Flaming Trees
The peacekeepers monitoring the arena took notice of Sirius's proximity to the edge. One of them approached Gerralt Grindelwald, the mastermind behind the Hunger Games. "Sirius is almost near the edge, two kilometres to the nearest tribute," the peacekeeper informed Gerralt.
Gerralt considered the information for a moment before deciding, "Let's turn him around, then."
Sirius, having found another suitable tree, climbed up and used the sleeping bag from his backpack to keep warm. Exhausted from the day's events, he eventually succumbed to sleep while still securely tied to the tree with the thick rope.
As the night progressed, he woke up to an unsettling scent of smoke and the ominous glow of flames around him. Panic set in as he realised the forest had been set ablaze, and the fire was rapidly approaching. Hastily untying the rope, he descended from the tree, the fire following his every movement.
In the distance, Sirius noticed a ball of fire hurtling towards him. He instinctively ducked and narrowly avoided the fiery projectile. Another fireball followed, forcing him to swiftly evade once more. The peacekeeper's voice crackled through the communicator, updating Gerralt on Sirius's movements. "He's heading towards the left flank. Can you place a tree there?" Gerralt asked the peacekeeper.
Responding to the command, a tree promptly fell in front of Sirius, providing a temporary shield against the encroaching flames. However, the danger persisted. Another fiery attack was imminent. A ball of fire hurtled towards him, and Sirius, reacting quickly, leaped out of the way. Unfortunately, in his attempt to avoid the flames, he lost his footing and tumbled down a steep hill.
Groaning in pain from the fall and nursing a burn on his leg, Sirius struggled to regain his bearings.
Sirius, feeling the burn on his leg, sprinted desperately until he reached the sanctuary of a lake. The cool water provided relief, numbing the pain from the fiery injury. However, his respite was short-lived as he spotted the careers and Gideon emerging from the rocks by the lake.
"There he is, there he is!" Benji's voice echoed, sending a jolt of panic through Sirius. He swiftly swam away, moving towards the opposite shore and diving back into the woods. The careers, relentless in their pursuit, followed closely behind.
"Fish out of the pound!" Rodolphus taunted as Sirius emerged from the water, running again. The careers, with determination in their eyes, were closing the distance. Seeking refuge, Sirius quickly climbed a tree.
"There you are, boy on fire!" Benji called out, his words echoing through the forest. Rodolphus began to ascend the tree, his hand reaching for a branch. Just as he was about to grasp it, the branch snapped, sending him crashing to the ground.
"I'm coming for you!" Rodolphus declared, undeterred by the fall. Alice, brandishing her bow and arrow, prepared to take her shot. Sirius, seizing the opportunity, egged them on.
"Maybe you should throw the sword!" he suggested with a smirk. Alice aimed and missed, and when Rodolphus attempted the same, he, too, failed to hit the target.
"Let's just wait him out," Gideon proposed, sensing that patience might be the key to capturing the elusive Sirius.
As Gideon contemplated the situation, he voiced his concerns, "He's gotta come down at some point. It's that or starve to death. We just kill him then."
Rodolphus, agreeing with Gideon's assessment, nodded in approval. "Okay," he replied, determined to bring an end to the chase. Rodolphus instructed someone to make a fire, preparing for the eventual confrontation with Sirius.
Meanwhile, high up in the tree, Sirius winced as he added water to his burn, stifling his yells of pain by covering his mouth with his coat. The pain was excruciating, but he endured it silently, not wanting to draw attention to his location.
Unexpectedly, a gift floated down from the sponsors. Alastor had sent something that might turn the tide. Sirius untied himself from the tree, holding onto the rope as he carefully climbed one more branch. There, in a metal case, awaited a crucial aid. He opened it to find a note and a remedy cream.
The note read, "Apply generously and stay alive - A." Sirius followed the instructions, rubbing the remedy cream onto his burn. Almost instantly, he felt relief from the searing pain.
Sirius woke up the next morning feeling a renewed energy. He gingerly touched the spot where the burn had been, surprised to find it almost healed. A metallic glint caught his eye, and he turned to see Theo, the boy from District 11, trying to get his attention.
Theo pointed towards a tree, making cutting motions with her hands. Sirius followed her gaze and saw a wasp nest hanging from a branch. He furrowed his brow, unsure of her intentions. Theo persisted, gesturing for him to cut the branch. Intrigued and trusting her instinct, Sirius climbed up the tree.
Rita Skeeter's voice echoed through the arena, informing the audience about the deadly nature of tracker jackers. Sirius took a deep breath, unsheathed his knife, and began cutting the branch. As it fell, Mia's prediction proved correct—the tracker jackers swarmed the Careers.
Chaos erupted among the Careers as they screamed and flailed, running in different directions. Sirius felt a few stings, but he managed to avoid the worst of the attack. As the dust settled, he climbed down the tree.
Suddenly, the world around him began to warp and shift. Sirius felt disoriented, unsure if he was still in the arena or trapped in a hallucination. He stumbled upon the bow and arrows, noticing Alice's lifeless form nearby. In his altered state, he couldn't discern if this was reality or a trick played by the venomous insects.
Gideon's voice broke through the haze, urgently urging him to run. Sirius hesitated, torn between the surreal scene before him and Gideon's desperate pleas. The hallucination intensified as Gideon sprinted towards him.
"Sirius, go! Get out of here! What are you doing? Go!" Gideon's words echoed, and Sirius, fueled by a mix of confusion and fear, stumbled away from the chaos, bow and arrows in hand, as the hallucination continued to unfold.
