Chapter 3
Draco
As I was stepping down the stairs of the board, I saw how all the eyes were fixated on me and Viktor. According to the baby blue uniforms I saw in the crowd, we were the last to arrive at Hogwarts. As we were led to the great hall, I saw some familiar faces, some of them I knew from business with their parents, most of them dressed in green uniforms. But the one person I was really excited to see, was the only one I couldn’t spot.
“Who are you looking for?” Krum asked. Most of the people that stared at us were now occupied with sitting down at the four different tables.
“There is somebody I didn’t saw in a long time.”
“Lover?”
“Ihhg no, gross, she is my cousin, she…” I couldn’t finish the sentence, because of the arms that wrapped around my torso from behind me. I instantly knew it was her. I turned around; her small frame now fixated to my chest.
“Luna.” I laughed, now retuning her firm hug. “I really missed you.” She took her time before letting me go and responding.
“I know.” She looked up with the brightest smile. I knew her well enough to know that that was her way of saying: I missed you too. Only now I saw a now familiar redhead behind her. Following my glance, Luna turned around.
“How rude of me not to interduce you two.” She said with her usually soft voice. “Ginny, this is my cousin Draco. Draco, this is Ginny, my girlfriend.”
“Right, Ginny Weasley. We met before. This year’s Quidditch world cup.” She just nodded, clearly having no idea how to response, probably shocked that I remembered her name. A movement I caught in the corner in my eye reminded me that I also had someone to interduce.
“This is Viktor, a friend of mine.” I didn’t call him by his full name, nor did I acknowledge the fact that he was a world champion Quidditch player. I knew that he hated to be the center of attention.
“I know.” Luna said as she looked at Krum, who bowed down to the two girls. A gesture that here might be considered too much but was for us a normal gesture to show respect. Like I expected, Luna didn’t even bat an eyelash.
“Do you two want to sit with me at the Ravenclaw table?” I wanted to say yes, but than I remembered the other people, who were probably waiting for me at the Slytherin table.
“Some other time, not today though, I still want to say hello to the others.” I didn’t even need to explain who I meant; tough she most likely knew who I referred to. With a quick goodbye we set off to the Slytherin table, the remaining eleven students from Durmstrang following.
“Is this seat taken?” I ask as I came up to two familiar faces. Pansy let out a high-pitched scream as she practically threw herself at me. Blaise on the other hand looked at me with a wide grin.
I was happy to see both of my childhood best friend again. I no longer had so much time to spend with them, considering how far we live apart and that now I have to fulfil the duties as the head as the family. We exchange letters every now and then, still I felt guilty.
It was quite complicated not to tell Pansy and Blaise how to champions are going to be decided on, considering how many times they begged to know.
“Really Draco, tell us!” Pansy whined after she took her last bite. Most of the other student also finished their plate.
“Pans, you will know what is going to happen in like what; five minutes?” I groaned, also slowly losing my patients. How hard could it be to get that goblet and two minister officials to Hogwarts?
“Who do you think is going to be the Hogwarts champion?” Pansy asked, after it became even to her apparent that she wasn’t going to get an answer out of me concerning how the champions were going to be decided on. “I hope it’s going to be Cassius, or literally any other Slytherin.”
“At least Potter can’t get to be champion.” Blaise muttered under his breath trying to calm Pansy down.
“Well, at least one good thing. I wouldn’t bear seeing him pull another of his ‘being in the center of attention’ performances. This little prat doesn’t even get in any trouble for the shit he is pulling.” Harry Potter. I nearly forgot him in all this tumult.
No, I didn’t.
“What exactly do you mean by that?” I vaguely recall some of the things he did, that she mentioned in letters, but nothing specific.
“Nearly every year some shit happens, first year he apparently messed with a philosopher’s stone, second year he opened the chamber of secrets and slayed a literal Basilisk, third year Sirius Black broke out of Azkaban and into the school because of him, after that I honestly lost track of his bullshit.”
