The Boy Who Made the Right Choice

12- The second task

Up in the Gryffindor tower, Ron awoke on Sunday morning, embracing the cool but humid change of weather in the air.

"Hmph, mornin'." Ron greeted the empty bed next to him through a loud yawn as he sat up in bed. "Harry?" He lifted one eye open; Harry wasn't in bed.

"Morning, boys!!" A loud, cheerful greeting shouted joyfully from the doorway at the top of the stairs, and almost every Gryffindor boy in the dormitory awoke, making annoyed groaning noises by the sudden yell.

"Wha... Hermione?" The curly-haired girl almost skipped toward where Ron was still rubbing his eyes.

"Up and early, remember? The second task is in a few hours, and I don't want us to miss it." Her eyes immediately fell on the empty bed next to Ron's, and she furrowed her bushy brows. "Where's Harry?"

"Dunno." Ron yawned through a complexed look. Then he grinned knowingly. "Maybe he's gone down to the dungeons early." He mumbled, though it didn't go unnoticed by Hermione, who had ears like a cat.

"Why would he do that?"

"Uhh.... Malfoy."

"Malfoy?"

"To wish him good luck?"

"Well, I guess that makes sense... he still hasn't stopped worrying about him?"

"Apparently not." Ron mumbled.

The boy of which they had been talking about was unknowingly not within the safe castle walls, nor was he awake.

~~~~~

Down in the dungeons, Draco had awoken at the crack of dawn to prepare for the shortly coming task, and walked into the common room an hour later where everyone was obviously still half asleep but out of bed nonetheless.

Blaise saw his entry and threw a pillow at the blonde and mumbled something along the lines of "You've got an unhealthy obsession with hair gel."

Draco just threw it back at him as he entered the room and admired his reflection in the mirror nearby. "Well not all of us can pull of the just-rolled-out-of-bed look." He'd woken up like any other morning, with his platinum hair ruffled and messy and knotted, until he'd combed it to perfection again - though he didn't bother using gel since it was going to get annoyingly wet anyway.

"Merlin, I wish I could see you with bed hair." Goyle teased from his bean bag.

"Why's that?"

"Cause I bet you look a lot like how Potter does on a daily basis."

"I take that as a compliment!" Draco shut his mouth quickly, repulsed at what he'd just said in front of the Slytherin common room.

"What'd you just say?"

You know what? Screw it. "I said Potter's mucked up hair looks good on him, alright?" With that, Draco walked out through the portrait hole and slammed it shut a bit harder than usual which earned him a scowl from the portrait of Salazar himself.

Later that morning, bustling crowds of students from all three schools descended from the castle on the hill toward the Black Lake where dozens of wooden boats were awaiting at the docks.

Draco and Severus Snape walked side by side through the crowd. "Miss Parkinson asked me for Gillyweed at the end of our last lesson," Snape begun stiffly.

"She did?"

Snape nodded subtly, and brought a black-gloved hand out from behind his back, revealing a cluster of green, slimey looking weed in his palm.

Draco took the Gillyweed from Snape. Though most people would look at it with a disgusted expression, Draco just eyed it casually like the typical potions brewing wizard he was.