Chapter Text
James walked down from the stage and into the justice building in a room with all the other tributes from district 1, and waited for his family to get here.
James had trained his whole life to get here, and he was so excited to see his parents one last time before coming back a victor.
A peacekeeper stood by the door. “Hey, do you know what’s taking them so long?” The peacekeeper stood silently for a moment.
“Your escort will be here soon.”
“No, not the escort. My parents.” James specified.
“They’re not coming.”
“Why not?” James pressed. Clearly pissed.
No answer.
“But last year—”
“They said the rules are different.”
“That’s ridic-” James was interrupted by the sound of footsteps outside the door. That must be their escort.
He was not what James had expected. Perhaps James expected him to be taller, more threatening. The escort was just a boy. Probably even younger than James. Is this really the best person for the job?
“My name’s Regulus Black. I’m your escort and I’ll be guiding you through the next few days and if you’re lucky, the following months.”
Riveting introduction. It took Jame a moment to recognize the name. Black. How come he was doing some stupid job like this? The others had already started whispering.
“Where’s our mentor?” A guy from the other side of the room asked, shutting down the whispers.
“No mentors this year. Just me. Don’t look too excited. Like they said: More than just the number of tributes is changing this year. To replicate the environment of the Dark Days, you will not have any mentoring, and are going in with only your own knowledge and whatever you manage to learn in our training center. I can only give you some advice, since… I’ve never been in the Hunger Games, have I?”
It almost felt like a taunt. James says ‘almost’, what he means is that it just does.
“That’s bullshit!” Someone else says.
Regulus doesn’t respond. Instead he walks out of the room. They all look at each other. James follows Regulus out first. We walked to the train station. It must look weird seeing such a large group leaving, since most times, we don’t even have access to the trains.
+—+
Mary was bored. “Hey! Are we nearly there?”
The escort looked up. He was a weird kid. Not the talking type, really inconvenient for Mary. Why take a job you clearly aren’t capable of?
“I said, ‘are we nearly there?’”
“No. Can’t you just be patient?”
“You brought me here. Don’t blame me if I don’t like it.”
“We’ve still got a couple of hours.”
“Are you the only person here or are we getting anyone else?”
“Does it matter? You’ll be dead this time next week.”
“What if I win? Hm?”
“You won’t.”
“You don’t know me. I’ve chopped trees fatter than your thick head.”
He scoffed. “Fine, each one of you gets a designer, I guess. See? It's useless information. I don’t get why you want it so bad.”
“Maybe because I was dragged here without my consent and I want to know if I’m going to get any better company. Something good has to come out of this, and it’s not meeting you.”
“That’s the thing. This isn’t supposed to be fun. No one here cares if you feel welcomed.”
“That’s clear. What’s your name again?”
“You should’ve remembered it the first time.”
“That’s not very polite.”
“Whatever shall we do?”
She returned his sarcasm with a sardonic smile. “Hilarious, really.”
“Severus.”
She can tell why he refused to say it more than once.
+—+
Lily had replayed the reaping over and over. She didn’t know what influenced her to act impulsively like that.
Well, obviously, she was scared for Tuney, but she should’ve stayed quiet, she’s not any more capable than her. Petunia probably would’ve panicked at the sight of dirt, now that she thinks about it.
Maybe she volunteered to be with Remus. They had known each other all their lives, and it was hard to imagine a world without him.
Lily felt the train come to a stop.
“Chop, chop. Everyone get up. Try not to look too miserable. There’ll be a huge crowd outside, don’t let that scare you. You should be grateful they treat you like celebrities, and not like animals. They did that pre-tenth Hunger Games. Don’t tell anyone I told you. We don’t talk about anything past the 76th Hunger Games.” Their escort was loud. Maybe not the best description, but it’s all Lily could think of. He also seems to hate the idea of all this, so that’s a plus. He’s the son of the president, Orion Black, so that explains why he knows so much about the Old Hunger Games. He could be useful, since we don’t get an actual mentor.
“Come on, Lily. Stop thinking whatever you’re thinking in that big brain of yours.” He acts like he knows us, I guess he’s trying to be friendly, but it’s kind of creepy.
He walked away from her, and she looked to Remus. “He’s a bit parasocial, don’t you think?”
“What? Sirius? Yeah, I guess.”
“Come on.”
They walked out of the train, where they were met with bright lights, everywhere. District 10 doesn’t have electricity like this.
There were so many people here, so excited to see the tributes. Will they be excited when they die? Lily thinks she’s a likeable person, but she’s not sure if these backwards people would agree.
They walked into a tall building. If Lily learnt one thing from this experience, it’s that a hundred is a big number, especially when each unit is a life. A life that may be forgotten by next month.
They gave us some time to ‘socialise’ until all the tributes are here. Lily knows that’s not what they’re doing.
+—+
Barty walked around the room, looking for potential allies. They found the girl from district 8. Dorcas Meadowes. The last tribute.
She looks insane, mildly threatening, but that’s exactly the kind of person they need on their team.
“Hey, Dorcas, right? I’m Barty.”
“Yeah. Dorcas Meadowes.” She reached her hand out for a handshake. Barty took it. “How’re you liking the death sentence so far?”
“It’s only a death sentence if you lose.”
“And you’re gonna win? Yeah, right.”
“That’s presumptuous of you. I was actually gonna come here and flatter you into an alliance, but clearly you’re too good for that.”
“I didn’t say it.”
“So you’ll join me?”
“You’re too desperate.”
“I’m not desperate… but if we’re going to win this, we need to start now. So are you in?”
“You know what? Fine.”
+—+
Ted met a younger boy, Peter, and decided to make an alliance with him. Peter was nice, and he was good with plants, probably useful since the arena’s going to be extra big and full of a larger variety of plants. Meaning, lots of ways to get poisoned.
He had a group with a few others from district 1 and 4, and a few from 2, who split up to make allies with other districts. There were a lot of options.
Ted really wanted to be allies with lots of the kids. They were so young, and they shouldn’t be alone, but Ted knew that if he came back with a group of kids, the others wouldn’t take him seriously.
He went back to the ‘meeting place’ with Peter. In the end, they had a large group of sixteen. It seemed unfair, but someone had to win and Ted tried not to let it get to him.