From a Cradle to a Grave

Chapter 24

I know I haven't updated this book in nearly a month, so I'm not sure how many of you will be reading this, but here's a new chapter :D

I'm sorry it took so long to update ^-^

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Third Person Pov

Fire. That was the first thing Hope saw. A streak of blue flames, rising up from the thick foliage of the forest.

Her werewolf ears picked up on a strange, animalistic roar...

'Dragons,' she thought to herself. Hope's jaw dropped open in shock at what she was seeing. From her little hiding place in between the bushes, she could see several grown wizards attempting to take down a large black dragon with stunning spells.

A mixture of fear and awe struck her at the same time. These dragons... They were magnificent. Their thick, leathery hides and their large, snakelike eyes looked to be something straight out of a hero's tale.

But at the same time...

This. This was the first task that Hope would be facing in the Triwizard Tournament. Giant reptilian beasts who could breathe fire and fly around in the air.

Hope was screwed.

As she headed back to the castle, she frowned, wondering to herself why on earth Professor Vaughan would have given her such a huge head start to the tournament. Hope couldn't remember a single time she had even spoken in one of Vaughan's classes.

So why? Why had Vaughan given Hope such a huge piece of help?

Vaughan's intentions, however, were the least of Hope's worries. A giant dragon-shaped problem had appeared inside Hope's mind, and she had two days to come up with a way to take down a full grown dragon. And, since she had isolated herself from her friends and siblings by acting like a huge prat for two weeks straight, the only person she could turn to were her fellow Slytherins- Hope shuddered at the thought of putting her life in the hands of people like Crabbe and Goyle. Or worse yet, people like Pansy Parkinson, who probably wanted nothing more than to see Hope utterly humiliated.

A sudden motion caught Hope's eye, and she immediately crouched down in the bushes. She peeked around the hedge, to see that Karkaroff was sneaking away from the forest, and back to his ship.

Great. So now, Viktor Krum would know all about what they would be facing on Tuesday.

Something was coming from behind Hope, as well. She turned around just in time to spot Hagrid and Madame Maxime exiting the forest, smiling and talking to one another.

Well. This was just perfect. The one advantage Hope thought she had was now public knowledge. It seemed that Cedric Diggory would be the only champion who would be waking up on Tuesday with absolutely no knowledge of what the day had in store for him.

Hope contemplated telling Diggory about the dragons, then decided against it. There was no reason why she should help him. They certainly weren't friends. And when all the Hufflepuffs had started calling Hope a freak, Diggory hadn't intervened at all.

She walked back into the castle, and stared longingly at the staircase leading up to Gryffindor Tower. She felt a sudden pang of guilt at the way she had treated her friends, especially now that she needed them more than ever before. But she quickly shook these thoughts out of her head. It was much easier to shut everyone out, than to have to cope with the pain of knowing she would forever be an outsider.

That night, as Hope lay in bed, she realized something rather important. For the past two weeks, she had been parading herself around Hogwarts as if she owned the place. She had been bullying, cursing, and hexing everyone her eyes could find. People had stayed away from her because they believed her to be this all-powerful being.