Dad did come and have words with Dumbledore, but he was less angry than I thought he would be, and the confrontation was in privacy. He was more on the concerned side that Harry had been entered at all, less so concerned about his competing. He told me how he voiced his concerns about Moody to Dumbledore too, mentioning the break in and Remus getting attacked. Dad had faith that Harry would do fine in the tournament. I got to see him for a little bit while he was here, which was nice. He asked me to look out for Harry and help him, which I reassured him that I would do.
Fake Moody is sadly still around. I've tried breaking into his office a few more times, but got caught by him on one of the last attempts. He at least just thought I was trying to prank him, so he only gave me detention, but it could have been worse. He was pointing his wand at me and everything, and as good as I think I am, I might not actually win in a duel with him.
Unsurprisingly, the whole school minus Gryffindor was against Harry, and by extension of him, all of Gryffindor. I was a nice exception with my friends at least, we all held a good natured attitude about Harry having 'stolen Cedric's thunder'. Adrian had some snide comments to make, but none of them had any real venom to them, and I still slapped him upside the head a few times to get him to shut it.
Draco's buttons started to circulate that said to 'Support Cedric Diggory' and 'Potter Stinks'. I found them rude, but honestly cleverer than anything Draco has done before, so I had to give him props for at least using his brain.
"Draco." I smirk at the young boy who's hanging out with Blaise and some other friends in the courtyard in between classes.
"Hello cousin, come to get a pin? I know you're best mates with Diggory, might as well support him over the false champion." Draco says proudly.
"I don't have to wear a button to support either of them, but I must say, clever design on the switching buttons. You're finally using your brain for once! Even if it is still to be a prat, at least you're being clever." I say cheerily as I ruffle his hair. "Of course, at the end of the day, we just want one of them to win, since it will be a Hogwarts victory that way."
"Are you seriously going to root for both?" He asks in disbelief.
"Of course I am, I'm not going to play favorites between my best friend and my god-brother. I'm going to prank them both equally." I say confidently.
"Support them both equally?" He corrects me on reflex, then realizes my arrogant smirk. "Oh good one, let Potter suffer a little bit. Do his head some good to be taken down a notch."
"Your little buttons are certainly doing that just fine." I say, poking his button and making it switch back to the Cedric part. "Don't be too in his face about this now, he may end up being your champion winner, I'm sure you wouldn't want to end up having to eat your words, now would you?" I smile predatorily at him and he groans.
"Fine, I won't go 'out of my way' to taunt him. I'll only do it when I see him." He compromises.
"Well, can't ask for miracles, so I'll take what I can get. A shame you two aren't friends, but then again, your rivalry does entertain me endlessly." I smile at him and he scoffs at the friends part.
"So glad I could entertain you, cousin." He grumbles out and I wrap him in a hug. He complains loudly because he's surrounded by all his friends, but I don't care and I know he secretly likes them.
I walk away to join Alicia and Angelina who are studying together on the other side of the courtyard when the dozen or so Durmstrang students walk past. It's the first time I've taken a real look at them, and it's easier since they aren't in those oversized fur cloaks anymore. I spot one in the crowd of them who makes me do a double take.
"Target locked." I say confidently, drawing the girl's attention.
"What?" They both ask in confusion, following my line of sight and then grinning at me in realization.
"He's gorgeous." Angelina says quietly.
"What are you going to do, Abby?" Alicia giggles out. "You're not allowed to date, right?"
"Oh I'm going to date that boy." I say confidently, standing up.
"You can't just go over there and make him date you." Angelina says challengingly.
"I'm Abigail Black, there's nothing I can't do. Now, excuse me ladies." I say proudly, winking at them as I puff up just like Dad does when he gets cocky about a woman.
I walk over to the Durmstrang students, letting my pace be laid back and confident, the Black family charm oozing off me as I approach the group, coming to a stop in front of my target.
"Hello, my name is Abigail Black, welcome to Hogwarts. May I get your name?" I ask smoothly with a smile.
