Gold Blood - Cedric Diggory

Chapter 4 ➵

I walked through the courtyard, heading toward Potions class when I noticed Oliver leave his friends and head towards me from the side of the giant oak tree that completed the beautiful garden area where a lot of Hufflepuff and Slytherin students would socialize.

"You're not going to try recruiting me again are you?" I grinned as he lightly jogged to my side and joined my pace.

"I don't think that's how it works, I mean, you'd be my opposition, right?" Oliver furrowed his brows as he walked next to me, my books clutched close to my chest and my eyes fixed to the ground as my smile grew.

"Ah, now I see what you're doing..." I stopped walking, Oliver following my lead as I looked up to him to meet a confused frown; "Get the inexperienced ones to join the opposite team so that Gryffindor win" I hummed, smirking to hide a grin behind my face "Very clever".

Oliver let out a small laugh, nodding his head at me; "That's not a bad tactic actually. Maybe you're smarter than I thought, Via"

"Well now I don't know whether to be offended" I let my grin fall through my lips without even thinking about it; "So, what do you really want, Wood?"

"Erm, well actually, I was wondering if you'd change your mind about coming to practice" Oliver said a little awkwardly; "Sounds stupid but it would really help me out. All the kids are scared to join the team, I figured if they saw a third year playing for the first time it might encourage them" He shrugged.

I sighed but my smile stayed; "You aren't going to let up, are you?"

Oliver pursed his lips and shook his head softly, hopefully.

I gave in reluctantly; "Fine, I'll do it, but just to help you out... and I'm not wearing that stupid uniform... and you owe me, okay?"

"It's a deal, Greystone" Oliver tried to keep his cool, licking his lip into a smirk and stuck his hand out the same as he had a few days previous, this time to seal in my word.

I took it and shook once, a proper gentleman's deal; "I'm riveting with excitement" I rolled my eyes playfully as I released Oliver's hand, his fingertips lingering and stroking over mine as I carried on through the courtyard, looking back once to see him still stood there watching as I walked away.

I turned back and was slammed into shock as I caught the Hufflepuff boy I'd kept coming into brief contact with aggressively storming through the archway, his eyebrows cemented together and he was huffing from his nose, fists clenched. My eyes followed him and my books pulled further to my chest when he passed right by me as if I were a ghost, he began to make a beeline for the other side of the yard and as quick as he'd appeared, he was gone.

-

I stood at my usual spot in potions, myself and Neville already noses deep in our books to complete our 'Draught of Peace' concoction. Seamus had already burnt half the pages in his book and had soot up the side of his face. Neville had an aptitude for Herbology so lucky for me he had plenty of Valerian Root to share.

"What are you going to use yours for?" Neville perked up as a silver like vapour emitted from his cauldron.

I smiled at his pot; "I'm not sure yet, maybe I'll give it to Draco" I winked at Neville light-heartedly.

"I don't think anything could help him" Neville grinned back at me "Malfoy doesn't have a peaceful bone in his body"

I scanned the room with a slight squint after adding 7 drops of hellebore to my cauldron; "Hey Neville... where actually is Malfoy?"

Neville snapped his head to where Draco usually stood. Malfoy was dangerously good at potions so to see he was absent was curious to me; especially since I'd been keeping a close eye on him after our altercation.

Neville frowned and shook his head with a light shrug.

"That's strange" I muttered to myself, a beautiful silver smoke rose from my pot and I beamed feeling proud.

"Remember, if you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy sleep, sometimes... irreversible" Snape paced around the room looking down his nose at all the students.

"On second thought, maybe I'll give it to Snape instead" I muttered to Neville who tried to hide his huge smile behind his cauldron.