Butterflies || Draco Malfoy

|5| THE ASHWINDER EGGS

Clara's plan for the day of the first task of the Triwizard Tournament was quite simple—she'd wait until everyone was occupied with the events at the arena and then settle down in the completely peaceful and deserted Hufflepuff common room, catching up on some of the many overdue homework assignments she had left to hand in by Christmas before she could be guaranteed certain fails. However, that plan was completely ruined when the twins somehow managed to catch her at breakfast and drag her outside directly from there.

"You're gonna love it," Fred assured her as he hauled her along by her arm.

"Best entertainment of the year," George added, holding up a box which he'd fixed around his neck, "and we're gonna be making a profit. It's a win-win scenario!"

Then they proceeded to drag her into the arena stands like a little pet. While George went along one of the lower stands, taking in bets for the 4 champions, Fred was still holding her arm as he made his way along the top.

"Step up folks! Who fancies a flutter in today's bloodbath?" Fred called out.

"Smart money's on Krum to survive," George continued. "Any bets?"

Fred turned around to her briefly and smiled. "Having fun yet, Davies?"

Before she could even remotely think to respond, there was a loud explosion as a canon went off from the tent attached to the arena. The crowd instantly went wild, cheering so loudly that it made Clara's ears ring.

Now that the event had started and the first dragon was released into the arena, George rejoined her and Fred so that she was squished into a narrow space between Fred and Ginny Weasley. Clara wasn't exactly sure how she felt about Ginny, since she was probably the most distant from her out of the entire family. They rarely even held any form of conversations between each other.

"Barbaric, isn't it?" Hermione Granger squeezed through to stand between her and Ginny. "This tournament is anything but peaceful entertainment, wouldn't you agree?"

Somewhat nervously, Clara nodded in agreement.

"Placing any bets, Granger?" George rattled his box eagerly.

Hermione shook her head disapprovingly. "And you can honestly say you find nothing wrong morally with making a profit off the wellbeing of your fellow classmates?" The twins shrugged simultaneously.

With a disappointed sigh, she suddenly held her hand out in front of her and, when Clara glanced up, she realised she was smiling straight at her. "Hermione Granger."

Clara hesitantly shook her hand, and only made very brief eye contact with her. "Clara Davies," she murmured.

"Of course, aren't you the one who spilled that water all over Draco Malfoy the other day?" An embarrassed colour coming to her cheeks, Clara nodded. "That was rather brilliant. I would've done so myself if you hadn't beaten me to it. Oh look, there's Cedric."

The crowd roared once more as Cedric Diggory entered the arena. Honestly, the tournament wasn't the type of entertainment she found, well . . . entertaining. She had no desire to watch people risk their lives battling dragons unnecessarily.

Cedric Diggory's tactic seemed to be to distract his dragon by transfiguring a nearby boulder into a dog. It worked in his favour at first, until the dragon eventually lost interest in the puppy and gained interest in him. Clara found herself looking away as the dragon breathed out a huff of orange flames, the heat of which she felt even from where she was spectating.

However, her eyes instead locked onto Malfoy, who was stood just a few spaces below them. He had an arm over Astoria's shoulders as they both laughed, finding Cedric's near death experience positively entertaining. In their defence, so did everyone else.