"Alexei Orlov." The boy responds back with a soft smile. "It is an honor to meet you." He adds on. He's tall and broad shouldered, and has dark green eyes and medium length dark blonde hair. His face is sculpted and strong with a wide jaw. His accent is heavy, but I can tell it's Russian and a hint of something else.
And just like that, with his one sentence, I remember my great weakness to Russian accents.
"How are you liking it here so far?" I ask casually as I fall into step with him, his classmates all stepping back a bit to allow me to walk with him, the boys not so subtly smirking at him and the girls sending me shock filled glares. Viktor isn't here with them now, probably in the library stalking Hermione already.
"This castle is beautiful." He replies honestly, looking around it. "And each time I come in here for classes, I find something more beautiful." He says this line looking directly at me, and I smile warmly at him.
"Yes, it does get better and better looking each time. Even now, after 6 years, it just got a little bit better looking." I say charmingly with a wink, and he grins at me.
"Are you busy? I would love a tour of your school." He asks me genuinely.
"Sure, I'm going for a walk through it now." I say with a smirk. "Can you hold this for me?" I hold out my free hand to him, looking distracted with my bookbag in my other hand. I spent the better part of a year doing cheesy pick up lines with Roger, I couldn't resist using one now.
"But of course." Alexei says confidently with a chuckle, taking my small hand with his large one. He says something to his classmates in a way of parting, and I throw a smirk to my friends who I knew were watching this whole time, and they both erupted in giggles from the other side of the courtyard and threw me a thumbs up.
I took Alexei all around the school, showing him all the points of interest and asking him questions about his school. It was evidently much smaller than ours, and surrounded by mountains and snow.
"I quite like to ski, there's not many places to do that here, but I guess you could do that any time at your school." I observe towards the end of our tour, which brought us back to the Great Hall since it's almost dinner time now. We still held hands as we walked through the whole school, and towards the end of the tour his thumb started to caress the back of my hand.
"It is one of my favorite hobbies, if I'm not playing quidditch." He admits.
"What position do you play?" I ask, leading him towards my table in the hall and he follows casually. I spot the twins staring open mouthed at me and I send them a wink, and a subtly message to the girls for them to keep the twins away.
"Beater." He says proudly. "I realize most everyone here talks about Viktor, which is understandable since he plays professionally."
"My two best friends are my house's beaters, I quite like that position." I wink at him and he grins roguishly. "I play as an alternate here, but sadly don't have the free time to join the team." I admit to him, and we launch into a full conversation about the sport while we eat.
It seems like an unspoken rule was established at our table for no one to come and interrupt us since the immediate seats around us stayed empty our whole meal. We finished and he stood and offered me his arm, which I looped mine through and allowed him to lead us out of the hall.
"May I escort you to your dormitory?" He asks shyly.
"You may, do you remember the way?" I ask to be sure, smiling softly at him.
"If not, I do not mind being lost in here with you." He says smoothly with his deep voice, and I feel myself get a blush at his line. I am always weak against Russian accents, and adding on top of it a cute interesting guy and a smooth line, he's doing very well in his task currently. I let him lead me upwards, thankfully he remembers the direct route to get to Gryffindor common room so we don't actually get lost, not that I would.
"I had a wonderful day with you, Alexei." I say genuinely, standing in front of the Fat Lady and turning to face him.
"And I with you." He takes a step closer as he looks down into my eyes. "Abigail, would you do me the honor of seeing me again?"
"It would be my pleasure." I reply, leaning closer as well as he holds both my hands.
"Tomorrow then, I shall meet you for breakfast." He says confidently, his voice barely above a whisper. He leans down and places a soft lingering kiss on my cheek before standing back up to his full height. "Sleep well, Ms. Abigail." He parts and heads back to his ship, and I turn around, pink cheeked and face the portrait.
"Balderdash." I say the password to her.
"Ducky, good job on that one, my goodness!" The Fat Lady squeals out like a school girl, evidently having just watched us with rapt attention. "Bring him around any time you want!" She calls out as she swings the door open and I climb in laughing.
Not two minutes later, the twins and the girls walk into the common room and join me at the couch by the fire.
"Who?" Fred asks grumpily.
"When?" George adds on, equally disgruntled.
