New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|88| Chapter Eighty-Eight

E I G H T Y  E I G H T

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To keep their minds preoccupied, the students and guests chatted amongst each other in order to pass the time. Saffron wasn't sure who thought it would be a good idea to have two of the tasks be things where the spectators would just have to sit there and wait, but whoever it was either didn't consider how an audience would feel or didn't care. Regardless, Saffron didn't feel as stressed as she did during the first task so she could take some comfort in that.

The only issue was that the only thing people were able to talk about was the task and speculate as to what was in there. Saffron felt sickened at some of their suggestions and worried about how awful it would be for Maya or Harry to pass them.

"I heard a rumour they were putting an erumpent in there," Fred said to the group, making Rachel shudder and Hermione furrow her eyebrows, clearly not convinced that they would be able to bring an erumpent to Hogwarts.

"I heard there'd be a troll," George then told them which seemed to put Ron at ease.

"At least we know Harry'll have no trouble with that one, eh?" Ron said with a wink to Saffron and Hermione. "I reckon Hagrid's found a way to get his Skrewts in there,"

"More like the Ministry forced him to put them in," Saffron laughed. "He's way too emotionally attached to them. Nasty things,"

"They've been in there for an awfully long time," Rowan said looking up at Saffron.

"I know," said Saffron dryly, running her hand through her hair nervously. When her hand met her mother's hair ribbon, she took it out and started to twist it around in her hands.

"I imagine they've made it quite extensive," Hermione supplied. "If the second task was intended to take an hour, I suppose we could be waiting for longer than that for it to end,"

Just then, a shrill scream put an end to the wave of chatter that was flowing around the stadium. Everyone stared into the maze, assuming that it was either Maya or Fleur who had let the scream out and listening intently to hear any other sound coming from it. There wasn't anything until-

Red sparks shot up into the sky above the maze. They erupted like fireworks and were used to pinpoint exactly where the champion who wanted out of the contest was. Saffron's heart was pounding and her mind was racing. What if it wasn't Fleur and if it was Maya? What if something had happened to her? Luckily, the answers to those questions didn't have to be answered as Professor Flitwick and Hagrid appeared only two minutes later, escorting Fleur out of the maze.

It wasn't a nice sight. Seeing Fleur with panic etched upon her face and looking utterly confused as to what happened to her. Saffron saw that she was muttering under her breath to her parents frantically and kept glancing uneasily over her shoulder. To Saffron, it looked like she was scared that something was following her and perhaps the reason she left was that she was taken by surprise. She wasn't too sure but what she was sure about was that Maya and Harry only had to outlast Krum, and then each other, to win. The odds were certainly a lot better now.

"I really wanted her to do well," Saffron was staring down at Fleur, truly feeling sorry for the girl. "You can tell how much it means to her,"

"At least it means we're one step closer to a Hogwarts Champion," said Hermione in response.

"And you're guaranteed a champion of someone you're close with," chuckled Saffron making Hermione blush. "It's funny, you probably know Viktor better than Maya,"