The Other Witches

13. The First Task: A Bunch of Trees

There is a purple tent in the middle of the grounds.

It looks kind of pretentious, really, just popping out of the lawn like that. I meet my teammates in the corridors and we go down to the circussy-looking structure. The tent flaps are covered in gold glitter and sparkle in the sun. The inside is quite spacious and furnished with little folding chairs. But there's no one inside.

"NOBODY'S HOOOOOOME....." Lucy sings, to the tune of Beethoven's Fifth.

"Hellooooooo?" Von calls, looking behind the little dividers that hung every few meters from the tent ceiling.

"This can't be right," Lauren frowns. "I could have sworn the instructions said Come to the tent set up on the grounds at 8 sharp, word for word. Well, it's 8:01, and I don't see anybody around here. Did we screw up, or did they?"

"I don't think anyone screwed up," I say. There's something that they're not telling us. I don't know why, but my senses are tingling with some kind of sharp awareness that we don't know something.

"Guys, there's someone here," I whisper. "I can feel it."

Von crosses her arms. "Why on earth would they just..."

Ella screams, and my vision goes black.

Ugh. Leaves. Leaves everywhere.

Wait.

What the heck?

I sit bolt upright. My eyes adjust to the darkness. I'm sitting on a pile of leaves, somewhere that seems vaguely familiar...

A voice begins echoing through the air.

"Greetings, everyone. Welcome, champions and spectators, to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament!"

Oh, that's very nice. Get to the explanation already.

"As you have seen, all of our champions have been separated and scattered randomly in the Forbidden Forest. Their task will be to reunite with their teammates, find their designated box, which contains a clue to the next task, and make it out of the Forest within the next four hours. Remember, each chest will only appear in the woods when all of that chest's team members find each other, and it will be emblazoned with the school's crest. Teams are not allowed to destroy other teams' chests. They will, however, be allowed to move their opponents' chests from their original location, possibly making them harder to find."

"Good luck to all the teams. Your four hours begins now."

Fudgemuffins.

Okay, time to do some speed-strategizing. I need a signal, something that only the members of my team will recognize.

Liiiiightbulb!

I turn to my wand. "All right, Mr. Dangerous. Let's see if you can bow to my will once more."

A half hour later, I'm still sitting in the clearing, doing nothing. For some odd reason, it's started to get colder, and my sweater doesn't seem to be helping. I'm still waiting for my friends to come towards the signal that I sent into the sky. And I'm a little jumpy, too, since this signal could attract more than friends.

Suddenly, the ground under my feet begins to freeze up. Tendrils of ice creep over the tree trunks, and I begin to feel sad and hopeless. Oh, snap. Dementors.

As the first one comes into view, floating a little ways off the ground, I frantically think, Happy thoughts, happy thoughts! Ummm, uhhhhh, oh, got it!

I visualize a past Charms class, when James Potter unknowingly picked up a black cat with white spots on its back. The cat slapped him in the face. While he was recovering from the cat slap, he turned around. Siobhan morphed back into a human and slapped him again, shouting, "WHAT'S YO PROB, BOY?" They got detention together, but it was a good laugh for the rest of us.