The camera's light was bright and it got in Azalea's eyes. On top of that, she was having to hold her position, which was an arm round James Potter. Nothing about this was fun.

It had been a few days since the six champions had been selected, and in that time, Azalea had had to deny precisely eight questions of whether she and James were dating.

I don't even want to be part of this, she wanted to say. Let alone have James Siriusly-arrogant Potter as a partner.

But today was seriously the worst of the lot. Today, the press had come to interview all three pairs of tributes, and with them had come the most crap reporter Azalea had ever met in her life.

She faced them now, all big sunglasses and red lipstick and big blonde hair updos.

"What a sensational six," she grinned, coming forward to shake their hands. "I'm Nikita Skeeter, I write for the Daily Prophet. But of course you know that, don't you? It's you we don't know."

She laughed slightly, and Azalea hated this. "You're the juicy news. What quirks lurk beneath those rosy cheeks? What secrets do the muscles mask?"

"She's talking about me," James smirked, whispering to Azalea.

She snapped back. "I'm letting you live, Potter, don't push it."

Wisely, he didn't whisper anything back.

"In short, what makes a champion tick?" Nikita grinned at them. "Me, myself and I want to know. As do my rabid readers. So... I say I'll take the Hogwarts two, Gary and Nick, you take the others. Lovely."

Before Azalea and James knew it, they were getting dragged by this Nikita into a broom cupboard off the room they were in.

One James has done plenty of snogging in, no doubt.

"You two don't mind if I use a quick-quotes quill, do you?" Nikita asked them, gesturing to the blue feather quill she had, standing up on its own and writing in her notebook.

"Er- no," Azalea said, not really caring about any of this. For now.

"So, tell me Azalea, James," Nikita said with a smirk as she took a seat. "Here you two sit, a young couple of only seventeen who were brave enough to-"

"Hold on, we're not a couple," Azalea told her, eyes on the blue quill which was writing frantically.

"Oh, of course you're not," Nikita said insincerely with a small chuckle. "Anyway, how are you feeling? Knowing you could lose yourselves and each other to this tournament?"

"Er- what?" James frowned, eyes on the blue quill.

"Just ignore the quill," Nikita told him gently. "But then, of course, you two are no ordinary couple, are you? With your father's story, James-"

"We're not a couple," Azalea said again firmly.

"Oh, I know dear, don't worry," smiled Nikita, leaning back to speak to the quill. "Scratch that last."

Then she cocked her head, looking back at them. "Speaking of your parents, are they proud of you? I know yours would be, James, given your father's history with this tournament, but Azalea..."

"My family doesn't even know what the damn tournament is," Azalea snapped. She'd written to her mother a couple days ago, explaining all this, and she still hadn't recieved a reply. But as she peeked at the notebook, however, she had bigger concerns.

"You bitch, I'm not fucking 'sobbing into my lover's shoulder'!"

✾✾✾

After the end of that very awkward interview with Nikita, Azalea headed up to the owlrey, hoping to find her owl, Belle, containing a letter from her mother and father.

When she got up there, Belle was waiting patiently, parchment attached to her leg. Azalea rushed to her, untying the letter and retrieving it, reading what her mother had to say.

Dear Azalea,

First and foremost, we'd just like to tell you how proud of you we are. Regardless of the danger involved in this tournament, we're proud that you are willing to carry it out.

I'm not going to pretend we're not concerned for you, because the way you make it sound, this is a big undertaking that will weigh quite heavily on you, but just so you know, we'll always be here for you. Your father's wanting to hijack a broomstick to fly to Hogwarts, but I've told him not to.

Work with James. I know you don't want to, but you have to. And who knows? Maybe you'll learn he's not just an egotistical (excuse my language) arsehole if you do. You're going to need him if you want to do well in these tasks, and I hope you realise that.

We love you so much, Azzie. And so does Daisy, I know it. You'll be amazing at this, I promise. And if you're not, then it's not the end of the world.

Love you, hope we'll see you soon,

Mum and Dad

"Lea?"

Azalea almost jumped, looking up to see Lauri Krum before her, face a half smile that she found very endearing.

"Y-yeah?" She asked, ultra aware of how close they were standing.

"I-I, um... I asked your friend where you were, I wanted to speak to you, to go for a walk," Lauri smiled at her.

"Er- yeah!" Azalea said immediately, very keen. "Yeah, I'd love to do that with you."

"Okay," Lauri smiled. "Alice said you probably would."

Damn you, Alice Longbottom. But also, I love you so much.

"Okay then, let's go," smiled Azalea.