“Wait, wasn’t Black proven innocent and the charges against him dropped.” My Mum mentioned it, and even though she never outright said it, I think she did some Floo calls for his name to be cleared. She apparently liked her cousin pretty much, even though he was disowned.
“Yeah, but that was before they found out he wasn’t guilty, which meant that all of us were scared because to our knowledge a mass murder was walking around in our school. And then there is Dumbledore who has some weird obsession with him. Just because he thinks that Potter is the hero of all of us because he defeated the Dark Lord.” She added with an eye roll.
Before I could even react to that, two men, that I recognized as Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch appeared beside Dumbledore who stood up in front of the professor table. He explained that the two of them will, alongside the three headmasters, be judges in the tournament.
“Not only that, but they are also provide the artifact with which the champions will be decided on.” A huge goblet appeared in the middle of the room.
“This is the Goblet of Fire.” Dumbledore said as he stepped forward. “To enter the tournament, you must throw a note with your name on it in the goblet. It will decide which students will have the honour to participate. The three students who are chosen, will have to participate in three possibly deadly tasks. But think greatly about if you throw your name in it, once it is submitted, there is no going back.” There was a weird twinkle in his eyes, as if he was betting on students dying, without an ounce of regret.
“This line,” He made a dramatic pause as he drew a circle with his wand around the Goblet. “Will prevent anyone under the age of 17 to enter the competition.” I had a weird feeling that this wasn’t going to work. “You can submit your application until the following night.”
Harry
Hermione and I were sitting in the library studying, something we often did just the two of us, Ron sometimes joined us, but not often considering he hated studying more than anything, I on the other hand had taking a liking to it, especially after the last year. It gave me some kind of peace to just sit down and do something, without any attention on you, just sitting there and learning for school was boring enough for everyone to leave me alone. So, it was quite literally the only thing I could do without being judged. Well, except for Hermione, but she was at least judging me depending on my academical skill and not because I was The Boy Who Wouldn’t Fucking Die. She was one of the only people who could see me for me. Even Ron sometimes seemed to forget that.
“Are you going to enter the tournament?” I asked Hermione with a frown on my face, I really didn’t think about the fact that she was the only one old enough, from the three of us to enter.
“No, absolutely not! I have better things to do I am in my 6th year of Hogwarts and next year are going to be N.E.W.T.’s and I am still not a hundred percent sure what I want to do later in life and-”
“Hey, Mi, calm down.” I gently took her hands in mine. I knew that she already had multiple panic attacks because of this. “Everything is going to be okay. Just breath.” That actually seem the get her to fill her lungs with air.
“Remember that even if you never decide to persuade a carrier, I probably have enough money in my vault so even your Grandchildren could live from it.” A small chuckle escaped her. It was a thing we always used to tell each other. In the first years of Hogwarts, there where moments, where we both felt like we didn’t properly belong here, so she said that if we ever decided to drop out of Hogwarts, her parents could adopt me and we could be proper siblings, just so I didn’t have to go back to my relatives. But now it felt like we were in too deep, so there wasn’t the dream of Harry Granger anymore, but from Hermione Potter. Under the Potter name was a shit ton of money, which I will never be able to spend alone. I asked Molly or Ron so often to spent it on whatever they liked but they always refused.
“But don’t you dare remind Ron that I can legally enter the tournament. He would be a pain in the arse about it.”
“Language.” I reminded her. She only rolled her eyes. It wasn’t often that she cursed, but I liked to remind her anyway.
“Who do you think it is going to be then?” I asked her, going back to the original topic.
“Well, Marcus Belby is more talented than he looks, and I actually think he is the most likely to be picked from Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff for sure has to be Cedric, then Gemma Farley or Warrington. Gryffindor one hundred percent Angelina.”
“It’s not like there will be multiple Hogwarts champions, pick one.”
“I would like it to be Angelina, really, but it’s rather unlikely. I think realistically speaking Cedric or Gemma.” She sighed. “Though I would honestly prefer Gemma, Slytherin or not, there should be a girl.”
