What was sleep? Last year Finley kept asking herself that because she never had a night without screaming in fear. She would either wake up by pain, or by something horrific in her dreams, most nights she didn't sleep refusing to see images that would haunt her. And thankfully she recovered from that third year nightmare filled nights of her life, and now the cause of her sleeplessness was her worrying for Harry. She doesn't know what her brother was planning for the tournament, she doesn't how he was going to defeat the dragon. She is afraid for her brother.
Beside her sat her friends, Heart and Blaise on the seats on her sides, Sebastian and Theo on the seats below. Four of whom were very worried at how jittery and nervous Finley was, it was as if she would see Harry in there she would definitely faint.
"Finley, breath," Heart comforted Finley as she wrapped a blue scarf around Finley's neck, they were all in the stands far from the school. The task involving Dragons, they made extra precautions for the safety of everyone. Funny enough that Theo actually asked if the Ministry would have dragons in the tournament, and here they were comforting Finley who was close to the brink of her sanity.
"Harry will be alright," Heart assured. But that didn't help her worry less for Harry? No, in fact she was becoming more worrisome with every growing second that she doesn't see her dear brother. What happened to the days before with Draco, the one where she and Harry spat at each other, she was scared that it was the last thing he was going to remember her by if things didn't go well.
"I need to see him," Finley mutters, rubbing her gloved hands together.
"Finney Bear, you should sit down—"
"No Blaise, I don't want to sit down. I want to see my brother," Finley snapped, she didn't mean to snap and they understood that. Anyone would be scared to face a dragon on their own, who wouldn't be?
"We're only saying is that you need to relax, Potter has Granger helping him. He would be fine," Theo soothes her, trying his best to not grab his wand and body bind her feet to where they were, the shoe tapping was driving him insane.
"I should be helping him too, I'm his sister for Salazar's sake," Finley exclaimed, taking off one of her gloves and biting her nails. Heart swiftly takes her hand and slips on the glove again, a disappointed look in her eyes.
"You just had them done, don't ruin them now," Heart scolds, but it fell on deaf ears.
"Where's the champion's tent—"
"No!" The three except Sebastian exclaimed at Finley, they didn't want her to leave the seat for her benefit too. She couldn't possibly function correctly with three mugs of coffee in her system, it was now explaining why she was a jittering mess.
"The Champion's tents are just down there, the tasks doesn't start until later—"
Before Sebastian could finish, Finley was already running down the steps towards the champions tent. He slowly turned to the remaining three people on the stand with him, feeling the hot glares they were shooting at him. "What?"
"You're a fucking idiot, she would be in an even worst state than she was before," Heart scolds her cousin. She was the one who roomed with Finley, witnessing first hand at how the first task was pushing Finley over the edge, even force feeding her anything couldn't help the jitters down. "She couldn't sleep worrying for Harry."
"So?"
"So what if Harry doesn't have a plan? She's going to cause an uproar!" Heart exclaimed at Sebastian. Blaise and Theo shook their heads, they knew Finley the best and what Heart said was partly right, the girl worries like a mother of twelve. But she wasn't going to cause an uproar.
"You two know what? I'm going to buy myself some pasties," Theo suggested, not wanting to witness another fit of bickers from Heart and Sebastian. After being introduced to them, he had grown quite fond of Heart's love for food as much as he did.
"Can we go check on George and Fred too?" Heart asked hopefully. Theo sighed and nodded, he was fond of her but not for her crush on a Weasley twin.
"Come on then," Theo sighed, helping Heart get down from the stands like a gentleman he was. And this only left Blaise and Sebastian on the seats, not really wanting food at the moment, instead they were going to discuss something Blaise was itching to ask since he learned who Sebastian was.
Turning to the Durmstrang boy, who was cousins with the Beauxbatons girl his best friend was friends with, he inspected the boy thoroughly. He'd seen him walk with her, how he made Finley laugh after what happened with Draco and how the 'blond-self-acclaimed-Slytherin-prince' unconsciously pissed off Finley with those awful pins, Blaise was sure that his best friend would turn to a better man.
Sebastian looked up at Blaise and raised his brows, "What?"
"Finley and I have been best friend since we were eleven, I haven't known you for that long I can tell you only mean well," Blaise began. Sebastian looking straight at him taking the hint. This was clear to him now that he was the older brother figure in their friendship with the Potter girl.
"Do you like her?" Blaise asked, Sebastian narrowing his eyes at him.
"Yes," Sebastian answered without hesitation.
"Straight forward of you to say," Blaise mused not really expecting a straight answer from him. In fact he expected a few seconds of hesitation in Sebastian to pin point a wrong in him but there was none.
"Why? Did you expect a stutter?" Sebastian cracked a grin, hiding the fact that at the moment he found Finley's friend intimidating when it came to her.
"Hoped for it."
