If You've Got the Nerve

The stands were crowded enough to make finding a comfortable seat near impossible. Everyone was shoved into the tight space together, standing, sitting, jumping, switching places, running back and forth, taking bets. The twins themselves had agreed to behave themselves this round and not make a game out of the life or death tournament. It was a small bit of comfort against the chill in my stomach.

I positioned myself on the same bench as Fred and George who both insisted on sitting near the front. Bill took a seat just behind us and a few others crowded in. Ron and Hermione had found seats somewhere nearby, but it was impossible for me to find them in the sea of loud colors and bustling students.

The Quidditch field that was supposed to be spread out in front of us like a familiar green cloth was nowhere to be found. Instead soaring walls of leaves and branches stretched out in front of us in their own twisting patterns. I stood on the bench and lifted myself to full height but the only end I could see to the giant maze was where it blended indefinitely with the eerie fog that slept on top of it.

“The field isn’t that big, is it?” I asked Fred uncertainly. He lifted himself up next to me and I wondered if he could manage a better view from his superior height. He only shook his head and I could only assume the answer also applied to my silent question.

He shot me a smile when he noticed my pathetic attempt at growing a few inches.

“You’re going to fall.” He stated calmly.

“I am not – ”

Fred’s hand shoved me sharply until I believed with all my heart that I was going to be very best friends with the Ravenclaw sitting in front of us. He caught me at the last second and pulled me back up. I tried to steady myself but still had to lean against him to keep from tumbling over despite the help.

“Jerk.” I mumbled.

Fred only laughed and pulled me down so we could sit properly and listen to the announcement of the task and, after that, the loud and comfortingly disorganized music that our school had to offer. What they expected a stadium full of people to do while four kids ran, possibly for their lives, through a giant maze, was lost on me. But everyone seemed to be enjoying it so far.

The four champions were off in short order and from then on all we could do was wait, Gryffindor holding it out for Harry, Hufflepuff for Cedric, and the two other schools holding their breath for their own respective champions.

The cold snake hissed viciously in my stomach and all I could do was tuck myself into Fred’s body heat and hope that all four of them made it out alive.

----

They did a good job at keeping everyone in high spirits and on the edge of their seats if not completely on their feet. The only break we got from the music was when it was quieted in order for the stories to continue. Sometimes we were told about past events in the tournament which, in my opinion, were all far more gruesome than what we had seen, while other times they let us in on some of the things lurking in the maze.

Despite the growing chill with every new thing mentioned, there were only a select few that made my stomach turn over completely. I took what little comfort I got from this and held onto it. The other two thirds of my comfort came from Fred sitting next to me. He made every effort to cheer me up and the others left him to the impossible task.

“You want some?”

I stared at the box of sweets in front of me.

“No.” I said, wrinkling my nose like I had sniffed something foul. “You always pick out the good stuff and leave the disgusting ones for other people.”

He rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket to produce a bag of similar sweets. “Then you’d prefer to take your pick from my personal stash?”

I smiled as he pulled my hand forward to fill it with the familiar sweet smelling treats. I carefully picked a chocolate one out of the bunch and popped it into my mouth.

“Better?”

I gave him a half-hearted glare as the chocolate spread a warm feeling through my mouth. “You’ve poisoned me, Fred Weasley.” The warm feeling leaked down my throat to lap lazily at the snake still curled tightly in my stomach. It hissed but I placed another chocolate on my tongue.

Fred rolled his eyes. “I try to help and get accused of murder.”

The rest of the task went on the same way. I started to calm down with the help of Fred’s extensive repertoire of stupid jokes. He even went as far as to lift me up on his shoulders for me to “check for any dragons” until I was screeching at him to put me down before I told his mother exactly why Lee and him had avoided each other after Lee’s very much unsupervised birthday party last year. He went scarlet but grinned along with the laughter that everyone else was offering at the scene and pulled me into a tight hug. I figured it was mostly to hide his burning face, but I didn’t complain when his arm stayed around my shoulder even after he broke the embrace.

Everyone was so caught up in their own personal games, the stories, and the music that the end of the task came as a sudden jolt for us all.

There was a flash and a second of silence before the wave of excitement rushed up and down the rows of seats.

Relief was immediate in my chest.

They were back.

I would have collapsed against Fred if he hadn’t immediately jumped to his feet with the rest of the crowd. I had to settle for clutching at his leg and letting my tense muscles relax.

Then the whisper reached my ear.

It was a breath of air the just happened to skim past my ear. The cold monster in my stomach lurched and I moved with it. Fred’s hand was on my shoulder in a second.

“Nox, we should – ”

But whatever we should was lost in the shrill scream that ripped across his words.

I looked up to see my own panic reflected in his face. I expected him to pull me forward and take me away from whatever was happening, but he seemed locked in place.

I couldn’t calm my beating heart. The monster inside my stomach was ripping me to shreds from the inside out. I felt like the only thing that mattered was getting out of there.

But the whisper was still in my ear, still hissing and curling its way down my body to feed the dreadful creature that had warned me.

“Is he dead?”

And I had to ask.

“Is it Harry?”

Another hand claimed my other shoulder. George had slipped down to crouch next to me. “No. It’s not Harry.”

I was in too much of a daze to tell if he was telling the truth or only guessing the preferred answer was correct.

George reached over with his free hand to shake his brother out of the icy layer that had covered and paled him. Fred snapped back into reality and looked to his brother in silent question. George looked back at me with a critical stare. The realization on his face was mirrored in my throat and stomach.

The churning storm inside me was surpassing phantom pain now. I was going to be sick.

“Get her out of here.”

Fred pulled me up and attempted to shove his way as quickly as possible past the building mass of bodies. I couldn’t tell if anyone else was screaming over the ringing in my ear, but the whispers slipped past my every mental defense with ease.

Cedric Diggory was dead.