The hall was packed. People were sitting on benches, on the stands around the goblet, and all the teachers were at the top, as always.

It was Thursday night. The names were getting drawn in ten minutes. And Cassia was worried.

Right now, she was actually in the entrance hall with him, his hand in hers. They had been walking down together when suddenly she had stopped him, turning to face him.

"You... okay?" He asked her, frowning.

Cassia nodded. "Yeah, I just... I'm worried about you."

Cedric smiled. "Although it's flattering to know I've got such a gorgeous girl to care about me, I'll be okay, Cassia, I promise."

Cassia was sure her cheeks lit on fire at this as she said. "Thank you, but... I'll still worry. Even if I'm supporting you as well."

Cedric chuckled. "Come on, let's go."

Cassia thought her ears would explode by how loud Poppy squealed in them once she sat down in between her and Hermione one of the benches.

"Oh my god! Literally everyone just saw you and Cedric walk in together! The premier of Cedia is go!"

Cassia raised her eyebrows. "Cedia? Really?"

"Yup," Poppy said. "And on top of that, your brother looked like he might faint when he saw you."

Cassia laughed at this, just as Dumbledore stepped up beside the goblet, age line having disappeared.

"Now the moment you've all been waiting for!" He announced. "The champion selection!"

Slowly, he turned and raised his wand to all the torches round the edge of the room, lowering their flames slightly and dimming the hall. The blue light from the flaming goblet was the brightest in the room.

Cassia sighed. This now felt real.

Dumbledore then approached the goblet, his hands up, almost controlling it. Cassia looked to Poppy, confused. What's going to happen?

This question was answered two seconds later as the flame turned red and shot out a bit of charred parchment.

Dumbledore read it and called out. "The Durmstrang champion is... Viktor Krum!"

This was already getting interesting, Cassia thought, as Krum got up, a smirk on his face, shook hands with Dumbledore, and headed up to the top of the hall, through a door, and into a side room where the champions would no doubt be getting a talk after they'd all been selected.

Not two seconds after he was gone, the flame turned red again.

Who's it gonna be this time? Beauxbatons or Hogwarts?

Dumbledore answered that one for her.

"The champion from Beauxbatons is... Fleur Delacour!"

The girl in question here was blonde, had porcelain skin and was very very elegant. She walked with poise and grace and good posture as everyone applauded her, shaking hands with Dumbledore softly and heading to the room that Krum had gone into.

Okay, Cassia steeled herself as the third red flame spewed out the last name. This is it.

"The Hogwarts champion... is Cedric Diggory!"

And Cassia was clapping and smiling, and blushing as Cedric looked straight at her on his way up to Dumbledore, but her gut was also churning.

These contests are not for the light hearted.

As Cedric disappeared into the room, Dumbledore called over the room. "Excellent! We now have our three champions! But in the end, only one will go down in history. In the end, only one will hoist this chalice of champions, this vessel of victory... the triwizard cup!"

He pointed his wand at a cloth that was positioned over this cup, and unveiled it.

It was beautiful. Glass on the faces, metal on the edges, the handles two dragons, WIZ scratched onto the front glass pane.

Everyone clapped for it,

Well, everyone except for Snape.

Because he had stepped forward, his eyes fixed on the goblet, not the cup.

And Cassia turned, very confused, as she saw the flame start to stutter and grow, and then it-

Changed colour.

Went red.

And Cassia wasn't sure what was happening but next second, a fourth name was being expelled from the goblet, and into Dumbledore's hands.

And she didn't know which name she was expecting to hear but it wasn't-

"Harry Potter."

Cassia, Poppy, Hermione, Ron and of course, Harry, all froze. What?

"Harry Potter?" Dumbledore raised his voice, looking around the hall for the boy. "Harry Potter!"

"Harry come on," Hermione murmured, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. But Potter wasn't moving. He was frozen in shock, the same way as everyone else. "Harry, come on, this is ridiculous-"

She wrenched him up from his seat, gently pushing him down from the bench and towards Dumbledore. Cassia just shook her head in absolute fucking shock.

As Potter approached Dumbledore the man looked at him in shock, and nothing else. Didn't shake his hand, didn't do anything else. Just let him wander on. There was no applause, either.

Then, suddenly, someone shouted. "He's a cheat!"

