Pain Doesn't Cost a Thing by Ron x Hermione
Chapter Notes: Thanks so much to the loveliest beta a girl could ask for, Fresca/Colores! *hugs*
“Seth and I broke up,” Eva said to Emma the next morning. “I’m sorry. You were right. I’m not going to hold onto someone that can’t keep his hands off me. And I don’t mean the way you think.”
Emma gave Eva a weak smile, muttering an apology to her about her upset feelings. She had been in a subdued mood the last few days, and she knew that Seth had been the source of this unhappiness.
“Thanks. I was expecting you to say something like ‘I told you so.’ I appreciate it.” Eva gave Emma a watery smile before embracing her in a quick hug.
The truth was that Emma had been itching to say that very comment ever since Eva and Seth’s first fight when she had first glimpsed the bruises, but she hadn’t said it in fear of losing their already crumbling friendship. She just continued to hold her friend until she released her.
“How are you and Brett?”
And Emma went into a long account about how well the two were doing, though she did see Eva’s passive and dejected looks of jealousy during the telling, and that made her conclude prematurely. But Eva did seem excited for her, which made Emma’s heart soar--- until she reached the Great Hall and remembered that the second task would take place within the next hour.
She didn’t feel like eating much; the crisp bacon and eggs that surrounded her plate looked utterly delicious to any onlooker (the house elves had really outdone themselves this meal), but Emma preferred an empty stomach for when she would enter the ultimatum she knew she would be facing. If she had a full stomach, she knew that she would most likely throw it all up minutes before she was supposed to perform in anticipation and fear. She didn’t want to embarrass herself more than she already figured she would. She knew that she had only scraped past with luck in the first task, but she didn’t know if it would be enough this time. The only thing she dreaded was the embarrassment that her classmates would thrust upon her if she failed; she too feared the actual task, but the humiliation terrified her most. She just didn’t want to be forced out of her tightly knit circle of friends because of a tournament.
Speaking of the approaching second task, Emma had no possible clue of what it would be. She had had a sort of block of thinking of the oncoming tournament, just like she did with thinking about the occupation she wanted to pursue when she left Hogwarts. Others may have found it odd, but she felt a sort of . . . barrier when she considered what she was going to do when she got older. It was like she wasn’t going to have future; she felt that her time would come to die before she got the chance because of this odd happening. She couldn’t help it; anytime she pondered being anything successful, she would think on something else or feel sick. It wasn’t in the cards for her to have a future, she had finally concluded.
Breaking her out of her thoughts, Gregoria tapped her on the shoulder. She smiled and extended her hand, showing Emma a roll of parchment. She took it and thanked her.
“A man told me to give this to you. I don’t know his name; I’m not sure if it was a Professor or a student, but he seemed older--- perhaps our age, or a few years out of school. I don’t know what he was doing here, but here it is.” She smiled again, showing her brilliantly white teeth. She suddenly gave her a sly look. “He looked familiar, but he was cute!”
“Okay . . .” Emma said, puzzled. She shook her head at the silly girl as she walked away. When Gregoria had gone off with her friends somewhere, Emma unrolled it, but not before firstly looking around to see if she was being watched. After finding no one, she resumed reading the letter.
’Song puts the beast to sleep so you can easily slip past.’
Emma stared at the parchment and reread it twice, searching for any kind of meaning, turning it over and under. This had to be a joke; it made no complete sense whatsoever. Why did she need a song? What beast were they talking about? And why on earth did she need to slip past it? She didn’t encounter any sort of beast at Hogwarts.
She shook her head, glancing around the Great Hall to see if a set of eyes was upon her, taunting her and seeing what she would do, but she found none. After a few more cautious looks around, she concluded that no one was watching her and decided to proceed back to her dormitory to get ready for the second task. It was before all classes were to start, so Emma didn’t have a great deal of time to do anything.
After last night’s excursion into the halls of Hogwarts and being comforted by Brett, she had stayed with him for nearly another two hours; they had merely sat in the hallway, chatting with each other about nearly everything: about their families, their own lives, the tournament and how it was affecting them, Emma’s father and her own feelings toward it, the move . . . the chatter had been endless. Even as the sun had shined dimly through a glass window, they hadn’t returned to their dormitories, but when they had seen students emerging for an early breakfast, they had figured it finally time to depart from each other’s company.
