Tela Carbasum
“Portraits?” echoed Caroline Moore-Hexham, displeased. “Why do we need portraits?”
“Well,” said Ginny. “You are champions for your school. And who knows when the next Triwizard will be?”
“Or is this to send to our mourning parents?” asked Chloe Langenberg, suspiciously. “Instead of mangled bodies? Is the next task that dangerous?”
“No!” said Ginny, annoyed. “Don’t be ridiculous. The next task is meant to be a test of ingenuity, not a bloodbath!”
“It could be both,” put in Jehanne Blavier.
“I thought you’d be on my side, Jehanne!” said Ginny, wounded. “Look, Gosse is an award-winning artist! You should be flattered!”
“She made a lovely corpse,” said Chloe, in a mock-hollow voice. “Look at the brushwork…”
“And do we get to keep our clothes on?” asked Jehanne. “Holombec only paints nudes, surely.”
“Of course you do!” Ginny said, feeling badgered now. “We want you in your school colours!”
“Ragge won’t like me being painted by Holombec,” burst out Chloe, with feeling. “He has a reputation, that one!”
“That one happens to be my partner!” Ginny pointed out, crossly.
Chloe coloured. “Headmistress!” she said in horror. “I’m very sorry! I did not think!”
“Gosse can do an extra portrait for Ragge,” said Jehanne, gaily. “And three more of me, too, so I can give them to everybody.”
Chloe swivelled her eyes towards Jehanne. “Everybody?” she asked, amazed. “Who’s everybody?”
Jehanne snorted in disbelief. “You mean to tell us that Ragge is your sole admirer? With three schools to choose from?”
“Yes, of course he is!”
“Well, that seems a waste to me,” said Jehanne, stoutly. “The new Beauxbatons valley caters for all my tastes, I find. Well, most of the time. Don’t you find that, Caroline?” Then even Jehanne cringed. “Oh! I didn’t mean that, I’m so sorry, Caroline!”
Moore-Hexham’s expression didn’t alter. She merely shook her head, then turned to Ginny. “So what is the next task?” she demanded.
“You know I can’t tell you that,” said Ginny. “Not yet.”
Jehanne, blithely overrode her. “So, nude,” she said. “Painted blue, in my case. With a sparking wand across here.” She gestured a diagonal line across her stomach. Chloe stared at her in horror. “Isn’t this why we are all girls, so everyone can enjoy our bodies?”
“No!”
“But why?” asked Caroline, eyeing Ginny speculatively. “Why in school colours? Isn’t it up to each school if they want a portrait?”
“I wanted all three of you here,” protested Ginny. “As a memento! But Gosse wouldn’t mind… I’m sure Gosse wouldn’t mind doing copies for your school as well.” Yes, Gosse liked painting, although she doubted he’d be keen on producing enough portraits to satisfy all of Jehanne’s admirers.
“So how about a joint portrait?” suggested Chloe. “All three of us together.”
“Actually,” said Ginny. “I wanted separate portraits. Do we have to argue about everything?”
“They’re already suspicious,” Ginny reported fretfully to the Triwizard committee later the same day. “We should have got someone else to tell them. I’m a lousy liar.”
“You weren’t lying!” said Beatrix, hotly.
“Yes, but it wasn’t the whole truth,” Ginny said, glumly. “And that was enough. I felt like I was being interrogated.”
“Good practice,” said McGonagall.
“What? Lying or being interrogated?”
“Both, I suppose,” admitted McGonagall.
“We all have to lie sometimes,” said Sendulla, philosophically.
“More than sometimes,” agreed Benjamin Sandberg.
“No, no! He’s not dead,” squawked Morris Eeylops. “He’s probably pining for the fjords.”
Five puzzled sets of eyes swivelled to look at Eeylops. He shrugged. “Show me someone who always tells the truth,” he said. “And I’ll show you a liar.”
“Speaking as a seller of wands,” said Beatrix. “If I hadn’t lied a few times, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Don’t look so worried, Ginny,” soothed McGonagall. “Honesty – excessive honesty, perhaps – got you this job, and everyone still expects it of you.”
“That, and a noisy and sudden death if they argue with you,” put in Sendulla.
“Amazing you can still paint people with their clothes on, Gosse,” remarked Ruby when he let the household inspect the completed portraits of the champions. He merely grunted.
“Revealing in other ways, though,” said Ginny as she squinted at Jehanne’s portrait.
“What do you mean?” asked Undine, fascinated.
“Well, look at Jehanne!” Ginny answered. She pointed at Jehanne’s painted eyes. “She’s got her eye on you, hasn’t she Gosse?”
Another grunt.
“Not the others, though,” protested Undine.
“Yeah, but look at that expression of Caroline’s!”
“Determined?” suggested Ruby.
“I think it’s anger. I wouldn’t like to duel with her,” said Ginny, flatly.
“You would win!” said Gosse, surprisingly.
Ginny turned to look at him in amazement. “Against her? I’m flattered, Gosse!” But she looked back at Moore-Hexham with additional interest. “I’m not so sure.”
“Does this mean Chloe will lose, you think?” asked Undine, in disappointment. “I like her.”
Ginny shook her head. “Possibly not. She’s the determined one. Look at her eyes. And cool under pressure. We could easily have a Durmstrang champion, I think.”
“But what are the portraits for?” pleaded Undine. “Is it because of the risk?”
Ginny sighed. “No! OK, OK, as long as you promise not to tell anyone. Tela Carbasum.”
“Which is what, exactly?” demanded Ruby.
