That morning, Azalea ate breakfast with Lily, Alice and Rose. Or rather, Azalea at breakfast alone whilst Lily and Alice filled Rose in on Lauri.

"He's the son of Viktor Krum-"

"And Lea has a fucking humongous crush on him-"

"And they were smiling at each other-"

"And he asked if James and Azalea were dating-"

"And it was hilarious-"

"But-"

"Alright, alright!" Rose said, giggling as she turned to Azalea. "All true?"

"Unfortunately," Azalea sighed, eating a piece of bacon particularly passive aggressively.

"Hello, all," said an evidently tired James, sitting down at the table with ruffled hair, bleary eyes and no usual smirk. Fred and Louis followed him, only slightly more awake.

"What's up with you three?" Azalea asked, laughing slightly.

"We were up at five this morning," Fred answered. "James figured that we needed to use our brooms one last time, so we went for a fly around the pitch."

"You guys are weird," Lily said, looking disgusted. "You realise they're not locking our brooms up, right? We can still fly this year."

"Yeah, but James is an idiot, so we did it," shrugged Louis, ignoring the only half powered fake hit he got on the arm from his best friend.

"Hey, guys!" A much more awake voice said, and there was Lauri, standing looking at them.

Shit, he looks good in the morning.

Shut up, Azalea!

"H-hey," Azalea said, her voice stammering slightly. "Y-you alright?"

"Yeah, just wanting to come and speak to you- I mean, you guys," he said, but he was only looking at Azalea. "You alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm good," Azalea smiled. "I mean- we have defence against the dark arts first today with one of the best teachers, so..."

She trailed off, chuckling slightly, and no one joined in.

Oh crap, this is awkward.

"That's good," smiled Lauri. "Y-you thinking of entering the tournament?"

"No idea," shrugged Azalea. "You planning on it?"

"Well... my father was a champion, actually-"

"Oh yeah, he was against my dad," nodded James.

Lauri glanced at him for a second before looking back at Azalea. "Yeah, my father was a champion, so I think it'd be a good thing to do. And my friend Adrian is absolutely begging for me to enter with him, so I guess I'm gonna have to."

Azalea giggled with him, before Alice nudged her. "We need to go otherwise we're not gonna get good seats."

"We have to go," Azalea said to Lauri. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Lauri smiled. "See you later, Azalea."

Her name on his lips was just... it was perfect. Azalea wanted him to say it again.

As soon as he left Alice, Rose and Lily began squealing that he totally liked her too and he was so cute, but Azalea just smiled.

And completely missed James' look of jealousy, burning holes into the table before her.

✾✾✾

"Teddy!" James was much more himself by the time they were in DADA, saying hi to his brother/teacher with a hi five.

"Hey James, hey Fred, hey Louis," Teddy grinned, before nodding to the two girls that entered with them. "Hey Alice, hey Azalea."

"Hey," both of them smiled.

Teddy Lupin had been teaching at Hogwarts since Azalea's fifth year. He was amazing, and he'd more than helped everyone in their year pass their OWLs. He absolutely loved Azalea and James' relationship and did everything he could to throw more fuel on the fire, yet also stopped all arguments he started.

So Azalea liked that she was sitting second row, next to Alice, behind James and Fred and Louis, in Teddy's class.

Once the whole class was inside the room, however, Teddy's whole posture slumped, and his expression became grave.

"Okay, quieten down, everyone!" He said, his voice raised. Once everyone was quiet he heaved a sigh and said. "Okay, so as part of your NEWT curriculum you need to learn quite a bit about these three spells known as unforgivable curses."

He said this gravely, and it made Azalea nervous.

"Make no mistake, these curses are illegal," Teddy told them. "But the ministry changed the curriculum around six or seven years and required these curses to be shown to seventh years."

"How are you gonna do that?" A girl called Katie Chang asked, her eyes wide, face scared.

"I'll use spiders. It's okay, you've got nothing to fear," Teddy told them.  "To tell you the truth, I don't want to perform these curses in a classroom, and Professor McGonagall agrees, but the ministry wants it."

So, he got a spider out from a jar on his desk, and set it down. "Now, before I do this, does anybody know an unforgivable curse?"

Naturally, James raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr Potter?"

"The Imperius Curse," James replied.

"Yes, that's one," Teddy nodded. "The imperius curse allows the caster to make a person do whatever they please. Such as..."

He winced, pointing his wand at the spider. "Imperio!"

To demonstrate his point, he lifted his wand, and with it, the spider flew up in the air.

"You can make someone do whatever you want," Teddy told the class. "Way back when Voldemort was first in power, people used to say they were under the influence of it, to get out of trouble."

