*This is a long one. Fair Warning.*

"Ava, you're being dramatic, I would never impale you," Mila stated casually next to an armless manikin on a foot stool. It was late afternoon, on the day before the first task. Classes had ended and weren't coming back until Thursday, giving most students plenty of time to do school work, or not if you were normal.

My friends were not normal.

Mila, Ana, Marie, and Rosalie felt like now was the perfect opportunity to work on their mapping assignment for their fashion course. They were supposedly required to pin a pattern on a manikin using their new spells before taking the next step in pinning a human being. Mila on the other hand, figured she was better than this project and could prove it by mapping on me.

"Absolutely not."

"Oh come on. Don't you trust me?" She whined, giving me her rendition of puppy eyes. Thankfully, I had been smart enough to bring my writing paper to start my letter to my mother, so my gaze was downcast.

"With flying needles nearing my body? No, I definitely don't," I said back, as I finished addressing my letter. I glanced up to see Mila pouting in defeat, before turning back to her dull manikin in frustration.

"This is no fun," she continued in a pitiful voice. "I don't get how Madam Vee won't trust us. It's not like I want to harm people with this spell. And I'm great with spells!"

"You're good at defense spells, not basic charms. There's a difference Mila," Marie said from her manikin that she shared with Rosalie.

"Difference? There is no difference!" Mila said, affronted.

"Yeah, I don't know how you could look at a punching needle spell as not defensive," Jacqueline said slyly from the sidelines.

"Fair point," I said looking up to watch Jacqueline take a puff from her counterfeit cigarette.

"So will you do it then?" Mila asked me again in excitement. I quickly shook my head.

"It sounds like you have to be very careful to work on a human. Maybe working with a dummy is a necessary step," Gisele explained sweetly from her copy of the daily prophet she had propped on her knee. She was in the middle of working on the crossword puzzle with great care.

"I'm careful! Aren't I careful, Ana?" Mila questioned, twisting to her the friend whose white blonde hair shielded her face as she crouched down toward her manikin's waist. When she looked up, I saw pins sticking out of her mouth. She gave an unrecognizable hand gesture that only further infuriated Mila.

"And there's your answer," Jacqueline said comically, from the window. "Maybe if you show off your talent in needle work, you may inspire the likes of Miss grumpy pants over there to step on the stool."

"Yeah, Mila. Show me your talent and maybe I will reconsider," I said sarcastically, catching Jacqueline's eye. Mila brightened all the same and I watched as she turned and subsequently stabbed her manikin with her first spell, sending the entire room into a fit of laughter.

"That was a fluke! Wait, let me try again," She cried out as Rosalie leaned heavily on her manikin giggling while Ana spat out the needles in her mouth.

"I'll take that as my cue to go," I said after witnessing Mila repeat the impalement a second time. Grabbing my things, I left the room with Mila's pleading over fits of laughter following me out the door.

Since coming back to Hogwarts, my mother had begun to write more frequently, in part because I assume she missed me but also because I could tell her how Theo was doing. We all knew Theo did not write letters. It was just not his thing.

Deciding to head to the library, I made my way past the charms classrooms and around groups of students milling about in their weekend clothes for a change. There was a time when I liked wearing clothes other than my school uniform. But since joining Beauxbatons, that wish died away. Probably because our uniforms were top notch.

I had made it to the ground floor and was just around the corner from the library when I spotted Nott of all people coming from the other end of the hall. He spotted me moments after I did him and so couldn't escape. That familiar look returned to his features as he came near.

"Fancy seeing you here," He said, stopping short in front of me. I paused in my step and readjusted my letter box in my arm.

"Nott," I acknowledged with a faint smile. "What are you up to? No good I assume."

"Never. Just had to sit through one of Pince's lectures. She's hopelessly daft..."

"Sounds like you deserved it," I quipped back with an easy smile, as I started to slowly walk around him. "What did you do? Dog ear a page?" He snorted.

"No. I unrolled a newspaper too loudly. Was trying to pass on that article about Potter and Granger. Have you read it?"

I knew where this conversation was going. I gave him a lazy smile before nodding as I took another step away from him. Maybe if I kept walking, the conversation would end faster.

"I'm sure you know how I feel about it, yes." He shrugged, though still up to no good.

"Pathetic, isn't it? I thought Granger would have gone to Weasley before Potter-"

"Goodbye Nott," I said hopelessly, turning away from him mid-sentence and starting for the library.