With virtually no sleep, Emma’s eyes sagged as she continued her walk back to her dormitory, but she rubbed them and they seemed to want to stay open. An energy drink or coffee would have been lovely, but Emma had never taken a liking to them, particularly because of their effects on her stomach. She would just have to put herself through the day, exhausted, especially because of the second task. She realised that it was only thirty minutes before she would have to be down to the seventh floor.
~ * ~
“Em, you on your way down?” Brett asked as she descended a flight of steps that immediately began to move as her foot touched the last step. They swept over to the next wall and Emma got onto another as Brett followed her. He seemed sick, but for only a moment. He took a deep breath.
“I’ll have to get used to these steps. I’d forgotten they did this.”
Emma giggled and slipped her hand into his as they chatted on the way down.
“Any idea on what this task is going to be?” he asked casually, squeezing her hand as the steps made another lurch and they were whisked another way.
“I got this letter from Gregoria,” Emma told him, showing him the piece of paper.
“Song puts the beast to sleep so you can easily slip past? What does that mean?” He swept a stray strand of hair out of his eyes.
“Well, I’ve spent the rest of this morning trying to figure that out, and I think that it has something to do with our task. I mean, we know virtually nothing, right?”
“How do you know it has something to do with the task?” he asked, his eyebrows raised.
“Well, do you come upon or communicate with any beasts during your everyday life?” Emma asked teasingly.
Brett shook his head. “Just thought I’d ask.”
“So clearly it does mean the task, I hope.” Her smile contorted into a funny, worried look and she looked over at him.
“That sounds correct, but you never know. How did this note get started?”
“I don’t know--- I told you it was just handed to me. You’d have to ask Gregoria who exactly handed it to her. But this beast--- something I’m thinking we’re going to have to get past--- has to be put to sleep with music. Music . . . Song . . .”
“Oh . . .” Brett pretended to play dumb for a moment, deep in thought, and then he broke out into a smile. “Maybe we can just Apparate out of the task.”
“You can't Apparate in Hogwarts, Brett!”
“Why not? You can do anything you set your mind to.”
“No, it’s really impossible." She suppressed a laugh. “Hogwarts is covered in enchantments that won’t allow you to. Professor Groban inspects them all the time. It's so we can stay safe from any outside forces--- I don’t know if there is any after You-Know-Who got defeated all those years ago, but it's just in case. Make sense?”
“I guess. Do you know if there is an answer as to why we’re going to have to slip past the beast?”
“That’s not in the note.” She scanned it twice, seeing if there was anything on the back. She threw up her hands. “I guess we’ll just have to figure it out in a few minutes,” she said as she stuffed the note into her pocket.
“Hi, you two!” Gregoria said brightly as she ran into them on one of the stairways. Emma admired Gregoria for not allowing the competition to get to her before it actually happened. Brett and Emma both gave a cheerful greeting back and they walked the rest of the way in silence, all contemplating the mission and what they were going to have to perform.
“Champions,” the Minister said gravely, nodding his approval as the three made their way down the hall to the large group of wizards.
“There will be no explanation of this event. I’ve been informed that a note has been circulating around clearing up this task already,” he added tartly. He narrowed his eyes at the three headmasters who just stared cheerfully back, one which rolled their eyes unnecessarily as soon as his back was turned. It was obvious that the Minister was irritated. Emma shifted for a moment and Brett suddenly became extremely interested in the ceiling.
“The same precautions have been taken, the necessary arrangements for your safety made.”
Gregoria’s hand went into the air once more. The Minister nodded his head toward her, indicating her right to speak.
“Minister, how do we decide who goes first?” came Gregoria’ question once again, just like it had in the first task.
“The ranks stand thus: Mr. Macauley came in first place in the last task by a sheer twenty minutes, so he will continue the competition by going first. Miss Collins was in a distant second so she will depart the same, and since Miss Bonaparte didn’t finish her first task---” Her Headmaster narrowed her glance at the girl. Gregoria blushed profusely and put her hands behind her back, inwardly cursing her stupidity and terror, “---she will set off last,” he finished with an air of humour, chuckling. It was as if the Minister was trying to poke fun at Gregoria, but Emma was the only one who seemed to have noticed; perhaps it was just nerves. Besides, if he were really joking about the champion, wouldn’t her plastic Headmaster have snapped?
“Ready?” When no hand or word came forth from the three champions again, the Minister nodded. “Good.”
“Oh, wait,” Emma said, blushing, “How are the other students going to see this task while we’re doing it?”
“That’s a very good question. You’ll see when they come down. Ah, here they are!”
The students, just like in the first task, came storming down the corridor, chatting excitedly and animatedly with their friends.
