Chapter Text
When the judges returned (Dumbledore in mauve, Slughorn in midnight blue, Bagnold in lime green, and Ramsay in predictable chef’s white), they stood in a line in front of the student chefs. All four of them looked infinitely more relaxed now that they resembled their proper selves again.
“In this competition,” stated Ramsay, “you have each had to prove your grit and talent, pulling out all the stops in an attempt to get ahead of your competition. In this challenge, however, that will change.”
Bagnold stepped forward and raised her wand. In stylistic swirls of wordless magic, she summoned tomatoes and basil leaves and hovered them in two batches in front of her for the crowd to see.
“Individually one can be a unique, marvelous talent,” she said, her tone rippling with weight and, in Harry’s opinion, a touch too much drama. “But when two talented people are paired together – that’s when true magic can happen!”
In a tiny explosion of magical fireworks, the ingredients vanished, and with another summoning charm, Bagnold levitated a bowl of streaming tomato soup into the air.
“Today, chefs, you will be tested,” she proclaimed with a wide smile that was stunning from all angles, “by being partnered off in pairs of two and, as a team, having to make a delicious enchanted entrée for us! This entrée can be anything you like, but you must include some sort of magic in it – whether a potion or an enchantment – that creates some sort of a magical effect on the judges. This special variation of tomato and basil soup, for example, I infuse with a Sleeping Enchantment, so as to help my grandchildren get to sleep when they’re sick in bed.”
“To keep this challenge from being too…easy, of course,” Dumbledore said wryly, his blue eyes twinkling, “you will have to team up with someone who is not from your house…and at the end of this round, the weakest of the pairs will be eliminated.”
The stands at once started mumbling in concern. Ron noticed, however, that only the competitors who had not met in the kitchens Monday night – Cho, Arjuna, and Millicent – seemed anxious.
“Arjuna m’dear,” said Slughorn, “since you won the advantage in the last round, you will get to assign the teams.”
Now it was Ron’s turn to be nervous. Arjuna, from the start, had been a pretty threatening opponent. She’d only lost the first preheat challenge by a hair and had won both of the other challenges easily, receiving nothing but enthusiastic praise from all of the judges. Plus Cho said she’d won, like, four blue ribbons before even coming to Hogwarts, right? On top of that, Ron knew Ravenclaws were, by and large, very competitive. Whenever Gryffindor had faced Ravenclaw in Quidditch, Ravenclaw’s players always flew as nimbly and strategically as a professional team.
Arjuna glanced around at the other chefs with her eyes narrowed thoughtfully, clearly sizing up her competition. Then she spoke with methodical calm.
“…Astoria with Kevin…”
Astoria and Kevin exchanged a small smile.
“Cho with Daphne…”
Cho hesitantly glanced at Daphne, who returned her gaze with an icy, distrustful stare.
“Bridget with…”
Ron tensed up, hoping beyond hope –
“…Rose…”
Ron’s shoulders dropped. Rose smiled brightly at Bridget, who gave her a small wry smile in return – Ron, however, noticed that Bridget’s eyes also flickered coolly toward Arjuna.
“…And Ron with Millicent.”
Ron felt like his stomach had fallen out of his chest. The Gryffindor and Slytherin stands all immediately started booing and screaming angrily.
“What a cheat!” Ginny yelled, her cheeks flushing a furious red. “‘Arjuna the Ace,’ yeah, right – more like Arjuna the Ass – !”
Unfortunately Ginny was sitting next to Luna, and therefore the Ravenclaw stands, so her outburst was shouted down by a bunch of Ravenclaws who were holding an “Arjuna is our Ace” banner close by.
Gaping, Ron shot his gaze over to Millicent. She looked almost more appalled than he was – although her mouth was closed, her brown eyes rather resembled those of a deer in the headlights…if that deer was also carrying an AK-47 and prepared to go on a rampage.
“That leaves Hannah as my partner,” Arjuna finished smoothly, clearly unfazed by the Gryffindor and Slytherin outbursts.
“Very good,” Bagnold said in satisfaction. “Teams, please move to one of the five front stations.”
