DISTRICT 5

Harry : Hugo/Harry

The Reaping

Death was listening in.

The being was quiet, this time, except for some intermittent high-pitched giggles, but they were still listening in.

Harry wished he could keep the bastard from doing that, but just as with Voldemort he was all too powerless.

Instead he clenched his hands into just-barely-too-tight fists and shuffled into line next to Dudley, silent as Death giggled and parents cried and Dudley bemoaned the length of time he'd be forced to stand when "everyone knew there was no way he'd be chosen!"

Harry supposed he was right—he'd always been told to volunteer in lieu of his cousin if it were necessary, and he had no desire to see what would happen should he fail to follow that command.

Not that it mattered this year anyway—he was volunteering no matter what.

When District 12's 13 year-old volunteer flashed on screen Harry didn't feel happy, or sad, or much of anything, really: Death had made no effort to hide what was coming this year.

Fred being there was far more of a shock, and Harry felt like he barely had time to process it before District 11 was flashing on screen and there Neville was, looking far more broad-shouldered and muscular than Harry remembered him being the first time the fellow Gryffindor was thirteen.

District 10 brought Luna, sweet Luna who looked much the same as always, if perhaps more tan, and District 9 had Katie, whose hair was tied back in the braid she always used during Quidditch matches—a different braid than the one she would use during practices, when she cared less.

District 8 brought Alicia who, to Harry's chagrin, looked far worse than she had the first time he'd ever met her: this Alicia (for all that she laughed and joked with her escort) seemed far harsher than he knew her to be. It was almost jarring to see the difference between her and Oliver, who had grown up in the woods of District 7: he was the healthiest of any of them so far, and seemed genuinely upset over having to leave his friends and family for all that he tried to hide it from the camera.

Finally, when the cameras switched to show the District 6 Reaping Harry caught his first glance of Angelina, who was looking as on top of things as she had been at the height of the war, when it had been her who had been organizing the supply lines for the whole of Scotland against Voldemort's forces.

And then Bless Dyvine, the escort for District 5, began speaking.

Harry watched with the rest of the district as first the eleven and then the twelve year-old were called forward uncontested. As they stood holding back tears next to the escort, she fished her hand into the third bowl on her left.

"Now, I don't want to jinx it or anything, but I think that this person doesn't need to worry!" She smiled at the camera. Harry took a deep breath, ready to call out the second the name was read. "That said, our thirteen-year old selected tribute is... Hugo Dursley!"

Harry blinked.

Dudley laughed. "You're gonna die!" He said, jeering at Harry's shocked expression. "Like anyone would volunteer for a loser like you!"

Well, shit, Harry thought, Dudley is probably right.

He made his way to the stage as the crowd fell to utter silence, waiting to see if the trend—eight districts strong so far, and with the careers nearly guaranteed to keep it up—would continue.

He stood in the spot for the thirteen year-old tribute. Still no one spoke up. Harry idly thought he was probably the only one actively happy about that—the districts likely didn't care, and the Capitol probably just liked the pattern for its novelty and wanted to see it followed through to the end.

Bless seemed almost unsure what to do. "Do we have any volunteers to take Hugo's place?" She asked. "Any at all?" She repeated, a bit desperately.

Nothing.

"Well, alright then." She said. "To the fourteen year-old, I suppose."

It wasn't until the eighteen year-old that District 5 got its volunteer, and even that only happened at the very last second, no one wanting to be the one to make the sacrifice that would allow the tesserae to remain the same until they absolutely, positively, no re-dos allowed, had to.

Harry just stood there, upright and without a tear in his eye, waiting patiently to be directed away from the stage.