2.| ✮𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮, 𝓑𝓲𝓵𝓵. ✮ {𝓑. 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂}

\𝓉𝓌ℯ𝓃𝓉𝓎-𝓈𝒾𝓍\

~

Every angry thought Eleanora had had towards Bill in the last few months left her head. She flew at him, throwing her arms around his neck. "Bill!" Bill caught her and spun her around, feeling happier than he had in weeks. He'd been worried about how she would act towards him after he avoided her for so long, but she was her usual cheerful self. When he set her down, Eleanora brushed the hair out of her eyes and bounced on the balls of her feet, beaming up at him. "What're you doing here?"

"Came to see the tournament. I promised I would, didn't I?" He grinned at the twins, who were standing at a distance, watching the scene skeptically.

"Well, I wasn't sure..." Eleanora said, rounding on him. "You idiot!" She pushed his shoulder, but to the twins surprise, she was laughing. "You could've at least written to say you'd be here."

"I'm sorry! Really, I am." Bill looked truly apologetic.

"It's fine, you're here now." Eleanora led Bill and the twins to the edge of the railing to look out over the lake. The four champions were standing at the edge, ready to begin the task. "What do you think it'll be?"

While Bill and Eleanora speculated about the task, Fred leaned over to talk quietly to George. "'The hell is she doing?"

"Maybe she's in denial?" George whispered. Fred scrunched up his face and shook his head.

"She's not in denial, she knows what she's doing. Why's she treating him so normally after...?"

George shrugged hopelessly. "For a minute there I thought she was going to beat the shit out of him, and I was looking forward to it." Fred snickered and turned to watch the beginning of the event.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task-" Bagman's voice boomed over the stadium, "-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 blew and the champions one by one submerged themselves in the water using various methods to keep themselves breathing for an hour.

"Well, that was... vague," Eleanora said, watching Cedric perform a bubble-head charm with a troubled look.

Fred cleared his throat. "Still worried about Ced, hm?" he asked, propping his chin on his hand to look at her apprehensively.

"Sorry?" Eleanora had been staring at Bill, who was talking about his work at the bank.

"Cedric. Bill, did Eleanora tell you about her and Cedric?"

Catching on, George leaned across Fred to add, "Great guy, really."

"Oh yeah," Fred said. "Really reliable."

"Great at communication."

Eleanora narrowed her eyes at them, and then turned back to Bill. "He broke up with me," she said quickly. "Awhile ago. It doesn't matter."