Deafening cries echoed from the stands around what was usually the Quidditch pitch. Each school encouraged its champion and Hogwarts was divided; the cries therefore varied between Delacour, Krum, Diggory and Potter. Usually, there was just enough room to accommodate the Hogwarts students, so the Ministry had installed one more floor above the original stands. It would be difficult to find a place in the happy chaos that had settled in the stadium.
And, Meli was late.
It was her fault, really. She knew she was always late and yet, decided to stay behind when Jane had left early to see Diggory before the first task. And now, she was running towards the pitch, breathless. She had just ran ten minutes in the hallways of the school and halfway to where the cheers and chants were coming from.
Meli finally reached the wooden stairs that led to the Slytherin stands and jumped them two by two. Once at the top, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Louis was standing a few meters front with a middle-aged woman. The witch had a hand on the boy's shoulder and was talking to him. Louis looked tense, back straight and staring just over the woman's shoulder. She was barely taller than him, with long black hair that reached the middle of her back. When she turned her head slightly, Meli saw her face more clearly and was shocked. The ressemblance with Louis was incredible; the same nose, the same jawline, the same eyes. The witch, who was obviously related to Louis, said a last thing and left to disappear into the crowd of students.
Meli had been observing the woman and when she turned back to Louis, he was looking at her. During the quarter of seconds before he realized she was staring back at him, the sadness in the boy's eyes was obvious. But then, he turned around and walked to the Gryffindor students were sitting.
It wasn't her business. That's what Meli told herself as she made her way to where Jane was. The girl didn't seem relaxed, entwining her fingers but once she saw her friends, she smiled and waved at her. Meli reached her and sat down beside her.
"You look like you learned some really, really bad news. Tell me." she said, nudging Jane in the arm.
"Dragons. They have to fight fucking dragons." Jane said through gritted teeth.
Meli repressed a smile. She wasn't the one with a boyfriend competing and her friend was worried. She would think about how it was kind of funny to make kids fight dragons later.
"He told you that?" she asked.
Jane nodded and proceeded to explain what had happened in the champion's tent. She was almost done with the story when someone touched Meli's shoulder. She turned around to find Draco just behind her.
"Hey, I've been looking for you two everywh-" the boy started. He stopped talking when he saw Jane's face. "Why does she look like that?"
"I have been asking that question for years." Meli fake-whispered. She was trying to relax Jane and managed to make her smile.
"It's dragons. That's the first task." said Blaise's voice from the other side of their little group. He slumped down next to Jane. "Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?"
"How do you know?" asked Draco, frowning.
They all ignored him.
Jane took Blaise's hand. "They'll be fine, don't worry." She didn't mention who was the second person who'll be fine but they all knew. Well, Draco didn't but apart from that, they all knew.
"Weren't you the one so worried you were as white ad Draco in his ferret alter ego a minute ago?" Meli asked, ignoring Draco again who had scoffed this time.
Jane bit her lips. "I'm still worried. Extremely. But I know Cedric can do it. And I will beat the living shit out of him if he gets hurt."
"I think that would be counter productive." Blaise pointed out. Meli made a 'shush' sign to him.
On the opposite side of the pitch, Dumbledore stood up and raised his wand. Like a wave starting from him, people went silent, waiting to see what he would say.
Placing the tip of his wand to his throat, the Headmaster called for attention. "Silence, everyone! I welcome you all to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Today, our champions will have to face a beast that is both magnificent and terribly dangerous and retrieve it's egg. Ladies and gentlemen... Dragons!"
Cheers exploded in the stade with only a small dose of worried whispers. Around Meli, Slytherins were yelling and applauding.
"And for starters, we have one of Hogwarts champions; Cedric Diggory, who will face the Swedish Short-Snout!" finished Dumbledore.