"See you around Ava." I glanced past my shoulder in time to catch him grinning to himself before turning back to walk where he had come in. I shook my head, cracking up as I entered the library and passed by Pince's table. Catching her warning gaze, I made a habit to go to the furthest table from her and set up shop.

I had finished my letter to my mom and was halfway through my letter to Grand'mère when Hermione appeared in front of my table, looking utterly unkept. Had the gossip from the article truly been this brutal to her?

"I'm glad I found you," she huffed, dropping into the chair beside me with an unladylike plop. "You won't believe what I've had to deal with these past few days."

"Oh I can only imagine, what with the article-" Hermione's frown stopped me mid-speech, fazing me.

"Oh, no. That article is nothing. In fact, I can't thank you and your friends enough for back handing Pansy like that. She had it coming."

"I can assure you it was very satisfying," I replied grinning. "So," I continued. "What's actually going on with you?"

"Harry joining the Triwizard tournament is what's happened," Hermione sighed dramatically. "And he happens to be the most unproductive student out there, next to Ron of course, but usually together they could cook something up. But now that Ron's not talking to him it's leaving me to-"

"Ron's not talking to Harry?" I repeated, surprised. Hermione gave me a slow nod before going on to explain what had happened between the golden trio since Harry's name was drawn from the cup.

"That's ridiculous," I concluded, shaking my head in disbelief. Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Honestly.

"And so, what? Harry can't seem to figure out how to prepare for tomorrow?"

"Oh he knows," she said. "Though he only just figured out his game plan today. We knew about the dragons ages ago but it took him up to now to figure out what he has to do. I spent hours in the library looking for spells that could disarm a dragon but nothing seemed to help. Now he plans to use a summoning charm to grab his broom and use it in the task."

"To fight a dragon?" I questioned, wide-eyed. Hermione nodded casually as someone who had grown used to the idea. I gapped at her in silence while she continued to nod, and zone out.

"He really doesn't stand a chance then," I concluded at last, oddly quiet. Hermione returned to look my way and managed a pitiful shrug.

"I'm helping him in an hour to go over the summoning charm. He hasn't managed to get it down yet."

"Of course not," I quipped back. "The only spell needed and he can't even do that much. It's a miracle Dumbledore's letting him compete given the level of danger," I concluded. Hermione let out another sigh and lowered her head to the table, her wavy hair going everywhere.

"Hermione?" I said after another moment of silence.

"Hmm?"

"Is there anything I can do to help?" She slowly sat up and gave me a pained smile before shaking her head a fraction. Then, her expression changed again and a look of remembrance hit her face before she dived for her bag.

"I have something to show you!" Moments later, she sat back up with a box that when she opened, revealed badges of various colors with the letters SPEW on them.

"I want to ask if you would be interested in joining S.P.EW."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"S.P.E.W! Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. I started it myself," she explained excitedly as she drew out her notebook with a very small list of names present under the bolded title Members.

"Oh.." I said, suddenly feeling awkward. "What is it about exactly?"

"We work to stop the abuse of magical creatures like house elves. I have here," she begun, turning to another page in her book where she listed short term and long term goals for the group as well as her planned manifesto on the matter.

"You want to set them free? As in, give them free wages?" I said the last part in disbelief, as Hermione nodded, completely serious.

"I know that it's a lot, but I thought, after what we saw with Winky at the Quidditch match and.. well..."

Any original thought I had of not signing had vanished as the mess of a house elf from the Quidditch world cup returned to my mind. And shortly thereafter the crumbled up body of my father's mistake appeared afterward. Like in a haze, I took up my quill and promptly signed my name before Hermione had finished talking.

"Wow, you're our first foreign student to join the motion," Hermione said happily as she glanced at my signature. "If things go as planned, you might just be lucky enough to build a branch in France with your Beauxbatons friends."

I knew the likelihood of that happening was as high as Hermione gaining another signature on her very short list of members, but I nodded along anyway.

"And wait, you need a badge. All members can get one, you just need to pay 2 sickles. It's my first initiative on building a fund." I gave her the sickles but refused the badge, stating that badges weren't my thing.

A large crowd of girls passed by our table, making Hermione's once excited gaze turn sour.

"Not again..." She huffed, before closing her box of badges with a snap.

"What? One of those girls causing problems for you?" I asked, eyeing the lot of them suspiciously. Hermione shook her head.