"He's not even seventeen yet?"

A bubble of anger popped inside Cassia. Did these morons actually think Potter had willingly put his name in?

Slowly, Harry made his way up to the teachers and into the back room.

And with that, the mood had died.

And the champion selection was over.

❦︎❦︎❦︎

Once the teachers had all gone to find out what the hell had just happened, the gathering broke up and everyone left to go back to their common rooms.

"Can't we wait here for Potter?" Cassia asked Hermione. "I wanna know what the teachers are saying. I wanna know if he has to compete. I wan-"

"I want to know how the bloody hell he did it."

Cassia hadn't looked at Ron during the whole debacle, but now she had, she was confused. Because there wasn't concern or even fear on his face, there was only anger. And jealousy.

And Cassia was angry.

"What?" She looked at Ron. "You think he did this?"

"What, you don't?" Ron fought back. "He obviously did it."

Cassia scoffed. "He's your best friend, Ron, and you think he did this?"

"Well, why not? Why not?" Ron rounded on her. "Of course he did it, probably wanted some attention, probably got bored because everyone was focusing on the death eaters-"

He stopped at the look on Cassia's face.

"You're out of order, you are," she told him, grabbing Poppy and Hermione's arms. "Come on, guys. Let's go and actually care about Potter and whether he's going to die, and yeah, that's coming from me."

She dragged the two girls off with her, angry beyond belief at Ron.

Why was she suddenly the one standing up for Potter?

Why were his friends not doing that for her?

❦︎❦︎❦︎

But the next morning, it became clear that Ron and Harry were not friends anymore, and maybe never would be again.

Last night the news that Potter had to compete in the tournament because the goblet picked his name had circled through every common room, not just the Gryffindor one. Cassia had been shocked. He was fourteen, and the rest were way older, and the teachers were... making him do it?

She had been so overcome with anger that her face had gone red, and Poppy had asked where Cedric was.

So there Cassia was the next morning at breakfast, eating silently with Poppy next to her and Hermione opposite her. The three girls had already had to defend Harry against about five people that morning, and they weren't in a mood to do it again.

Potter was not present. But then again, neither were Cedric, Fleur and Krum, when Cassia looked round, so she guessed there was a champion news thing this morning.

When Ron tried to sit down next to them, Cassia death stared him.

"What?" He asked her.

"Did you and Potter make up last night?" Cassia raised her eyebrows.

"No," Ron replied shortly.

Cassia scoffed. "You know, if you quit being a jealous prick, Ron, you would see that he didn't want this, and most certainly is not enjoying it-"

"I'm not j-"

"Oh yeah?" The girl didn't even let him say the word. "Tell me the truth, Ron, and maybe I'll listen to you."

And with that, she was up and out the hall before anyone could stop her.

Cassia didn't know what to do. She was so angry, but why?

She was just walking and walking, and she didn't know what to do or where to go, but she just had to get out of that hall-

"Cassia?"

But she supposed there were worse things than Harry Potter, in this moment.

"Hey, Potter," she said curtly. "You need to get better friends."

She hadn't thought much of this remark, but as she said it, Potter's face crumpled, and he looked down.

Cassia stammered. "I didn't mean that-"

"It's fine," Harry said to her, faking a smile (as if she wouldn't notice). "Hey, I'm- uh... I'm going to the owlrey. Expecting a letter from someone. Do you want to come with me?"

Cassia took 'someone' to mean 'Sirius'.

"Very much so."

So they walked up to the owlrey together, sometimes talking here and there, sometimes in silence, until they got up there and sure enough, and owl was waiting, a letter attached to its leg.

"Brilliant," Harry murmured as he walked urgently towards it.

"Not Hedwig?" Cassia frowned.

"No, she's there," Harry pointed to the snowy white owl. "She arrived last night."

Cassia nodded as he got the letter off the owl and moved behind him so she could read it, too.

Harry,

I couldn't risk sending Hedwig. Since the world cup, the ministry's been intercepting more and more owls, and she's too easily recognised. We need to talk, Harry, face to face. Meet me in the Gryffindor common room at 01:00 this Saturday night, and make sure you're alone.

Sirius

P.S.-

"Ow!" Potter muttered as the owl who had delivered the letter bit him on the finger.

The bird bites.

