𝐓𝐎𝐗𝐈𝐂 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ─ draco malfoy

04. things go terribly wrong

A M I R A H A Y E S
September 21st, 1994

LIGHT STREAMS IN through the window. I turn to face my body away from it, hiding from the brightness, pulling my singular pillow over my head, mentally debating whether or not to skip my classes and sleep the entire day away. I could definitely get away with it. Today is already busy enough, they wouldn't care to focus on one student. 

My scheme is ruined as soon as I hear some girls in my dorm talking about the name picking ceremony. I cannot escape from that. Struggling to keep my eyes open, I pull the curtains on my four poster apart and find all of the other girls glaring at me. One of them being the blonde girl from my Potions class.

"Is something wrong?" I say groggily, sitting up and rubbing my eyes.

A bunch of "No, nothing" was muttered under breaths as they all returned to preparing for the long day. Clearly they had been talking about me before I awoken.  Although, it hardly matters to me.

My mind traces thoughts about a certain idiot who decided it was a good idea to enter his name, the more I think about the competition the more nervous I become. Nervous for him. There really isn't a solution to why I am so choked up about the name choosing when I, myself, cannot be chosen. It's perfectly normal to worry about your friends, I remind myself.

At one point I had desperately wished to be allowed to enter, now all I can think about is how this competition is known to be brutal, that's why it's so rare. There must be some kind of threat, right? A reason why there's an age limit? A reason why you are considered so honorable for completing it? For winning it? God, it's too early for this shit.

Once fully dressed, I head down the stone steps towards the common room, seeing the back of Cedric's head, him being surrounded by a swarm of people as usual. I brush past everyone discreetly, opting out on walking with Cedric to breakfast today. Maybe it's selfish, but I don't feel up to conversation right now. Sometimes I feel too tired to make forced small talk.

I walk towards the Gryffindor table seeing my three favourite people at this school enjoying their morning, Harry and Ron sitting on one side of the table, and Hermione across from them.  I sit down, feeling comfortable in the house's prescience. Nobody looks at me oddly when I sit with them, nobody asks me to leave. They all accept me here, even though I'm in Hufflepuff. It has been like this since first year. I feel safe sitting with them.

"Earth to Amira." Hermione says, waving a hand in front of my face. I must've zoned out.

"Sorry." I mumble and pick up my fork, stabbing into some eggs.

Ron starts a conversation with Harry over quidditch, vanishing the awkward silence and allowing Hermione to speak with me privately.

"You alright?" She asks softly, not being intrusive or pushy. Simply worried.

"Yeah-" I say.

"Just worried about this whole tournament I guess." I continue.

"Worried about the tournament or about a certain student that might be involved?" Hermione teases, talking quietly, smirking.

I know the answer to her question, and I think she does too.

"The latter." I reply, shoving the fork with eggs into my mouth.

Hermione nods knowingly and looks to the boys, I continue to eat and listen absentmindedly to Ron and Harry fanboying over Viktor Krum, a student from Durmstrang who's also a well-known quidditch player. I don't find him remotely attractive, but the majority of the school seems to think otherwise. However, I can come to agreement that the girls from Beauxbatons are stunning.