Faith .|. H. J. POTTER ✔

Chapter fifteen

Faith, Harry and Hermione practised until two in the morning. It wasn't until the last hour that Harry succeeded to Summon Faith's notebook into his hand. That was the moment where Hermione, who couldn't stay awake one more second, called it a night and went to bed. The other two followed her initiative and so they woke on the morning of the twenty-fourth, just a morning before Faith's brother and friend would risk their lives against dragons.

A few days before, Faith made two necklaces, both containing a green aventurine. The gemstone for luck. She slipped one of them into Cedric's bag and one into Harry's, both with a note; please wear this, it'll make me feel better. Now she just had to hope they did. 

The morning flew by quickly. None of the students was able to concentrate on what the teachers were saying. And by lunch, Professor McGonagall already came to fetch Harry from the Great Hall. Hermione and Faith wished him good luck and then sat with Ron. Not even a minute later, Professor Dumbledore told everyone to head to the stadium, near the edge of the Forest. 

Rows and rows of students were on the stands that looked down on a blank canvas with some burned spots. Faith was squeezed between Ron and Alex, who came to sit next to her with the Durmstrang lot. Ludo Bagman had taken control of hyping up the crowd as he explained what the champions were supposed to do. They each had to face one of the four dragons and get the Golden Egg from its nest which contained a clue to the next task. 

The canvas was lifted and revealed the terrain under it and a big dragon.

"And here we have the Swedish Short-Snout that the first champion will have to face and that is," Faith saw Ludo Bagman from a separate section of the stands. He over-excitedly drummed with his hand of the wooden beam that stopped him from falling down if he leaned forward. "... Cedric Diggory!" 

Faith almost choked on her breath. She knew he was going to do it eventually but she wasn't paying enough attention to notice that it already started and that her brother was the first. 

A whistle blew and Cedric came walking through the champions' tent entrance on the other side of the stadium. He looked self-assured which made Faith a little calmer. The crowd roared when he was fully in view. The Swedish Short-Snout was protecting the eggs in its nest with an enraged expression. 

"Oh, my God," Faith whispered when Cedric took another step and the dragon snorted a hot smoke of air. Cedric looked over the ground and scanned the floor for the thing he had in mind. Faith talked to him over breakfast and he told her what he was going to do since he couldn't tell anyone else. Otherwise, he'd betray the fact that he already knew what was coming.

Then, Cedric whispered the spell he told Faith about. No one could hear him but they did see the effect of it. The small stone a few feet away from him started to vibrate, harder and harder until it popped four legs. Four paws, to be exact. Then came a tail and then the head. Lastly, the rock texture turned into soft fur and there was a dog.

"Is that a labrador?" Hermione asked next to Faith who nodded with a grin. The barking dog caught the dragon's attention. He huffed and came closer and closer. Meanwhile, Cedric got closer and closer to the nest with eggs. 

For the following ten minutes, everyone held their breath, afraid that if they made a noise, the dragon would go after Cedric. In the ten minutes, he dodged some close jets of fire and the big tail. 

He was almost at the nest now. The dragon was distracted by the dog and didn't see the boy behind its large, scalped body. Until it suddenly sniffed and lifted its head. Cedric was two steps from the Golden Egg so he made a sprint for it. The dragon turned and saw him getting the egg so it roared.

It scared Faith so much she was shaking. Subconsciously, she grabbed the closest thing to her hand which was Alex' hand. He looked down and saw the much smaller hand clinging to his. His eyes went back up at her face and saw it was pale with a frowned expression. He wriggled his hand free and held hers, stroking his thumb over the back of her hand and giving it a soft squeeze. Faith felt it and she looked up at him, he was just a few centimetres taller than her, he gave her a reassuring smile but it faded when the dragon roared again and the smell of a big fire infiltrated the air.