WHAT YOU DO TO ME | Draco Malfoy

Year Four - Part Three

It was Thursday afternoon and the five of us had been sitting in the hall watching people put their names in the Goblet all morning. Hermione brought a book so she could study, but for the most part we were all just chatting. The Goblet cast a blue light in the room from the flames and it made the whole room glow. There was a white circle on the floor that only those over the age of seventeen could cross.

"Eternal glory would be brilliant, wouldn't it? In three years from now we'll be old enough to be chosen." Ron said rather excitedly as he gazed up at the goblet with desire in his eyes. I assumed he was imagining himself as the winner. I laughed at the thought of it. Ron wouldn't last two seconds by himself. Just last year a 'dog' nearly broke his leg in half.

"Yeah, well, rather you than me." Harry said. I smiled at Harry softly and put a hand on his knee supportively. He looked at me and smiled back. Harry and I had an unspoken understanding about his desire to not be the famous boy-who-lived. We had talked about it time and time again whenever Ron or Hermione weren't around.

Cedric Diggory and his rowdy Hufflepuff friends came into the room and they pushed Cedric into the circle pulling my attention away from Harry.  "Come on, Cedric! Put it in!" One of his friends shouted. Cedric confidently threw his piece of parchment into the goblet. He smiled at me and waved. Ron mistook the gesture and waved back at the boy. Hermione and I snickered to ourselves.

Fred and George were the next disruption in the room. Lee Jordan trailed behind them. They got most of the older Gryffindor students to cheer for them.  "Thank you thank you! Well lads, we've done it." George said excitedly as he held up a little potion vial. Fred had an identical one in his hands.

"Cooked it up just this morning." Fred said. "An aging potion."

"It's not going to work." I laughed.

Fred and George got on either side of me. Fred was so up close in my face I could smell his minty fresh breath, "Oh yeah, and why's that Olivia?"

"Tell him, Hermione." I laughed. George put his arm around the girl and waited patiently.

Hermione pointed to the circle on the ground, "You see this? It's an age line. Dumbledore drew it himself."

"So?" Fred said wholly disinterested.

"So a genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be fooled by something pathetically dimwitted such as an age potion." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"That's why it's so brilliant." George grinned. The two were unfazed.

"Because it's so pathetically dimwitted." Fred smirked. He looked over at me and cocked his head to the side, "A kiss for good luck?"

"If the aging potion works, then you won't need it." I shook my head disapprovingly and laughed.

"Ready, Fred?" George asked.

"Ready, George." Fred confirmed. The two linked arms and took long swigs of their potions. They jumped into the circle and waited for something to happen.

Nothing.

The room erupted into cheers. It appeared that they had fooled the system. Even Harry clapped, which earned him a glare from Hermione. The twins dropped their names into the goblet and paused again. This time the blue flames shot out and hit the boys, knocking them clear out of the circle.

When the twins stood up they looked like old men. They started fighting each other on the floor as Lee tried to break it up. Everyone cheered them on, but only for a moment, because Viktor Krum had arrived to put his name in the goblet. The room grew eerily quiet as everyone waited with baited breath. He dropped his piece of parchment into the goblet. Before he turned to leave he looked straight at Hermione and I, and paused to smile at my curly-haired friend. Without a single word uttered, the boy left. I nudged Hermione, but she turned red and stuffed her face back in her book.