For Harry he was nervous beyond wits, pacing in the champions tent like all the other champions. He could see Cedric's sweat dripping down, Fleur biting her lip and pinching her hands, and Viktor zipping and unzipping his Durmstrang themed jersey. The tension in the tent was too heavy for the four of them to feel, it was think enough to slice with a knife.
Re assessing his plans, Harry thought about what he was going to do and hopefully it saves him from being barbecued to death. He leaned on the tent subtly, sighing, trying to keep his breathing in check. He should relax, Dumbledore wouldn't allow him to die in this tournament. Right?
"Psst, psst." Harry looked around, checking if the other champions were calling to him, but they weren't, they were all still pacing nervously.
He looked towards the tent's walls and saw a subtle movement, he leaned on it even more and made contact with someone outside.
"Harry is that you?" A familiar voice said, it relaxed him a bit.
"Yeah," he manages to say, his voice a little hoarse as he hasn't been speaking so much since the day of the first task started.
"How are you feeling?" The voice asked, he could definitely tell that the voice was in the brink of tears. "Okay?"
Harry nods, even if the person on the other side can't see him do so.
"You only need to concentrate, I don't know what you're planning to do but I do have faith in you. And all you have to do is—"
"Battle a dragon," he finishes. He heard a whimper and in an instant, he was incased by a familiar set of arms around his neck hugging him as if it was their last hug. Planning to relish in this long lasting warm hug his sister was giving him, but it was cut short by the sound of a flash.
"Ah, how sweet," a disgustingly sweet voice gasped, both Potters blinked to get their blurred vision back. "Sibling love, how stirring."
Finley glares at the woman who came in, gripping her wand that was in her pocket this whole time. And she thought Colin Creevey taking pictures was annoying, this woman and her stupid quill pen was a whole other universe of annoyance.
"If everything goes unfortunately today, you two may even make the front page—"
Before the woman could turn to her quill to write what she had just said, the quill itself bursted into flames. The woman was shocked at her paper and quill now turned into ashes, turning towards the girl next to Harry, her purple and black wand out and was glaring at her.
"You—"
"Your services are not needed here," Finley snaps at the woman before hiding her wand.
"You have no business here," a heavily accented male voice said, the woman turning around to see Viktor glaring at her too. "This tent is for Champions, friends, and family."
"No matter, we've got what we wanted," Rita says, hiding how startled she was for her quill. Motioning for the camera man to come with her to exit, Finley tripped the man, causing the camera to fall and shatter. Rita glaring at the girl, face red with rage.
"Oops?" Finley grinned, the champion's snickered at the sight because serves Skeeter right. "My bad, you should really watch were you're going," Finley adds, as she walked towards the flash piece and crushed it with her foot.
"Good day, champions, gather around, please," an elderly voice said. Finley turns to the tent's other entrance and the headmasters and mistresses, even the minister came in. She stiffened at the sight of both Igor Karkaroff and Barty Crouch, remembering what Sirius told her and Harry.
"Now you've waited, you've wondered, and at last at the moment has arrived, a moment only four of you can fully appreciate," Dumbledore says as he stood next to Finley who he hasn't noticed yet.
"What are you doing here Miss Potter?" He asked a little surprised to see the former Slytherin.
"I would like to stay here for Harry Professor, do you mind?" She asked, no, begged. Parting with Harry now would kill her sanity, Dumbledore nods in understanding then turns to the minister.
"Barty, the bag."
"Champions, please circle around me," the minister motioned. Finley stepped back and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, patting in comfortingly, telling him that she wasn't going any where. Minister repositioned the champions before holding out the bag that Finley knew where the little dragons were.
"Now miss Delacour, if you will." Fleur reached her hand in the bag, she felt something slither up her hand that she almost yelped. She raised her hand and the first thing she saw was something green. "The Welsh green."
In horror, she looked up her head mistress who was worried for her before looking back down on the tiny dragon.
"Mr Krum." Viktor reached in without much hesitation, looking down on the small dragon, he didn't look so horrified as Fleur was when she first saw her Dragon. "The Chinese Fireball ooh," the Minister remarks before turning to Cedric.
Mentally, Cedric wasn't ready. The moment the minister opened the bag to him, he hesitated before putting his hand in the bag. "The Swedish short snout."
Finley's eyes widened, if the three other champions got the moderately lethal dragons, that could only mean one thing. Harry got the Horntail.
She squeezed Harry's shoulder, both of them knew it which dragon was inside that bag, they only hoped that it wasn't Harry's.
Harry shoved his hand in, and felt something prickly on his fingers, Dumbledore leaned in behind Finley and Harry to check what it was. And Finley was so close to fainting that Cedric saw this and supported her weight, in this task they were all going to rely on luck for their spells to work. But for Harry, they would need a miracle.
"These represent four very real dragons, each of which has been given a golden egg to protect. You're objective is simple, collect the egg."
