"Briar Lupin had dreamt, predicted, foreseen death more times than she cared to admit. If she actually remembered all of the times it had occurred, at least."
Sequel to Blue.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
TASK ONE
✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪
BRIAR HAD DREAMT ABOUT dragons the night before the first task and had run to find her brother the second that it was an appropriate hour. Finally, she found him at lunch, and Livvy was already aware because Harry had informed him. She had then nodded, felt relieved but also useless, and asked if he knew how to slay a dragon.
He did.
But, whilst Fred, George, and Lee were eating lunch, Briar was discussing a topic with her brother that he was already a genius in. She felt useless. She had searched through Laurel's spellbooks, and scrawled down a spell to give to Livvy, in case he needed help. And he had looked at it, and smiled slightly, and pocketed it.
"Say this," said Briar, her gaze steady as she continued discussing something her brother obviously wasn't interested in. "The book said that it's for defence. It'll mess with the dragon's body temperature, and freeze the dragon's blood for a couple minutes before the dragon naturally warms up. I'm hoping that it won't hurt the dragon. Mum made it, didn't she? She's a vegetarian, obviously, she won't make something that could hurt an animal..."
They were standing close to where students had been told to make their way to the enclosure — tournament grounds, Briar heard McGonagall say. They were also close to the Great Hall, so Livvy had already hidden the parchment by the time that Moody walked past. He saw them, kept on walking, froze, and took a couple steps back.
"Big day for you, laddie," said Moody. Livvy nodded, looking more cheerful than nervous. Briar was impressed. She would've had a meltdown by now. "Hopefully, you'll do well. I'm guessing you already know what's out there. The tournament — it's against cheating, but secrets always get out."
Briar's brows furrowed. "As in, the tasks, or those watching?"
Moody shot her a look. Briar felt cornered. She hadn't meant to say it. She didn't know why he was offended. It was just a concern of hers. That was what her brain worried, and she didn't think that she'd get into trouble for voicing it.
"If you keep on like that, Lupin, you'll get yourself killed," uttered Moody. To her side, Livvy was standing up straighter, with a foot in front of his sister. Briar didn't get it. She didn't get why he was so pissed off, or why he sounded so angry when he said Lupin. "The world doesn't like know-it-alls. Especially when they say things about bad people."
Maybe he was just against werewolves. Maybe he heard her surname and sneered, because of her dad. And, if that was the case, then he was a fucking prick. No, he wasn't just a prick. He was a desert's worth of cacti.