“Welcome, all, to the second Triwizard challenge,” said Ginny. “As a reminder, the current scores for your champions are as follows: For luck points: On forty points, Jehanne Blavier of Beauxbatons. On sixty points, Caroline Moore-Hexham, of Hogwarts. And on forty-five points, Chloe Langenberg of Durmstrang!”
She waited for the cheers to die down before she could continue. They were back in the Room of Requirement, in the huge arena. This time, the centre of the arena was a large area of grass, where stood three humped objects, human height but wider, covered in black cloth. Next to it was a table, with Maurice Eeylops standing proudly behind it. On the table were three tiny vials, containing the contestants’ portions of Felix Felicis. To cheers, each champion stepped forward, accepted her vial and tilted her head back to empty the potion into her mouth.
“Now for the time scores,” said Ginny, reading from her notes. “These are the number of minutes the champions will have to perform the second challenge. Caroline Moore-Hexham, for Hogwarts, fifty minutes!”
Another cheer from the Hogwarts boxes.
“Chloe Langenberg, for Durmstrang, seventy minutes!”
The Durmstrang audience roared their approval.
“And Jehanne Blavier, for Beauxbatons, seventy-five minutes!”
The Beauxbatons pupils were screaming their support.
“All three candidates will be starting at the same moment, but they will be summoned back here as soon as their time is over. So, what’s the task?” she continued. She flicked her wand, and the three black cloths disappeared. “Here are portraits that Gosse Holombec has painted of the three champions.”
There was polite applause, and some cheers. Gosse, sitting unobtrusively behind her, had to be urged to his feet to acknowledge this. When the applause had died down, Ginny continued.
“I ask the three contestants to come forward and stand in front of their own portraits.”
All three champions were already showing the effects of Felix Felicis: Even the normally-sombre Caroline Moore-Hexham had a huge smile plastered on her face and was holding her arms up in appreciation of the Hogwarts cheers. Chloe Langenberg was conducting her fellow Durmstrangs while they sang their school song.
Jehanne, to the shock and surprise of Mr Ziemann, the Durmstrang Infirmarian, launched herself into his arms. Perhaps his reflexes were better than most, or perhaps it was the spreading effects of Felix Felicis, but he managed to catch her, not fall over, and receive a warm kiss from Jehanne. His face was red now, and at an annoyed gesture from Henri Sendulla he put her down. Jehanne, unabashed, wrapped an arm around Ziemann’s neck and gave him another kiss before skipping over to stand in front of her portrait.
All three schools were erupting noisily, and it took an age until Ginny could be heard.
“Now,” she said at last, “is anyone here familiar with the Tela Carbasum spell?”
There was a sudden silence; Ginny could see lots of eyes turn towards their neighbours. There was a single short laugh from the Durmstrang stand.
“Ah!” exclaimed Ginny. “Professor Bjorn-Espersen! Would you like to explain to everyone how it works?” She could see him put up his hand dismissively and shake his head.
“You’re sure?” Ginny called. “Well, tell me if I miss anything important… Tela Carbasum has an effect it is simple to describe: If you stand in front of a painting of yourself, and a friend… well, hopefully a friend… invokes the Tela Carbasum spell, you will find yourself replacing your painted self. In your painting.”
Everyone had an opinion on that, it seemed, and the arena was full of noise once more. Ginny merely waited for quiet to return.
“These three paintings show the candidates outside their own school. If they enter the painted school, they can reach the paintings in that school. From there, like the other painting subjects, they can move from painting to painting. Their task there is to find tokens bearing their own name.
“When they have succeeded, they then need to find the painting of one of the other schools. From there, they can move to that school’s paintings, and they have further tokens to find. And then on to the third school. There are eight tokens for each champion in their own school, and a further four items in each of the other two schools. Sixteen tokens for each candidate. And those tokens are important, because they will use them in the final task.”
Ginny’s throat was hurting now; presumably so were Sendulla’s and Stonelake’s. She cleared her throat and winced.
“The champions will face various challenges inside the paintings,” she croaked. “Some are in plain sight, but sometimes hard to reach. Some can only won by confronting people or animals in the paintings. And remember, no wands!”
There was a roar of excitement comment from the crowd. But none of the champions seemed worried by this. Moore-Hexham was glassy-eyed and staggering slightly, as if drunk, because of having had the largest dose of potion, Ginny guessed.
“Champions, are you ready to start?”
She could see the faces of the three competitors below her, standing in front of their portraits. They raised their arms in reply, and the audience cheered once more.
“Everyone else,” Ginny addressed the audience. “You will probably get the best view if you return to your own school and place yourselves in front of the painting of your choice. But no shoving or pushing please! It won’t be possible to follow the candidates everywhere, so we ask you to be patient, and wait for them to appear. Now, judges, please…”
She was fingering the bracelet that McGonagall had given her. The headmistress of Hogwarts had made copies of the bracelet she’d loaned Ginny when she’d been Head Girl at Hogwarts, so the judges and heads of each school could move quickly around their school, to keep the champions in sight.
Beatrix, Morris Eeylops and Benjamin Sandberg stepped forward, and stood in front of each of the champions, and raised their wands. The champions momentarily looked nervous, but resisted the temptation to step backwards.
“On my count!” called Ginny. “Three, two, one…”
“Tela Carbasum!” yelled the three judges, and a rainbow of colours shot from the end of their wands and hit the nearest champion in the chest.
The three competitors flipped backwards and disappeared headfirst into their paintings.