"Harry Potter."

The whole hall went silent as Dumbledore read out the fourth, and unexpected, name.

Everyone's eyes swivelled to the Gryffindor table where Harry sat, looking like a stunned mullet.

"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore called again. "Harry! Up here, if you please!"

The hall started buzzing with confused whispers and murmurs as Harry made his way towards the chamber behind the teacher's table.

"What the fuck?!" Susan Bones cursed beside me. "Cedric is the Hogwarts champion - not Harry bloody Potter!"

"The stupid twat is always stealing the limelight," muttered Hannah Abbot, opposite me. "Can't he for once let Hufflepuff have a little pissing glory?!"

I shook my head despairingly. Couldn't they tell from the look on Harry's face that he was just as shocked as the rest of us? And he didn't only look shocked - he looked frightened.

Something strange was going on here, but it seemed that nobody could see past their anger at Harry to notice that we should be worried.

My feeling of elation at seeing both Cedric and Fleur getting called for champions quickly dwindled.

I was starting to get a bad feeling about this Triwizard Tournament.

...

Typical bloody Potter.

Draco scowled as he watched Potter's back disappear behind the chamber door. Never misses a chance to show off.

His eyes fell back upon the Hufflepuff table, and he was pleased to see that they all looked as pissed off as he himself felt.

All except for Aurora, that was.

No, she looked almost... scared.

Draco wondered what would make her feel that way. Surely she wasn't worried about Potter? Didn't she realise that that git walks away unscathed from everything? Worrying about him was a waste of anyone's time.

A sudden brainwave hit him as he thought of a way in which he could show Aurora that he, Draco Malfoy, fully supported Cedric as Hogwarts champion. Yes - a brilliant idea that would surely impress her. He would get working on it tonight.

Hopefully it would cheer her up at least, he thought, as he watched her wringing a hand anxiously down her long, dark hair.

"You're doing it again."

"Piss off, Blaise."

...

"Hey Harry! Wait up!"

Harry Potter stopped in his tracks halfway up the corridor and slowly turned to face me. He had an apprehensive look upon his face as though he was expecting me to start yelling at him.

"You're not mad at me?" He asked as I breathlessly caught up with him, smiling.

"Why would I be mad?" I queried. "It's not your fault your name came out of the Goblet."

A look of relief mingled with confusion flooded his face. "But, Ced-"

"Cedric agrees with me," I interrupted, "Dumbledore placed some serious precautions on that Goblet. Whoever put your name in it, as well as hoodwinking the competition to allow there to be two Hogwarts champions, must be an extremely skilled wizard. So it can't possibly have been you."

"Cheers," Harry chortled. "I'll try not to take too much offence by that."

"The question is," I continued, my face remaining passive, "who did?"

We blinked at one another, the both of us as clueless as the other.

"Thank you," he mumbled after a moment. "No one else seems to believe me other than Hermione. Even Ron hates me."

"Oh, Harry," I sighed sympathetically. He sounded and looked so sad that I was tempted to give him a hug.

"Hey, Potter!"

Harry and I both looked up at the loud, drawling tones drifting up the corridor.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Harry muttered under his breath. "This is all I need."

A smirking Draco Malfoy was striding towards us, flanked by two burly boys resembling dodgy nightclub bouncers, and followed by a hoard of giggling Slytherin girls.

I couldn't help but notice that they all had huge lurid green looking badges pinned to the front of their robes.

"Like them, Potter?" Draco sneered, coming to a halt right in front of us as he proudly thrust his chest forwards, enabling us to get a better look at his badge.

Luminous red letters that burnt brightly in the dimly lit corridor flashed out at us:

Support CEDRIC DIGGORY - the REAL Hogwarts Champion!

Draco's eyes flicked towards me, and I looked back at him aghast as he gave me a cocky little wink.

Was he expecting me to be impressed or something?

"And this isn't all they do - look!" he smirked, pressing the badge into his chest, and the message upon it vanished, replaced by another one:

POTTER STINKS

The Slytherins howled with laughter as they all pressed their badges too, so that Harry and I were faced with the words POTTER STINKS shining brightly all around us.

"Oh, very funny," Harry spat loudly over the sounds of the Slytherin's laughter. "Your wit knows no bounds, Malfoy."

Huffing, he turned on the spot and angrily stormed off up the corridor, leaving me standing with Draco and the rest of the Slytherins.

"Would you like one?" Draco asked, somewhat awkwardly. I looked on in horror as he fumbled in his pocket and drew out a badge which he held out for me to take.

He beamed at me expectantly, his silver grey eyes twinkling into mine.

"Are you kidding me?" I cried incredulously, leaving his hand hanging.

The smile upon his face dropped. "I was thinking of you when I made them. I wanted to show you that we were on your brother's side."

"By making everyone go around wearing badges displaying cruel jibes about my friend?"

Draco scratched the back of his neck, suddenly looking very awkward and unsure of himself.

The two bouncers and the Slytherin girls were all stood in silence glancing nervously at Draco, as if waiting for instruction on what to do next.

"Look," He muttered, re-pocketing the badge, and taking my arm to pull me to the side, out of earshot from the rest of the Slytherins, "if Potter doesn't want the attention then he shouldn't go looking for it!"

"He didn't!" I cried.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the other Slytherin's starting to disperse, as if they sensed Draco was done with them.

"You don't seriously believe he wasn't desperately seeking a bit of glory?" he scoffed, searching my face for clarification.

"You don't seriously believe he is capable of such skilled magic?" I retorted back.

That stumped him.

His grey eyes flickered and I could see he was suffering with some kind of internal conflict.

"My god, you really hate him." I stated, not being able to help the smile tugging at my lips.

"You're cute when you smile," he said, his silver eyes dancing amusedly down at me as he casually leant a shoulder against the wall.

I immediately felt those butterflies again, this time my stomach doing a double flip at the same time.

"Take those badges off." I said as firmly as I could, trying to ignore the heat rising to my cheeks.

"Maybe," he shrugged, his eyes glinting, "if you ask nicely."

"Please." I breathed, looking up at him solemnly.

He stared back down at me and I felt a frisson of something pass between us, making my breath hitch in my throat.

To my surprise, Draco straightened up, unpinned his badge, walked across the corridor to where a bin stood, and tossed it in.

He turned back to face me.

"Happy?"

Swallowing, startled by his gesture, I nodded.

I didn't want to admit it, but I was a little too happy.