Ron shot Bridget an uneasy look, before he walked over to the station just in front of where he usually worked. Millicent lumbered over to stand at his side, though they both worked to keep a healthy berth between them.
“Now that the teams are decided,” said Dumbledore, “there’s one last thing we must add.”
With a wave of his wand, he materialized a set of golden chains and cuffs on each of the competitor’s ankles that connected them to their partner. All of the chefs – even Kevin and Astoria, who’d looked rather pleased with their match-up – flinched in response.
“This will ensure that you must work together, during this challenge,” Dumbledore said with amused satisfaction.
“You will have 90 minutes to make your enchanted entrée,” said Ramsay. “Your time starts…now!”
Kevin and Astoria, Hannah and Arjuna, and Rose and Bridget got to work right away. Cho and Daphne started a little more hesitantly, with Cho trying to reach out to Daphne and Daphne reluctantly going along with her. In Ron and Millicent’s case, however, Ron was startled when Millicent immediately shot forward toward the station countertop with no warning, yanking him along after her.
“H-hey!” he yelped in a mixture of pain and anger.
“Pick up your feet,” Millicent snapped back at him. “We only have 90 minutes, and I’m not going to let you blow this for me – ”
Ron yanked the chain back with all his strength, making her stumble backward.
“Whoa, horsie,” he retorted coldly. “We can’t get to work if we don’t have a game plan. We haven’t even figured out what we’re making!”
Millicent whirled on him, her tiny brown eyes flashing. “You haven’t figured out what we’re making. I know exactly what I’m doing – so just let me do it, and we’ll both get through this.”
Ron gave a bark-like laugh. “Oh yeah, that sounds right! Just sit back and silently entrust you with my place in the contest? As if I’m going to do that!”
“I have no time to hold your hand, Weasley!”
“Good! Can’t imagine who’d want to hold your hand – ”
Millicent seized Ron by the collar, raising a fist as if to punch him full on in the face.
“Master Weasley!”
“Miss Millicent!”
Winky and Dobby both placed themselves in between their student chefs, putting their long-fingered hands up defensively.
“Please, please don’t fight, Miss Millicent!” Winky whimpered.
“Master Weasley can’t finish the challenge, if he’s fighting!” squeaked Dobby. “And if Master Weasley doesn’t have a dish, then Master Weasley will lose the challenge!”
Ron and Millicent glared at each other with pure hatred, flaring blue on fearsome brown. Then, slowly, reluctantly, Millicent released Ron’s collar, though her hand still stayed threateningly close to his throat as if she was still itching to choke him.
“…We’re making a Potato, Celery, and Shallots Soup,” she said very lowly. Her tone seemed to dare Ron to argue.
Ron gave a curt, distrustful nod. “Okay. And the magical element?”
“I’ll figure that out later,” Millicent said dismissively, as she turned back to the station and started filling a pot with olive oil.
“No,” Ron said firmly. “We’re figuring it out now. If we’re adding in a charm, then we’ll have to fold the spell into the soup while we’re mixing it – Hannah taught us that, when she showed us how to change the color of liquids…”
“Then we’ll use a potion,” Millicent said coolly. She kept her gaze firmly on her pot of olive oil, which she’d put on the stove so that it could boil.
“…Okay,” Ron granted, his tone still twitching with irritation.
Dobby and Winky reappeared with armfuls of potatoes, celery, and shallots. Ron grabbed some potatoes and started chopping them up. The flurry of action helped him work out enough of his aggression that he could talk a little more levelly.
“…How about we add in a Calming Draught?” he asked in a hard, brooding tone, as he continued to quickly cut up the potatoes. “That’d be a good effect for a soup to have.”
“The asphodel would react badly with the shallots,” Millicent answered seriously.
“Really?” Ron asked, startled.
“Onion-like plants don’t go with asphodel – they die instantly upon even the slightest contact. One time our house elf Lowry made the mistake of planting onions next to asphodel in Mother’s garden, and they all turned horribly black and rotten.”
“Yikes. No Calming Draught, then.”
