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EIGHT.
ARABELLA HAD been soundlessly asleep when she was abruptly awoken by a loud knock on her door. She received moans of small abuse from Deanna as the noise woke her also - along with Erin, who seemed to be too engrossed in daydreaming about Anthony Goldstein to shout at Bella like she usually would. Instead she just rolled over, cocooned in her covers, and pushed her head further into the fabric of her pillow.
Still not completely vigilant due to her immense drowsiness, Bella stumbled over to her slippers where they lay in a pile of clothes at the foot of her bed. Slipping them on her feet, she hastily pulled on her Ravenclaw robes over her pyjamas, as the cold night air was biting at her skin. She grabbed her wand from her dresser, whispering "Lumos," and wincing at the sudden bright light in her vision.
She reluctantly opened the dormitory door with an unpleasant creak, and gasped when she saw Viktor Krum standing there. His face was sheepish, yet his muscular body still stood proudly without shivering or shaking like Arabella's was. She supposed that this was because the Durmstrang Academy was located in Scandinavia (or so she was told by Hermione Granger, who had read every book in the library about Durmstrang before their arrival) and he was possibly used to the cold conditions.
Bella, however, was not.
"Viktor? What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night." She asked through a yawn. Scanning his attire, she noticed that he was clad in pyjamas too, and suddenly felt far less uncomfortable knowing that she wasn't the only one who was not as covered-up as she would have liked to be.
The Bulgarian stroked the back of his neck nervously. "Well, I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about what Harry Potter told me."
Bella's eyebrows furrowed in perplexity. "What'd he tell you?"
"That the first task is a dragon, and we have to fight it."
She nods in recognition, remembering what he had told her prior. "I know I agreed to help you, but I still don't understand how I will be of any use when fighting a dragon."
"I'm only asking you to try, Bella."
She sighed with exhaustion, nodding her head as much as her low energy levels would allow her to. "Ok, fine, I'll help you. But we will have to talk somewhere more private than the castle. Filch and Professor Snape tend to patrol the corridors at this time of night."
"How about the Durmstrang ship?"
"If you think I'm swimming across a lake at midnight in my pyjamas just to get to your stupid--"
"I was going to suggest walking across the dock, but now you've said it we'll take the exciting option." Viktor ordered; a smirk plastered across his clean-shaven face.
