Chapter 15

The day of the first task dawned, and the contestants picked their numbers. Pharamond was to go first, then Sardo, then Yrdl, followed by Lilith, then Zajala, Zyrillis next, then Biirta, followed by Aglaia, and Riker last. The task was simple enough in theory: remove a ribbon tied around the horn of an erumpent.

"Not the most enviable position, tail-end Charlie," Lilith commiserated with Riker.

He shrugged.

"My only regret is that I shan't get to see what everyone does; on the other hand, perhaps that's an advantage. I don't get to build up too much fear."

"Keep it cool like that and you'll be fine," said Lilith.

Biirta could have wished that she had been picked earlier, but she kept repeating the mantra Lucius had taught her, that fear is the little death of reason. And in the orphanage there had been far worse things to fear than being under attack by an erumpent; because even if it led to disqualification, the Blood Group would get her out.

They would get any contestant out, even Hallow, because that was what Marauding was for.

oOo

Pharamond strolled out into the arena. Damian Malfoy had told him that the Erumpant had eighty four pairs of heritable material, like a black rhino. This meant a chant of forty-two syllables was in order, which had made Lilith giggle when she overheard this conversation, and mutter something about the answer to life, the universe and everything. Pharamond had a deep suspicion that Lilith would get more out of his chant than he would through being able to apply some kind of assimilative correlation by jiggery pokery. However, he fully intended to perform his chant and hope to get enough points to stand well up on the leader board; and he began the moment he could see the erumpent.

It charged, naturally, but started to slow, and as his chant finished, it ground to a halt. Pharamond strolled up to it, undid the ribbon, and with a moment of bravado, patted the creature on the horn.

It gave him a flat, unfriendly stare.

Pharamond strolled off, waving his ribbon, to the wild cheers of the entire school. It felt good.

He accrued fourteen time points for his efforts, which he knew would be less than some of the other choices, but chanting was his strength. He was much mollified to be awarded ten style points each by Britain and France, and nine from Germany, who rarely awarded ten save to their own contestants; and seven from the newly-arrived and sour-faced Russian judge who replaced Motylek. Russia had made representation to France's Ministry; and the French ministry had remained adamant. The Schrempf woman who had been involved with attack wizards at a previous Triwizard had claimed Imperius Curse and had been let off by her own country, as it had taken place in Durmstrang. This was NOT going to happen in La Belle France, and, said the Prime Minister, if Russia wished to withdraw, France for one would applaud.

oOo

There was an unexpected delay as the erumpent handlers found that they needed someone skilled in chanting to undo their beast from its immobility. There were three erumpants, but this one had to be removed before the next could be let out. Desolina obliged, and the irritable creature was led away under cushioning charms.

Sardo was next, looking terrified; but he was methodical and careful, and managed to get his cushioning charms up quite quickly, in time to manage to take eighteen time points.

It would help to make up for taking only five style points across the board, since it was held to be a very pedestrian solution. The Triwizard might test NEWT level students, but it was looking for those who could think outside the box. Sardo shook Pharamond's hand; he knew he owed the boy thanks for pointing him in the right direction, and pedestrian was better than being exploded.

oOo

Yrdl went third. She accio'd her prepared card of runes, and added a chant to that, the erumpent starting to charge, and then slowing, confused. Yrdl set the card in mid air in front of it, and used her wand to untie the ribbon so she did not place any part of herself in front of the confusing runes. As she had arranged them in a confusing pattern as well, the limited thought processes of the creature were mesmerised. Yrdl skipped out, relieved that it had worked. She gained seventeen time points, ten style points from Britain, and nine each from Germany and France, who were impressed by anyone who could use Ancient Runes more than merely suffer from them, and the Russian judge was hissed by the entire of Beauxbatons when he awarded but four points.

"I cannot award more points for some animal that has learned a trick by rote," he explained when the other judges gazed at him in disbelief.

"The girl – she is not an animal - plainly knows a lot more than using a trick by rote," said the French Sports Minister, "And use such contentious language again and I'll have you arrested. Dear me, we might end up arresting all the Russian Ministry; how lowering for the tone of our prisons, even the goblin crime lords will petition to be elsewhere than with such saléte."

This did not go down well. The French minister smiled jubilantly. Baiting the Russian was going to be as good sport as the competition.

oOo

Lilith was next and leaped lightly for her broom that she summoned using extrinsic translocation by precision, wordlessly and wandlessly, the moment she was in the arena. She landed lightly on it on her feet as it appeared out of nowhere, did a Korbut flip, and dangled off it to untie the ribbon and fly out with it. It took less time to perform than to describe. She was out of the arena before the crowd had finished gasping.

