After February started, time suddenly seemed to fly by much faster than before. It felt like just a blink of an eye, and now there was only a week left until February 27th.
Fred and George, though, were pretty disappointed. Ever since they got their faces glued in the entrance hall, Karkaroff hadn't come to the castle even once. So their carefully-prepared "Skiving Snackbox feeding plan" never got a chance to launch.
"Only one week left before the second task—are you really not going to spare some time to study that stone?"
One time in the Common Room, Fleur looked at Kael, who was playing chess with Cedric, and said in a slightly annoyed tone.
She'd originally thought Kael was just joking, but who would've guessed he was actually serious… And as for how she was so sure Kael wasn't secretly studying behind her back—
The reason was simple: all three stones were just sitting on top of the Common Room locker, and had been for over a month.
If it weren't for the House-elves cleaning so diligently, there would probably already be a thick layer of dust on them by now.
She'd even tried to make Kael a little anxious by sneaking off with the stones at night.
And the result… Half a month went by, and Kael didn't even notice anything was missing. He just went about his day as usual, never asked for them once.
Honestly, it was pure Merlin-level stuff…
"Nope, not preparing," Kael replied offhandedly.
If he'd wanted to, he would've done it when Nicolas Flamel visited that day. For Nicolas, the secrets on those stones were basically written right on them—he could see through them in a glance.
Since Kael hadn't asked then, there was really no need to waste time now.
"Do whatever you want! If I keep worrying about you, I'm a Leprechaun!" Fleur turned her head and stomped off to the dorm, dragging Conna along with her as she left.
"I swear I've heard that line somewhere…" Kael shifted his knight. "Didn't she say the exact same thing two months ago?"
Cedric shook his head, subconsciously looking over at the shelf in the Common Room—and the three shining stones on it—then said:
"To be honest, I thought you were joking back then, too. Who knew you actually didn't care at all."
"No reason to." Kael grinned. "The judges will tell us everything when it's time. Besides, you've read up on previous Triwizard Tournaments, right? Only the third task is the real competition—the first two are basically just warm-ups, maybe a bit of an edge."
"And even those advantages are fixed. As long as you're first, whether it's a hundred points or eighty points, it makes no difference."
"That's true, but I feel like only you could stay this calm…" Cedric sighed. "I heard Fleur was so nervous a few days ago she was still flipping through books in the common room at one in the morning."
"I didn't notice that."
"I figured as much," Cedric said, then changed the subject: "But did you notice—Fleur's been acting pretty different lately."
"Different?" Kael thought for a moment. "I don't think so—hasn't she always been like this?"
"Maybe to you," Cedric shook his head. "I remember when she first got here, she was super arrogant with everyone. But now… How do I put this? Yesterday, I saw her helping a third-year student correct their Happy Spell gesture. That kind of thing would have been impossible three months ago, right?"
Feng Rong Delacour? Helping a third-year student with spell gestures?
Kael thought he'd misheard, and said in disbelief, "Are you sure you got that right?"
After the Beauxbatons students arrived, plenty of people tried to use "asking about Charms" as an excuse to chat with Fleur. But no matter their gender or age, Fleur basically just ignored them.
Even Cedric once instinctively asked her a Transfiguration Technique question, but he got absolutely nothing in return.
"I swear, when she looks at me, it's like she's looking at a sprouting potato." That's how Cedric put it back then.
It's hard to imagine that Fleur would ever proactively teach someone spell gestures.
"There's no way I could've gotten it wrong," Cedric said confidently. "After all, she's the only one in Hogwarts with that silver hair."
"Then yeah, her change really is pretty huge," Kael muttered.
...
Over the next few days, the atmosphere in the castle became more and more charged. The support badges that had been put away got dug out one after another and worn proudly again.
For those who lost their badges, or never had one, they could just go to Sirius and grab one for free.
He'd made a huge box of badges himself and left them outside the Defense Against Dark Arts office—anyone could just take one.
He originally kept them inside, but Professor Moody was so jumpy about sudden knocks on the door that, after fixing the door three times in a row, Sirius decided to just leave the box out in the hallway.
Fred and George were the most dramatic—they'd pretty much hung half a box of badges all over their robes. When they walked, they clattered like they were wearing full suits of armor.
Now, with only a day left before the second task, wherever Kael went, he'd hear all sorts of different cheers.
From students and professors alike.
During the second Magical Creatures Class that afternoon, Hagrid found an excuse to check homework, wandered over to Kael, and quietly asked how his preparations were going.
After getting a definite answer, Hagrid slapped him excitedly on the shoulder,
"Before you took on the Fire Dragon, I was worried, honestly. But now I know—whatever you set your mind to, you'll pull it off. I'm not worried at all. I can feel it—you're definitely going to succeed."
"Thanks, Hagrid…"
Kael replied through gritted teeth, and yanked his foot out of the soft muddy ground.
Sirius was right—Hagrid really should learn just how strong he actually is.
By evening, the Hufflepuff Common Room reached its peak, since two out of the three Champions were staying there.
Snacks and drinks covered every table in the Common Room. As soon as Kael walked in, people started stuffing all kinds of candies and dried beef into his pockets, as if they were afraid he'd lose his appetite tomorrow and go hungry during the competition.
Though Fleur was the Beauxbatons Champion, she'd lived here for quite a while now, so everyone treated her just as generously, and stuffed some snacks her way too.
Of course, she didn't get as much as Kael did.
To make sure the Champions could get some rest, everyone spontaneously went back to their dorms before nine o'clock.
Soon enough, only Kael and Fleur were left in the Common Room.
Fleur was about to head back to the Beauxbatons carriage. Ms.Maxime didn't really trust her to spend the night in the castle at this point.
But as she reached the door, she suddenly stopped, turned around, and said: "If you don't want to sleep so early tonight, just go out for a walk.
"Remember to bring those stones, go to the lake by the stadium, and put them in the water—where the moonlight hits them… Yeah, that's it."
Kael turned around instinctively, but Fleur had already left the Common Room. All he saw was a tightly closed wooden door.
...