A Woman Of Ice

CVI- Reckless And Alone

Six Days Later

The time for the first task of the Triwizard Tournament was nearing, and Draco Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins were, of course, passing around buttons to humiliate Harry. Pansy Parkinson, and a lot of the female Slytherin students, were passing out buttons that ridiculed Diana as well. Surprisingly, less people accepted a button than didn't. Diana Black was actually surprised that less than half of the school hated her; even having half of a house on her side seemed like a stretch. Diana, being temporarily suspended, had found all of this out from a visit with Harry Potter himself.
  "I really am surprised that more people like or respect me than hate me," Diana noted, sipping her coffee.
  "I'm not," Harry said. "They should respect and like you."
  "Harry, don't lie, I don't deserve anyone's respect," she sighed.
  "Mind if I get a sip of that coffee?" Harry Potter asked.
  Diana chuckled. "Trust me, you don't want any of this coffee."
"I can handle black coffee, Diana," Harry assured her.  
  She shook her head. "That's not why this coffee's dark, brother."
  "Oh no," Harry realized. "Promise you won't do anything stupid like this before the tasks."
  Diana raised an eyebrow. "Like what?" she asked. "Me?"
  He nodded. "Something like that."
  "Yeah. I figured," Diana nodded more sadly.
  "I came here to tell you.... Hagrid wants both of us to meet him in the forest tonight; invisible once he tells us to," Harry explained.
  "Okay, shouldn't be a problem. Do you have any idea why?" Diana asked.
  "No," he shook his head. "Just that it's something extremely important."
  "Got it," Diana nodded. "What time?"
  "Nine."
  "It's at ten, isn't it?" Diana knew.
  "Yeah. I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't be late. Can't afford you being, well, you at such a critical time, right?" Harry asked.
  "You don't give me enough credit. I can get myself together just fine, I just choose not to. You know.... I feel like this might have something to do with the first task," Diana thought aloud.
  "You think?" Harry wondered.
  "Who knows? It's Hagrid," Diana rationalized. 
  "Yeah. Right," he chuckled. "Diana.... can I ask you something?"
  "Go ahead," Diana shrugged.
  "How do you deal with all the hate directed towards you?" Harry Potter asked curiously.
  "This is about the whole Tournament  thing," Diana knew. "Unfortunately, brother.... I don't think the answer I have to give you is going to help very much."
  "Why's that?" Harry asked, both confused and worried about the answer.
  "Well, the real reason why nothing anyone says about or to me seems to hurt me is because.... I've never heard anything that I haven't thought myself a million times before," Diana responded reluctantly.
  "That's no way to live," Harry argued.
  "No," Diana agreed quietly. "But it's a great way not to get hurt. But I'd rather you not go down the same path. There's still hope for you, Harry."

****

The siblings both walked the halls of Hogwarts the next morning, the day of the First Task. Harry was quite uneasy about Diana, which he had been for the past few years. She was growing more and more unpredictable lately, as well as more reckless and carefree than she already was. Diana had always been reckless and alone.
  "Diana, are you sober?" Harry asked nervously.
  "Yes, brother, I'm as sober as can be. I'm not as stupid as you think I am," Diana groaned. "Have a little faith."
  "You always said faith is for the hopeless," Harry argued.
  "Well," Diana sighed. "I just told you to have faith in me, didn't I?"

****

Diana Black was waiting in the Champions' tent, bored and irritable. She stood beside a silent Viktor Krum, equally silent, waiting for her turn at a dragon. She took a long sip of water out of the beautiful Celestial bronze flask that  Luke Castellan had left with her. She always carried it around, no matter what liquid she'd decided to put in it, and refused to drink from anything else but bottles. Her existence had recently become much more independent of things like people, and love, yet more dependent upon specific self-destructive routines. She had no idea how her task would go; the crowd was loving Harry, she could hear. She hadn't bothered to watch him. He came into the tent, looking happy and satisfied with himself, until he saw Diana.
  "Diana! Drinking? Now? Seriously?!" he whispered, pulling her away from everyone.
  "Relax," Diana snapped lazily, pushing the flask at Harry's chest once her name was called. "It's water."