The applause was tumultuous.

Lilith took twenty-one time points out of a possible twenty-two. The British minister awarded her ten – he was quidditch mad, after all – and both France and Germany gave her eight. As Adam said laconically to the Hogwarts crowd, presumably they had blinked and missed some of the subtlety. Russia awarded six, and the minister said snippily that such a very little girl had no right to be in the contest, and being able to fly did not demonstrate any ability of spellcasting to the level required for the competition. Lilith smiled at him brightly, curtseyed, and it took until the break for lunch for the man to discover that he was wearing a very uncomplimentary word in cyrillics on his forehead.

"I'm so sorry that you don't consider extrinsic translocation by precision to be spell-casting," said Lilith. "I had no idea it wasn't taught in Russia."

"I didn't even know what it was called," said the English minister.

"It was not accio? But ma p'tite, you should have used incantation to show us that you knew!" said the French minister.

Lilith curtseyed again.

"Bad habit of the Gerhardt years, m'sieur, not to show the enemy what you are planning," she said.

oOo

Zajala was next. She cast accio on her flask of confusing, befuddling and stupefying potion, switched it smoothly with the fluid in the erumpent horn, and put up a wall of force into which the creature would crash. Being on the other side she was protected from the effects.

The ribbon was amongst the horn debris, a little the worse for wear, and Zajala picked it up and walked out as soon as the creature had succumbed to her potion.

It had taken longer than the others to date, and she only had ten time points.

"What did you DO?" asked the English judge, almost as confused and befuddled as the erumpent. Zajala explained, succinctly, and held up the flask of ermumpent fluid.

The English judge awarded her nine points for a, er, unique solution; the German gave her only seven points, on the grounds that the erumpent had been damaged in the process, and the French judge gave her ten points on the grounds that she had been most frugal to collect the fluid from the horn. The unspoken reason was to irritate the Russian, who predictably awarded only four, citing the same reason as the German judge and declaring it a poor choice. Zajala knew it did not warrant ten points any more than it warranted four at the other end, and felt that perhaps the French partiality and the Russian bias evened out fairly well. It was doubtless at least giving her dad a good laugh! And he would be pleased at her for saving the exploding fluid too. Even if it was tempting to hurl the flask at the Russian judge.

He was enough of a legilimens to see that thought form; and he ducked hastily behind the bench.

Zajala laughed gaily and moved away. It was enough to have made him.

Being a Malfoy really WAS a state of mind.

oOo

Zyrillis strolled out, also using extrinsic translocation by precision to pick his bucket of potion out of mid air with a panache that had Xanthe and Xanthippe calling him a posey git, in admiring tones.

His switching charm was made with a showman's style, which, as Nathan said dryly, only looked more impressive than Zajala's, whereas the smooth, unmarked switch she had made had been far more competent looking, even if the English judge had been too stupid to realise what she was doing.

"At least he asked," said Isambard. "It doesn't make Zyrillis less competent, just better at milking the crowd, and I suppose that at least is partly what this contest is about, not just ability."

"Which is silly," said Tobala.

"It is silly," said Walter. "But Zyrillis knows how to play to the crowd. Lilith could too if she only unleashed all that unmitigated cute on people."

"Poor Lils," laughed Nathan, "She doesn't want to be cute; she wants to be treated as a serious witch!"

"It ain't going to happen unless she breaks over five foot any time," said Jingjie.

Meanwhile, the erumpent's stomach contents lay in the bucket in which the potion had lately dwelt, and Zyrillis put the bucket down, and walked towards the dizzying animal, in time to whip off the ribbon as it keeled over.

He managed nineteen time points, and was awarded nine points by the British judge, ten each by the German and French judges, and even seven from the Russian. As the German sphere did not generally rate potions, either he was marked on his sheer chutzpah, or else attitudes were gradually changing. Zyrillis retired, currently heading the leader board, two points ahead of Lilith.

oOo

Biirta walked out, pretending to herself that she was not nervous, and consequently using every trick Narcissa had taught her. She summoned her plants, but not to her own hand, placing them directly under the erumpant's nose as she absently summoned a breeze to blow her scent away from the creature.

This little touch received applause from those who recognised its significance.