The Minister pulled out his wand and stared at the stone wall in front of him intently, as if pondering something. He then closed his eyes, deep in though, and walked across the hall and back three times.
And right before their eyes, a massive door appeared. It was wooden and looked as if it were going to pull down similar to a drawbridge.
“Right this way, students, please, right this way,” Professor Groban said, waving his hand to the door. It collapsed in front of them to allow the students access inside. The Minister lightly pushed the three champions out of the way so the other students could file past without harm. Emma, before she was shoved away, caught a quick glimpse of the room. She saw a large, sandy pit with large chandeliers hanging overhead where you came in, but then it led up to a stone flight of stairs (that’s where the other students were going) where onlookers could be seated so they could watch without harm.
”Brilliant”, Brett said, awed at how the Minister had brought the exact room they had needed to Hogwarts for the contest. At that moment, all fear of the tournament was lost and they stared at the beauty of the high-ceilinged room.
Intricate designs of warriors and beasts filled the pewter walls around the pit. Overhead, the chandeliers shined bright enough to make eyes squint if you were close enough. The pit was dirty and the sand looked to have been strewn around a good many times. Torches were strewn and situated along the walls around the spectators, spider webs and their owners crawling in the seats. Professor Groban put his wand over the spaces and emitted a fire-red spell that wiped everything clean of the bugs, insects, and dust that surrounded the place. It was clear that it hadn’t been used in a while.
But far on the other side of the room, a black-barred cage sat in the corner. Emma could faintly see something black (and extremely large) progressing inside of it. It emitted roars (of pain or anger, she didn’t know) that shook the floor, and she could hear great pants of breath being taken.
As the champions continued to look up at the ceiling, the Minister directed their attention toward him.
“Skill is required to guarantee your win in this task. None of you would have been chosen to represent your school in this tournament if you didn’t possess it.” The Minister gave a secret smile that the champions returned humbly.
“Mr. Macauley,” he said, motioning to Brett, who nodded solemnly and stepped into the room. The Minister closed it behind him, leaving Gregoria and Emma to stand in the hallway and remain until they themselves had to complete their part.
Roars, shouts, and murmurs from the crowd were heard through the wall, though when Emma and Gregoria turned around, the door that they had just glimpsed the Minister, Brett, and all of the students of Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons disappear through had vanished.
“Where’d it go?” Gregoria asked hurriedly, her eyes wide and fearful. She quickly went over to the stone wall and felt along it, knocking it to find the hollow places and just waiting for someone to jump out and say ‘Surprise!’ but it never came. They just continue to stand in silence, contemplating what they would have to do. Would it be scary like the last task? Would it require only skill, like the Minister had said? Or was this all just a joke, and Emma was still in a dream that she had yet to wake up from?
She sighed and closed her eyes, putting her head in her hands. She sat up quickly, though, because she heard a great shout and a cry of pain. It had come from Brett.
She gasped inwardly and Gregoria looked at her abnormally. She knew what Emma was thinking.
“It’s all right, Emma, he’ll be fine. Brett’s strong--- he’ll be able to get through this.” Emma heard her mumble something like ‘If he can’t then I sure won’t be able to either,’. She raised her eyebrows and appeared to be mumbling to herself.
Emma just gave her a weak smile as her heart continued to beat faster than it ever had before--- well, if you didn’t count when he had pushed Seth into their breakfast the morning before and when she had entered the Forbidden Forest the day prior to that.
Another few moments later, Emma and Gregoria could hear the muffled applause of the crowd, indicating that Brett had obviously succeeded and the Minister and he would soon be returning to retrieve Emma.
Emma gave Gregoria a humorous look, indicating she was scared but still ready for the competition and what it had in store for her.
If it’s meant for you to win, then it’s meant for you to win, Em, she said to herself before they arrived, If God wants you to succeed, then he’ll allow you to succeed. If it’s his will, it will be done. She took a deep breath.
All of a sudden and without warning, the door magically appeared on the wall again and the Minister, a battered but pleased Brett, and his Headmaster emerged, bringing with them the no longer muffled shouts of the onlookers. It had felt like three seconds they had been gone Emma was anticipating this so, to what was really thirty-three minutes. Emma almost covered her ears to obstruct the sound of the audience, but it was soon shushed again by the door’s closing.
“Got bit once,” Brett stated calmly, wincing as he looked at the bloodied wound on the arm he sported. Madam Tippet immediately began to lead him down the hallway to heal it.
