Chapter 399 - Second Event

On the morning of February, the twenty-fourth, Rowan not only woke up late but with a raging headache. It might have had something to do with her successfully performing her spells to use for the second event. But still, her head shouldn't hurt as much as it did. She didn't go to sleep that late last night.

With her head pounding, Rowan closes her eyes at feeling a wavy of achy, dizziness overcome her as she painfully recalls the events of the evening before. It was rather late when she had finally safely teleported into an underground pier in her pajamas. She let out a particularly loud sneeze at sniffing all the mildew, moldy dusty scents. Perhaps, she was allergic? Then again, she shivered at the chill pulling her warm bed robe that much tighter around her.

Walking across the wooden pier, the wood boards groan ominously as Rowan makes her way to the nearest wooden boat. Glancing at the nearest wooden boats she paused at the edge of the pier and muttered, "They looked so much bigger in our first year." Still, the boat was plenty big enough to easily carry her across the icy lake waters.

Removing her wand from her pocket, Rowan points her wand at the boat and says, "Reducio." With a soft whirling like sound, the boat shrinks down to the size of a toy boat. Kneeling down onto the wooden pier, she bends down and fishes out the toy wooden boat from the water.

Rowan lets out another loud sneeze causing her nose to water. Blinking the tears out of her eyes, she shakes the boat causing the excess water to sprinkle off. Quickly drying the toy boat with her wand, she pockets the toy boat, before teleporting back to the girl's bedroom. Shivering with teeth clattering, she had climbed back into bed with her fuzzy bed robe on and fall asleep in that manner.

With a loud moan, Rowan opened her eyes again, and rather woozily sat up. Raising her hand to her forehead, she felt a touch of cool sweat accompanied by rather warm, flushed skin. She had a low fever running, she'd somehow caught a cold. Just her rotten luck.

Stumbling out of bed, Rowan sighed and shivered as she slowly dressed, while Tiffany and the girls excitedly chatter to her and wish her luck. Rowan doesn't even reply as she holds her head and somehow manages to stumble to the infirmary all the while holding onto the wall. Madam Pomfrey only takes one look at Rowan and instantly knows what's wrong. Quickly rushing over with a headache vanishing potion, Rowan grabs the potion out of Madam Pomfrey's hands and swallows it down in one big gulp.

Madam Pomfrey tsk-tsk's her tongue in disapproval. "Tournament or not, it is no excuse for an ill student to participate in such a dangerous event," Madam Pomfrey grumbled, before storming off to vent her feelings onto a loudly coughing student.

The Pepperup Potion performed its magical wonders on Rowan alleviating her of most of her symptoms and the dreadful chill she felt. Feeling nice and toasty warm with only a slight headache, she mutters her thanks to Madam Pomfrey, who says, "I'll be seeing you shortly, Miss Prince," before returning back to force-feeding her patient a sickly-looking filled vial.

Rowan shudders at the color and makes her way out of the infirmary. The only slight distraction is the puffs of steam being emitted from her ears. Though annoying, on the bright side, it'd keep her ears warm in the frosty cold of the outdoors.

The grounds were chilly and bright causing Rowan to wince and squint in the sunlight. However, halfway out onto the grounds, she realized she'd forgotten something of terrible importance and rushed back towards to dungeons to retrieve the wooden boat. A bit out of breath, she rushed into the empty Slytherin quarters, before rushing back out.

With the blood rushing in her brain, Rowan felt the slight headache that still had increase again to a thumping pulse, but not as worse as before. Once back out on the lawns again, she slowed down to a walking pace to give herself room to breathe. She was somewhat out of breath thanks to her run and wanted to at least not be panting when she arrived in front of everyone.

It wasn't long when the stands from last time were already up in and view as they were already mostly full of only the last of the stragglers making their way up. Feeling the sudden lack of breakfast in her stomach, her stomach makes a rather loud, and embarrassing groan. Rather mortified, Rowan blindly searches inside her coat pocket and finds an uneaten chocolate bar. At least it was sugary that ought to kick start her metabolism into gear for a short while.

