Ella Potter (Draco Malfoy)

Chapter 32

Time was slipping away as though somebody had bewitched the clocks to go extra-fast. There was a week to go before February the twenty-fourth...there were five days to go...three days to go... with two days left till the second task, Ella noticed Harry started to go off food again. In return, Draco noticed Ella eating less as well.

"What's the matter?" Draco asks as he pushes a plate at her "You love to eat."

"I can't help it," Ella mutters "I'm worried."

"There's no need to be worried," Draco took her hand comfortingly "as much as I'd love to watch your brother fail, he's Harry fricken Potter."

Ella giggles before kissing his hand "Thanks."

Whether Hagrid was trying to make up for the Blast-Ended Skrewts, or because there were now only two skrewts left, or because he was trying to prove he could do anything that Professor Grubbly-Plank could. Hagrid had been continuing her lessons on unicorns ever since he'd returned to work.

It turned out that Hagrid knew quite as much about unicorns as he did about monsters, though it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing. Today he had managed to capture two unicorn foals. Unlike full-grown unicorns, they were pure gold.

"Easier ter spot than the adults," Hagrid told the class. "They turn silver when they're abou' two years old, an' they grow horns at aroun four. Don' go pure white till they're full grown, 'round about seven. They're a bit more trustin' when they're babies...don' mind boys so much....C'mon, move in a bit, yeh can pat 'em if yeh want...give 'em a few o' these sugar lumps...." Hagrid moved aside to talk to Harry.

Ella patted the foals as Draco stood behind her watching.

"You really like those things, don't you?" Draco asks.

"Well, they're cute." Ella responds.

"So, you can be a girl," Draco jokes.

"Shut up," Ella stood up and swat him on the arm.

The next day Draco and Ella were outside by the lake doing homework together when Blaise approached them.

"We're busy" Draco tells him without looking up "Can't whatever you want wait?"

"Not really" Blaise says "Snape wants to see Ella in his office"

Draco sighs in annoyance

"wouldn't want to upset my father now do you?" Ella asks teasingly

"No" Draco huffs

"I'll see you later sweetheart" Ella kisses his cheek before following Blaise off

But Draco did not see Ella later, or for the whole night. When morning came, he was even more surprised that she wasn't there.

The entrance hall contained a few last-minute stragglers, all leaving the Great Hall after breakfast and heading through the double oak doors to watch the second task. They stared as Harry and Ron flashed past, sending Colin and Dennis Creevey flying as they leapt down the stone steps and out onto the bright, chilly grounds.

As they pounded down the lawn they saw that the seats that had encircled the dragons' enclosure in November were now ranged along the opposite bank, rising in stands that were packed to the bursting point and reflected in the lake below. The excited babble of the crowd echoed strangely across the water..

"Good luck" Ron says as he splits from Harry

"Thanks" Harry calls out as he continues running

Harry ran flat-out around the other side of the lake toward the judges, who were sitting at another gold-draped table at the water's edge. Cedric, Fleur, and Krum were beside the judges' table, watching Harry sprint toward them.