Chapter 201: July 31, 1995: War & Love (1/2)

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The link is also in the synopsis.

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”Okay, gather around everyone,” said Ivy, calling for a huddle — Sirius had given them some time to plan and discuss before the game officially started.

Team Ivy, dressed in white jumpsuits with red stripes on their chest and upper arms for ease of identification, gathered around before Ivy stepped back and Hermione took the lead. It had been so ever since Hermione first attended Potter's birthday after Ivy and Hermione had become friends, and Ivy had invited Hermione after their first year.

It was necessary because before Hermione and Ivy had become friends, Team Ivy had always been a group filled with internal conflict, with Daphne and Ivy quarreling with each other and making teamwork difficult which was why before Hermione, Team Ivy had a losing record against Team Harry. Hermione had forcibly taken the reigns after getting frustrated by the two girls' nonsensical quarreling and, in her first year, came close to winning, just losing by a hair, but the next two years, she had led Team Ivy to victory.

”Okay, let's go over the rules once, so everyone is clear about them,” started Hermione, ”As you can see, we are wearing white, and so is the other team, and as Sirius said, the balloons are filled with colored liquid, which would stain our clothes. So make sure to only those with green stripes.”

”Next, everyone gets three hits before they are out of the game. And every time someone gets hit, they are temporarily out of the game — this not only wastes a lot of time and puts the entire team at a disadvantage because our strength decreases by one for a couple of minutes that it takes to go back to the start point and wait out for half a minute. As such, please make sure to secure your safety before going in for a risky attack.”

Everyone nodded.

”To ensure some additional safety, we will be moving in groups of two. Cover each others' backs, and if your partner gets hit, try to take out the one who attacked them because that will take them out so they won't be able to attack you.. . as I said before, it takes three hits to kick them out of the game, so it will take some time to get in thirty hits.”

Hermione exhaled a bit and thought about what to cover next. ”Alright, next is one of the most important things,” she stepped back a couple steps, turned to see the buckets filled with the water balloons near her feet, and picked one, ”these balloons will be the deciding factor to who wins. As Sirius said, these balloons have a pattern to their erratic path change — the team that figures them out first will be the one to win.”

A balloon each was passed on to every member to see if they could see something. ”Magic isn't allowed; that means there must be a way to figure the pattern out without it,” she said.

”Can we take Sirius' words for it?” voiced Ivy. ”He might be 'pranking' us, and there's no pattern making it purely luck-based.”

”I wouldn't be so quick to discredit your bother's godfather there, Potter,” everyone turned to see Daphne holding the balloon up in her palm, ”there's a square mark on my balloon; see if there's one on yours.”

”Found one.” ”I got one too.” said the Weasley twins. ”Mine's a triangle.” ”A circle for me.”

”I have a star on mine,” notified Tracey.

Everyone checked their balloons and found that there were only four markings (square, star, circle, and triangle.)

”I'm guessing that the four markings decide how the balloons quirk while thrown,” said Sue Li, the sole Ravenclaw in the group, ”if we can figure out how these patterns co-relate with how the respective balloons move, then we can exponentially increase our chances to hit our targets.”

Sue raised her to throw the water balloon but was stopped by Ginny.

”Don't,” said Ginny and pointed in the direction she was looking.

Everyone followed their gaze and saw Quinn tossing and catching a balloon as he watched them with a smile on his face.

”He's tossing the balloon,” said Hannah, ”he's tossing the balloon, and it's not doing anything weird — did he figure out how the balloons work.”

”We can't be sure,” said Tracey, ”he's not throwing it high enough for us to be sure.”

”He probably wants us to think that he knows how the balloons work,” said Ivy.

Team Ivy saw Quinn stop tossing the ball and then squeeze it tight enough to burst it and taint his hand with green liquid. Then as if appearing out of nowhere, Astoria stepped out from behind Quinn and dragged her thumb across her neck.

”What the hell,” uttered Susan.

”He's playing mind games with us—” ”—trying to get into our heads before the games start—” ”—so devious, so shrewd—” ”—we absolutely love it!”

”I have a feeling that it's not going to be so easy to win this, is it?” commented Hermione.

”That's why Harry invited him and kept it a secret from me,” said Ivy, ”and looks like he's already doing it,” she turned to her team, ”let's ignore him and don't give him the satisfaction of thinking that he's succeeding.”

Daphne nodded in rare agreement, ”Yes, we should try to figure out the balloons before the time ends—”

A sharp whistle pitch sounded out. Both teams turned to see Sirius with hand in hand.