The excited babble causes Rowan to periodically wince at every shout as they progressively get louder, the closer she approaches the stands. The judges were sitting at another gold-draped table at the water's edge. Madam Maxime looked optimistic, while Professor Vulchanova seemed as depressed as ever. Dumbledore, on the other hand. his eyes are twinkling in delight, no doubt expecting his Christmas gift to be well used. Though Mr. Flint sitting at his side seem unhappy to be present. But then again, he was probably missing some important court case.

On the bright side from what Rowan had learned from Silvia that Mr. Flint had taken Amelia Bones under his wing as an understudy. No doubt, Amelia Bones was covering for Mr. Flint in the meanwhile, all the while giving her an edge over her competitors in the field, but also pitting her against Barty Crouch Sr. It'd surely be a learning experience, to say the least.

There on the sidelines were the other two champions. Igor Karkaroff looking rather confident this morning as Jean Delacour said, "Zee doez not look very well dis morning, Prince."

"I have a migraine accompanied by a cold," Rowan confessed. "And I've already taken a potion for it, but I've still got a bit of a headache left." Igor Krakoff snorts at hearing her reply already that much more confident at winning the second event.

"I'm 'ery sorry to 'ear dat," Jean Delacour said in genuine sympathy.

The two of them chatted for a bit until Dano Amundsen said, "All right, champions, please come this way." The three of them followed him to the bank whereas he spaced them ten feet apart from each other. Igor Karkaroff proudly dropped his robes to reveal his pale, skeleton-like figure in his swimming trunks. Even his arse was scrawny and flat. This was a guy where a bit of fat might actually do him some good.

Loud whistles can be heard from the stands especially the Slytherin side of things. Almost shouting Delilah Pizarro says, "We've seen it all before, Igor, dear. Not much has changed," which only earned bursts of laughter from the rest of the Slytherins causing Igor Karkaroff to flush in humiliation.

Muttering under her breath, Rowan says, "If I wanted to be flashed by a skeleton, I would have just stayed in class." She had spoken just loud enough that Jean Delacour heard her and began to chuckle at her remark.

Amundsen points his wand at his throat and says, "Sonorus!" His voice boomed across the dark water towards the stands. "Well, our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One…Two…. Three!"

The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause. Rowan temporarily closed her eyes as she could see her world mapscape in her mind's eye. Easily she found exactly where on the lake three figures were tied underwater. There were shouts and yelling around her, but she ignored them as she memorized the spot before opening her eyes.

Opening her eyes, Rowan saw Jean Delacour have a bubble charm around his head, while Igor Karkaroff transformed his head and body parts into that of a shark. Ignoring the two of them diving into the cold, murky waters, she merely walked to the bank. There is a burst of whispers as everyone expects her to remove her clothing, before entering into the water. There are more than a few speculative murmurs, but those are quickly are hushed no doubt at finding themselves being glared into submission by Severus and her friends.

Rowan carefully fishes out the toy-sized wooden boat from her pocket, before placing it onto the waters. Why on earth was she going to swim in a frozen lake, when there are perfectly good boats available to use? Shaking her head at the lack of common sense in the wizarding world, she removes her wand and says, "Engorgio." The wooden boat quickly grows back to its normal size as there are gasps of shock all around.

A Hufflepuff first year instantly recognized the boats and loudly shouts, "It's the school boats!"

Another third-year Gryffindor cries out in disbelief, "Is that even legal?"

"According to the tournament rules," a fifth-year Ravenclaw stridently explained, "As long as the champion did not receive any outer use from a Professor or other's or powerful artifacts, any potion or item is of acceptable use."

The Ravenclaws as a whole house let out collective sighs of dismay at their colleague's remark. Rowan Prince really should have been a Ravenclaw. She was utterly wasted in Slytherin.

Not that would change anything as the Slytherins wore smug expressions on their faces. They were most confident in their champion as Rowan Prince was Slytherin enough for them. She'd put up a good fight but retain her self-preservation to the very end that was what counted to them because that was the embodiment of Salazar Slytherin itself. And that was all they truly cared for, because one may lose a battle, but still win the war.