The Black Family Legacy

The First Task

Cygnus walked with her best friend down to the Champion's tent.

"Be careful." She said, her voice cracking.

"It's just a dragon, I'll be fine." He says, pulling her into a bear hug.

Cygnus let him pull her off the ground, holding onto him, hating the idea of letting him go.

"I love you, little birdie." He says gruffly, kissing her hair.

"I love you too, Ced. Please be alright." She says, tearing up.

Cedric embraces her again, running a hand through her hair, trying to reassure her that he would be okay.
Dumbledore clears his throat, and Cygnus looks at him over Cedric's shoulder.

"Miss Black, it's time for you to join your classmates in the stands." He says, and Cedric squeezes Cygnus.

"I'm going to win this, Cygnus, for you." He says, and with one last kiss pressed against her forehead, he disappeared into the champion's tent.
Dumbledore stood and watched the Slytherin trudge into the stands. She looked uneasy.

Draco wrapped an arm around his cousin's shoulder's and laughed raucously at a joke one of the Slytherin students had just made.

"Isn't he funny, Cygnus?" He asks her.
Cygnus shrugs him off, leaning against the railing and resting her head in her hands.

She nearly screamed when the canon was fired, and her stomach dropped when she saw the boy clad in Canary Yellow step out of the tunnel entrance.
She saw him turn his head, observing the arena, and then she saw him lock eyes with the Swedish Short Snout that Charlie had helped bring from Romania.

She buried her head in her hands and winced when the dragon began to breathe fire, thankful for the protective scarf the second eldest Weasley brother had given her.

She heard barking and peeked confusedly through the gaps in her fingers. There was a dog in the arena.
The dragon was distracted, and Cygnus held her breath as Cedric ran for the golden egg.

She screamed as the dragon turned it's head.

"CEDRIC!" She screamed as she saw orange at the back of it's throat.

She saw his head turn in her direction, and then he disappeared in the wall of flames that burst forth from the dragon's mouth.

Draco took a rough hold of her waist, the only thing preventing her from leaping over the railing.

She thrashed and she fought, but the blonde kept a firm hold and wrestled her away from the bannister.

"Cygnus! Cygnus!" He said concernedly, trying to catch her attention.

She was sobbing when she saw Cedric stumble to the egg and back to the tunnel.

Wrestling out of her cousin's hold, she raced down the row and practically flew down the flights of stairs.

"Oi!" Came a shout after her, "watch it!"

She burst into the white first aid tent where she could hear the pained shouts of her best friend.

"Cedric." She said, and his cries silenced. She sat next to him and gripped his uninjured hand.

He squeezed it tightly while Madam Pomfrey finished healing him.

"If you ever do anything so stupid ever again." Cygnus shouted loudly, pointing a finger at Cedric's face.

He just pulled her into a bear hug, and as she grabs a fistfull of his extra special twiwizard uniform, he presses a kiss to the side of her head and begins to cry.

"I heard you." He sobs. "Out of all the sounds in that arena, I heard you shout. You sounded so scared."

And Cygnus melts. As she always did for the Hufflepuff boy.

"It's alright, Cedric. It's okay." She says, running a hand through his hair.

She looked up from the sobbing champion to see the French girl, Fleur, if she remembered correctly, come in with a burn around her legs. Her skirt must have caught on fire.

She didn't say anything about the presence of the other girl, she just sort of nodded in respect, which Cygnus returned.

Cygnus returned to soothing Cedric, and he had reduced to soft sniffles by the time the Bulgarian champion came in.

"Cygnus." He said in his accent, which made the girl smile.

"Hello Viktor." She greeted him.

Cedric finally pulled away from Cygnus, rubbing the sleeve of his robe across his eyes to dry them.

The Bulgarian champion extended his arm towards Cedric, and they gave each other one of the weird handshake-hug things that boys always seemed to do.

Cedric reached into his cloak pocket and removed a miniature sized swedish short snout, and handed it to Cygnus.

"I heard the wrangler call you little dragon." He comments, smiling as the dragon crawls up her arm and snuggles against her neck.

"I think it suits you much better than little birdie." He chuckles.

Cygnus smiled, reaching up and cupping his cheek with her hand, using her thumb to wipe away the remnants of his tears.

Cedric smiled and leaned into her hand, a moment passing between the two before the other Champions draw his attention.

"What do you think this means?" Victor asks in his thick accent, making Cygnus giggle. She doesn't miss the look he fires her way, a small smirk that suits his rugged features very handsomely.

The three champions begin to discuss what they think the golden eggs mean, Cygnus remaining quiet as she examined Cedric's egg. It was quite heavy, but that was to expected from its solid metal construction. She eyed the top curiously, the claw seemed too out of place, it seemed almost as if...

Harry came in and Cygnus locked eyes with her little Gryffindor, and when Madam Pomfrey had healed his shoulder she gave him a warm embrace.

Harry looked surprised when she pulled away from him.

"Why..." He trailed off, bewildered.

"You're very brave, Harry." She says.

The boy just stares blankly at her as she returns to her seated position, looping her arms into an endless pattern of shapes for the miniature dragon to traverse.

"What are you doing, Cygnus?" Cedric laughs, standing over her. Both the girl and the dragon look up at him.

"Here." The dragon crawls onto his outstretched hand, making the boy grin.

"Your turn." He offers his other hand to Cygnus, who lets the boy pull her up.

"Cygnus? Are you in there?" Comes Draco's voice from outside the tent's walls. "We're going back up to the castle."

The two share a look, and Cedric presses a kiss to the girl's cheek. "Go on, I'm alright."

He passes her the miniature dragon, and Cygnus gives his hand one last squeeze before ducking out of the tent.

Cedric sighs, turning back to the champions, who are all staring at him.

"What?" He asks sheepishly, running a hand through his hair.

Krum and Harry sink into a talk about quidditch, and Fluer cocks an eyebrow at him.

"What?" He asks again.

"That girl, she is special to you?" The French Champion asks, her accent as thick as Krum's.

Cedric nods, smiling. "Yes."

She nods, looking him over for a moment before turning to join the other boys in conversation, which had returned to the subject of the Golden Egg.