Jane stood up and screamed louder than anyone around them, making Meli wince. All trace of apprehension was gone from the brunette who was now only invested in her boyfriend coming from a door under the stands. The Hufflepuff looked towards the Slytherins and smiled when he spotted the yellow of his scarf at Jane's neck in the tide of green.
He blew her a kiss from the rock on which he was standing, making a part of the crowd go 'awww', and brought his attention back on the ground before him.
In the center of the rock-covered pitch was the large golden egg Dumbledore had mentioned. Diggory spotted it and made his way to it by jumping from rocks to rocks. He advanced slowly, looking cautiously around in search of the promised dragon. Only a few meters later, it jumped from where it was hiding. Strangely, nobody could say where it had come from. It's tail had to be approximatively ten meters long with a thin and agile body which undulated dangerously. The entire beast was covered with silvery blue scales that glistened under the few rays of Sun that escaped from among the clouds.
Diggory was frozen under the Dragon's stare and time seemed to stop. The entire crowd held it's breath as the creature lowered it's head to face the boy. It inhaled and Diggory ducked.
After that, it was all a blur to Meli. Diggory got hurt and at some point and then he changed a rock into a dog. But in the end, he got to the egg and students from all three schools cheered. Even if this was a competition, stealing a Dragon's possession was not easy and doing it deserved praises.
Then came Fleur Delacour, Victor Krum and Harry Potter. Meli's competitive side took the upper hand when Potter's turn came and it brought her back to reality. She knew Delacour did pretty well, same as Krum. Now they were all about to see if a fourth year could do as good as the three others.
Potter faced the dragon, summoned his broom, showed off to everybody before leaving them all to wonder if he was even still alive for a good ten minutes. Then, he flew back in the stade, no dragon behind him, and snatched the egg from it's nest, causing exclamations to burst for the fourth time among the students.
This time, however, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were clearly reculant. They probably thought Potter wouldn't be a real threat since he was younger and were surprised to see him even finish the task.
Meli told herself with a smile that they didn't know yet how incredibly and suspiciously lucky Harry Potter always was.
After that, students began to pour out of the stands in a giant mess, talking with enthousiasme about the events of first task. From the left of the crowd, screams and applauses started and soon, Meli understood why. The champions had left the stadium with their golden eggs and were now rejoining their friends and classmates. Meli saw Delacour run into the arms of a small girl that must've been her sister from how similar they looked. Krum joined a group of boy that all slapped him on the back with Karkaroff not far behind. Potter joined a happy bunch of Gryffindor that all hugged him and Meli couldn't hep but notice how Weasley wasn't there.
Finally, Diggory was trying to make his way through the crowd that kept wanting to felicitate him. When he got to Meli, Jane, Draco and Blaise, his smile went even bigger. Jane ran to him and they kissed under screams, laughs and whistles.
Meli grinned at the sight of Jane talking to Diggory, foreheads joined. She turned to her two other friends and laughed when she saw Draco's expression. He looked like an older brother, frowning like he wanted to intervene but knew he didn't have the authority.
"Come on ferret, leave the two alone." She took his arm and dragged him away.
"Don't call me ferret." he said, trying to look over his shoulder.
"You need to accept this part of you, Draco." Meli explained with exaggerated hands movements. "Embrace your inner ferret!"
Draco finally stopped trying to see Jane and Diggory and looked down at her. He wasn't much taller than Meli but still had to lean his a bit to talk to her. He smiled and shook his head before turning to face the castle.
They walked in the slowly dissolving crowd and to Meli's surprise, Draco didn't seem to notice Blaise's absence.
A small distance in front of them, she noticed Louis, walking alone. He turned his head, like searching someone and met her eyes. He turned back front quickly.
When an arm sneaked around her waist, Meli realized that Draco had seen Louis too. And even if he had decided to bring her closer only because of the Gryffindor boy, butterflies still took place in Meli's stomach.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is it 1 in the morning? Yes. Should i be sleeping? Probably. Will i? No.
Hope you enjoyed,
Laeti