The Second Task
"For the second task," Professor Dumbledore announced, "Champions will be allowed one week to prepare. And the public will gather here in the great hall, for the Champions will be tasked to hide in the castle until the first light from all the professors tasked with finding them."
It was brilliant and something the marauders had done countless times, several times easier because of two things of course: they were not being hunt down, and they had James' Invisibility Cloak. If they were being hunted by the teachers at Hogwarts and headmasters from the best magic schools in the world, Remus wouldn't much fancy his chances.
"It's so simple and so brilliant at the same time!" Sirius shared his reasoning, "Can't think this will go well with Wolfgang though." He pointed directly at the boy cursing under his breath across the great hall, he had too much promise for how bad he'd been performing. If they had a dueling task however, he wouldn't want to be across him. Narcissa had been impressive because she was adaptable and knowledgeable, but in raw one-on-one dueling, Wolfgang seemed to be able to take on most anyone.
No class was really taken seriously. Everyone spent the year pestering their closest champion to figure out what they were doing to hide. Still, the only pseudo-approachable champion was Victoire, no one would dare pester Wolfgang, and even Narcissa, who was gaining Hogwarts support, was at least twice as scary as she was before the first challenge.
"I heard Narcissa is trying to find the hidden passageways." Pete managed between large bites off his supper.
"Teachers don't really know about those I suppose." Sirius said, "But I don't think it's that useful if they're actually looking for you, if Minnie turns into a cat she'll probably be able to smell you anyways."
"She's a professor, it's weird that you call her that!" Lily, Mary and Marlene had taken to sitting closer to the boys since the games started, it was nice to be able to share meals with people you didn't room with every day.
"Alright, if Professor Minnie turns into a cat, she'll probably just smell you." Sirius tried to hold back his own giggles, and for some merlin forsaken reason, so was James.
"Invisibility spells are not going to be too useful either, there's the revelio charm to watch out for." Lily said after rolling her eyes at Sirius.
"I'd just keep moving and stay behind a tapestry I think," Mary knew her limits and her drives, and eternal glory wasn't to high on her priorities.
"Even old man Filch would get you like that," Marlene was to some extent tempted by it, not the glory but the thrill of the competition, still she was shy about it unless she was on a broom.
"Remus, what's you take on this challenge?" Lily said.
"I think James would've made it out alive out of that one." True enough, his cloak and the passageways he and Sirius had mapped out already were enough for James to get it.
...
Contrary to popular belief, hiding was not really a strategy that the champions decided to employ.
The great hall was packed with students in the bleachers that enveloped the edges of the room. In the middle a large replica of the castle was cast by Professor Dumbledore, with the little figures of the professors and the champions wondering around, more detailed scenes followed the champions above the map below them. That's a charm we ought to get our hands on for the map, Remus thought, his sight rested on Sirius, who seemed to be thinking along the same lines.
Wolfgang Wagner opted for an invisibility potion, rather than a spell, it would probably work against a simple revelio charm, but amongs the Hogwarts faculty, both Girault and Kitzler were hunting for them, still, he mixed it up with a bit of his physical prowess to climb through the roof of one of the yards, he was waiting there patiently, his heels still ready to run at any given moment, you could feel him tense when Flitcwick passed with an orb of light circling around where he pointed his wand, casting shadows of leaves and vines, but never looking above eye lever.
If you followed Hagrid and his puppy, you could see him approach Narcissa in the map, she had used an illusion charm around herself that made her look like one of the suits of armour, so if she kept still, she was on the clear, you could see a few people hold their breaths when Hagrid's pup started smelling around the suit, James was the first to throw his fist in the air when Hagrid pulled the pup forward. Narcissa kept moving, like a shark, she cast a spell Sirius recognized before turning any corner, he described it like an open chanel legilimency charm, sort of.
And the map was having a hard time figuring out where Victoire was, maybe a mistake on the part of Dumledore's charm, because her close up above the map kept showing Headmistress Girault pacing around the castle.
There were a lot of close calls for Narcissa, but Hagrid's pup started barking and coincided with Kitzler in the yard. She waved her wand and a sort of coppery dust covered the yard, then it started taking the shape of Wolfgang climbing the columns--he jumped away from it, interrupting the dust's movement, and drawing attention to himself a little too much. If it was about getting tagged or such, he would've made it out without a problem, but he was found. The looser, once again, was Wolfgang Wagner.
Back at the Great Hall, you could feel the morale of the Durmstrang boys lower and lower, they were angrier and more irritable by the looks of it.
Narcissa's downfall was a sneeze of all things. "She's allergic to cats," Sirius laughed about it so loudly, "Merlin she always forgets it!" Filch's cat was pacing the hallways by itself and Girault caught her with a light flare.
The doors of the great hall opened and Girault was there?
Dumbledore gave a minute giggle.
She looked at the other close ups of the champions, both caught.
"If you would please, professor Slughorn." Dumbledore looked at the man standing next to Girault.
"Please what?" His words were always just the tinniest bit spat out.
"Please remove the effects of the polyjuice potion on Mrs. D'Aure." Girault smiled, which seemed unnatural. Professor Slughorn waved his wand around her and as she vowed in victory to her public, she turned back into the strawberry blonde french girl who'd now amassed enough fans to win an election.
"The winner of the second challenge of the triwizard tournament, earning the first choice for the last challenge is Victoire D'Aure!" The crowed erupted.
...
Back in the dorm, James seemed swayed into a supporting the french witch.
"She was just bloody brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed, "How bright do you have to be to pull that off! Genius!"
"She was so beautiful, too," James muttered.
"What'cha talking about mate?" Sirius looked at him baffled.
"No you're right James," Oh Pete.
Remus ignored the current kerfuffle, "She was genius," he could've never have thought to do a polyjuice potion for the challenge. She would've had to have been so careful not to run into Girault, who Remus was certain would not appreciate having had her hair stolen for the potion, "she must be grand at potions and acting."
"Maybe she just spoke french and glared at people." Peter did have the grasp of the headmistress.
"Would've fooled me." James agreed too easily.
"She would've fooled you without the potion, James." Sirius looked him down. He was blushing about her.
"Didn't you find her hair lovely, I think I like that reddish tone." It was a mistake taking those seats so close to the door, Remus could just see James keep going on about this for a while. "I think she's my first crush." James blushed again. She was definitely a crush.
"She's a fifth year, you're a fetus mate," Sirius was so kind to point out to him the breach from reality.
"Sixth actually," Peter always corrected the wrong thing.
"Still got my point."
"So she's redhead and good at potions, you might as well crush on Evans," Sirius threw a pillow at the starstruck (he was staring dearly at the roof above his bed).
"Merlin no!" James threw it back, Sirius didn't catch it, it hit Peter across the face, Remus laughed. "Evans is not at all like Victoire, she's a bookworm not a socialite."
"Socialite? Someone's been snogging with a thesaurus." Sirius kept the ball rolling, always, "I didn't know you knew such complicated words. And you say it like it's a bad thing that someone's a bookworm, our Remus' a bookworm, look at him!" He was doing his bedtime reading.
"Our Remus wants to sleep." He shut close his book and chanted nox into the room, hoping it would shut them up. And it didn't. No one could really sleep with the end of the year and the final challenge so close.