Erumpents had three thoughts in their minds; eating, charging, and sex. This one was sidetracked neatly by realising that its lengthy breakfast had been truncated. Biirta moved towards it as it ate, keeping the wind blowing her scent away. Like rhinos, erumpants had poor sight.

She decided to risk whipping off the ribbon while the erumpent was still shaking its head woozily, and by doing so managed to accumulate seventeen time points. Both the British and German judges gave her ten points for a novel solution, and, said the British Sports Minister, one which was most humane and panicked the poor creature less than some. France gave her eight, and even Russia gave her seven. This appeared to be the maximum to which they were prepared to stretch.

There was now an extended break whilst another erumpent was found quickly and brought in, all three of those provided being hors de combat in one way or another, one befused, confuddled and dehorned, and two sleeping off the effects of being poisoned a little bit.

oOo

Aglaia Hallow was the penultimate contestant, and came into the stadium against the fresh erumpent, wand working, and the runes flowing in front of it. She realised her mistake in using Tiwaz as soon as she laid it, and the animal became angered and even more aggressive, and quickly wrapped it in merkstave Raidho runes. She laid in some of Fehu too, so she did, as the knowledgeable commented, know her stuff. She acquired eighteen time points and was given ten and nine by the English and German judges, who were marking fairly, only six by France, who was not, claiming that seeing runes used twice was not so interesting the second time, as fatuous an excuse as any used by Russia. Russia gave its own contender ten, even if it was shaming that the English girl had been the one chosen.

"Nice work overcoming the restlessness of Tyr's Aett," said Yrdl. "A smooth piece of work. You know your runes."

Aglaia looked down her nose.

"And what did you use?" she asked, curiosity overcoming her distaste for a goblin.

"Raidho, Fehu and Ansuz all in Merkstave, and using a compelling knot pattern, all edged with the Ogham for Blackthorne," said Yrdl.

Aglaia looked interested, despite herself.

"That's moderately competent," she said. "Pattern magic is new for me, and a part of the ritual we are taught."

"Ours is taught largely to those people wanting to use art in magic, but we touch on it in Comparative Magic, which allows the synthesis of entirely new solutions by drawing on more than one source," said Yrdl. Hallow was an academic! If she was soured by having to deal with prejudice for being English in the Gerhardt years, and had built an outer skin of being more German than the Germans, perhaps here was a crack in the armour, as well as her obvious love of horses. Yrdl added, "We use pattern magic and music and chanting to soothe our horses when we transfer them to gymkhanas, as well of course as training them to accept portkey travel."

Aglaia stared.

"You transport horses by portkey? But how?"

"Making a part of their tack a portkey; and taking them through it many times when it is not important, at first soothed with soothing songs and chants until they become inured to it," said Yrdl. "It takes a little patience, but then, if something is worthwhile, it's worth taking time over."

"Yes, I see," said Aglaia, then tossed her head and stalked off.

Yrdl nodded to herself.

Maybe, just maybe there was hope for her.

oOo

Riker, last to go, whistled for his flying horse, and scrambled up fairly adeptly. He could fly pretty well, though not as well as those who had the chance to practise daily throughout their early years; the London school did not place as much emphasis on it as Schloss Adler. However, his mare was nervous of the erumpent, and shied away, and Riker only just completed the task within the allotted time for bonus points, and came away with just one time point. He was awarded seven, six and eight points by the English, German and French judges; and a predictable four from the Russian, which had the Frenchman swearing over the fact that he had not given more, since he had not even noticed that Riker was part goblin.

"Sir, I'd rather have a fair mark and a man who is blind to race," said Riker.

He was given applause for that.

Aglaia Hallow paused to pet the mare and gave him a grudging nod. Dolokhov was in the background scowling; he had a hat over the asses ears and a robe to the ground to hide the hooves and the tail. He was trying to pretend not to notice that several of the English were singing,

Horsey, horsey, don't you stop,

Just let your hooves go clippety-clop,

The tail goes swish and the wheels go round,

Giddy-up, you're homeward bound!

He had no interest in English nursery rhymes; which was a shame for him, as more knowledge of the same might have given him a means to escape his current predicament. And he had no idea that Lilith was considering that his currently altered state would make him more vulnerable to a sleep sending using 'Ride a cock horse [up to dreamy town]' or a translocational spell using 'ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross'.

oOo

The leader board for the first task showed Zyrillis in the lead, two points ahead of the jointly second Lilith and Aglaia. Biirta was amazed to be fourth, one point behind the two in second place and two points ahead of Pharamond, himself one point ahead of Yrdl. There were nine points difference between Yrdl and Zajala, who came next; Zajala would have a lot of ground to make up for being, in some ways, too competent to show her ability, and in having chosen a slower solution than some. Sardo was two points behind her, and Riker nine points behind him, and probably in a position from which it was impossible to catch up without some serious problem to the leaders.