"No, they're just Viktor Krum's fan club. I can never study in here when they show up." She tossed what material she had on the table into her bag unceremoniously and proceeded to stand up. "I just wish he could go study on that bloody ship of his-"

"Careful, Hermione," I mused, with a growing smile. "If his fan club hears that, they might come after you. Cliquey girls tend to have that attitude about them." Hermione merely rolled her eyes before giving me a final wave and setting off.

By the time I had reached the carriage in time to step into line with Madam Maxime, I had a lot to catch my friends up on. So much so, that it took up most of dinner and left my friends looking disgruntled.

I had of course, skipped the SPEW conversation in its entirety, thinking a conversation about dragons was enough for one day.

"Guess I'm betting on Potter's down fall then," Ana said rather bluntly, gaining a harsh flick in the shoulder from me in response.

The next morning Madam Maxime announced a mandatory meeting before any of us were to enter the stadium, stating that the students of Beauxbatons had to arrange proper school spirit.

What does she mean by this?

We had to memorize cheers and miniature dances fit for the stands to cheer on Fleur.

Mila looked ready to punch her hand through the carriage door at the news but Ana was thankfully there to restrain her.

The first task was to be held in the recently renovated Quidditch field, though the field no longer looked like a sporting field. The seats were elevated, creating a ditch of dirt and sturdy rock with various elevations and ditches to hide behind at our center. Two entrances were placed on opposite sides of the stadium, each with heavily spelled doors, guarded by teachers and caretakers. Caretakers of dragons...

Beauxbatons were to sit together in order to pull off the ridiculous cheers Madam Maxime had in mind. She had pushed that the importance of pulling off cheers were to do it in sync. And while she warned us that she would be watching to make sure we all nailed the hand movements, I had a faint sense her threats were empty.

The judges were situated on their own platform overlooking the ring, with a white and blue tarp hanging over them. From where Maxime sat, I would expect it to be rather difficult to tell which students slacked off on the cheers.

"There's no doubt about there being dragons," Marie said, beside me, as her gaze lingered to one of the exits that had opened to show a spit of fire escape.

"You're not afraid, are you?" I asked, intrigued. Marie snorted in response before bending back in her seat to let Jacqueline get to her seat.

She smelled strongly of smoke.

"Did I miss it?"

"What?" Marie asked.

"The cheers."

"Nope. Get prepared to sway those hips of yours," Marie said smartly, making me snicker.

"Oh, I really don't want to do this," Rosalie moaned from behind us. "I can't sway my hips for the life of me." Gisele placed a comforting handing on Rosalie's shoulder but it was Marie who responded.

"Yet you can shimmy just fine. So, calm down," she snapped, though in a motherly way. This didn't sit well with Rosalie, who was bouncing one of her feet in anticipation and Gisele gave Marie a scolding look.

"Your attention please!" Bagman announced from the podium, making the lot of us turn in unison. "This is an exciting time for all of us.." he began, before illustrating in fine detail the first task to be looked forward to. Naturally, my friends and I were one of the few students in the entire stadium that did not react to the mention of dragons. But as I soon noticed, neither did Fleur's friends, who were gripping onto their unclothed gloves nervously.

"Our champions task is to retrieve the golden egg amongst their dragon's nest. Only then, will they be able to move on to the next task," He continued in a booming voice while all students listened attentively. The Weasley twins, I noticed, were standing and moving about the crowd, illustrating a betting board that some students willingly placed bets in.

I could just make out the numbers for each champion:

Diggory: 7/4

Fleur: 10/1

Krum: 5/1

Potter: 30/1

"Our champions are being debriefed shortly. In the meantime, caretakers, please prepare the ring. The task will begin momentarily," Bagman finished followed by a ring of applause and rowdy noise from the crowd. I watched as one of the entrances to the ring opened and some of the caretakers came out, carrying baskets of dragon eggs and a chain tethered to what I assume had a dragon on the other end.

As we waited, I glanced across the crowd, looking for familiar faces. I found Ginny first, surrounded by Sam, Dominic, Jasper, Ella, and Tati. Another little face stood next to Sam that looked familiar. Alice. The little Ravenclaw turned spy. She usually sat near us at dinner.

On the other side of the stadium stood some of the other Slytherins, among them, my brother and two of his fellow Slytherin friends from Quidditch. They were all sitting back, feasting on caramel covered popcorn and having an utter blast. Malfoy, Nott, Blaze, Crabbe and Goyle sat in a throng by the corner side of the stadium a few stands above. All of which looked onto the match with eager eyes, waiting to see Potter get killed, I'm sure. Pansy and her clan of unattractive friends sat next to them, paying no attention to the setup happening in the pit. If I didn't know better, I would think they looked rather bored.