Azalea took this in, looking upon the spider with disgust. She couldn't believe this was a thing, but understood why Teddy had to teach them it, and why the ministry had said it had to happen.

"Okay," Teddy said, setting the spider down on the desk and waving his wand to undo the curse. "Right, there's two more. Does anyone know the name of the next one?"

Fred raised a hand.

"Yes, Mr Weasley?"

"W-well there's the killing curse," Fred said, rather uneasy.

"Yes, there is," Teddy nodded, pursing his lips. "This is one I feel I do not need to show you, but will do at the end. The killing curse is exactly what it says, and was one of Lord Voldemort's favourites. The only known survivor of the killing curse is, of course, Harry Potter, who conquered it just as a baby."

Azalea found the eyeings James got over this extremely annoying. Just because his dad did something special, doesn't mean he was something to goggle at.

"But first, I want to show you the last one," Teddy said, his voice heavy with unease. "Does anyone- oh yes, Miss Longbottom?"

"T-there's the cruciatus curse," Alice said, her voice heavy with unease.

"Y... yes, there is," Teddy nodded. "The cruciatus curse is the torture curse. It- it's terrible. It puts the victim through immense pain. It was used once for torturing victims out of information, and making them confess."

As soon as he said those words, a memory came back to Azalea. In a haze, she remembered Alice telling her that she and Frank's namesakes were her father's parents, and that when they were young, they'd been tortured within an inch of their lives for information. They had been unresponsive for most of their lives because of it, living out their days in a hospital.

Azalea had wanted to cry when Alice had first told her this. She wanted to cry now.

"Crucio!"

Teddy looked distraught at the red light flew from his wand and hit the spider.

It started to squirm and struggle, to let out small screams of pain. Azalea watched it, then turned to see Alice.

Her face was contorted, eyes squeezed within a millimetre of closing, whole body shaking, her hands clenched into fists.

And seeing that, along with the spider, made Azalea break down.

"Stop it!" She screamed, tears suddenly streaming down her face. "STOP IT, PLEASE!"

Teddy instantly did, leaving the room in silence as Azalea tried to calm herself down, shedding tears in front of everyone. Oh fuck, even James Potter was looking back-

But James was in fact looking at Lea with concern, eyes comforting and soft.

She didn't see it, however. Her eyes were blurred with tears.

"Miss Edwards, are you okay?" Teddy asked.

"I'm fine, I..." Azalea trailed off. "Do you mind if I leave?"

"Of course not," Teddy replied. "I understand."

Azalea was shaking with fear and furiously wiping her tears as she felt the classroom. She knew she was being stupid.

But she couldn't help it.

✾✾✾

"Lea!"

Of course, Alice instantly came to her after the class was over. She ran over to her best friend, hugging her tightly. Azalea was sat on the stairs, not crying anymore, just staring out the window.

"Sorry-" she began, but was cut off immediately.

"Hey, hey, no. You have nothing to be sorry for, okay?" Alice said sincerely, pulling back and looking her best friend right in the eye.

"Okay," Azalea nodded, but she wasn't entirely convinced.

"So what, er... set you off?" Alice asked awkwardly. "Just the curse, or...?"

"It was just the, um... the story you told me about couple years ago," Azalea explained, looking down as she played with her fingers. "The one about your grandparents."

Alice gasped a little, but she continued regardless. "And I guess it just, uh... it just made me a bit upset, because... that's what they went through, and you were having to watch that."

"Lea..." Alice said, hugging Azalea again tightly before pulling back, looking her straight in the eye. "You do not have to be upset about that, okay? Yes, it was hard for me to watch that, but I'm fine."

Azalea looked at her, more tears threatening to fall. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," smiled Alice. "Now come on, let's go watch people put their names in that damned goblet."

She pulled Azalea up, who laughed slightly, before both of them headed off down the corridor.

✾✾✾

The great hall had all been moved about over the past day. The Goblet was in the middle, surrounded by an age line (stopping sixteen and under year olds from entering) so it was easy to get to, and pairs could come and put their names in.

Off to the sides was the raised seating, which Azalea was sat on right now, sandwiched in between Lily and Alice. James, Fred and Louis had just walked in, grinning as they looked up at the goblet.

"Hey, Lea!" James said, as they sat down, looking up at the girl. "You alright?"

He actually looked... concerned. Was he feeling alright?

"Yeah," Azalea nodded, feeling Alice looking at her. "I mean, soon I'll realise how embarrassing it was to cry in front of a whole class but... I'm good for now."

"That's good, he was really worried about y-" Louis said, before James elbowed him.

