just for you (years 3-5)

chapter 52

"and you've got the charm all worked out?"

"yes, draco" i groan

"you're sure you can do it?"

"i'm positive, alright?" i say, tired of him asking. the task is tomorrow morning, at 9:30. it's around 21:00 right now, we're leaving the library to go down to the common room.

"it'll last the whole-"

"yes it will last the whole hour!" i cut him off, stopping at turning to face him "will you leave it alone-!"

"hello" i hear the familiar, low drawl of professor snape from behind me. i clear my throat awkwardly and turn around to face him, feeling my cheeks go red.

"hello, professor" i say timidly, seeing draco smirk beside me. i nudge him slightly to get him to stop chuckling to himself, as snape looks between us.

"i've come to collect mr. malfoy" snape says, his gaze landing on draco

"why?" he says shortly, furrowing his brow

"i will explain on the way" he starts to walk past us, "follow me" draco looks at me worriedly and i shrug, encouraging him to follow snape. he says goodbye and walks down the corridor after our professor. i sigh a little, wondering what that could be about and then heading down to the dungeons by myself.

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"where is he?" i whine, looking around the great hall frantically at breakfast the next morning

"i'm sure he'll turn up soon" daphne says comfortingly

"he should be down by now" i look over at the clock, "we're leaving for the task in ten minutes"

"he'll catch up" pansy says, finishing her breakfast plate, "he wouldn't miss it"

i take a deep breath, looking back at the entranceway praying draco will be standing there. but to no avail. i nervously finish my breakfast until we're all dismissed to head to the boats that will be bringing us across the lake.

"morning" cedric says, running up to catch me, "feeling good?"

"feeling awful" i mutter, looking back over my shoulder

"why's that?" he follows my gaze, seeing my group of friends up the hill behind us, "oh.. no draco?" i nod, "y'know harry hasn't seen ron or hermione, fleur's sisters gone. i've not seen cho"

"cho?"

"chang, from ravenclaw" he says calmly, "we've been..."

"seeing each other?" i raise my eyebrows

"you could say that" he smirks a little, looking down at his feet. this must've been what draco was talking about.

"you don't think they're....?" i look out into the lake, thinking of all our missing friends

"i'm afraid that might be the case" cedric answers solemnly, hopping onto a boat with me and the other champions (except harry, we haven't seen him). all of us look between each other nervously, not truly ready for what's to come.

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we're brought out to the middle of the lake, where large stands for the crowd rise up. they're absolutely packed, and stand so tall i can't see the faces of the audience up top. i look nervously at cedric as we all take off our school robes, under which we all have bathing suits on. on the bottom platform, we all stand by the edge, by the judges table.

"i'm... here.." we hear harry say from behind us, out of breath as he hops off a boat. the judges scold him for being late, but as he takes his place next to me i give him a concerned look