Harry Potter and the Games of Hunger

Chapter Seven: Grim Reaper

The standard quiet of the Great Hall was lacking after the “feast”, consisting of soup and bread, the next evening. Nervous chatter flung between the students like a scared rabbit, jumping from one topic to another, but all having the same roots: The Hunger Games.

Ginny only nibbled on the bread. She knew she should stock up on as much as she could, but despite the cool, confident front she was trying to put up, she was scared. Her insides were on fire, and she avidly used all the willpower she had not to flush and cry. She couldn’t show weakness in front of anyone – she couldn’t show any signs that she knew she was doomed to this fate, nor could she express any vulnerability in front of the staff or other students.

She was on her own for this one.

It was weird, really. She had never been on her own. She always had a mum, or dad, or older brother to help her. The closest thing she could compare to what she was feeling at this moment was during her first year at Hogwarts, when she “fell across” Tom Riddle’s diary. Yet that isolation was still shared with the journal – right now, she was truly on her own.

“What’s your number?” Euan asked the small group, folding his hands in front of him. He was specifically asking Ginny, his small brown eyes burning a hole into the curtain of hair Ginny left to cover her face. Yet she didn’t answer. She waited to hear the others.

“Twenty-three,” Natalie whispered, her hands gripping the table until her knuckles turned white. She had her eyes closed. “Twenty-three, including my original seven.”

Shora answered next, after a brief silence as if waiting for Ginny to jump in. “Eighteen.”

“How did you get any, Shora? You never mentioned it before.” Euan asked, sitting up straighter. He turned his eyes to face her, and Ginny let out a breath. Sometimes, Euan made things a little too intense and intimate for Ginny’s likings.

Shora shrugged, glancing down. “I helped a second year Hufflepuff girl find her way to class, and I was late, one day. That was only three, though. I got eight for giving a first year boy my food.”

Ginny glanced up and saw Natalie furrow her eyebrows. “When did you do that? And why?”

“I had some sweets tucked away in my trunk that the Peacekeeper’s didn’t take away.” Shora met Natalie’s gaze, then glanced back down to the table. “He looked so…hungry. And miserable. I couldn’t just walk by him.”

They all fell silent for a moment, not bothering to respond. If someone as kind and innocent as Shora was totaled at eighteen Demerits, there was a fighting chance for every single Hogwarts student to be chosen, obviously aside from the exempt first years…

The new twist of the “no magic” rule was a shocking one. Ginny wasn’t quite sure what that rule accomplished. Wouldn’t it be more interesting to watch students battle the brain than brawn? Battle against one another in duels rather than tearing each other limb from limb?

Ginny swallowed at the thought. Perhaps it wouldn’t. Besides, she reasoned. Twenty-four students couldn’t be let loose with magic when they had motive to try and rebel the entire act. That would be unpractical for their intensive purposes. The point was to exercise power. To show that nobody was above the power of the “Modern Magical Government.”

“What about you, Ginny?” Euan nudged her under the table, pressuring her to spill. Ginny was afraid more than words would spill if she did.

“Seventy-seven.” Ginny eventually said numbly. Not that her number mattered.

“Seventy-seven?” Euan echoed, not registering.

“Ginny, that’s nine more than yesterday!” Natalie cried out. “How did you get nine more demerits?”