”It's time, children; preparation time is over,” said Sirius. ”It's time to start the fun and see you all getting pelted with balloons.”

Team Ivy turned towards Quinn and saw him grinning. He had successfully wasted their time.

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Ginny Weasley and Sue Li walked in the small area specified by Sirius as legitimate competition grounds. Everyone, including Ginny and Sue, had gone in different directions towards the areas populated with trees. Team had Ivy decide to test the balloons and communicate the findings when they came across others or met each other in the waiting zone after being hit.

”Let's find a good spot and test out the balloons with us,” the pockets in the jumpsuits were expanded enough to hold an adequate amount of balloons to allow them to stay for a while without needing to refill at the party area.

”Yes, I have thought of a way we could figure out the balloons fastest,” said Sue in reply.

But then they heard a rustle of leaves and came out in the view were Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, and Lee Jordan from another direction, making both parties freeze when they saw each other. Almost immediately, both parties took out balloons and exchanged a round of fire on instinct before Team Harry took cover.

”We should keep attacking them,” said Ginny.

”I couldn't agree more,” nodded Sue.

Both girls took some cover of their own and started to throw balloons at each other whenever they got a chance, with Team Ivy being substantially more aggressive despite being a member less than Team Harry. Both parties eventually moved closer to each other to get better opportunities, and the end result of the heated exchange was Ginny and Sue taking out Seamus Finnigan and Lee Jordan in exchange for getting hit themselves.

When the exchange was over, the four people who were hit decided to walk to the party area for the thirty-second respawn area together. But not before Seamus and Lee transferred some of their balloons to Dean, leaving him alone to wander among the trees.

”That's got to be against the rules,” said Ginny in a complaint against the balloon transfer.

”Sirius said nothing about the balloon transfer after getting hit; he neither denied or allowed it, so we can do whatever we want,” said Lee in smug justification.

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In another part of the competition zone, Hermione and Ivy tested their balloons together.

”Hey, Hermione,” said Ivy.

”Hmm?” said Hermione throwing a balloon and noting its trajectory.

”There's something I want to tell you,” said Ivy, and Hermione noticed the tones of hesitation and a bizarrely out-of-place shyness in her straightforward best friend.

Hermione stopped throwing her balloons and asked, ”What is it?”

Ivy pursed her lips and paused a bit before speaking, ”I have a bit of a crush on Quinn.”

”WHAT?!”

”Shh!! Not so loud, do you want to get found?”

”Then why would you say something like that so abruptly?!”

”I mean.. . I just thought this was the right time.. . .” said Ivy, aimlessly kicking the ground.

”When.. .. did this happen?” While Hermione knew that things had approved exponentially between Ivy and Quinn to the point that both had danced with each other at the Yule Ball, but she hadn't thought things had improved so much that Ivy had developed a crush on Quinn.

”I don't know. I can't put a date on it, you know,” said the birthday girl, ”it just happened.”

Even Ivy couldn't believe that she had developed on Quinn — the guy she hadn't liked so much in the first couple of years they had known each other. If Ivy could go back in time and tell her younger self that she would come to like Quinn, then the younger girl would suggest getting checked for a love potion.

”Okay.. . so, what are you going to do?” asked Hermione.

”That's something I wanted to ask.. .. well Quinn kissed me today, sort of.”

”WHAT?!!”

”Shh! Shh! Pipe down, will you? I want to win this and establish the three-peat.”

”Then why are you dropping bombs on me, girl?! And what do you mean he kissed you? When did that happen?”

”.. . Well, he had just arrived and sort of kissed me on both cheeks. Quinn said he had just returned from Italy and apologized.”

”Oh,” was all Hermione said at first. What else could she say; she had no experience in the romantic business. ”Then what do you want to do? I mean, it could be just as he said — a mistake. I mean, are we even sure he doesn't have anyone he likes.. .. he was involved with Fleur Delacour last year.”

Ivy Potter didn't like the French Veela. Her opinion had deepened after she had come to the realization about how she felt. ”He said that there wasn't anything between them. That the. .. . kiss was just a thank you.”

”Yeah, but we heard it from someone who had heard it from someone else who had supposedly heard Quinn say that.”

Ivy didn't like Hermione's reasoning, no matter how much sense it made — the Hogwarts rumor mill wasn't the most credible of sources.

”You can feel him out, or maybe ask Carmichael or Belby if he's interested in someone. After that, you can let him know that you're interested.”

”How do you do that?” asked Ivy. ”Let someone know that you're interested.”

”Maybe tell him directly or.. .. write a letter.”