Dedicated to Winona Laura Horowitz
Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz
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LYDIA DEETZ AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
Chapter 7: The second trial
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Hermione, after leaving Neville in the infirmary, decided not to go to her common room and asked her friends to stay with them, which they gladly accepted. Percy, who couldn't stand any more, confessed to the chestnut that they had seen her with the brave Neville; the girl blushed a lot but kept a shy smile.
“How's Neville?” Lydia asked worried.
“He's fine; Madam Pomfrey will surely make him as good as new for tomorrow.”
“And you didn't want to stay by his side? Then we can tell you what...”
Hermione interrupted her by nodding her head.
“You know, it was Neville who insisted that I didn't miss the meeting.... this time he was the one who gave me a kiss...”
“YAHOOO Hermione, GO, GO, GO” Percy chuckled as he held his fist and swung it happily in the air.
“Seriously, Hermione, I'm so happy," said Lydia, and proceeded to hug her as if she were her sister.
“How did that asshole Ron look, did he beat him?” the boy asked.
“Well, Neville actually lost.”
“Oh, I'm sorry," Percy said, feeling embarrassed.
Hermione shook her head.
“The important thing is not that he won or lost, but that he fought for me... he fought for me!” the girl said with a smile and tears that poked out of her eyes.
“You deserved much better than Ron, it's good that you noticed it," Lydia said, rubbing her friend's arm.
“It's true, Neville is worth twelve times more than Ron," Hermione replied.
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At nightfall, the champions and Percy were in the new tower occupied by the Nekoten, and they planned their strategy. Lydia suggested that all valuables be enchanted to locate them with some spell and attract them with the accio.
“What if they are enchanted like the fake eggs that we had to steal from the dragons?” Cedric said, "the accio did not work with them.”
“Then we will mark them and use these mirrors.” Lydia showed them some small black mirrors with a woman's handle, “we will use them as radars to locate our precious objects.” Harry was impressed, as was Hermione, but they had to explain to Cedric what a radar was.
“You've got it all tied up and very well tied up Lydia," said Cedric, "now let's select the objects that we value most and mark them.”
All the friends were happy, it goes without saying that sometimes the best plans don't work...
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Since they had solved the egg enigma, and had plenty of time ahead of them, Lydia, Hermione, Percy and Neville, devoted themselves to finding ways to help the domestic elves with W.E.L.F.A.R.E, which now replaced the unspeakable S.P.E.W. Harry had the perfect excuse not to participate, saying that Ron would not like it and that he wanted to keep the friendship with the redheaded.
The kids were happy but learned from the newspaper The prophet, that Hagrid was a semi-giant and that he wanted to resign. After a few days of uncertainty, Dumbledore convinced Hagrid to continue teaching.
Lydia and Percy also wanted to help their former common house, and they were pleased to see that they continued with their strong curriculum despite their absence, and willingly agreed to help them with the domestic elves issue.
Lydia, Hermione and Cedric went to the teachers and convinced them that one day a month, the elves would have a day off and that the students would be in charge of doing all the work in Hogwarts, from cleaning the common rooms, passing through the classrooms, to the dining rooms scattered around the castle (they did not yet reconstruct the big dining room).
The teachers accepted the proposal along with the girl’s idea that elves should have readings about the slave trade in the Muggle world and the subsequent process of emancipation of them. They also agreed that the history classes should be given by outstanding students, because the ghost teacher of the subject simply discouraged any kind of learning.
“Those peoples who refuse to learn the horrors of the past are doomed to repeat them," Lydia said decisively.
The students who would give the classes would be recognized by the school and this would go to the student curriculum of the volunteers.
Interestingly, the proposal that Nekoten thought would be the easiest was the most difficult to accept. The teachers did not want to replace the scrolls and feathers with their inkpot, instead of modern pens and notebooks, not even with fountain pens or printed hardcover notebooks.
The reason they gave was that the existing system forced the student to improve his handwriting. Lydia counterattacked by showing Ron's homework and teaching them Muggle studies that showed how modern notebooks and pens reduced the student’s risk of having to wear glasses, as well as muscular and bone fatigue in the wrist (which caused osteoporosis) and mental fatigue; in addition, teachers would have less work and ease in detecting traps in students jobs.
After more than eight hours of exposure and discussion, Hogwarts decided to get rid of the scrolls, pens and inkpot. Something similar had never been done before, leaving school the Middle Ages and entering the twentieth century, all thanks to Lydia, Hermione and Cedric.
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After a few days, Percy was sent to the principal's office just hours before the second trial. Lydia didn't worry and hoped to see her friend later, but that didn't happen. Lydia was nervous, but she didn't have time to pick him up at Dumbledore’s office anymore because she should go to the second trial.
Already in the lake she saw that all champions including the girls wore normal swimsuits, however she wore an old school swimsuit with the name of her course stamped on her chest in Japanese letters.
The kids were surprised to learn that the precious objects that were going to steal from them were actually the people they most appreciated, so the plan to use Lydia's mirrors as radars went down the drain. Lydia's garment was Percy, Hermione's was Neville, Harry's was Ron, Cedric's was Choo, Fleur's was her sister Gabrielle and Krum's was a friend of his.
As planned by Harry and Cedric, they used gillyweeds because this way they would have fins and go faster and when the effect was over they would use the bubble helmet.
Hermione, who didn't want any fish guts to come out, used the bubble helmet and Lydia became a mermaid.
Lydia's mermaid astonished everyone as she did not look like the mermaids of fairy tales or Walt Disney's cartoons, her shape was dark and the fins were large, one on top of the other and she had two very long skin folds at the end of her tail, the edges of the scales glowing in a lilac colour. Its beauty could not be denied, and its source seemed to come from a dark and forbidden fountain.
Lydia, in her Gothic mermaid shape, was in the lead, but suddenly something held her by the waist... The giant squid had broken free and was beginning to shake her!
Lydia wanted to electrocute the monster with her lightning magic, but noticed that it had also captured Hermione and Fleur. So she decided to return to her form of Cat Girl and with Extreme Force, which was another feline technique, rescued the two girls. The giant squid chased them but was captured by the newts of the lake and their boss told them that the trial was over and that their garments were safe on the surface.
Already on the surface, they noticed that everything was chaos, Percy shouted Lydia's name and was held by Hagrid and his teacher; Fleur's sister cried hysterically surrounded by the arms of Madam Maxine; Neville was also held by the twins and Harry. All had been told that the squid had escaped and attacked some students.
Everything calmed down when the girls shouted that they were well and with the help of several Hufflepuffs they reached the wooden platforms they built for the tournament.
No one knew how the squid had been released; Dumbledore spoke to the leaders of the newts and mermaids. Hermione and Lydia looked suspicious, even with the squid on the loose; this did not explain his aggressive behavior as he was actually a gentle giant, in fact sometimes returning the freshmen to their boats when they fell into the lake, something very suspicious happened.
TO BE CONTINUE...
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