Sirius awoke in the middle of the woods, surrounded by the rustling leaves that had covered him like a makeshift blanket. He glanced around, disoriented, and spotted Theo hiding behind a nearby tree.
"Theo?" Sirius called out, cautious. Theo hesitated before emerging from his hiding spot. "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you," Sirius reassured him.
The two of them shared a lunch of hunted and killed animal, using the bow and arrow Sirius had acquired in the Games. Offering Theo his portion, Sirius said, "You want mine too?"
"No, that's okay," Theo replied. Sirius insisted, handing over the piece of meat. "Here."
"Thanks," Theo said, accepting the food. Sirius inquired about the time he had spent asleep, and Theo informed him, "A couple of days. I changed your leaves twice."
"Thank you," Sirius expressed his gratitude. He then asked Theo what had happened while he was unconscious. Theo shared the fate of the tributes from Districts 1 and 10, and assured Sirius that the boy from District 5 was okay and down by the river.
As Theo tried to tease Sirius about the rumours surrounding him and Gideon, Sirius laughed it off, steering the conversation toward the whereabouts of Rodolphus and the others.
"They got all their supplies down by the lake. It's piled up in this great big pyramid," Theo informed him.
"That sounds tempting," Sirius commented, and he soon drifted off to sleep with Theo curled up next to him.
Later, as they planned to sabotage the Careers' supplies, Sirius instructed Theo, "This green stuff is gonna smoke like crazy, so as soon as you light it, move on to the next fire. Light this one last, and I'll meet you back over there."
"Right," Theo acknowledged.
"We need a signal in case one of us gets held up," Sirius added.
"Okay. Like what?" Theo inquired.
Theo demonstrated a tune, and nearby Mockingjays replicated it. "Mockingjays. That's great," Sirius commented. Theo suggested, "You try."
Sirius whistled a tune, and the Mockingjays echoed it. "Okay, so if we hear that, it means we're okay, and we'll be back real soon," Theo explained, finalising their plan.
Sirius and Theo finished their conversation, and as they parted ways, Sirius reassured, "We're gonna be okay." Theo gave him a hug before Sirius left, saying, "Hey, I'll see you for supper."
"Okay," Theo replied, and Sirius walked away confidently.
Sirius, now hidden behind bushes, observed the Careers closely. One of the Careers noticed smoke in the distance, indicating that someone had lit a fire. They didn't know it was a distraction. Rodolphus and the others made a move towards the fire, instructing Benji to stay behind and keep guard over their belongings.
"I wanna see if she figures out the booby trap. It seems they've reburied their mines around that big pile of goodies," Rita commented over the Games' broadcast.
Sirius noticed a younger girl manoeuvring around the trap, having already figured out its mechanism. Simultaneously, he observed Benji getting distracted and walking away from the trap. Seizing the opportunity, Sirius readied his bow and apple. He aimed carefully and released the arrow, hitting the bag of apples. However, the bag didn't split open.
Refusing to give up, Sirius took another shot. This time, the arrow hit the bag perfectly, causing it to split open. The apples fell to the ground and landed on the mines, triggering a massive explosion. The Careers' supplies were blown up in the process.
The explosion was far more powerful than Sirius had anticipated. The impact threw him into the air, and he landed on the ground with a thud. As the dust settled, he saw Rodolphus, in a fit of anger, killing their guard from District 7, mistakenly thinking he caused the explosion.
In a state of panic, Sirius ran back to the meeting point, remembering Theo. He whistled to check if Theo was okay, but there was no response. Panic set in as he heard Theo scream, "Sirius! Help!"
Running towards the sound, Sirius found Theo caught in a trap on the ground. "It's okay. It's okay," Sirius assured as he cut the trap with his knife. He removed it, and Theo hugged him tightly. "You're okay. You're fine. See?" Sirius comforted me.
Theo, looking at Sirius with fear in his eyes, suddenly saw Benji approaching. Reacting swiftly, Sirius threw a knife in Benji's direction, and then aimed an arrow at his chest. As Sirius turned back to Theo, he noticed blood.
Theo, taking the knife out of himself, started to fall, but Sirius caught him. "It's okay. You're okay. You're okay," Sirius repeated through tears. "Did you blow up the food?" Theo asked. "Every bit of it," Sirius replied.
"You have to win," Theo urged. Then, Theo asked if Sirius could sing, and he sang the same comforting song he once sang to Regulus. Sirius sobbed violently, apologising. As Theo's condition worsened, Sirius found a bunch of flowers in the woods and decided to create a flower memorial for him.
After setting up the memorial, Sirius turned away and made the same symbol with his hands that they did when he volunteered.
Alastor's grizzled features bore a stern expression as he faced Gellert Grindelwald. The atmosphere in the room was tense, and the stakes were higher than ever.
"Don't kill Sirius. You'll just create a martyr," Alastor stated firmly at the beginning of the conversation, the weight of his words hanging in the air. He knew the delicate balance between control and chaos, and the potential consequences of Gellert's actions were too significant to ignore.
"Well, it seems like we've already got one," Gellert remarked, his tone nonchalant.
"I hear those rumours out of District 11. This could get away from you," Alastor continued, cutting straight to the heart of the matter. His experience and intuition told him that Gellert needed to tread carefully.
Gellert, with his piercing gaze, asked, "What do you want?"
"You have a lot of anger out there. I know you know how to handle a mob. You've done it before," Alastor explained, his voice steady. "If you can't scare them, give them something to root for."
Gellert arched an eyebrow, a silent question hanging in the air.
Alastor leaned in slightly, his expression almost conspiratorial. "Young love," he said, emphasising each word.