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CHAPTER THIRTEEN
glossy black high heels
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TODAY is the day.

For the first time in a long while, Edmund felt like he actually had a solid, foolproof plan to move forward with -- after a couple hours of internal debate the night before, of course. The relief after making his decision to follow Dumbledore's advice was extraordinary. His head felt light and his shoulders unweighted, there was no way this plan could go wrong. Dumbledore basically told him it was a good one, and this feeling of content with his choice was overwhelming -- it made him wake with a smile and light, bouncy footsteps.

As he dug into his breakfast plate full to the brim with food, he felt extremely hungry and no matter how much food he swallowed, his stomach remained empty. While shoveling down as much as he could with as much grace as he could muster, he took a quick glance up to see Tomen, Selena, and Will all staring at him with blank/confused looks. He looked back, frozen in place with his spoon half raised to his mouth and, unknown to him, crumbs of bacon stuck to the side of his cheek, he mumbled, "What?"

"You're eating," Selena muttered bluntly, "A lot."

Edmund forced the food he had stored in the side of his cheek down his throat and sat up a little straighter, his voice teasing, "Well, that's a little rude to point out, isn't it?"

"What happened?" Will questioned, a flabbergasted expression on his face before he dropped it and raised his eyebrows, "You know what, why question a good thing? I'm not even gonna try. I'm just glad you are starting to act like your old self again."

Edmund gave him a nod before a loud growl of his stomach sent him back to his plate. He saw Selena just shrug and give a little face before moving on with a conversation. There was a certain level of personal privacy their trio always respected- and Edmund really appreciated it at that moment. As the three of them talked, Tomen remained silent and kept catching eye contact with his brother. Edmund tried not to make it obvious that he saw so the other two wouldn't ask any questions, but Tomen looked very suspicious of him. After breakfast, the four of them started to head to class, but Tomen yanked his brother's arm backwards and pinned him against a wall.

Tomen shoved his finger accusatively on his brother's chest and whisper-yelled, "You better tell me what's going on, right now, or so help me--"

Jumping from the sharp poke on his sternum, Edmund yelped a quick, 'ouch!' before interrupting, "Hey, hey, hey! I said you'll find out soon enough."

"And you truly thought that would be enough for me to sit back and act like everything is alright when I have no idea what your next move is? This is serious stuff Edmund!"

"You think I don't know that?!" his voice quiet and defensive, "I'm not expecting you to approve, I'm expecting you to trust me!"

Tomen shook his head in disbelief, "Oh, come on, don't pull the trust card."

"I'm pulling it! It's pulled!" he exclaimed, "Do you trust me, or not?"

The two stared at each other, waiting for the other to back down. Edmund raised his brows and widened his eyes.  Tomen was the one to break first, letting out something similar to a growl as he turned around and wheeled himself away. Edmund smiled to himself, knowing Tomen couldn't stay mad at him forever.

"I love you!'

"Fuck off!"

At approximately six o'clock in the Entrance Hall, all of the students were all lined up, nice and spiffy, in lines based on their years awaiting the two other schools participating in the tournament to arrive. At the moment, Tomen had been keeping his distance regardless from Edmund all day from frustration, but now as they were forced to separate, Edmund couldn't help search the crowd to find him. It wasn't difficult, seeing as he was the only one in the school who used a wheelchair and was stationed in the front, closest to the exits. Catching Tai's eyes, who stood loyally behind his brother, he smiled at the boy. Tai sent a similar one back with an additional wave, and pointed Tomen in the direction of Edmund in the crowd -- to which he rolled his eyes and sat back leisurely in his chair, acting like he didn't care. 'He'll get over it,' Edmund thought to himself as he pushed it to the back of his thoughts and crossed his arms.

The cool October air bit at his skin, making his ears and nose tinge pink as he stood. He tightened the thick green and silver scarf around his neck and rubbed his hands together, was he the only one that was freezing? Will and Selena, who stood on his left, were complaining, but not about the weather.

"Guests of honor!?" Will exclaimed in disbelief, "Well, if I were a guest of honor I certainly would have arrive on time!"

"It's only been a few minutes," Edmund responded passively, "They'll be here soon."

"They better be," grumbled Selena, who looked annoyed, "I could be doing that bullshit defense against the dark arts essay, which I am already behind on by the way, instead of standing out here. How am I suppose to write a three parchment essay on a subject he barely taught? He's too busy traumatizing the fourth years to focus on anyone else."

Mad-Eye Moody hadn't crossed Edmund's mind in a good while, and it was safe to say he was glad for it. Every time he looked at or even heard the professor's voice it reminded him that he had inside knowledge of his personal life; that violation of privacy made him uncomfortable. But, today is a good day, and he was not going to ruin it by overthinking about things that he would possibly never get the answer to. Forcefully looking away and clearing his mind, he tried to not let negative things enter his thoughts. He let his eyes dance over all the other students until he landed on the one he was subconsciously searching for.

Hermione did not look in the least affected by the cold as she chatted with two other Gryffindor girls, one who he recognized as Ginny Weasley. He didn't feel the smile pulling at his lips as he saw her start to belly-laugh at something Ginny had said, he was curious what she had said to make her laugh like that. He also didn't notice Ginny nudge Hermione's shoulder and point in his direction until she had already looked over at him. Like a deer caught in headlights, he had no idea what to do besides look upwards quickly and act like he was looking at something. Feeling immediately foolish, he bit the inside of his lip and looked down to the ground. And the laughter he heard from the girls made him blush a deep shade of red as his hopes she didn't see him staring were diminished. Now, looking back, Edmund assumed he had looked insanely creepy: watching her from across the hall, smiling. He shuddered at the thought as his curiosity of what her reaction was forced him to look up.