"Why?" I counter sweetly, and they both glare at me as I break into a laugh. "His name's Alexei Orlov. He's wonderful, he plays as a beater for his classes quidditch team, he has a younger sister, his mother is a model from Russia and his father is a wizard from Norway who works for their ministry. He likes to ski, and he is one of his school's top duelist." I report off most of what I remember about him. "At least, that's what I remember him saying. I really wasn't listening all the time." I add to the girls who both collapse into a fit of giggles while the twins gag.
"He looks like a prat." Fred says unhappily, and I smack the back of his head.
"You think any boy who talks to me looks like a prat. I get that you're protective, but leave it alone, the act is getting old, you two." I say sternly to the twins, who look sheepishly down to the ground. "You have to let some boys date me occasionally. You can keep the drooling creeps away from me though, you've done a great job at that." I compliment them, knowing they have done that over the years.
"Sorry, it's just, you're pretty much our triplet, we've gotta look out for you. Besides, we want you with-" George starts to say something else, but Fred cuts him off by hitting his head and glaring at him.
"With?" I prompt them to continue, curious on what they were about to say.
"Nothing." They both say, and I glare at them and then sigh when they don't relent. They're entitled to their own secrets, so I let it drop.
The next morning, Alexei did come and sit with me for breakfast before classes, and this time when he kissed my cheek before he left for his classes, it felt like the entire hall was staring at me. He had asked me to meet him for a walk this evening, and I agreed before heading to class.
"So, who's your new friend?" Roger asks me on the way down to Herbology.
"Alexei." I respond with a smile.
"Thought you weren't allowed to date?" He smirks at me. "Part of the reason why I couldn't have this fair maiden's hand." He playfully twirls his hand towards me, making me laugh.
"I said I wasn't allowed to date anyone underage. He's 18, that's called a loophole, my friend." I say smugly. He roars with laughter at that, and we change topics to the tournament, which is all anyone can talk about these days. To Roger's credit, he isn't necessarily against Harry for it, but he is supporting Cedric since he believes he's the better champion, and I can't necessarily disagree with him. Cedric is older and has had more training and knowledge, he'll generally be the preferred champion.
Ancient Runes was tense later that morning. Adrian was scowling at me and glaring unhappily, and Cedric looked hurt but was trying to cover it up. I stopped Adrian after class, figuring that was the easier of the two conversations to have.
"Adrian." I called out to him and stopped him from leaving, the others both heading down to lunch. Roger mouthed a good luck to me before he left. "I know you're upset."
"Well spotted." He sneers at me. "You said you couldn't date."
"While we're technically not dating yet, Alexei is old enough to not be included within the rule. Besides, he's only here for the year, and I never said I wouldn't date other people, you just assumed that." I counter back delicately.
"I just figured my only competition was Diggory, and I knew I could beat out that pretty boy." He scoffs out, but with less venom as he sighs out.
"Oh he wasn't your only competition." I smirk at him, thinking of a certain redheaded dragon tamer ,but grimace with guilt at the thought of him. "But seriously, don't let me hold you back. Date others, live your normal teenage life." I add sincerely.
"You make it hard to stay mad at you, you know that?" He complains lightly though a smile is forming on his face. "Just yet another reason why you're the best." He smirks more arrogantly at that part, which I match with a smirk of my own.
"I do love to hear you admit that, my loyal subject." I grin at him as we head to lunch, were I wave at Alexei who is eating with his classmates at the Slytherin table. He waves back to me with a smile, and I go and join Harry for lunch.
"Tonight, you need to practice with Ron and Hermione to do your summoning spells. Maybe a change of scenery will help you get it better." I say to the boy as I sit down.
"Why aren't I practicing with you?" Harry asks worriedly, a hint of desperation in his tone. He's been getting better with the spell, but he could benefit from a different approach which I know Hermione will give.
"I have a thing. You'll be fine, Hermione is great at summoning, just listen to her and I'll help you tomorrow." I reassure him and his face falls. "Stop looking like a kicked puppy, you can do this without me holding your hand." I scold him lightly and he chuckles weakly at me. We eat together for the lunch period before I have to have the conversation I put off earlier.