Cassia chuckled as she read that line, turning to him. "Should've read that sooner, shouldn't you, Potter?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Cassia."

"Listen," Cassia said. "I can make sure the common room's empty tomorrow, you know, to make it up to you."

"Don't you wanna hear what Sirius says?" Harry frowned.

Cassia scoffed.

"Duh, that's why I'll be keeping watch by the stairs in the invisibility cloak."

❦︎❦︎❦︎

A

nd by the time one in the morning rolled round on Saturday, that's exactly where she was. Sitting in a chair near the stairs in Potter's invisibility cloak, keeping a watchful eye and ear out for anyone coming down.

Harry was in the common room, but he wasn't sure exactly where Sirius would be, so at the moment he was just sort of pacing, hissing his name.

"Sirius? Sirius!"

"Potter! You're gonna have to hurry up!" Cassia hissed.

"I know!" Harry hissed back. "I just don't know where he-"

"H-Harry-"

At the sound of his name, Harry twisted round, heading towards- the fire?

And Cassia thought he was an idiot, because how on earth could Sirius Black be inside a fireplace-?

But he was. She saw it as she stood up, still listening for people on the stairs. Sirius's face was amongst the ashes, able to speak freely to Harry and understand what he was saying in return.

"Sirius, how-?" Harry began.

"I don't have much time, so let me get straight to it," Sirius' voice was hoarser than Cassia remembered, but it wasn't inaudible. "Did you or did you not put your name into the Goblet of Fire?"

"No!" Harry hissed.

"Shh," Sirius warned him. "I had to ask. Now, tell me about this dream. You mentioned Wormtail and Voldemort but who was the other man in the room?"

Ah, the dream. Cassia hadn't heard much about it and so leaned closer in interest to hear Potter's answer.

"I don't know," he said. Fuck.

"You didn't hear a name?"

"No," Harry shook his head. "Um- Voldemort was giving him a job to do. Something important."

"And what was that?" Sirius asked.

"He wanted... me."

Cassia was half frozen to the chair.

"I don't know why, but he was gonna use this man to get to me," Harry explained further. "But, I mean, it was only a dream, right?"

"Yes," Sirius nodded, but he didn't look convinced. "It's just a dream."

Cassia slowly got up off the chair, creeping towards the fire until she could see both Harry, kneeling in front of it, and Sirius, in it.

"Look, Harry," Sirius said. "The death eaters at the world cup, your name rising from that goblet, these are not just coincidences, Hogwarts isn't safe anymore."

Cassia was struggling to breathe-

"What are you saying?" Harry asked urgently.

"I'm saying the devils are inside the walls!" Sirius hissed. "Igor Karkaroff? Used to be a death eater, and no one, no one stops being a death eater-"

Not even my parents.

"-then there's Barty Crouch, heart of stone, sent his own son to Azkaban-"

The slam of a door in the distance made Sirius stop and Harry turn. Cassia, meanwhile, was running back to the stairs to keep watch.

"Do you think one of them put my name in the goblet?" She vaguely heard Potter ask.

"I haven't a clue who put your name in that goblet, Harry, but whoever did it is not your friend," Sirius warned. "People die in this tournament."

"I'm not ready for this, Sirius," Potter's voice sounded so fearful, so fucking scared-

"You don't have a choice."

Suddenly, Cassia heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Someone's coming!" Harry told the man.

He had one last piece of advice before disappearing. "Keep your friends close, Harry!"

Cassia pulled the cloak off as he went, almost knocking straight into Ron, who was coming down the stairs.

"Argh- what the hell are you doing?" Ron asked her. "These are the boys' stairs!"

"Oh, just go back to bed, will y-"

She stopped as Ron looked behind her, straight at Potter.

He scoffed. "Little late night lovers' meeting, is it?"

"Shut the fuck up," Cassia snarled.

"I mean, why else would you defend him so much?" Ron scoffed.

"That's not true," Harry snapped. "You're imagining things. Wouldn't be the first time."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Forget it, she was probably helping you practice for your next interview, or something."

Before Cassia could swear at him, he turned round and marched up the stairs.

The girl herself turned back to Harry, who was avoiding her gaze.

"Night, Potter," she said indifferently, as she walked off in the opposite direction, up the stairs, into the dorm, and collapsed on her bed, sleeping within seconds.