"Okay, regardless of all this," Lily quickly interrupted, looking at all of them. "Are any of you guys entering?"

She gestured to the Goblet of Fire, and Azalea sighed. She still didn't know.

"Yeah, think I will," James shrugged.

"I'm not," Louis said.

"So you and Fred are gonna do it?" Alice raised her eyebrows at James.

"Yeah, I think so," he shrugged. But in his mind, a very different plan was forming. "What about you, Lea?"

"When are you gonna stop calling me that, Potter?" Azalea replied, except there was no real bite in her words. "And to answer your question, I still don't know. I mean, it would be amazing to win, but... I don't know if I'm willing to do all that for it."

I see, James thought, with a smirk. "Alice?"

"Oh hell no!" Alice laughed. "Can you imagine me doing th-?"

But before she could finish, there was a big BANG and two students were getting thrown from the goblet, crashing onto the floor a few metres away.

"Ooh, looks like we've just had a couple underagers!" Fred laughed.

And he was right, because as the two underage students sat up from their journey across the hall, they appeared to have developed big, bushy beards.

Azalea laughed along with everyone else as the both of them felt the facial hair, absolutely horrified.

It appeared the interesting punishments Harry spoke of the other night were indeed very interesting.

"Nice new look!" James decided to yell at them, causing more laughs to surface. "I wouldn't personally go for it, but-"

He was cut off by the sound of the doors crashing open, and two people striding in.

Two people that just so happened to be Lauri Krum and his friend, who Azalea presumed was Adrian, walking in, faces serious. They strolled straight past the two bearded Hogwarts students and into the age line, Lauri extending his hand with a piece of parchment in it and dropping it in.

As they walked out again, he looked at Azalea, smiling. She smiled back, her cheeks burning but her whole body feeling lighter.

She didn't see James clench his fists below her.

Didn't feel the jealousy radiating off him.

But, most importantly, she didn't hear him muttering to Fred and Louis.

"We're coming down here tonight. I have a plan."

✾✾✾

So, that night when the corridors darkened and everyone was either on their boat, in their carriage, or in their common room, James, Fred and Louis were sneaking through the corridor in the invisibility cloak, Mauruaders Map read by lit wand guiding them.

"James, you need to tell us what's going on," Fred hissed for about the sixth time.

"We're going to the great hall, that's all you need to know," James whispered back.

"It's really not," Louis said. "And our feet are visible, by the way, we don't all fit under this thing anymore."

"It doesn't matter, just shut up both of you until we get there!"

They did, but not without grumbling, as finally, the trio managed to get down the stairs and into the great hall, which was, thankfully, empty.

The Goblet of Fire was there, obviously, blue flame still flickering in its mouth. The bright white age line still glowed around it. James threw off the invisibility cloak, looking at it in all its glory, and contemplating what he was about to do.

"James, what's going on?" Louis hissed.

"Fine," James sighed, turning and plunging his hand into his robes. "I'm putting this in there."

He gestured to the goblet at the same time as showing them the small slip of parchment he had, two names written perfectly upon it.

James Potter
&
Azalea Edwards

"James..." Louis gasped.

"What?" James asked, pulling the parchment back. "I put our names in, we get selected, we compete in the tournament and, er... maybe it brings Lea and I closer."

"Let me be the first to say, this is a terrible idea," Louis warned.

"It's not, Louis! She said herself it would be amazing to win it," James shrugged.

"Fred, some help here?" Louis turned to their other friend.

He sighed heavily, then finally told James. "I just hope you know she's gonna blow her shit when she realises what you've done."

"She won't, she'll be happy," James sighed. "I hope," he admitted quietly.

"James, please don't do it," Louis said. "If this is just to get her attention off Lauri-"

He cut himself off, eyes going wide. "I-I mean," he said, as James looked at him, narrowing his eyes. "I mean- it's just that she's been talking to him a bit these couple days, and-"

"No, Louis, to answer your question," James snapped. "No. I just... I think this would be a good thing to do. For our... relationship."

"You don't have a relationship with her, mate," Fred reminded him.

"Yeah I do," James shrugged. "Listen guys, I just... I guess I've just realised that I've been a prat to her all these years, and now I... I wanna do something to fix that."

Fred and Louis sighed, eventually nodding.

"Okay mate, we'll help you," Louis said. "But if she goes crazy, it's your job to calm her down, not ours, alright?"

"Alright," James nodded, smiling openly now his plan was finally happening. "Thanks, guys. Honestly."

And he really, really meant it.

That night, the piece of parchment was dropped into the Goblet of Fire, and Azalea and James were officially in the mix. It didn't mean they were going to get chosen.

But it did mean they had a chance.