Millicent nodded curtly. The two worked silently for a moment, with Millicent preparing the shallots and Ron cutting up celery and potatoes. Dobby and Winky watched them nervously, waiting on tenterhooks for any more requests.
“Though…” Millicent murmured, her hard tone becoming a little mistier when it was quietly hovering in the back of her throat, “we could substitute a Pepper-Up Potion.”
“Yeah…” Ron said slowly. “Yeah, that’d work! I mean, plenty of people drink soup when they’re sick – Bagnold mentioned it herself – ”
“And it’s not like we’d be taking her idea,” Millicent interjected thoughtfully. “We are using a different approach – ”
“I’ve got it!” Ron said excitedly. “Why don’t we add red peppers to the soup too? Then we can have a Red Pepper soup – ”
“ – With Pepper-Up Potion in it,” Millicent finished, her eyes widening.
“Right!”
Millicent’s small brown eyes actually lit up as she considered this. “…That’s actually a really good idea.”
“Curb your surprise, will you?” said Ron sarcastically.
Millicent’s eyes narrowed, though this time they had something almost like good humor in them. “All right – Weasley, why don’t you handle mixing in the ingredients, while I get to work brewing the Potion?”
“Sounds good,” said Ron.
He turned to Dobby. “Can you get us a small cauldron?”
“Right away, Master Weasley!” Dobby said, beaming from ear to ear as he disappeared with a crack.
Millicent also turned to Winky. “Winky…could you bring me beetle eyes, dandelion root, ground alietotsy, and a vial of honeywater from Professor Snape’s storeroom, please?”
“Yes, Miss Millicent!” Winky answered dutifully. “Of course!”
“Only if Professor Snape allows you to!” Millicent said forcefully before Winky could disappear too. “Before you go to the cupboard, go find him in the stands and tell him that Millicent needs these things for her dish. Only get the materials if he says yes – you understand?”
Winky nodded. “Yes, miss!”
With that, she disappeared with a crack.
Ron glanced at Millicent, confused. “What, you don’t think Snape will let you use whatever you want?”
Millicent scoffed. “Of course he will.”
Ron frowned. Then a thought struck him, and his blue eyes slowly widened.
“…You just don’t want Winky to get in trouble for taking things without asking.”
Millicent shrugged, acting as flippant as she could. “House elves get punished for stupid things – better for them to ask permission for something they know they can have than to presume they can just take it.”
Ron considered Millicent for a minute. Then, after a short silence, he offered her a small, wry smile.
“…Hey, Millicent?”
“What?”
“If we make it through this round…remind me to tell you about S.P.E.W.”
Once Winky came back with the potion materials and Dobby came back with the cauldron, Millicent and Ron plowed right in, and the round soon rushed by. Millicent and Ron finished their soup about a minute before time was up, and so were able to pour it into four separate bowls for the judges and add cheese and cilantro for decoration.
Rose and Bridget were up first. They had made a pork pie infused with a Cheering Charm. Unfortunately the Cheering Charm ended up reacting badly with the pork filling, making it overly chewy and moist. The Charm’s effects came through, but at the cost of the textures and flavors. Ramsay also noted that Rose and Bridget had had some trouble working together as well – Rose, being much more impulsive and excitable, was put at odds with Bridget, who was more methodical and thoughtful. They came together pretty well despite their opposite approaches and their lack of magical cooking knowledge, but those things clearly hurt their finished product.
‘That’s why Arjuna put Bridget with Rose,’ Ron realized. ‘They’re both Muggle-borns, and Rose is only in second year. Of course they’d be at a disadvantage, having to make a magical entrée together.’
Astoria and Kevin were next. They had made a cinnamon-spiced beef stroganoff imbued with a Silencing Charm – in Astoria’s words, they’d wanted to “leave the judges speechless” with their dish. The Charm worked beautifully and forced the four judges to respond by writing words in the air over their heads with their wands. Bagnold praised the mix of sweet and savory flavors in their dish, though she admitted she couldn’t see much appeal to a Silencing Charm in a fine dish, excluding the potential humor. Ramsay praised Kevin and Astoria’s teamwork in how they married their sensibilities – Astoria favoring savory flavors and Kevin preferring sweet ones – together in one cohesive dish.
