So it turns out I'd gotten myself a Slytherin fan and I couldn't be more embarrassed.
It all started at breakfast, the Monday before the first task was to take place. I was on a high after having a late night session practicing a Transfiguration spell with Chen in an empty classroom he'd located for us.
He'd been very intimate, unnecessarily pressing himself up behind me as his hand guided me through the wand movements; whispering the incantations huskily in my ear.
"Behave," he had chuckled, as I kept twisting around to pepper light kisses along his firm jawline. "I'm trying to teach you life saving techniques here."
But he had tasted so good and smelt so fine that I couldn't resist. In the end, neither could he, and he pulled me in for a slow sensual kiss, one that got heated very quickly.
"Damn, Diggory," Chen had groaned hoarsely after he pulled his lips from mine. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a damn fine kisser?"
"Nope," I confessed, looking up at him coyly through my lashes. "No one's ever had the pleasure of these lips before."
"A kissing virgin, huh?" he said with twinkling eyes as he tucked my hair behind my ears and softly brushed his lips against mine, "well I'm glad I could be your first."
"Earth to Cece!" Hannah called, waving her hand in front of my face. "You haven't touched your porridge!"
"I'm not hungry," I sighed dreamily, glancing over at the Ravenclaw table from where Chen had just thrown me a roguish wink as he bit into a piece of toast.
"Leave her be," Susan giggled, following my gaze, "she's in love."
"Ugh, you're so lucky." Hannah sulked, tossing her own toast aside. "He's so gorgeous. What I wouldn't do to find myself in an empty classroom alone with him."
"Stop Hannah, he's Cece's now," Susan giggled again as she looked at me slyly. "Isn't he?"
"I guess," I shrugged, trying to hide the blush rising to my cheeks. "I mean, he did say that he likes me a lot and wants to hang out more often."
"GIRL, THAT MEANS HE TOTALLY WANTS YOU TO HAVE HIS BABIES!" Hannah squealed at the top of her voice.
"Ew," I said, wrinkling my nose in disgust at the idea of children. "Quit trying to kill my buzz, Hannah."
"Yeah, Hannah," Susan agreed, shaking her head in disappointment, "I mean, at least talk weddings first."
As Hannah and Susan bickered about my love life, I found my eyes drifting over to the Slytherin table where there was something definitely strange going on about them that morning. I couldn't quite put my finger on it at first, but it didn't take long to click that they were all wearing some sort of vulgar looking badge on the front their robes.
Ugh, didn't they know badges were so nineteen ninety two? Good god, someone needed to give those Slytherins a lesson in fashion before they all got arrested.
Rolling my eyes, I decided to abandon my breakfast and make my way to my first class, the butterflies in my stomach from thinking about Chen leaving me without an appetite.
Harry caught up with me on my way out, asking if I wanted to walk with him seeing as we had Herbology together.
"Sure," I shrugged my shoulders. "Why not?"
As we walked in silence out into the grounds, I could feel Harry's eyes on me as if he wanted to say something but couldn't quite garner the courage.
Getting fed up with the uneasy silence, I halted by a tree and whirled round to face him.
"What is it, Harry?" I asked, wondering if he was going to ask my advice on what spot cream to use.
"Dragons."
"Dragons?" I repeated, looking back over my shoulder as though expecting to see something big and fiery behind me.
"It's the first task, he explained, rubbing the back of his neck, "you have to face one, you see, and all the other champions know except you."
"What?" I spluttered, feeling the first risings of panic. "How am I supposed to prepare for this? The task is only three days away!"
"Soz," Harry shrugged. "I only found out about it two weeks ago myself."
"And you only thought to tell me about it now? What happened to champions needing to stick together?"
"I've been really busy!" Harry whined. "I didn't want to face a dragon unprepared; that would just be pure idiocy."
"Excuse me?" Since when did Harry Potter start using such sophisticated language?
"Ron's got Word of the Day toilet paper." Harry explained as he gave his glasses a little lift off his nose. "It's really good, you should get some."
"My vocabulary is more than exemplary, thank you very much," I retorted, puffing my chest out. "And anyway, I thought he wasn't talking to you?"
"Which is exactly why I'm stealing his toilet paper!" Harry bristled; anger flashing in his green eyes. "The stupid git will now never know that he's the exact definition of idiocy!"
"Why so tense, Potter?"
Both Harry and I jumped at the voice that seemed to be coming from above us.
I looked up to see Draco Malfoy lounging up among the branches of the tree next to us, watching us with glee.
"Like the badges I made?" He smirked, jumping down and landing directly in front of us.
I squinted down at the lurid coloured eyesore he was pointing to so proudly upon his chest, and almost immediately recoiled in horror.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS MY FACE DOING ON THAT THING?"
It was disgusting. Not only was I placed on a background of bright red and fluorescent yellow stripes, but in the photo he had used of me, my hair was fucking windswept.
And every single Slytherin was wearing one.
"Language, Diggory," Draco drawled, his pale eyes glinting wickedly into mine. "It's to show our support for the real Hogwarts champion. Look."
He pressed his finger against the badge and my face thankfully disappeared to be replaced by a toxic green colour, sporting the words 'Potter Stinks' in bright red letters.
"Good, aren't they?" Draco smirked, oddly proud of the fact that he'd clearly got some kind of unhealthy obsessive disorder. "I've got some more in my bag if you want one?"
Draco looked at us expectantly as Harry and I stood side by side with our mouths hanging open.
"You could have used a better fucking picture!" I spat, wondering frantically how I was going to collect them all up before anyone else could see them.
Draco's face fell slightly.
"I like it," he muttered, sounding less sure of himself now. "It was taken when you played against Ravenclaw last year."
Well that explained the hair then.
A horrifying thought struck me. I grabbed the front of Draco's robes and pulled him violently towards me.
"Tell me you didn't give any to the Ravenclaws!" I demanded, pushing my face right up in his, close enough to smell the peppermint on his breath.
"I uh- maybe, I don't know," Draco shrugged, a pink tinge rising to his pale face, "Crabbe and Goyle might've-"
"Oh my god, my life is ruined!" I wailed dramatically, letting go of Draco to wring my hands through my hair.
Dragons and a permanent bad hair day thanks to Draco fucking Malfoy. I was having a seriously shit day.
"Uh- Cecilia," Harry said looking down anxiously at his watch. "I think we ought to get to the greenhouse before we're late-"
"Oh shut it, Potter," Draco sneered, getting his mojo back. "Only you'd be a cry baby about being late for class. How do you think you're going to last in the tournament? Father and I have a bet you see. I don't think you're gonna last ten minutes. He disagrees. He thinks you won't last five."
"I don't give a damn about what you or your father thinks Malfoy," Harry scoffed, his face twisting in anger. "He's vile and cruel, and you're just pathetic."
He tossed his head in the air and wheeled on the spot, beginning to flounce away.
"Nobody talks about my father like that," Draco snarled before angrily removing his wand and pointing it at Harry's retreating back.
A loud bang later and Draco had disappeared; a small white trembling ferret standing in his place.
"Hey, what do you know?" I smirked, blowing the tip of my wand before replacing it back in my pocket. "Those extra Transfiguration lessons with Chen are really paying off."
It was definitely worth the weeks' worth of detentions Professor McGonagall later issued me with.
*******