third, and that is if she could outwit Sirius. It was time for drastic actions.

* * *

It was a Saturday, which would usually mean that Beth spent the entire day in the library, hidden behind piles of books larger than most first years. Today, however, she was a woman on a mission. A mission, she wasn't entirely sure would work out.

If it came out that Beth had asked Sirius for an alliance and rejected her, it would cause great shame to all Slytherins, and undoubtedly a few angry letters from her father. However, if she did nothing she would almost certainly lose. She had to try.

It was hard to locate Sirius. He was not studying in the library, she had never seen him there in the first place, and she also could not find him in the rest of the castle. She feared that he spent all his time in the Gryffindor common room, which meant that she could not corner him when he was alone and discreetly ask him.

She got lucky though, as she was passing by a window she saw the four boys, Sirius and the three shadows he never seemed to lose, walking over the castle grounds. She quickly ran back down and headed outside.

October has been cold so far, but Beth had spent far too much time searching for Sirius to lose him again because she wanted to wear a cloak. Instead, she faced the cold wind in nothing but her uniform.

She was quick to be noticed. Remus was the first to spot her, and quickly tapped on Sirius' back. James' first reaction was to grab his wand and point it at her.

"I'm not here to hex you." She said, quickly stopping. "I just need a word, that's all."

"So you can jinx him when we're not around? Don't think so." James replied. Beth had come down all by herself, so if they did decide to hex her she was far outnumbered. She took a deep breath and grabbed her wand.

She threw it at Remus, who caught it. James slowly lowered his wand and glanced over at Sirius. "Five minutes." He just said and broke away from his group of friends.

Beth sat down on her familiar spot beside the black lake, and Sirius quickly followed her lead. "Are you hear to remind me how utterly screwed I am?" He asked her, breaking the silence. In all truth, Beth had spent so much time looking for Sirius, that she never really thought out how she was going to ask him. She needed to be careful, one wrong word and the Gryffindor versus Slytherin rivalry would flare up again.

"We're both screwed." She answered.

"You can't figure out your clue?" He immediately asked back. It wasn't entirely true. She did understand it, it was just too vague to be able to really prepare for anything.

"Clue is a nice word for it," Beth said. "That's not what I meant though. Yesterday, I overheard Kaeley and Cephas. They're forming an alliance for the first task."

Sirius let her words sink in for a moment. In the distance, he could see his friends look over at them worriedly, ready to sprint over if she tried to drown him in the black lake or something. If what she was saying was true, he would stand no chance.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"His exact words were 'an alliance, just for the first task'." She repeated. "Together they have five clues, his intellect and her... Well, I don't know what she brings to the table, maybe she's just there to cheer him on through most of it."

Sirius actually laughed at that, and leaned back, resting on his elbows. His friends seemed to relax a bit too and started talking among themselves. "Are you proposing that we work together?"

"An alliance between Gryffindor and Slytherin." She grinned. "Never before seen. Could be pretty powerful."

"Maybe there is a reason for that." He countered. "Our houses don't have a great track record of getting along."

"Let's face it, Sirius." She said, playing around with a pebble in her hand. "Both of us will be ridiculed until the end of days if we let Hufflepuff beat us. A second-year Hufflepuff."

"I wouldn't worry too much about her if I were you." He grinned. He was quite handsome when he smiled, Beth noticed. "My sources," he nodded his head towards his friends. "Tell me that Miss Frye still has trouble with Wingardium Leviosa. She won't be a threat to us."

"Us?" Beth asked back, a smile spreading across her face.

"We have just made the first Gryffindor-Slytherin alliance." He said, looking up at the grey, overcast sky. "Oh, how we make our parents proud."