"Hey, Adam, I might not win," said Lilith. "Well, that's something to know; I'm not as good as I thought I was."

"You're good in ways competition can't test," said Adam, loyally. He believed what he said, too.

Lilith considered.

"You mean in real life and combat I run rings around most people? Probably true at that, but it's as well to know that I do have my weaknesses, and better to find them out here rather than in combat."

"Your weakness isn't one," retorted Adam. "It's like Zajala, you don't waste time showing how you do stuff, you just do it. Which is what counts. If people want flashy wand work, I guess they go to a duel. If they want to win a battle they duck and cover and screech for a Snape or a Malfoy."

This was fairly close to the truth, so Lilith did not bother to call him on being partisan. And Zajala had, in her opinion, deserved a better mark from the German judge, even if the mudlo Russian was never going to mark her fairly.

oOoOo

The audience at home were, in various places, indignant about some of the marking. Sextus was boiling with indignation over Lilith being marked down by the Russian.

"Can't he SEE what she did? How is it not using high level spells to perform a piece of Extrinsic translocation that most people leave school still not able to do?" he demanded.

"Mr Scarpin, this assumes that yon wee sumpf cud even SPELL extrrrrrinsic Trrrrranslocation, never mind recognise or perforrrrm it," said Madam McGonagall, acting Headmistress while David was with his team.

When it came to Zajala, the school was also most indignant.

"Being fair, she was slow," said Kazrael.

"Yeah, but she should have had a couple of style points more," said Sextus. "She's got a lot of ground to make up."

"Next task is rescuing her loved one, and Sev is in charge of it," said Gennar. "I wonder if that'll be me, as her brother?"

"Dream on," said Sextus. "If you ask me, she and Nigel Baddock have a Case, even if they haven't realised it yet."

"I suspect that Severus will choose capable older loved ones rather than small kids," said Jayashree. "So more likely you for Lils than say Draxana."

"By that token he ought to have me, not Baddock," said Gennar. "I'm way more capable."

This was true enough not to elicit any denial.

Hogwarts was not the only school to be indignant; the London school was incandescent on behalf of all the goblins and part goblins.

"Wish Riker hadn't faffed around on a horse though," said one of Riker's former class mates, now with an OWL and his DOE under his belt in good employment as an assistant to Pete Prince in his apothecary shop.

"He had to go for something different or be marked down on style," said Mr Shorg, "Or so I understand it. The mistake he made was not accustoming the poor beast to the smell of those wretched critters. Gawd, ain't they BIG! I reckon my boy's got outsize ones to even attempt it," he added proudly.

This was generally held to be quite true.

The sentiments were generally echoed in the Bangor school too, and though the goblin contestents and tiny Lilith Snape were applauded for their skill and bravery, there were not many who would have liked to have emulated them!

Prince Peak accepted the unfair marking with a collective and resigned sigh; and small Falk Kesselring earned an approving nod from his elders when he piped up,

"But it doesn't make it better having the French judge cheat the other way, that's just as wrong!"

The pupils of Schloss Adler, watching with their Headmaster, since he had ceded the task of escorting the contenders to the Junior Head, were neither surprised nor shocked.

"Actually," said Wanda, "It's quite impressive how relatively even-handed the German is. The French judge does goblins no favours with positive discrimination, but I suppose it balances out some."

Nobody even mentioned that the English judge was even-handed; this was taken as a given by the Schloss Adler pupils, who assumed, with only partial truth, that all English were blind to race.

Durmstrang's pupils merely sneered at the Russian's foolishness.

"What foolishness!" said Leva Levadeva. "If they truly believe goblins to be inferior, all they have to do is to mark what they do, not mark down, which opens them to accusations of unfairness, and is as silly as that fat French fool marking them up. Because if they were inferior, that would show up."

"I do not know how the English get their goblins to perform as well as people, but they must surely be cheating in order to do so!" declared Kunegunda Sternkessel.

"Don't be such a scheissekopf," said Kjell Orn in scorn. "The way they get their goblins to perform as well as humans is by giving them equal education and the opportunity to develop their talents."

