Being His Daughter

The Fifth Champion

The next morning I had planned to sleep in late. That did't work since Airam had woken up extra early so we could all go down to see who had put their names into the Goblet of Fire.

"Who cares who's putting their name in?" Jalen said grumpily as she pulled her robes over her head. "All I care about is who's name comes out."

My stomach lurched as I thought about the moment when my name would shoot out of the Goblet, and every eye would turn upon me. I cringed and had to hold back from shivering harshly.

"Are you okay, Sierra?" Airam asked.

"She's probably tired," Jalen snapped. Airam rolled her eyes and averted her attention back to Jalen, leaving me to worry myself to oblivion. We finished getting ready and left while Pansy stayed under covers sound asleep. The green dye wasn't even close to wearing off.

We made our way through the dungeons and up to the main corridor. There were already quite a few people who were up and heading to the Great Hall. When we entered the Hall, the first thing my eyes fell upon was the Goblet. Standing on the wooden chest in the center of the room, it was filled to the brim with flickering flames. Several students were standing around it, observing it with curiosity. There was also an extremely thin blue line surrounding it; the Age Line.

"Has anyone put their name in yet?"

I spun to see Ron right beside my ear, Harry and Hermione behind him.

"I don't know. We only just walked in," I told him stiffly.

"I wonder if anyone from Hogwarts has yet," Harry said, staring at the Goblet pensively. I simply shrugged my shoulders.

"Sierra, are you alright?" Hermione asked.

"She's tired," Jalen grumbled and Airam shot her a glare. Hermione kept her analyzing brown eyes on me as I nodded my head quickly, not daring to look at her out of paranoia. I knew I needed to stop acting so uptight or they would notice even more something wasn't right. I needed to act excited, like Junior had told me.

I turned back to the lot of them so suddenly Ron actually flinched. "I reckon some may have done it last night. I would've. I wouldn't want everyone looking at me, you know?" I mentally slapped myself but forced a smile on the outside. Everyone agreed and nodded and seemed to relax at my forced change of mood.

I looked up and across the hall and noticed Draco talking to Theodore, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle. Theodore looked over Draco's shoulder, spotted me, and hurriedly rushed over, shouldering past Draco. The other three followed him, Draco muttering bitterly to himself and Blaise laughing as always.

"Hey, Rid," Theodore greeted as he twirled a loose strand of hair that had fallen out of my bun and was hanging next to my face. I raised my eyebrows.

"Rid again?" I inquired slyly.

He opened his mouth to respond cheekily when Draco suddenly moved around him and snagged me by the arm, dragging me off to the corner. "Don't start," I warned him, looking back over at everyone else to see them eyeing us in confusion. "You're making this more obvious then it already is, thanks to my amazing acting skills--"

"Brilliant," he snapped, throwing his hands up briefly. "You're already ruining this 'mission' from hell so you might as well quit it all together."

"I can't just quit!" I whined desperately, my head beginning to ache. "That's not who I am and it's pissing me off that you think that's who I am. Don't you get it, Draco? This isn't just for fun! I'm not doing this because I'm bored and I'm not doing this because I think it's an adventure or something. I wouldn't be in this stupid tournament if it wasn't for my father telling me to! This is for him! Why can't you just support me? Especially when I need you so much right now."