She was still looking in his direction, a smug grin on her face as she tried to look like she didn't just catch him staring at her. She mouthed something to him. Confused, his eyebrows scrunched as he motioned for her to repeated herself. This back and forth thing happened about three more times until Hermione realized he had heard her the first time and was just messing with her. She forced her head away from him, trying to hide a smile that made Edmund smirk to himself.

"Walk with me after this?"

Obviously, he agreed and motioned for them to meet at the entrance after the other schools arrived. Butterflies erupted in his stomach at the thought of her wanting to walk with him. Such a simple gesture that he could be taking way out of proportion, but still made him filled with joy. He had never felt this in control, and he was happy. Before he fully tore his eyes away from Hermione, they connected with someone else who was looking at him with narrowed eyes: Ron Weasley. Still not quite over Ron's sarcastic quip from the ferret situation, which he was certain there was no punishment for Moody still, Edmund considered giving him a nasty look. However, he knew that Hermione wouldn't like that too much, so he stuck with simply looking away.

Unbeknownst to him, Will had seen everything that happened in the previous few minutes and frowned before everyone's eyes were snagged towards Dumbledore's loud voice.

"Aha! Unless I am mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbattons approaches!"

Edmund looked back up at the sky and scanned the clouds, like he had been before, as the student section did the same. A couple of them verbally asked, 'where?', and Edmund had to wait until someone pointed upwards. To his surprise, an elegantly carved carriage was being pulled through the blue sky by large, exceedingly beautiful white-winged horses. The sight made his eyebrows raise, he was impressed by the glamorous presentation, but the sheer size of the carriage and elephant sized horses made him almost flinch when they landed. Almost everything was powder blue, an aesthetically pleasing color to look at in his opinion, and elegant, Edmund felt as if they were trying too hard to look fancy.

Edmund could hear the quiet bickering of professors telling students to fix their clothes and attitudes go completely silent when a boy dressed in fine silk clothing with nice hair hopped out of the carriage and set up a small staircase. The first image of the school he saw was a giant black heel step out, and connect to the glossed heel was a ginormous woman who made the carriage tilt once she exited. She was as tall as Hagrid, perhaps even a smidge taller, but very thin and boney, giving her the appearance of a giant skeleton. However, she was not ugly, Edmund felt himself cringe from her hair being cut right by her ears in a way that could be seen as chic by some people. Edmund felt the need to take a step back to truly take in her appearance. He bumped into Will, who had apparently taken a position behind him, and made him laugh.

"Are you frightened of the big woman?" Will laughed as he softly pushed Edmund off of him, who straightened his posture.

"No, she's just a lot to take in," he chuckled and then looked over to Selena and asked, "Are you afraid of her?"

Selena's face had gone sheet white and her eyes looked like saucers as she watched the woman step forward, "No, why would you say that?"

Will continued to laugh and tease her as Edmund got back into watching what was happening. Dumbledore welcomed the woman with a kiss on the hand, which seemed to flatter her, and introduced her as Headmistress Madame Maxine of Beauxbattons as all of the other students clambered out of the carriage. The boys and girls were dressed in dainty, thin robes, but they too looked as though they were about to freeze to death just as Edmund was. They were instructed to wait inside since they were assumably not expecting to feel weather this cold as everyone else stayed outside to await Durmstrang's arrival. Edmund assumed their entrance would be just as dramatic, if not more, than Beauxbattons; and what do you know, he was correct.

"The lake!" he heard a student yell out, "Look at the lake!"

Following everyone's eyes, a large whirlpool started to form on the Black Lake's surface with a large amount of bubbles following. It caused the water to curve inwards and made something that looked similar to a black hole. And then a dark pole started to exit the center, and as it ascended, it became more and more clear that it wasn't just a pole, but a ship. Once the pirate-looking ship emerged and sat on the lake's surface, everyone could hear the sound of an anchor being thrown outside the boat and the students making their way to shore via wooden plank. Edmund couldn't tell if some students were boys or girls, but everyone who came ashore was dressed in thick, fur clothing and were extremely wide built and muscly. Their headmaster exited at the front of the line, dressed in silver furs that matched his long black and grey hair. He made a mental note to never get into a fight with the Durmstrang students.

"Dumbledore!" He had a thick and loud accent as he spoke, "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

Their own headmaster smiled back like he was speaking to an old friend, "Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff."

That last name was familiar in some way, but Edmund couldn't identify where he remembered it from. As he examined the headmaster, he started to hear an insane amount of whispering happening around him. He looked around to try and spot what everyone was talking about and followed a couple of people's fingers as they pointed to a boy around his age standing beside Karkaroff. That's when he recognized him, Viktor Krum. He was playing for the Bulgarians during the World Cup and was an exceptional Quidditch player. Edmund didn't much care for rooting for certain teams, he just liked watching the games in general; so to see that Krum was going to be staying at his own school was exciting.

He found himself looking at Hermione again, who stared back at him with a giant smile on her face. She was at the World Cup, so it must be very exciting for her as well. He pointed at the famous athlete and mouthed, "It's Victor Krum."

She said something back excitedly, as they both turned back towards the boy to see what he would do next. But, when Edmund looked back at Krum, his smile faltered. He was looking directly at Hermione, smiling; and she avoided his eyes. It felt like a heavy ball was pulling at the bottom of his stomach as he watched the interaction with an increasing deeper frown.

And in that moment, Edmund decided he wasn't much of a Bulgarian fan anyways.

Y'all, Edmund really needed a break— he needed a good day; however, this day is not over just yet;)

The next chapter will be up tomorrow, and buckle up because it's a big one. I was going to try to fit this chapter and the next one into one, but it would've been extremely long. So, it will be separate and uploaded in the next couple of days:)

—Stella F.