Give it to Me

17. Your eyes tell

✯YOU✯

Gathered in the courtyard of Mahoutokoro, you stood by Misha and Seokjin, surrounded by the rest of the Durmstrang students. The Mahoutokoro apprentices were patiently waiting in line for their professors and director to make an entrance with the Championship judges and the Commission.
Hoseok, his colleague, and their students, were also tense and awaiting everyone's arrival.
It was the morning of the second task.

Namjoon appeared, majestically descending from the Central Tower of the Academy, surrounded by the judges, journalists, aurors and other important witches and wizards, who had been invited to assist to the event. He announced the time and setting of the second task, which was, as you'd predicted, in Egypt.

Yoongi advanced through the crowd, carefully levitating an object with his wand.
Each group took turns to travel and reach the destination.

   "Portkey..." Seokjin whispered.

A temporary arena was magically summoned to seat all the guests assisting the event, while the champions were once again secluded in a tent, to focus, as they waited for the blow of the cannon which marked the beginning of the task. It was early morning, the sun was rising - the desert was silent, there were no ruins in sight - you knew it meant they were hidden underneath the sand, the entrance was somewhere and the champions had to find it amongst the dust and the rising heat of the desert. Seokjin sat quietly by you, waiting for the beginning of the task.
This time, professors hadn't been allowed in the tent.
The champions were alone.

   "She'll be alright. We've prepared her for all this." Seokjin whispered as he kept staring at the desert ahead.

You had spent the last few weeks, between the Lunar ball and the task, preparing Misha for the trial - you'd taught her useful spells, how to defeat desert magical creatures, and made her read up on the history and ancient magical Egyptian symbols; Seokjin had showed her rudimentary potions she could make in case of necessity with the available materials in the desert... all that was left was to wait for the task to begin and to see what would happen.

Yoongi had been busy preparing his champion as well, as had Hoseok.
You spotted Jimin in front of the champions' tent for one interview before the beginning of the second task. He looked for you in the crowd before giving you a small signal with a nudge - you needed to see him before the end of the event. Taehyung had also warned you about Jimin's need to communicate with you. You noticed, in the distance, dark shadows - engrossed by the rising sun - walking along the desert dunes. Jungkook was, along with Taehyung and the other aurors, patrolling the area - surveilling that there'd be no outside interference. Jungkook especially, with everything going on, seemed particularly focused on his duty.

You eyed Namjoon, quietly gazing around the landscape as well: you knew he was also attentive, searching for something or someone that didn't belong there, suspicious that the masked wizard would make an appearance. He stood up and finally gave another encouraging speech - signaling the beginning of the task by lifting his hand to the sky as another wizard blew the cannon - the echo made the champions exit the tent and start heading towards the yellow desert.
As they stepped further and further away, the three of them disappeared in the horizon, followed from afar by the aurors surveilling them.

All that was left to do was to wait.
Namjoon waved his wand over the public and a giant sheer fabric hovered over the crowd to protect them from the direct sunlight and heat.
The day was getting hotter by the second, it was exhausting to sit there, doing nothing, just waiting patiently for something to happen. The natural sand and dust in the air made it all the more hard to breathe properly; an added difficulty for the Triwizard contestants.