'So that's why they asked for females,' Finley thought as she remembered what Charlie mentioned when she went with Ron that Sunday morning.
"This you must do for each egg has a clue, without which you cannot hope to proceed to the next task."
"Any questions?" No one answered, all of them were with their own thoughts.
"Very well, good luck champions," Dumbledore began, turning to Cedric and nodding at him.
"Mr Diggory, at the sound of that cannon, you may—"
The cannon went off, startling the people in the room. Cedric nods turning to Finley to gave him a hug for good luck. "You'll do great," the girl whispered to her good friend before she saw him run out the tent to face his dragon.
She turned to Harry who was really nervous at the moment, "Harry."
"Yeah?"
"Be careful," she tells him.
"I will."
Finley embraces him again for one last time, and left the tent. She can only pray that Harry would be okay.
Three champions went and got their golden egg, and Finley almost ripped her hair off when she witnessed each of them almost burning themselves into a crisp. Cedric used his transfiguration skills, Fleur used her Charms, and Viktor used his curses. The only one left was Harry and she still doesn't know what he was going to do.
"Finney, he's going to be okay—"
"Okay?! He's got the Horntail! Do you have any idea how hostile that dragon is!" She exclaimed at the one who asked but she was sure that it was Blaise.
"Dumbledore won't allow him to get killed, he'll just used that spell he used last year during that quidditch match," Theo tells her as he raised a cup of something Finley wouldn't know what it was.
"What's this?" The girl asked, it was in a to-go cup that Heart brought for the task as they watched.
"Something you'll like," Heart remarks as she leans her back on the stand while watching the keepers place in the Horntail in the arena.
"This isn't pixie brew now is it?"
"Finney, we're not planning to turn you into an alcoholic at fifteen," Theo rolled his eyes at Finley. "It's tea," he informs her.
Thankfully Heart had the knack of running around with a to-go cup charmed to keep anything inside it warm. And to their luck, Hufflepuffs always had the pleasure of bring tea bags anywhere they went that they managed to get a Peppermint one.
Believing him, Finley took a sip of the tea and could already feel her shoulders relax at the smell and the taste. "You guys are the best," she sighed as she placed the warm cup to her cheek to warm herself up.
But her relaxed state ended too soon, the cannon went off, it was Harry's turn that she immediately stood up. Almost swaying at how fast she stood that she thought she was going to fall. "Careful."
"Thanks Bazz," Finley Thanks Sebastian who held her arm, preventing her from stumbling down from the bleachers.
"Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry!" The people in the arena cheered, gulping down the tea in one go, Finley almost crushed the cup as she saw how quiet the Dragon was and Harry hasn't noticed yet.
The golden egg was only a couple of feet away, that Harry tried to approach it, maybe forgetting that he needed to fight a dragon. And suddenly a spiky tail appeared just behind him causing everyone in the stadium to gasp and duck.
Finley could see Harry stumble, to the boulders, her hands that were still with Sebastian were squeezing the circulation out of him but He couldn't possibly complain now. He was as afraid for Harry as she was too, the Horntail looked awfully nasty than the last three dragons.
Watching as her brother get pummelled and flung around, Finley's heart clenched and it made it hard for her to breath properly.
"You're wand Harry!" Someone screamed in the crowd.
Harry coming in to his senses, raised his wand and screamed. "Accio, Firebolt!"
Where was the bloody broom? It hovered before it flew down, and just in time Harry jumped on it. Causing everyone in the arena to cheer, Finley finally letting go of Sebastian's hand that was starting to go blue, she screamed in joy for her brother.
"Yes!" She cheered.
But a chain break echoed, silencing the arena. The Dragon was free.
"Crap!"
Destroying the teacher's bleachers, Harry was gone along with the Dragon flying down to the castle, and the only that the school could do was wait for him to return.
'He's going to die, it's your fault. You didn't help him enough, you're a failure as a sister. You—'
"Finley!" A voice exclaimed in her ear, causing Finley to jump. Her eyes were already streaming with tears, her heart hammering on her chest as she shook. She turned to the voice's source and she was incased by an embrace by Heart, her hands being held by Blaise. Theo and Sebastian not looking at her instead they both had binoculars aiming towards the sky.
"Calm down love, he'll be alright," Heart whispers to her ear trying to calm her down. It seemed to be a long time and they all heard a crash on the bridge at the castle.
Seemed to be a solid minute or two, Finley wasn't getting any better, they all heard a swooshing sound. Feeling urgent pats on her knee, she turned towards Theo who sported a shit eating grin on his face. Shoving the binoculars into her hands, she took it and gasped.
"YES!" The whole stadium cheered as Harry came down to the centre of the arena, smiling brightly on his broom. Retrieving the golden egg, and for sure Finley finally couldn't contain her cheers that she started jumping up and down.
Champions had their luck on this task, and Harry needed a miracle. Someone heard her prayers and they was forever thankful that they did.