Catch Me if I Fall {Draco Malfoy}

Thirty Three

"Third task is in a few hours, love. Our parents will be here an hour beforehand." Draco whispered.

Lauren sighed, Draco had kindly let her wear his quidditch sweater. It brought her comfort and the green apple mint scent was her favourite. She'd left her hair down, knowing her mother would rip out any hair tie. Her hands smoothed down her black Hogwarts skirt, she kept her wand in her pocket. They'd finished their final exam earlier in the day, Defence Against the Dark Arts had gone surprisingly smooth. Moody had been a great educator in the end despite unleashing PTSD on half the cohort.

Lauren wasn't the only one nervous; Draco was terrified of what was to come. Voldemort returning, having to face Lauren's bitter parents and having to hear people cheering for Potter? Total and utter nightmare.

He took Lauren's hand, both to calm her down and bring comfort to himself. They made their way to the Great Hall for lunch before the final task. It felt more like the last supper in Lauren's opinion. Her appetite had vanished as anxiety and fear overwhelmed her. She didn't realise Draco sneaking more potatoes onto her plate.

His Eurasian eagle-owl dropped the Daily Prophet nearly beside his plate. Draco liked to boast about his owl being the largest of all the breeds, it was extremely talented with aiming. He lightly skimmed the front page and sat upright as he recognised the names mentioned. A large grin broke onto his face, his silver eyes lighting up. He nudged the paper to Lauren, who was most curious at his reaction.

She laughed lightly as she read the article, it was pure nonsense and rubbish about Potter having a headache? Lauren hadn't the faintest idea why that would ever be considered newsworthy.

She took a sip of her pumpkin juice before leaning in. "You're not going to let him live this down, aren't you."

It wasn't a question, more of a statement. Draco laughed. "Never in a million years."

He cleared his throat before yelling to the Gryffindor table. "Hey, Potter! Potter! How's your head? You're not going to go berserk on us, are you? I'll bring a camera." He cackled. By now, the Slytherins were all listening in and laughing along.

Lauren smiled as she saw Crabbe and Goyle cheering Malfoy on. It was nice to know that amidst all the friendship drama, those two remained friendly to Draco. She tuned out the taunts and focused on her food. Harry seemed too invested in reading the article himself to talk back to Draco. He took the win and swung his arm around Lauren's shoulder.

"I really hope Cedric wins today or else I will reignite the Potter Sucks badges on a larger scale." He said, smiling lazily at his best friend.

A voice spoke from behind them. "Hopefully I can win," Cedric spoke, giving both of them a fright and he quickly looked resentful. "Apologies, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. Came to thank you two again and to receive one last pep talk from my non biological little sister." He grinned.

Normally Lauren would be offended at the adjective, 'little.' Yet, he looked so happy at the prospect of having a younger sister. Plus it was hard for Lauren to feel any negative emotion when Draco had an arm around her.

She grinned and stood up to hug him. "You don't need a pep talk. You're going to do amazing and ace it. Snape didn't give you a hard time?"

Cedric mulled it over. "Well, it's Snape so I wasn't expecting encouragement. He's very skilled with duelling, impressed me a lot."

Draco patted his back. "Takes me back to the duelling club when he took down Lockhart." The trio laughed, Lauren had heard about the downfall of Gilderoy Lockhart. The buffoon had it coming, served him right for stealing wizards accomplishments.