Tainted

Chapter 9 - One Rant After Another

I was sitting between Albus and Severus when Albus stood up to address the school. Severus was seated on my left like usual but I noticed he was a bit closer than normal. Every time I try to push him out of my mind he’s either in the same room as me or just sneaks back in later. Focus, Allyce. I can’t let myself get distracted by him. I have to stay strong even if he does make amends otherwise he won’t know how much this has affected me and how much he has yet to learn.

It was Hogwarts’ turn to host the Triwizard tournament which as we all know is not only a dangerous competition,  but something to bring together the three Wizardry & Witchcraft academies of the Northern hemisphere – excluding Asia.

Students from Beauxbaton’s Academy of Magic and Drumstrang Institute would be arriving shortly and to be honest, I couldn’t care less. I’ve seen this tournament tear people apart, it kills them –literally. Students die without even a flick of a wand or even a second thought and they do it somewhat voluntarily. And for what?

These mindless adolescences volunteer to enter in three of the most dangerous tasks known to mankind, sacrificing their lives in the name of entertainment for something as meaningless as eternal glory. That’s it. Nothing amazing or useful like the Philosopher’s stone or a dragon egg but glory. Useless, stupid glory that’ll do nothing but feed the egos of the arrogant.

“Ahh, Madame Maxine. Welcome to Hogwarts. I trust you had a safe journey.”

“Dumbly-Dorr, it was wonderful. I ‘ope I find you well?” She replied in a deep voice covered in a thick Russian accent.

I looked up to see Albus shaking hands with a tall, olive-skinned woman who had dark glazed eyes and a cadaverous nose. She towered over Albus but she was about half an inch shorter than Hagrid so I suppose that’s something. Hagrid is part giant so he is quite tall has unruly hair as well as a bushy beard. He was also a bit round in the middle but that just added to his friendly nature.

“ ‘as Karkaroff arrived yet?” asked Madame Maxine. I noticed that she wore black silk that draped over her thin body. Large opals that adorned her throat and fingers gleamed in the candlelight.

“Any moment now.” Replied Albus.

Oh great, another grand entrance. I thought I’d dodged a hex when I’d tuned out Beauxbatons’ entrance but I forgot about Drumstrang. Oh well, at least it’ll be better than watching butterflies and birds fly around the students, as they climbed out of their powder blue carriages and into their allocated seats. I involuntarily shivered. I still haven’t gotten the image of the last tournament out of my head.

As Madame Maxine and Albus continued their idle chatter about the caring of the horses that brought them here, I took the opportunity to pull out a small notebook that was hidden in my robes. I had only just taken a black muggle pen out when I had to struggle not to scoff at Madame Maxine’s concerns of Hagrid’s abilities with magical creatures. Pfft! As if Hagrid couldn’t handle a herd of winged horses. Puh-lease it was probably child’s play to him, now a wing of dragons – that would be something worth fussing over.

I kept my head down and focused on my notebook – though ‘visual diary’ might be a better term for it since that’s what it says on the cover. Doesn’t really matter to me, I’m going to draw in it anyway. I thought back to the prototype flower sitting in my bedroom. A friend had been experimenting with cross breeding and had sent it to me as a gift.

For the last few years they’ve been experimenting with various types of lilies and dragon flowers trying to create a ‘dragon lily’. I’ve always liked the thought of it but I didn’t have the skills or the desire to create it myself.