“Miss Collins?” The Minister beckoned her toward the door, where she soon saw the beauty of the inscriptions on the walls once again and a grinning Groban in the doorway, giving her a wink for luck. She returned it with a smile and, pulling out her wand, made her way slowly into the dome-shaped room after she’d given Brett a forlorn look.
Now that she had entered, Emma finally realised the beauty for the extent of the area. The round, dome-formed room held loads of space. While most of it was occupied by the stands where the audience sat and where the sand-pit and arena were, the walls around it were massive and stretched high above her head to the ceiling. The only light that illuminated the room came from torches. There were bars all along the ceiling and the walls, as if it someone had to climb them to get to something. Perhaps it was just to replace the torches.
“This way,” the Minister said gravely, once again gesturing to where she needed to go. He indicated the steps in front of her and she climbed slowly down them, scanning the crowd for familiar faces.
“On the count of three,” she heard the Minister’s voice boom again. She nodded as she descended the steps to the pit below.
“One.”
She pulled her wand stealthily out of her back pocket.
“Two.”
The crowd shifted in their seats for their own excitement and wishing Emma’s safety. Emma took a great breath as her heart beat erratically in her chest.
“Three.”
But this time, Emma or the audience did not accomplish the actions. The high, black-ironed gate that rested in the corner of the room swung open, and a monstrous beast emerged from it, looking scared and hungry to the third power.
The mighty monster that appeared had three heads, all of which were growling at Emma hungrily, great globs of drool falling fast and hard onto the ground and bits of spittle hitting her in the face. She wiped the beads out of her hair and a bit off her face and repositioned her wand in her hand.
Song puts the beast to sleep so you can easily slip past, Emma suddenly remembered.
How on earth was she supposed to put that beast to sleep? she asked herself, looking at those monstrous paws and sharp fangs. Three sets of eyes gaped at her. It was a giant, three-headed dog, it appeared, and she couldn’t fight it off any other way. She just stood there blankly, staring at the beast as it too continued to stare and not move. She didn’t know how much time had passed, but she knew that she was on a time limit. And everyone was watching her. She couldn’t let Hogwarts down.
If she needed to get past it, she needed to distract it. Or put it to sleep, Emma thought again. Since she didn’t want to sing in front of all these people and embarrass herself (though she would do it if she needed a last resort), she would have to somehow summon a type of musical instrument, though she had never needed nor wanted to know how to play one. Even if she did somehow obtain an instrument, how would she play it? The parchment had said song not brutal screeching. She had magic, but not even magic could teach her how to play an instrument in a matter of seconds.
“Accio Instrument!” she yelled, though after a few moments’ waiting, she concluded that it wouldn’t be that easy. She had known that. Nothing came to her. She desperately searched the walls, the audience, and the ceiling for the device.
“Stupefy!” she yelled suddenly, for the large beast abruptly came lumbering toward her, its jaws snapping open and closed, starving for a good meal.
Emma ducked and the spell shot awkwardly to it, missing. She shot off another, though this time it hit it squarely in the chest. But it did nothing. If it did do anything, however, it only fazed it for a moment, before (even more angrier) it rushed toward her.
Why aren’t my spells working? she asked herself over and over as she sprinted to the other side of the coliseum. The dog suddenly let out a mighty roar from its huge jaws, causing Emma to double over in pain in her ears. She covered them, but by the time she had the noise had stopped. It had gone back to its original resting place.
Could her wand possibly be broken? She almost ‘Expelliarmus-ed’ herself just to see what the source of the problem was, but found that the most stupid thing she had ever thought in her entire life, and chose not to. Why didn’t they have a weighing of the wands ceremony before each task?
“Avis!” she screamed, and an angered flock of yellow canaries burst forth from her wand, demonstrating that the wand worked. They harassed the dog while it nipped playfully at them, creating a distraction.
Perhaps that was it? Emma wondered. That had created a distraction, and I can now easily slip past, though I don’t know how long a bird, not even the size of the dog’s eyes, can hold it off enough for me to go by. And that still didn’t explain the song part. Why would the note have said song if she could just get past with birds?
Even though she would worry about having to play it once she located it, she still searched for the instrument just to have something, just an option for a song. . . and she finally saw it.
High, high, high above her head it dangled on a string, its wooden markings intricately carved and just beckoning for her to come and get it. The flute was right above her, and the beast didn’t even know it was there. But she did.
But how in Merlin’s name was she going to get it? The ceiling was at least eighty feet above her; she couldn’t fly. Even if there was some kind of magical force that could push her up to that that height, she didn’t know it, and that didn’t aid her.
