Chapter 1
Since the beginning of the school year, Blaise had started noticing Potter. Well, everyone noticed Potter, but you know what I mean… Blaise was noticing him. They were fourteen after all, hormones where raging and Potter was handsome and funny. His rejoinders to Malfoy’s taunting left Blaise sniggering for hours, they were so hilarious.
Anyway, Blaise had been looking at Potter for months now, and had watched his mounting frustration at being chosen for this ridiculous tournament. So, he was expecting some kind of lukewarm performance in the First Task, something just enough to count as symbolic participation. Instead the Gryffindor proceeded to summon his broomstick from the castle.
Wait, what?!
There was a sudden hush in the arena, everyone rendered completely speechless, and then the boy started doing crazy stunts on that Firebolt of his and the crowd went so wild, Blaise was scared they where going to bring the stands down.
Honestly though, the Slytherin barely noticed Potter’s flying acrobatics, he was still stuck on the Summoning Charm. A broomstick. From the castle. His mother, who was regarded as a magical powerhouse in her own right, had difficulty with summoning things from the next room! Most people couldn’t summon a feather without eye contact, never mind a heavy magical object! And most Hogwarts age kids could barely perform that Charm because it required so much power!
The Task ended with Potter getting the egg with few problems, the judges gave their ridiculous points (as if he deserved anything other than full points…), and the Slytherins went back to the castle, most chattering about Potter’s flying performance instead of his unprecedented magical feat. Blaise wasn’t surprised: he had long understood that ‘ambition’ and ‘cunning’, their House’s most revered traits, where in no way connected to ‘intelligence’ or ‘smartness’. Thankfully, Blaise had both in abundance and when the Yule Ball was announced the next week, he knew exactly who he was going to ask for a date.