"Cedric?" I call out to stop the boy from leaving lunch, and go to join his side when he pauses with his friends. He dismisses them, telling him he'll meet them in class as he joins me to the side of the hall to chat, though he isn't looking at me.
"Yes, Abby?" Cedric asks me quietly.
"Are we ok?" I ask him in a straight forward way. "You were avoiding me all last class."
"Yeah, we're fine." He says defiantly, and I just stare stubbornly at him until he talks again. "Ok, I just... Wasn't expecting that. I just thought... now that I'm of age, that you and I could..." He trails off sadly.
"And maybe one day we will." I say softly to him, and he looks at me hopefully. "But I don't know if now is that time. For now, just enjoy being a Hogwarts champion, take a pretty girl to the ball, live your life." I did debate over this for a while, while I know I do like Cedric, I just don't feel like now is a good time to be closer to him, not with my focus being so much on saving his life later this year. I don't want to risk an emotional mistake to happen.
He smiles softly at me in acceptance, then tilts his head in confusion. "Ball?" He asks me, and I blanch. I've been slipping up a lot lately.
"I uh, heard about it from my dad, it's why we have dress robes this year, you know?" I cover smoothly, and he nods in realization.
"That's why Dad got me those." He says with a laugh. "I figured they were maybe for the end of year feast or something, but a ball makes more sense."
"Yeah. Maybe don't mention it though, I think it's supposed to be a surprise." I say to him. "And hey, are you busy Saturday?" I ask him before turning to leave.
"No, don't think so, why?" He asks with a smile.
"I want to help with your training again, if you want." I offer up. I'm also going to tell him about the dragons then, so he has plenty of time to make up his game plan. I'll tell Harry around then too, he should be better with his charm by then. I'm totally set on having him outfly the world class Bulgarian Seeker and beat the dragon that way.
"I wouldn't miss it then, see you later." He says softly, still some sadness in his eyes but also acceptance and happiness.
I'm not oblivious, I know Cedric really cares about me, but I just can't set myself up for that kind of heartbreak if I fail in saving him. I know it's selfish, but I've lost too many people in my lives to really open my heart like that, especially with things not being prevented this year so far.
After dinner I had a very nice walk around the lake with Alexei, getting to know him more. He confessed his dad used to be a dark wizard, but that he reformed himself by the time Alexei's little sister was born, which was around the time that Voldemort vanished. He doesn't speak a whole lot of English, so our conversations were a little broken, but I did learn he was very intelligent and studious, and near the top of all his classes. I told him about my dad and uncle, and how Harry is my god-brother. I was surprised that apparently all the Durmstrang students didn't believe that Harry entered himself. Alexei says it's because they are taught the Dark Arts at their school, so they know how to spot it when it's used.
"Abigail?" Alexei asks me before returning me to my dorms. We spent almost two hours strolling together before it got too cold and we needed to head inside, so he again escorted me to my dorm.
"Yes, Alexei?" I ask him with a smile.
"I... like you, very much." He says, thinking about his words before saying them. "I would like to be with you. Dating. Um, how you say, girl who is friend?"
"You want me to be your girlfriend?" I say happily, helping him finish the sentence.
"Yes." He breathes out in relief he got the right message across.
"I like you too. Yes, Alexei, I will be with you." I say softly, leaning forward as he steps closer too. He closes the rest of the gap between up and captures my lips in a long, delicate kiss before he steps back smiling. The taste of his lips still lingered on mine as I felt a soft smile form on my face, matching the one I can see on his now.
"Good night, Abigail." He says softly before turning away and leaving.
I give the password to the Fat Lady, who I know was watching the whole time. "He is so gorgeous, oh, I just love a good romance in the castle!" She sings out as she opens the door.
I walk in the common room grinning like an idiot, which doesn't go unnoticed. My friends all want to know more, but I just tell them that Alexei and I are together now, and that we kissed, and then I went up to bed early. I switched my personal training this year to be before my lessons, that way my evenings can be dedicated to Harry's training, so I've been going to bed earlier then my friends.