Let's Blame Magic

Chapter Thirty-Eight

  There are not enough hours in the day. You wake up one morning and it’s the start of a new day but one blink, and you’re getting ready for bed. That’s how the days felt for Ariella as the third and final Tri-Wizard challenge dawned upon the castle. Early in the morning, Ariella and her friends managed to give the champions, even Viktor, a good-luck greet before they left to train, only later to see them at dusk at the final challenge venue.

  Ariella found herself sitting with familiar faces from the first challenge; she was happy and excited that this time, she would actually get to witness the event for herself. But to her dismay, when she arrived at the venue there was a nature made maze that went on for yards. Ariella and her friends being early for a challenge, they went down to the champion tent leaving Neville to watch the seats. Before they made their way to the champion tent, as they were walking down, Ambrosia and Draco were walking up.

  Draco looked up at Ariella and gave a smile. Ariella didn’t know whether to return the smile with Ambrosia clinging to his arm but as Ariella looked over at Ambrosia, it appeared she was far too busy talking to her friend standing behind them. Ambrosia turned around and stared at Ariella as the smile she had on her face while talking to her face vanished.

   “Draco, let’s go find our seats.” Ambrosia said in a calm tone, one Ariella was not familiar with.

   “Alright. I’ll see you around, Ariella.” Draco said as if he was back to the guy Ariella grew to know. As Ambrosia and Draco walked pasted Hermione, Ron and Ariella. The three stared at each other; Ron made a side comment wondering if their bodies were possessed with spirits and if so, he wanted the spirits to stay.

   “Oh, you lot.” Draco called out as Ambrosia was a step above him. Draco’s body was turned partial towards them; the three knew it was too good to be true but as they examined Draco’s face, it looked as if Draco was worried about something. “Tell Potter and Diggory to be careful out there. Don’t say I said that.” He said without an explanation, turning around leading Ambrosia to a seat.

  The three stared at each other oddly.

   “On second thought, I like the old Malfoy better. Him acting nice gives me the creeps.” Ron said as they continued to walk down the remaining steps.

  As the sun shined amber orange, the three arrived at the champion tent. They dispersed to talk to each and every one of the champions, even Hermione who was called over by Viktor Krum. Inside, Ariella watch people scurry from one end of the tent to the other. Ariella began to talk with Fleur who looked dreadful; for her, the tournament seemed exciting but towards the end, it seemed as if she deeply regretted putting her name into the goblet of fire. Every time the crowd cheered, Fleur would look completely mortified and anxiety show on her face. After consoling Fleur, Ariella noticed an immaculate looking couple entering the tent, walking towards Fleur and Ariella. Sure enough, Ariella put the pieces together that they were Fleur’s parents. Ariella left for Fleur to reunite with her parents as she wandered to visit Cedric, upon noticing that the Weasley family was surrounding Harry.

   The closer Ariella was to Cedric, the more at ease she was seeing Mr. and Mrs. Diggory smiling at her with their son in the middle.

   “Ariella, it’s good to see you again!” Mr. Diggory smiled and roared.

  Before Ariella could reply, Mrs. Diggory wrapped her arms around Ariella with an ear to ear grin on her face. She was far too happy to see Ariella, not that she was complaining but it seemed a bit odd to her. Mrs. Diggory wrapped her arms tightly around Ariella, causing little to no air to pass through her body, once Cedric called out to his mum, a pressure lifted off Ariella’s chest as she inhaled a deep breath.