Chương 212: Second Place!
Once the scoring was done, all four champions' cumulative scores appeared on a plaque behind the judges' table, for all to see.
Viktor Krum (Durmstrang): 48 pts.
Oleandra Greengrass (Hogwarts): 39 pts.
Harry Potter (Hogwarts): 38 pts.
Fleur Delacour (Beauxbatons): 27pts.
Oleandra looked enviously at Krum's name shining above hers. If she had been the one to get the weakest dragon, the Welsh Green, instead of him, she was certain that her score would have been a perfect fifty!
"Miss Greengrass," said Professor Snape behind her, giving Oleandra quite a start. "Bagman would like to see you in the champions' tent."
Oleandra dutifully headed back to the tent in question, still clutching the golden egg in her arms protectively, as if she were swaddling a baby. From the moment she had laid hands on it, Oleandra hadn't let go of the golden egg even for an instant!
A few moments later, the other champions arrived. Krum looked as surly as ever, but the edges of his lips were slightly curling upwards. Despite ending up third, Harry looked the most relieved and relaxed among all of them. As for Delacour, she looked the worse for wear. She seemed awfully discouraged; for all her posturing, she was still behind in score compared to the two fourth years she had mocked!
"Good flying," Oleandra told Harry when he entered, nodding slightly in his direction.
"You too," replied Harry with a grin. "Ron told me."
"Well done, all of you!" said Bagman upon bursting in the tent. "Now, just a quick few words. You've got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth— but we're giving you something to think about, in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open… see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg— because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"
Lifting the golden egg to eye level, Oleandra found that Mr. Bagman was telling the truth. Clue in hand, she left the tent along with the other champions, before returning to her own common room with Daphne and Tracey.
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Oleandra had once again got into House Slytherin's good graces; she might not have got first place in the rankings, but second place was good enough, especially since she had beaten Gryffindor's champion (even if only by one point!) But most importantly, Slytherins respected strength, and there weren't many Witches who could claim to have felled a Dragon alone, let alone at age fourteen!
When the Slytherins returned to their common room, they decided to hold a huge party to celebrate Oleandra's victory. Unfortunately, since they hadn't been expecting her to be able to do much without a wand, they hadn't prepared anything in particular. So instead, a small crowd gathered around her to see what all the fuss was about with the golden egg, and why Oleandra had been allowed to keep it.
"There's supposed to be a clue concerning the second task inside," Oleandra told the onlookers. "See the hinges? The top opens."
"Then what are you waiting for?" said Draco lazily, pretending like he wasn't interested. "Open it."
"Open it! Open it!" the other Slytherins chanted.
Oleandra enjoyed the attention for a few moments, before acquiescing.
"Okay, okay," she said with fake reluctance. "I'll open it right here and now, if you insist."
Daphne just rolled her eyes at her, while Tracey excitedly peered over Oleandra's shoulder as she wrestled with the hinges, trying to get the egg to open. But the instant she got the egg to pop open, it emitted the most horrifying and ear-piercing shriek Oleandra had ever had the misfortune of hearing.
"CLOSE IT!" Pansy screeched, holding her hands over her ears.
Oleandra didn't need Pansy to tell her; she quickly snapped the egg shut, and the noise abruptly stopped. Silence, at last.
"Well, it wasn't a Mandrake's scream," Daphne said after a moment. "We'd all either be unconscious or dead."
"Professor Dumbledore wouldn't have agreed to something so dangerous," said Tracey dizzily.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Oleandra said loudly.
Being the closest to the egg at the moment it started screaming, she still had some trouble hearing; the scream was still echoing through Oleandra's ears. Strangely enough, the cadence of the scream seemed vaguely familiar to her, almost reminiscent of a…
"I SAID, DUMBLEDORE WOULDN'T HAVE AGREED TO SOMETHING SO DANGEROUS!" Tracey repeated.
"No need to shout in my ears!" Oleandra said, her hearing having just returned to her.
At that moment, Oleandra spotted something out of the corner of her eye; the giant squid was once again peering into the common room with one of its gigantic eyes through a porthole. One had to know that the Slytherin common room and dormitories were underground; parts of the building even extended under the Black Lake, which explained the perpetual dampness.
Was it just a coincidence that the giant squid had shown up for one of its apparently random visits? Or had the egg's scream attracted it somehow? A thought occurred to Oleandra. Unlike most of the Slytherins present, she had attended Muggle primary school. And if there was one thing she knew about sound, it's that it travelled at different speeds through different phases of matter. Thanks, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Oleandra's local library!
"Don't tell me you're going to carry that thing everywhere you go?" Daphne said as she watched her sister get up to her feet and take the golden egg into the bathroom.
"I've got an idea!" Oleandra simply said as she ducked inside.
Shrugging, Daphne and the other Slytherins girls followed her into the bathroom.
"Where do you think you're going?" said Tracey crossly, turning to face Draco and some of the other boys as they attempted to follow them in and enter the girls' bathroom. "No boys allowed!"
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