"Why, hello ladies," George Weasley said appearing in front of the entire lineup of Beauxbatons girls, with his brother nearby, looking impishly up to no good as usual.

"Anyone up to take bets? We have the numbers right on the board for you, if you'd fancy a wager."

To my surprise many of the girls went for it, and started pressing bets and low and behold, many girls did not bet in favor of Fleur Delacour. Even Mila placed a wager in favor of Krum while Gisele only shook her head, displeased.

"What makes you think betting will work in your favor?"

"Because it's Krum," Jacqueline explained bluntly. "Even I know this, and I could care less for Quidditch." I raised my hands up in a preach-like fashion, only to get shoved in the side by Marie.

Suddenly a cannon had gone off from above the stadium sending everyone into a fit of shouting and applause. A line of seven caretakers appeared from the entrance and with it, a chain latched to the first dragon of the game.

Silvery-blue scales covered the massive dragon with an added bonus of dangerous sharp yellow talons. The dragon shot out massive blue flames from her nostrils toward one of the caretakers, who quickly disappeared from field and reappeared a few feet near the entrance. Even from the stands, I was intimidated. I could only imagine what they were feeling.

"Welcome to the pit, our first champion of the task, Cedric Diggory, who is to maneuver around the Swedish Short-Snout!" Bagmen announced from his mic. The second entrance opened to reveal Diggory, in Hufflepuff yellow, enter the field with just his wand, looking utterly spooked.

"You think he's going to flee?" Marie asked in an undertone. I shook my head, as I watched Diggory's jaw set in determination. The caretakers stepped back, with the last of the group placing a vibrantly golden egg amongst the sea blue eggs. The dragon took her perch near the eggs and her gaze zoomed in on Diggory. Steam erupted from her nostrils, poised to strike.

"I don't know if I want to look," Ana said from the back row, seeking comfort from Gisele who started to pat her affectionately. Her words were lost though as the crowd grew louder as Diggory made his first move.

It took Cedric close to fifteen minutes to get his egg. Having transfigured one of the rocks into a dark Labrador dog, he tried to sneak past the dragon. It was smart in theory, as the dragon at first started to venture toward the dog. But then Diggory made a mistake, having mistaken a plot of rocks for solid ground, he slid past the nest, catching the attention of the she-dragon. She in turn released a heavy stream of blue flame that hit Diggory in the side of the face. The heat of the blast could be felt from our seats, and the scream that followed could be heard across the grounds.

But he had caught the egg, and collapsed against a mass of rocks while caretakers raced to restrain the dragon and Professor McGonagall rushed to get Diggory off the field.

The crowd had gone wild, with the likes of Ana and Rosalie ducking for cover after witnessing what blue flames could do to flesh.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Rosalie said from behind me, sending me out of my chair in an instant.

"Don't you dare..."

"Mademoiselles, on your feet!" One of my teachers called out to us girls in blue. "Fleur is next!"

"Who is ready to feel utterly mortified?" Jacqueline quipped as she stood up next to Marie, looking excited.

"Shut up," was all Marie could say before the group of us began, starting a chant for Fleur in French that only the likes of her could understand. We matched our hands out in front of us and then crisscrossed them over our chests while faking smiles at all the eyes turning to look at us. I didn't have to glance far to notice my brother laughing his ass off at the sight of me trying to twirl in my cramped seat. Nor that of Malfoy as he reacted similarly.

We stopped when Fleur appeared, with shaking knees at the sight of her dragon, a Green scaled beast with snarling black teeth that went far past her jaw. A golden egg lay amongst black eggs near our side of the stadium.

"And now, welcoming on to the scene, Miss Fleur Delacour up against the Common Welsh Green!"

"Let's hope that's the last of the cheering," Marie said, as we dropped to our seats, all of us relieved. My eyes caught Sam looking my way with a raised brow, reeking in judgement.

"Yeah, me too," I chimed just as Fleur stepped into the ring. A roar that shook the stadium snapped me back to attention.

Fleur's strategy was to enchant the dragon to sleep, creating a Veela-infused environment with her rounded arms, dreamy gaze and floating movements toward the dragon. It worked smoothly up until the dragon snored out a jet of flames, hitting her skirt, sending a wave of laughter through the dazed crowd.

"Unbelievable," I muttered as my friends started to giggle. Mila only shook her head, looking put out.

"Even when fighting a dragon she makes us look bad."

