The Boy Who Made the Right Choice

3- Relieved until after

The next few days flew by faster than a Firebolt. Draco had already become too busy with school work to really think more about the choice he'd made on Monday night, and as if time had sped up, Thursday came quicker than he could calculate.

"Hey, are you okay?" Draco sat down next to Blaise in the Great Hall looking as though he were about to have a panic attack.

"Yeah, all good." The Malfoy boy lied right through his teeth, forcing a smile, even though he half knew that it was pointless not telling Blaise what he'd done if his prediction of what would happen was correct.

Did I make the right choice?

He didn't want to think into it too hard, or else he'd spend the rest of the school year regretting it. But he couldn't help but mentally curse himself, Why? Why am I helping Potter? The answer to which was beyond him, and he just sat in silence as people filled into the room, the tables and bleachers becoming more crowded every minute.

Draco clasped his fists on his knees, and looked anywhere but at the goblet, his anxiety growing like wild fire as Dumbledore and the professors marched into the hall. Dumbledore stepped up to the podium. "It is now time to anounce our champions!"

The entire hall erupted into cheer, and Draco just sank back in his seat, wanting to get this over with. Dumbledore extended an arm, and the fire in the goblet spat out a piece of burnt parchment. "The Durmstrang champion is... Viktor Krum!" At an ear-splitting volume, the Durmstrang men sitting on several rows of bleachers roared with applause and cheer as Krum left his seat to approach Dumbledore, then make his way over to an alicated spot.

The fire spit out another piece of burnt paper, this one being a fancy sky-blue strip. "The Beuxbatons champion is... Fleur Delacour!" Less loud and furious-sounding than before, applause rang throughout the table of girls dressed in blue uniforms, as the blonde girl made her way over to Dumbledore, then to where Krum was standing.

"And now the moment we've all been waiting for... " A snooty looking Beuxbatons girl rolled her eyes as a third piece of burnt parchment flew down from the blue fire, and was caught in Dumbledore's grasp. "The Hogwarts champion is... Cedric Diggory!" The entire majority of Hogwarts students erupted into cheer and appause as the Hufflepuff walked over to the other two champions who gave congradualting smiles to him. A few Slytherins just rolled their eyes and covered their ears, while Draco just sat with eyes bigger than the moon.

Blaise nudged him as the applause died down. "Guess you owe all of us 10 galleons each!" He said happily.

"I- what?" Draco turned to him, finally being able to smile at the fact that his feared prediction had been fortunately wrong

"Your bet? Remember? That the Hogwarts champion would be someone from Gryffindor."

"Oh yeah- uh, I'll pay up once we get back to the common room." Draco smirked, and Blaise reflected his expression.

In that moment, the sapphire flame was engulfed in a glow of scarlet red, silencing the entire hall as if it were enraged. To everyone's utter shock, the fire spit out two pieces of parchment and Draco's heart skipped a beat. 

Dumbledore curiously inspected the two notes; one was completely blank, besides a smudge of recent black ink staining it but with no writing. The other one, Dumbledore read aloud quietly. 

"Draco Malfoy..."

Dumbledore's words were barely above a whisper before he repeated them much louder. "DRACO MALFOY?!" 

The blonde boy's eyes widened to the size of buttons as Pansy ushered him to stand up. It took every bone in Draco's body to stand up and walk over to the head master. When he did though, he was greeted with the burnt parchment thrusted toward him. He looked at the note with more dread than shock; 

Draco Malfoy

The walk to the head master's office was long and silent with nothing but anxiety crawling throughout Draco's pale body as he walked down the stone steps into the office, and stood by a bookshelf containing the Sorting Hat.

A stampeed of several pairs of sprinting footprints echoed through the hall leading into the room, and a dozen professors and headmasters came scurrying down the steps. Dumbledore gripped Draco's shoulders so tight as though he were grasping them for dear life. "Malfoy! Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?"

"I-" Draco hadn't really put his own name in the goblet, but he wasn't exactly innocent either.

"Did you ask one of the older students to do it for you?!" Once again, not exactly what happened that night.

But before Draco even had a chance to speak, Madam Maxime interrupted. "Well, of course ze boy ees lying!"

"Let Mr. Malfoy speak," said Dumbledore as he let go of his grip on Draco. 

"Uh- no, I will naht hear eet! I wahnt to hear Mr. Crouch's perspective on ziss!" Maxime declared, and after a minute of deadly silence, Barty Crouch finally spoke.

"The rules of the Triwizard Tournament are binding magical contracts. Mr. Malfoy has no choice - as of now, he is a Triwizard Champion." 

Draco got sent up to bed about an hour later than everyone else, and so fortunately got to walk through a deserted Slytherin common room, then upstairs to his own bedroom. All the blonde wanted to do when he got there was fling himself into bed and welcome the sleep he'd been chasing all evening, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

 As he quietly closed the door, he turned around to see Blaise sitting on the edge of his bed, crossing his arms with a glare that sent shivers down Draco's spine. "How did you do it?" Draco couldn't answer. "Never mind," Blaise leant forward and walked over to the tall window on the left side of the bed, staring out into the rainy midnight. "you might as well have let your best friend know."

"Blaise-" Once again, Draco silenced himself. He couldn't say he hadn't put his name in the cup, but it'd take an eternity to make Blaise realize that it was for good reason. 'Saving Potter's life.' What were you thinking? 

"Yeah yeah, sure, try and deny it." Blaise turned back around and shoved past Draco as he walked through the door and slammed it shut behind him, leaving Draco in cold silence.

Dozens of feet above, Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall all stood in the headmaster's office, with Snape inspecting the two pieces of parchment that'd fallen mistakingly from the fire. "It looks as though Mr. Malfoy isn't the only underage wizard who put his name in the goblet." He said in a stern voice. "The second one has smudged writing," he continued, using 'leviosa' to show the smudged parchment to McGonagall, who held up her wand and muttered,

"Terego." The smudged ink on the parchment hovering in the air began to sway in certain directions on the paper, and after a few seconds, eventually formed the words; Harry Potter. "What does this mean?" McGonagall exclaimed as Snape slowly lowered the note down onto Dumbledore's desk. "Potter wouldn't try to enter into the tournament! But why was his name smudged, do you think?"

Dumbledore looked up from the glowing blue light of his pensieve. "I predict," He walked over to where McGonagall and Snape were standing in front of his desk. "that Malfoy's entry was placed after Harry's, and so interferred with the name of the parchment. Perhaps if he hadn't put his name in, Harry would've been chosen himself."

McGonagall stood there, slightly gaping. "You're proposing that Mr. Malfoy intentionally put his name in that goblet- to protect Potter?" She made it sound like the most unbelievable thing in the world, which, to many, it was.

"Yes, Minerva. That is what I am suggesting. The reason why however is beyond me."

"So," Snape said after a moment. "you still want Mr. Malfoy to be a Triwizard Champion because he interferred with the choosing of Potter's name, even though he is underage?"

Dumbledore sighed, knowing it sounded bad even when not put into simple summarising words like that. "Yes." He drew his wand, and pulled out a strand of long, silvery substance from the side of his head, and dropped it into the pensieve. "I know you trust your student, Severus. And Malfoy would not have done something so daring like this had it not been for good reason."