***

{Draco's POV}

His breath caught in his throat when he heard Dumbledore called her name, and not in a good way. His pale eyes widened on he saw everyone turn to the girl in question. He couldn't believe it. Astrid thought that violence was unnecessary until it was necessary. Like when someone hurt you are was hurting someone else. Not for others entertainment.

Looking over at her, Draco saw that she looked at she was having a panic attack. Silent tears seemed to run down her cheeks without her knowledge as she did nothing to rid them. He wanted to go over to her, to hold her and tell her that everything would be ok, to never let anything even get close to hurting her.

The girl sitting next to her, which he soon realized was Daisy even though he could only see the back of her poofy afro hair, was trying to calm her down but it didn't seem to work. Her eyes were fixated on something and nothing at the same time. It was like she was wasn't there at all.

Draco watched as Professor McGonagall hurried over to her and pulled her up. Quickly pulling her away from the house tables as he heard them calling out accusations about how she got in. What caught his interest was the whispering he could hear from his right. A sixth year boy sitting next to him, which was a big mistake, was whispering to the boy next to him.

"I mean, I would put her name in if I could shag her."

As something snapped in Draco as he whipped out his wand and pressed the tip of it to the boys side under the table. "If I see you talk about her like that again, if I even see you get close to her, I will not hesitate to hex you into oblivion. Do you understand?" He whispered menacingly to the boy. The unnamed Slytherin boy nodded timidly he eyes widened, he most not have noticed you was sitting by.

He put away his wand as his head continued to fill with images and scenes of Astrid getting hurt in whatever horrid trial she would face in the Tri-Wizard tournament.

***

{Astrid's POV}

Her face was still cuddled into Harry neck as she didn't want to other champions to see her cry. He seemed to not no what to do since he was awkwardly hugging her and rubbing her back.

Bustling and arguing could be heard from the stairs down. She pulled her head away to see Dumbledore, Snape, Professor McGonagall, stumbling down the stairs as they shouted at each other.

Cedric pulled Astrid away from Harry carefully, as to not upset the young girl, as Dumbledore shouted at the chosen one, "Harry!"

The headmaster grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him back as he shouted at the poor boy, "Harry did you put your name in the goblet of fire?!"

"No sir!"

"Did you get one of the older students to put your name in?!"

"No sir!"

"Are you absolutely sure?!"

"Yes sir!" Dumbledore turned to Astrid who had the side of her face against Cedric's chest as he rubbed her back with his hand, silently calming the girl down. Her eyes were slightly red and puffy from the crying as her cheeks were still wet from unwanted tears.

"Astrid, did you?" The headmasters voice was soft, almost cautious as he didn't want to make her cry anymore. She shook her head into her fellow Hufflepuffs chest and choked out, "N-No sir." She was still processing everything that had happened in the past five minutes.

The sudden smacking of something metal made Astrid jump as she turned to see a furious Madam Maxin saying, "But of course they are lying!"

"To hell they are! The Goblet of Fire is an exceptionally powerful magical object only an Exceptionally powerful confundus charm could have hoodwinked it! Magic way beyond the terms of two fourth years, especially that one!" At the end of Mad Eye Moodys speech he casually pointed to Astrid making her face contort in disbelief and confusion.

From her past knowledge, she knew that she was quite intelligent in the charms department, after all her mother was the charms teacher. He didn't know what he was talking about. In any other situation she would have argued back and saying how that was a rude assumption about her but at the moment, With everything that had just happened, she stayed silent.

"You seen to have been given this a fair bit of thought, Mad Eye." The Bulgarian headmaster said menacingly to the new defense against the dark arts teacher.

"It was once my job to think as dark wizards do. Perhaps you've forgotten, Karkaroff-" Mad Eye Moody was cut off by Dumbledore pushed between and pass the two head-strong males, saying, "That doesn't help Alastor!"

Somewhere in the time with the two teachers arguing,Astrid had pulled herself away from Cedric But still kept her self at arms width way from him as she still felt unsteady.

"Leave this to you, Barty." Dumbledore and the other adults stood around the old man as he gave his insight on the situation.

"The rules are absolute. The Goblet of Fire constitutes a binding magical Contract," He turned around with wide eyes and continued, "Mr. Potter and Ms. Lux have no choice. They are, as of tonight, TriWizard champions."

Astrids heterochrome eyes widened as everything sinked in.

"Holy cra-"

A/N: Holy shit! 100k views?! Are you kidding?! Y'all are crazy! Thank you so much for the views! I love reading your comments and everything, they really making me happy reading them and give me the confidence to keep writing! 🥺💕