Fleur retrieved the egg after extinguishing the flames with her wand, and walked off on scathed, though taking a longer time than Cedric. She gained a lower score, accordingly though Madam Maxime looked impressed. We, on the other hand, were not.

"Up next, we have Viktor Krum! Facing the Chinese Fireball!" Cries erupted at the sight of the new dragon for it was a scary beast.

Adorned with red and gold scales, the dragon released rounded balls of flames at its victims while watching through blood-shot eyes. The golden egg was difficult to see amongst eggs of similar shades of gold.

Krum had his work cut out for him. Though he took to it with force. Having only just stepped into the ring, he immediately shot spell after spell at the dragon, causing it to shriek at a hair-raising pitch before releasing a volley of fire balls Krum's way. He ducked behind a rock just in time before jumping back out to hit the dragon with a Conjunctivitis Curse. I sat their opened mouthed as the dragon went blind, releasing flames every which way, with even a set of fire balls coming toward us. Thankfully, a protective spell detoured any flames coming our way.

The dragon, unable to tell where it was going, stepped back on her nest and crunched down on half her eggs, sending a wave of outrage through the crowd, with Gisele in the lead, booing at the scene.

"He just killed at least five baby dragons!"

"Gisele, calm down," Mila said, pulling her friend back to her seat.

Amongst the crushed remains of dragon eggs, lay one that remained intact. Krum raced to pick it up, calling the end to the match. The Durmstrang boys roared to life at Krum's victory, before booing at the judge's penalty for the destroyed eggs. I even caught a few caretakers holding back tears as they swept up the crushed golden shells from the nest before moving on.

"Three of our champions have met their dragons and can now proceed on to the next task," Bagman announced to the growing hype of the crowd as new eggs, the color of cement was placed onto a new nest, free from crushed embryos.

"And now for our Fourth champion, please welcome, Harry Potter into the pit who is to fight the Hungarian Horntail!"

A lizard-like dragon, the color of black ink appeared from the shadows, dragged out by seven caretakers, each of which disappearing and reappearing numerous times as waves of flames erupted rapidly from the creature.

"That's one angry dragon," I said to Marie, who nodded slowly, wide-eyed.

Yellow eyes swept the pit and then, with a jolt, looked up to the crowd, the first of its kind to take notice of us. Everyone collectively took in a breath as it tried to flame the lot of us.

"I don't like this," Jacqueline said, oddly serious for a change.

"Why would they give Potter the worst dragon of the bunch?" Ana said hopelessly from behind.

"Fair play, I'd imagine."

Harry appeared next from the entrance, sporting his house colors, though he looked rather white in the face.

I couldn't help but notice Malfoy rooting the dragon on, as it eyed Harry venomously. The caretakers made a run for it, and suddenly the dragon moved with such speed toward Harry with a jet of red flame that for a moment I thought it had caught him.

But Harry jumped out of the way, and rose his wand to the sky, yelling "Accio Fire Bolt!"

There was a silence in the crowd as people looked around, confused as to what he had just said. I watched the skies, holding on to hope that Hermione had accomplished her goal in teaching that darn spell to Potter.

I heard it before I could see the broom racing through the sky and Harry, who had to jump past another rock to avoid the nearing dragon, hopped onto the moving broom the moment it zoomed near, racing him up to the sky.

The entire stadium erupted into applause followed by an anonymous cheer for Harry as he zoomed up high in the air and then dropped back down in a tight drop, narrowly missing a jet of flames.

"OOOH, he almost got it, didn't he?" Bagman roared as the crowd went wild, some people covering their face, thinking it was another run in of Cedric. But Harry reappeared unscathed, except for a tear in his jersey selve.

I watched as Harry started to fly right above the dragon, luring her to move away from her nest slowly but surly while dodging jets of flames as if they were passing bludgers.

Finally, he spun up into the air, as the dragon made an attempt to let down her jaw on him, and cascaded behind her, arm outstretched and grabbed the golden egg.

The crowd erupted in applause as Harry landed, and I stood up clapping rapidly fast. Marie stood with me, screaming a cheer while other's in the stand started to chant Harry's name.

POTTER-POTTER-POTTER-POTTER!

The judges released the scores and the crowd went even wilder.

Harry had tied in first with Krum, and no one had expected it. 

-

Hello there!

Hope you liked the chapter. I wrote the dragon scenes while listening to vikings soundtracks and I was really feeling it, not going to lie. 

Anyway, I'll be posting again on friday.

 So see you soon.

-WG-