TWO THE TRI-WIZARD TOURNAMENT

     The feast in the Great Hall was just about Theodora's least favorite part of every year. Everyone was happy, reuniting with their friends, but Thea always felt alone. At least she had Theo, her unofficial name twin, whom she was always fairly close with. Pansy was always kind enough to her, but she was rather self-absorbed. Thea couldn't blame her, though, the girl had every right to be as she walked around with her head high, reveling in her own beauty. Thea could never imagine walking with that air of confidence. Draco, however, was her best friend in the world. He was the only reason she had kept up appearances as long as she had -- when you come from a long line of Slytherins, there's no telling what one slip-up will mean for you. Draco was probably one of the only reasons she hadn't completely fallen apart yet. She was selfish for thinking such things, taking advantage of Draco's care for her, but she was a Slytherin after all. If they weren't selfish, then they probably weren't in the right house. It was ridiculous how much her house defined her and her family, but she was born into it and she was too deep into it to rebel, so she supposed she had to play the hand she was dealt. Helena caught her eye from a little way down the table as if she could sense her sister's discomfort, but Thea redirected her attention to her best friend who was muttering something to her.

"I can't believe the stupid tournament is only open for seventeen-year-olds," Draco was muttering now as they were finally able to dig into their food after sitting through Dumbledore's explanation of this odd event called the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Two other wizarding schools had joined them which was, strangely, not the weirdest part of the dinner. The new Defense Against The Dark Arts professor had slammed the doors to the Great Hall open, a flash of lightning punctuating his arrival. However, all the dramatics had soon settled and they could finally dig in. Thea was thankful for this, she had been utterly starving.

"Like you would ever fight for Hogwarts," Thea let out a trifling laugh from her seat next to him, "You're the only person I know here who is so fiercely determined to leave, Draco. Weren't you just trying to tell Potter all about how your father wanted to send you to Durmstrang?"

Durmstrang, according to Draco's re-tellings of it, was an incredibly different school than Hogwarts. Apparently, its headmaster was a former death eater and Thea wouldn't have been surprised considering the name sounded familiar. With her family's dark-dealings, she heard a lot of names pass between her parents' lips. According to Draco, the school focused more on learning the dark arts than defending against them -- that seemed to be his favorite part. That fact didn't strike her as odd, it was to be expected of him.

"I just think it'd be funny to see a Slytherin win it all," Draco joked, a familiar sneer in his voice, "Rub it in all those Gryffindor faces."

"It's a pity those Gryffindor fools occupy so much of your thoughts, Draco, perhaps if you didn't care so much about them you would actually get high marks in your classes," the girl teased, knowing full well Draco was second in their class, falling one step behind first thanks to Hermione Granger's wicked wit every year. Thea always thought it was ridiculous how smart the girl was, but she never dared bring it up in front of Draco who hated that girl more than anything. Thea would never tell Draco, but she thought Hermione was bloody amazing. One of the brightest witches of her age, she heard someone say once. She believed it.

Draco's annoyance broke her train of thought as he shoved her gently, "Oi, careful or you'll never copy my essays ever again."

"You would never let me fail," she fired back without a moments' hesitation because she knew it was true. The number of times in their previous three years that Draco had put her back together after the girl fell apart in front of nobody else but him. Certain things are understood between two people when you grow up alongside each other, both witnessing horrors being their understanding at ages too young to know what's happening. Yes, the Dark Lord was dead and gone, but that didn't spare either of their childhoods. The saddest thing to think about, something Thea only ever dared speak out loud in the middle of the night in the Slytherin common rooms when nobody else is awake, is that she knows, she knows that she and Draco are going to end up just like their parents.

"Thea, Thea!" Pansy's voice redirected the conversation as she grabbed the girl's attention, "The boy from Durmstrang are totally giving us eyes right now. Wait, don't look, be subtle."

Thea chuckled softly, humoring her friend as she turned ever-so-slightly to the side to see that a couple of the fur-cloaked Durmstrang students were in fact looking over at the table.

The girl looked away quickly, nudging her friend teasingly, "So? They're all like three years older than us, that's weird."

"Buzzkill," Pansy muttered as she went back to engaging in on and off eye contact with one of the boys. Thea just shook her head and went back to her meal.

She would never tell anyone -- not even Draco -- but she had never looked at boys the way Thea did. Subconsciously, she found herself gazing at the blue-cloaked students from Beauxbatons. They had danced into the hall with butterflies fluttering around them and Thea had been absolutely mesmerized. It didn't have to mean anything, it shouldn't. Such a thought should never even grace her mind for fear of what might happen, but still, those thoughts passed through and took up nests in the deep corners of her mind.

Her eyes drifted over to the Gryffindor table where Hermione Granger was deep in conversation with her two best friends, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. Draco absolutely despised Harry Potter for some stupid reason she couldn't remember, but that reason had made Thea's life infinitely harder considering she was always associated with Malfoy, and Hermione was always associated with Potter. It was ridiculous, she thought, that the two girls were defined by the company they kept when in reality they were two individual people capable of making their own judgments and decisions. Still, this was the way things were, she supposed. Hermione was a Gryffindor and Thea was a Slytherin -- which was just bad news waiting to happen. She needed to stop entertaining such foolish ideals. Clean out the nests in her mind and bury them instead.

"You were quiet on the train and you're quiet now," Draco's voice was a low whisper now, not trying to garner anyone else's attention. "Something wrong?"

Thea was quick to shake her head, "No, I was just looking around trying to think about who could actually win this stupid thing. There's no way Hogwarts is gonna win this, I mean, Durmstrang looks like a miniature army."

"Why do you think I wanted to attend?" Draco laughed slightly, but Thea only rolled her eyes.

"Your scrawny arse?" she scoffed, "You wouldn't last a day!"

"Hey!"