Then it was Millicent and Ron’s turn. When the two walked up together, the chains still linking them by the ankles, Ron had to purposefully shrink his steps so that the shorter, rounder Millicent could keep up with him more easily.
“Hello, Ron, Millicent,” greeted Dumbledore pleasantly.
“Hi, Professor,” said Ron. Millicent inclined her head politely.
“Can you tell us what you’ve made for us, please?”
Ron glanced at Millicent out the corner of his eye. Millicent nodded, giving him silent permission to answer.
“…We’ve made you…a ‘Red Pepper-Up Potion Soup.’ It’s made of red peppers, potatoes, celery, and shallots, with Pepper-Up Potion mixed in and decorated with grated Parmesan cheese and cilantro.”
As the judges each tried the soup in turn, they licked their lips…and one by one, each judge suddenly found steam coming out of their ears.
“Who made the Pepper-Up Potion?” Slughorn asked eagerly, looking perfectly thrilled by the steam coming out of his head. “These steam clouds are some of the prettiest I’ve seen in years!”
Ron grinned at Millicent. She didn’t answer, instead just bowing her head, but Slughorn took it in stride.
“Superb work!” he said, clapping his hands. “Masterful Potion-making!”
“You should be very proud of yourself, Millicent,” Ramsay agreed. “And Ron, I thought I heard you suggest the red peppers?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very clever,” said Ramsay. “Unfortunately the soup itself is a little thin – I think when you’re adding something like Pepper-Up Potion to a soup like this, you have to compensate the thinning quality of the sunflower root by adding in about a cup more of milk. I also noticed,” he brought his folded hands down on the table and leaned forward slightly, examining Millicent and Ron critically, “a lot of turmoil at your station. May I know what the issue was?”
Ron opened his mouth but faltered, not quite sure how to explain. To his surprise, Millicent stepped in.
“I’ve always cooked on my own. I’ve always done my own thing, my own way…and I didn’t really want any help.”
“That’s not a beneficial attitude, whether you’re a chef or not,” Ramsay stated seriously. “While I often like cooking my own recipes in my own way, I have cooked more than long enough to know how valuable an extra set of hands and an extra brain can be in the kitchen – and the same goes for everything else. Independence is good – but isolation is not.”
Millicent did not verbally reply, though Ron noticed, despite the feigned indifference on her face, how misty her brown eyes looked. She was definitely thinking, even if she didn’t know what to say.
“…I probably wasn’t helping much either,” Ron interjected. “I was sort of raring for a fight at the start…even though it was stupid.”
Millicent glanced at Ron out the corner of her eye, her expression unreadable. Bagnold smiled slightly.
“It’s good that you are aware of your own shortcomings,” Bagnold said kindly. “And of course, you two did pull together, in the end…that is really what matters. Well done.”
“Thank you,” Ron and Millicent murmured in broken unison.
They headed back to their station, the chains around their ankles disappearing as they went.
“You didn’t have to say those things,” Millicent said under her breath.
“No,” Ron said casually. “But I wanted to.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t like the thought of you getting all the blame, I guess.”
“So you did it to make yourself feel better?” asked Millicent.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Ron mumbled, frowning reproachfully at her. “Are you really that upset that I tried to be nice for a change?”
“No,” Millicent answered coolly. Her brown eyes actually softened slightly despite the lack of the smile on her face. “I can see why you and Bridget get along, though – she also has that inclination to be nice to people who’ve shown her no kindness whatsoever.”
Ron smirked slightly. “Well…it’s a little easier when you find out those people are decent enough, under all their stupid playacting.”
“I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘bullshit,’” Millicent said darkly, though her eyes twinkled with something like amusement.
Once the judges were finished looking over the dishes, they discussed the results. It took them a little longer than usual; it seemed Ramsay was in disagreement with the other three about something. When the four faced the crowd, Ramsay still didn’t look that happy.
