Green Eyed Monster | Draco Malfoy

18. The Second Task

"Meaning?"

"Well," he mumbled, his cheeks flushing slightly. "Cho has disappeared."

"Disappeared?" I repeated, unable to keep the condescension from my voice. It would do the entire world a favour if Cho Chang and her backstabbing little friend Marietta just 'disappeared'.

"Well, I haven't been able to find her and her friends say that professor Flitwick asked to speak to her last night but she never came back. I'm a little worried. I checked the hospital wing, but no one seems to have seen her."

"You'll still have a cheering section," I assured him, unable to stop myself from rolling my eyes so I went to turn away from him. It's not that I didn't enjoy Cedric's company and it's not like I didn't understand what I was saying. But bloody hell, I was obviously freaking out. I was in no mood to help him sort out issues with his pompous, priss of a girlfriend.

"I guess," he mumbled. "How are your friends taking everything?"

"Last night they were wrecks," I shrugged. "I woke up too early to talk to them this morning. I didn't want to see them or have them see me. I can't stand it when people wish me luck, all the while they have this look of pity in their eyes as if they will cheer for me when I win and pretend to mourn for me when I die. Either way they expect the worst but will still say 'I knew you could do it' when it's all ended. I wasn't in the mood to encourage them."

"I have noticed that you hate pity," he nods, keeping up pace with me as I began walking away from the castle for the eighth time that morning. "You know that it's not bad to accept help though, don't you?"

"I'd say that you're a regular psychiatrist and that it doesn't matter, you obviously are helping me without me having to ask." He chuckled at this, stuffing his hands into his robe pockets and watching his feet.

"Well, as long as I'm doing you some good."

"You always seem to," I blushed, looking down to my own feet when I realized that it wasn't as subtle as I'd hoped it would be. I had meant to say it for my benefit and to sound kind to him, but the inflection in my voice had made it pretty clear how I really meant it.

"You don't need to be scared you know, the judges won't let you drown." He said quietly, luckily ignoring what I had said to him and continuing on with something else – not that I liked this conversation any more.

"I still can't swim."

"Why didn't you say anything? I just thought you were afraid of the water," he gasped. "I didn't realize you couldn't swim. I would have taught you..."

"If it all works out like it's supposed to, it's not going to matter." I shrugged, leaving us quiet again for a long time. He looked at me closely; I could feel his eyes wandering for a moment before he spoke.

"What are you doing today, if you don't mind?" I looked at him suspiciously, still not liking that my competition was asking for my strategy, which he seemed to understand. Apparently my Slytherin qualms weren't anything new to this yellow armoured knight. "It's not going to matter either way – I've already decided what I'm doing and I'm not brave enough to try something new and have it fail on me at the last minute. Here, to prove it: I'm doing the bubble-head charm."

He did have a point. If he was going to do something so stupid, I shouldn't really have to consider him competition, he was more like squid-food if he decided to change to my strategy just for the flash of it all. I looked at him warily again, this time trying to gage his reaction to my response, but his eyes were supportive and sweet – a warm grey, like a clouded summers day instead of the cold gray steel I always linked to someone like Malfoy.