"It seems quite clear that they are able to equal any human," said Antoinette Labellette, who had been looking around herself more since the control by Achille had been removed from her. "I am glad of the opportunity to learn this. They look more human too; why is that?"

"Good food, healthy lifestyle," said Sofie Thorvaldsen. "Note the boy who is only part goblin who comes from a poorer neighbourhood looks in some ways more like one's idea of a goblin, because he's a bit leaner and hungrier."

This, as it happened, was not entirely fair, since Mr Shorg had a good living driving a hackney carriage, owning the two working horses that his son knew better how to drive than to ride; but Riker had been going through a growing spurt. Moreover, the free school did provide breakfast for all, and lunch for those who needed it, so most of their young pupils were not as pinched looking as they might have otherwise been. In principle, however, Sofie was generally correct.

"I hope he can get a few more points," said Elfleda Mondschein. "It must be embarrassing to lag so far behind, and it is all down to his horse making refusals."

"Didn't show it the beast first," said Leva, laconically.

It does not reflect well on Hellibore's academy that almost all the watching pupils were more concerned with how their man did than with any issues over fairness to goblins. If they thought about goblin contenders at all, save those who had made the effort to chat to Yrdl and others, it was more to marvel that they could even do magic, let alone consider how well they performed.

The French students considered it, on the whole, only right and proper that their minister should redress any unfairness on the part of 'le sales Russe' though like Hellibore's boys, most of them were more concerned with the performance of Pharamond. That he was not first on the leader board was a matter for concern! He would doubtless perform the second task even better and the German, Russian and English contenders would show that their performance was just a flash in the pan.

Various schools looked forward to welcoming back their heroes and making much of them, or exhorting them to do better. The next task would have a more limited number of visitors as each champion was to choose no more than half a dozen supporters.

Their choices might prove interesting, and form the basis for a future fourth task.

oOo

All that remained before returning to their respective schools was for the contenders to be given the clue to the second task, which they might ponder over the Yule holiday. This second task was set by Prince Peak, and as Zajala said gloomily, knowing Severus Snape it would be tortuous to the point of understanding why there were so many people who wanted to murder him.

Even Lilith could not disagree with this assessment!

Severus handed a small wallet to each contestant.

"You can all complete this task," he said. "I've spoken with all your heads or former heads to ascertain that everyone has the means to cover this."

Naturally, the wallets were rapidly opened.

There were two maps within, using geomantic symbols, and a terse note.

"The first map will take you to where you can collect the ingredients and brew a potion to permit you to pass through fire to reach your loved one. There will be sundry other ingredients for those who may want them to help with their travel. Ingredients will need deciphering. The second map will take you to your best beloved. Oh, and one more thing, if you use the same method of transport on both journeys, you will incur a 20-point penalty."

"Heh, classic Severus," said Zajala. "Good job I picked up enough geomancy through the skin to figure that out. Heh, not such a wide choice of means of travel though."

"You're good at potions, and anyone who's helped Lucius move his horses ought to be able to ruthlessly apply arithmancy," said Lilith.

"Good point," said Zajala. "Question will be if I can open a gate for the first one to cut down on time."

"Runes, Arithmancy, Chanting, Simples," said Lilith making the obligatory meerkat noises.

"I thought the clue to the second task was supposed to be confusing and befuddling?" said Pharamond.

"It is," said Sardo. "It'll mean a lot of library work for me, I know almost no Geomancy."

"Well, there is that," said Pharamond. "I've never studied it either. But it's not Conjuring Theory."

"Geomancy is nice and easy," said Riker. "It's a lovely pair of maps and gives you all sorts of opportunities to use ley lines and nodal shift."

"Well, at least most of us have heard those terms this time round," said Pharamond.

oOo

Lilith reflected that it was quite cleverly done; but that was Daddy for you! Those capable of nodal shift or apparating or opening gates could be assured a fast travel time; and those good at potions and arithmancy, who had also some idea of geomancy, might brew a liquid portkey at the same time as brewing a fire-resisting potion. Presumably any ingredients that needed preparing would have been prepared.

Lilith considered using feyspace, and decided that such might give too much away. Apparating and a gate were the quickest, and it was a lovely quick brew in the meantime. No problem. Daddy had as good as said that they would be labelled using ancient runes, but probably not using any of the texts Jade had deciphered as that was not widely available. Lilith beamed happily. It should be fun!

And now back to school, and some real work, knowing that the next task was so easy that there was nothing to get worked up over.

The end of part 1