Shoving her mother's letter in her pocket, she fell into step beside the boy, walking down out the owlrey and into the castle.

"So you've been at Hogwarts for seven years?" Lauri asked as they walked.

"Yeah," nodded Azalea, smiling. "I'm muggle born, so I only found out about this place about a month before I came to it."

"Really? You're muggle born?" Lauri frowned.

"Yeah," Azalea nodded. "My mum and dad aren't magical, and me being a witch completely tore my older sister and I apart."

"Why?" Lauri asked.

"Well, she's not magic, and me having something she didn't just sort of pushed her into jealousy, so we don't... we don't speak much anymore," she shrugged as they reached the entrance hall and walked out to the courtyard. "What about you? Do you have brothers and sisters?"

"Well, I actually have an older sister as well," Lauri nodded. "She's called Helena, and she's a complete bitch."

Azalea laughed slightly. "Older sisters are like that."

"Well, by the sound of yours, mine isn't even that bad," Lauri sighed. "She's just a typical older sister, and they're annoying. She's training to be a healer right now, though, so I don't think she's going to get to come and see the tournament."

"Families can come watch?" Azalea asked.

"I think so," shrugged Lauri.

They were just walking through the grounds now, their hands brushing ever so slightly. Azalea was way too afraid to intertwine them, but before she could think, Lauri was doing it. He slotted his fingers in between hers, pressing his palm up against hers.

"So, you ready for the tournament?" Lauri asked, after a second of silence.

"No," Azalea answered with a scoff.

"Why not?" He frowned.

And then she was explaining the story to him, of James putting her name in the goblet with his without her permission, her surprise as her name got read out, and how she'd blown up afterwards.

"That's not fair on you," Lauri said once she was finished. "Why would James do that? His dad's been in the tournament, he should know how dangerous it can be."

"Well, Fred wasn't wrong the other day," Azalea sighed. "I mean- I don't wanna sound conceited but... James has been interested in me since first year, and he's asked me out consistently since third year. He's actually stopped this year, but I'm not complaining."

"And you're just not interested?" Lauri raised his eyebrows.

"Nah, not really," Azalea shook her head, looking at him with a smirk, suddenly feeling bold. "Why? You worried?"

Lauri grinned back at her. "Always."

Butterflies swarmed inside Azalea's stomach at the way he was looking at her, eyes soft, lip bitten.

When she got back up to the common room, her cheeks were flushed and her hair was tousled and windswept.

"Did you have fun?" Alice asked with a smirk on her face, from where she was sat on the sofa in front of the fire with Rose.

"Shut up," Azalea muttered, sitting down in between them. Then she smiled slightly. "Thanks, though."

"You're welcome, my friend," smiled Alice. "He's totally into you, by the way. Came to me like a little scared puppy to ask where you were."

"Shut up!" Azalea said with a giggle, her cheeks blushing red.

"Okay," Alice sighed, rolling her eyes. "Have you and James done any work on the first task yet?"

"Nah," Azalea shrugged. "Haven't even really thought about it much, to be honest."

And she hadn't.

But she soon learned she needed to step up her game considerably.

✾✾✾

POTTER AND EDWARDS: FUEDING FOES OR CUTE COMRADES?

Is there more to James Potter and Azalea Edwards' relationship than meets they eye? Well rabid readers, I, Nikita Skeeter can confirm that their relationship is in fact one of mutual flirtation, rather than the enemies they have been previously pictured to be. In fact, Edwards as good as confirmed their relationship with constant denial of it, despite the fact no questions were asked-

"Complete and utter bullshit," Azalea snarled a week later, crumpling the newspaper page up and throwing it into the fire.

"Hold on, what was that?" James, who had just walked into the common room, asked.

"Nothing of your concern, Potter," Azalea snapped. "But I do need to talk to you."

"You? You need to talk to me? I never thought I'd see the day," smirked James.

"Shut the fuck up, I just wanna talk about the first task," Azalea snapped. "We're only allowed wands, which means we might as well practice defensive spells and good jinxes we can cast on things when we do... well, whatever we're doing."

"Okay," James shrugged. "When exactly are we planning on doing this?"

"Well, the task's a couple weeks away, so as soon as we can," shrugged Azalea. "You wanting, like, exact times or something?"

"No, when have I ever wanted exact times?" James snapped. "You may not know me that well, but you definitely know me well enough to know that."

"I know you as well as I want to know you," Azalea shot back. "Anymore and I'd go into boredom overload."

He wanted to reply to that, but didn't. Instead, he took a seat on the sofa across from them, watching as Azalea went back to her book.

And hoping against hope once more that one day she would maybe finally see the side of him worth loving.