after dusk - draco malfoy

vii | seven

THE FEAST TOOK PLACE AND DESSERT had started but I still hadn't eaten much. I felt sick to my stomach to see Dominique act the way she did. I had never seen her like that, she was usually so kind, caring and compassionate.

My thoughts were broken by Dumbledore addressing the three schools. "I would like to say a few words," he announced before putting his hand on a sculpture beside him. "Eternal glory - that is what awaits the student who wins the Triwizard Tournament. But to do this, that student must survive three tasks - three extremely dangerous tasks."

I knew straight away I didn't want to partake in those tasks if it meant risking my life. My Aunt and Uncle had gone through too much hassle to protect me for me to just throw it away for the potential of said eternal glory. The twins, however, seemed much more interested than I did. "Wicked," they both said in unison at the thought of risking their lives.

I had planned to try to convince them not to enter that night but knew my attempts would fail as once they had their mind set on something, they wouldn't just let the idea go. "For this reason, the Ministry has seen fit to impose a new rule. To explain all this, we have the Head of the Department of International Magical Co-operations, Mr Bartimus Crouch."

I recognised the man from the scene of the Dark Mark incident as he approached the front of the hall from behind the teacher's table and the head of the room. Lightening then sounded around the room as the rain began to fall from the ceiling. It was only for a few moments before someone magically fixed the problem.

Everyone's eyes wandered over to the corner of the room, where a man I recognised to be Alastor Moody, an Auror that Aunt Emma had worked with back in the day. I heard Ron mutter something to Harry about him being 'as mad as a hatter these days' and Aunt Emma had told me the same a couple of years ago.

Dumbledore greeted the man, shaking his hand. It wasn't too long before Mr Crouch started explaining the new rule of the Triwizard Tournament. "After due consideration, the Ministry has concluded that, for their own safety, no student under the age of seventeen should be allowed to put forth their name for the Triwizard Tournament." Mr Crouch had continued to explain the reasoning but was overpowered by the yelling and complaining of students - Fred and George being the main culprits.

It didn't take much more for Dumbledore to yell at everyone to be silent. Once he had gained everyone's attention, he lowered the sculpture beside him with his wand to reveal a large looking goblet - the Goblet of Fire. It immediately alit with a bright blue flame, filling the room with a blue tinge.

"The Goblet of Fire," he introduced the Goblet to us, almost as though it was a human. "Anyone who wishes to submit themselves into the Triwizard Tournament, merely write their name on a piece of parchment and throw it in the flame before this hour on Thursday night. Do not do so lightly. If chosen, there's no turning back. As from this moment, the Triwizard Tournament has begun."

It wasn't much longer before everyone was going to start heading back to the Common Room but I had decided I was going to go up to bed as I hadn't felt like eating much. I stood up and told my friends I was going to bed and made my way out of the Great Hall. As I reached the door, I felt someone grab my wrist.

I spun my head around, slightly startled at first. I soon recognised the person and felt all negative feelings go away. It was Draco. "What happened at the Beauxbatons table? You looked upset," he informed me, worry in his eyes.

I paused for a moment, recalling everything that had happened and how to explain it in the easiest way possible. "Well, ever since I arrived here, I never received any Owls back from them, they would always ignore mine," I started to explain. "They never told me they were coming so I asked them why they never let me know."

Draco shook his head. "Just forget about them," he tried to consolidate me.

"How?" I snapped. "I'm going to be seeing them here every day for the rest of the school year, it's going to be pretty hard to 'just forget about them'." I stopped myself and took a deep breath in. "I'm sorry, I'm tired and I just need to go to bed."

He nodded his head, his hand still on my wrist. He pulled me into a tight hug, ignoring all the people walking past us. I eased against his chest and felt safe again. "If you need to take your mind off of things, you know I'm always here," he muttered into the top of my head, our height difference really showing. I nodded my head in response, not wanting to let him go. "You mean a lot to me and I don't like seeing you upset," he confessed and my heart felt a lot lighter, as though butterflies were flying around in my chest.

I looked up at him and smiled, brightly. "Well the same, obviously, goes to you as well," I told him, watching him beam down at me. I hated the fact I had to leave him soon, as curfew was dawning on us but it is what we had to do.

Poppy, Stella, and Tommy started to head up to the Common Room so I had said goodbye to Draco and made my way up there with them. I could feel myself smiling a little more and Tommy seemed to have noticed. "He makes you happy, doesn't he?" He asked me, to which I nodded. He turned to Poppy and Stella and shook his head. "And you warned her not to get close to him. Look at how it has turned out!"

Poppy snapped her head at Tommy. "For the record, I didn't think he would change for anyone and I was just looking out for a friend," she defended herself but Stella didn't really seem to care what had happened in the past, she always had been that type of person the whole time I had known her.

I smiled at Tommy and shook my head as we reached the Common Room. "But it doesn't matter what happened," I told him. We all took a seat at the couch in front of the fire, all squished up so we could all fit. "All I care about, right now, is that I have better friends than I ever did at Beauxbatons. That is if you guys wouldn't just ignore me if I moved schools."

Stella scrunched up her face, pondering for a moment. "Doesn't seem like too much of a shabby idea to me," she joked, tapping on her chin. I scoffed with a smile on my face, pushing her shoulder back into Tommy who grunted loudly before jumping across us all.

The three of us groaned in pain at the weight of Tommy on top of us, combined with how uncomfortable we were before that, anyway. We all began to wrestle one another until we fell on the floor in front of us and I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt.

People walking in the Common Room were giving us strange looks but I didn't care. I knew I was surrounded by people who genuinely cared about me, at Hogwarts. Hogwarts had been an eye-opener for me. I met people I wouldn't have dreamed of being friends with and now it's something more than friends, in Draco's case.

And I wouldn't change it for the world.