“Why do you think the other schools will not have a girl as champion?”
“Let’s see, for Durmstrang it will absolutely be Krum. And for Beauxbartons, I have absolutely no idea.”
“We are going to find out exactly now.” I said with a gaze to my watch.
These days, I felt like I was spending most my time either in the Library or the Great Hall, and now without Quidditch, it got even worst. The food was like every feast super good, but also like every other feast the announcement were made at the end.
“I’m taking the last bets, does somebody want?” Seamus asked, a little booklet in his hand. “Harry you?”
“Nah, thanks.” I might have nearly unlimited Galleons, doesn’t mean I had to spent them on things like that.
“Hermione?” He asked, even though we all knew it was hopeless, she didn’t even take part in the Quidditch pool even though we win every cup.
“No thank you.”
“I placed a bet on Krum.” Ron said with a shrug.
“Who would have guessed.” I sighed dramatically. “Who else is on that list?” I asked curiously. He gave his book over to me, there was a list with names, behind them a line for every person who betted on that specific person. There was about every person Hermione predicted, but also some surprising ones I didn’t expected. For example, we had Lisa Turpin or Susan Bones. But what really got me, was the last name.
Harry Potter: I
Who ever bet on me must be a bloody idiot. I am underaged and have no intention of entering.
“Who in Merlin’s name was that?” I asked Seamus with a gesture to my name.
A broad smile was conjured on Seamus face. “Well, well, well.” He said dramatically. “That is sensible information, that I cannot give up.” I rolled my eyes, clearly someone was trying to be funny.
“At least there is no bloody chance that I get actually in” I muttered under my breath.
Dumbledore now finally seemed ready to draw the names out the goblet.
“The first champion, will be…” A small piece of parchment paper flew out the cup.
“Fleur Delacour.”
I looked over to Hermione, who unsurprisingly looked extremely pleased. As her eyes left mine, they widened. I turned back to look at the girl who was now walking to the front and oh merlin, she was beautiful.
And I wasn’t the only one who thought so, I could see how nearly every boy and even some girls where practically hypnotized with her beauty. I mean she was bloody gorgeous, long blond hair flowing like waterfall down her shoulders and she moved with such incredible elegance. But my eyes weren’t glued on her like the others.
I turned my head back to Hermione, who seemed to disagree. Her eyes were wide in awe and her mouth was hanging open a little. Seamus and Dean on the other hand looked completely unaffected and Ron, Ron looked like just confused, well he seemed intrigued by her beauty, but at the same time as if he was having an identity crisis.
“Now to the next champion.” Dumbledore declared as the next name flew out.
“Draco Malfoy.”
Now I was wondering if the Goblet was going more after looks than skill. I mean come on how could probably the two hottest people in all Europe be also the most talented. There was no way he was actually more capable than Viktor Krum. Ron looked fucking annoyed by this, but I thought that was more because he lost his bet.
As he made his way down between the Slytherin and the Ravenclaw table he caught my eye and then he did something so unexpected, I nearly fell from the bench. He had the audacity to fucking wink at me.
He winked at me. It was so fast, that I believed I just imagined it, but when I looked back at Hermione, she drew her eyebrow up as if I knew why he just did that. He was such a confident asshole, the way he strutted his way for wart, while about as many people fawned over him as Fleur.
“And the Hogwarts champion is, Cedric Diggory.”
That was one everybody could agree on, was actually great, he was one of the most popular students and liked by everyone even the Slytherins, which meant that he was probably the best option without one house feeling unrepresented.
There was now applause for the three champions that now stood up front. From there, the two Ministry officials brought them out the hall. Great, so we could go on with our food, I was about to focus back on the plate in front of me, when out of the corner of my I saw the Goblet lit up once more. And I wasn’t the only one who noticed it. The attention of everybody was once again on Dumbledore, who looked intrigued.
With one swish, a small, crumbled piece of paper flew out. And even before the headmaster had time read it out loud, even before he even fished it out the air, I knew which name was written on it.
“Harry Potter.”