Since she had now located the item, she hoped against all hope that she could now summon it to herself. ”Accio Instrument!” she yelled, but the only thing the flute did was turn a circle from the wind that the beast had created by snapping its powerful jaws shut on the birds. Her distraction had been eaten.
She could see the barred enclosure behind the massive mane of black and shaggy fur as it heaved up and down from the dog’s heavy breathing, but she couldn’t get past the beast to reach it. If she even tried, she knew that she would be intercepted and most likely killed. She had seen the nasty bite on Brett’s arm--- she might even had seen bone. She winced at the pain that Brett must have been feeling at that moment, and wished that she wouldn’t have to go through that as well, and not worse either. She could readily imagine herself inside the beast’s crushing, razor-sharp incisors, her bones crushing while blood erupted from every spot of her body . . .
Emma, don’t be so morbid! she screamed inwardly, and tried desperately to shake that horrid image out of her mind. But every time that she closed her eyelids it reappeared. She shook her head as she rolled her eyes, dashing to the other side of the coliseum and trying to outline her method of retrieving the flute.
And then she remembered the bars along the walls.
No, she thought. No way am I going to have to climb those to get the flute.
But it was the only way, no matter how many times Emma told herself that.
She glanced quickly behind her to see the great beast just sitting there, panting as its tongue lolled out of its mouth, bits of slobber flying every which way. It didn’t even seem to care about Emma’s presence. It must have been trained to only guard what was in the cage, though Emma still had no idea on what it could be.
She checked the bar closest to the ground first by putting all her weight on it for a few seconds, then letting go. It seemed to hold in place. She put her right foot on top of it, then her left arm to steady herself. Once she had perfect balance, and only then, did she reach up quickly for the next one.
It was just like rock climbing. And Emma was deathly terrified of heights. How convenient, she thought. And I don’t even have a harness if I should fall. But once again, she figured that if it she were supposed to die, then God would make it happen. That relaxed her and she continued on.
After a few minutes’ climbing and the crowd gasping and ‘oohing’ anytime she slipped or rocks below her crumbled, she finally was only inches away. She reached out her fingers and tried to grab the instrument, though she only succeeded in more inward breaths of the crowd and almost falling. She gripped the wooden bar with all her might, but the sweat the beaded on her hands was now forcing her to slip, and she knew that if she didn’t grab now then she would fall to her ultimate death. She scooted over to the farthest end of the bar and groped for it again, but this time she felt it close around her fingers. She opened her eyes and proceeded to climb down.
But then she fell.
As she tried desperately to claw her way out to a bar, she felt the ten to twenty feet whizzing past her with a mighty wind in her ears each second. She had only another second before she would hit the ground . . .
Accio Chair! she yelled in a split second and out of breath, and a chair from the audience appeared right below her. Even though it had a cushion, she landed in it with a loud ‘PLUNK!’ and she could feel her bottom throb in utter and complete pain from the impact. Though, she was okay. The crowd clapped quietly to encourage her on.
She got up, wincing, fighting the urge to rub her backside because of the soreness. She felt as if she had broken her back it hurt so badly. She walked stiff-legged and doubled over to the dog and realised that the flute was still in her sweaty hand.
She put it to her lips and blew.
The first sound that emerged was squeaky, and she saw the beast’s eyes dart her way, as if saying something like, ’How dare you disturb me with that racket!’ but then the second time she blew, a beautiful, harmonious musical resonance emerged, and she herself even felt the need to go to sleep with the beautiful sound. She continued to play it as she moved around it, going farther than she had ever dared go behind the dog to its own cage. The dog was finally asleep, its eyes rolling gently back into its heads as its ears flopped down from their erect position.
She looked inside his cage and only found a great heap of some kind of animal that looked to have been killed--- it appeared to be a great mess of rabbit hair, though she then realised that it was some kind of night animal, like a coyote or a wolf. She pitied the poor animal, and it looked at her with a sad look (even though it was long deceased) and appeared as if it hated her for being able to slip by so easily and quickly. She could see its fangs leering up at her and she decided to step over it.
But in the back rested a small box. She cautiously opened it, afraid that if she did it fast she wouldn’t expect what came out of it, but nothing scrambled out of it or tried to murder her even when it was all the way unfastened. A small black skeleton key rested inside the frame and she picked it up to examine it. What could this go to? She hadn’t seen any place where she had needed a key! She almost groaned.
All of a sudden a great horn burst through the silence and told her that she had finished.