“Well done, chefs,” said Bagnold, smiling warmly around at the stands. The camera of the Daily Prophet reporter flashed a few times on her, yet she didn’t flinch once. “All of you have performed admirably…but today, one team stood above the rest. That team is…Arjuna and Hannah!”
“Arjuna again,” grumbled Ginny, as the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs both cheered. “I’m really getting sick of her…”
“I told you she was good,” Luna said dreamily. “There’s no sense in getting mad about someone being good in the field she’s competing in…”
“Your roast chicken with coconut chutney was a delicious meeting of the minds,” said Slughorn warmly. “Your Elixir to Induce Euphoria complimented your food beautifully, and your chutney in particular looked like something out of a professional cookbook!”
“That’s because it probably is,” Millicent muttered under her breath.
Ron turned to her. “Huh?”
“I know that dish – Ramsay put his own variation of coconut chutney in one of his cookbooks. I bet Arjuna used that exact recipe.”
Ron looked from Arjuna to Ramsay. “…No, that doesn’t make sense – I mean…Ramsay couldn’t be that cross if Arjuna used his recipe, right?”
“He could be if he thinks she didn’t put in as much thought into her dish as the rest of us did,” Millicent said lowly. “It’s like he said in Potions class – textbooks are a crutch for real hard work.”
Ron’s eyes again drifted from Arjuna to Ramsay. Ramsay caught Ron’s eye, and his irritated expression cleared up at once, fading away into a small smile. Ron smiled back awkwardly.
‘I wonder if he’d wanted to vote for Millicent and me,’ he thought. ‘Though I guess he might have liked Astoria and Kevin, too…’
“The other teams safe this week,” said Slughorn, “are Astoria and Kevin…and Ron and Millicent.”
All four chefs exhaled in immense relief.
“That leaves,” said Dumbledore, “Daphne, Cho, Bridget, and Rose. Please step forward.”
All four girls broke apart from the others, leaving their stations and coming up to the front. Rose was the worst off of the four – she’d started shaking. Cho had gone very white. The two Slytherins, however, remained stoic.
“Daphne and Cho. Your chocolate soufflé mixed with a Beauty Spell had conflicting flavors and a spell that was only mixed partway through. Your teamwork was also lacking, with one relinquishing the reins almost instantly to the other and constructive criticism giving way to bitterness.
“Bridget and Rose. Your pork pie infused with a Cheering Charm, although magically effective, was runny and chewy to the point of being unappetizing. Your inexperience in cooking with magic was a great hindrance, as were your opposite styles in the kitchen.”
Ron looked around at the student chefs facing elimination, feeling terrible. He didn’t want any of them to be cut – all of them deserved to stay…
Dumbledore looked around at all four girls solemnly. “The chefs who will be leaving the competition today are…”
The students in the stands all held their breath. Rose started to tremble.
“…Cho and Daphne.”
Rose collapsed onto her knees in utter relief. Cho closed her eyes and bowed her head, hiding her face in her hands. Bridget immediately turned to Daphne, who had barely reacted to the announcement, and wrapped an arm around her. Daphne tilted her head down so that her long brown hair fell into her eyes and no one could see her expression.
“Ravenclaw, Slytherin,” said Dumbledore, “please applaud your student chefs.”
A polite round of applause made its way through the stands. Arjuna clapped quietly; Hannah, Kevin, and Astoria tried to clap along too, but they clearly were not comforted at all by the gesture. His heart swelling with empathy and sorrow, Ron strode forward, leaving Millicent behind at their station. He walked right over to Cho and brought a hand onto her shoulder. Cho looked up just in time for him to give her a big hug.
“I’m really sorry,” he told her quietly.
Cho’s eyes filled up with tears and, to the surprise of all the Ravenclaws in the stands, she brought her arms around Ron’s neck and hugged him back.
“I won’t stop fighting,” she said lowly. “I will get it put up one day – somehow.”
Ron pulled away, offering her a small smile. “I’m glad.”
He then turned to Daphne, who’d looked up in some surprise when he’d hugged Cho.
“You probably don’t want a hug too,” Ron surmised good-naturedly.
“No,” said Daphne.
But through the small traces of tears in her eyes she was smiling.