Hidden Feelings - A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Chapter Twenty-Three

A/N Don't you hate it when you're sick and you're like miserable and then you just keep getting more sick and you're like ???? shouldn't I be getting better

Me @ my body on day four of a cold that started with a sore throat and has left me with no voice, a bad cough, and the inability to breathe through my nose

"Elizabeth!"

Harry jumps to his feet the moment I enter the common room, exclaiming my name.

"Yes?" I respond, a little surprised at his enthusiasm.

"Hagrid asked us to meet him at his hut tonight," he explains, and I frown.

"Tonight? What time?"

"Ten."

"Ten?" I echo. "A teacher is asking us to break curfew?"

"I know. It seems odd, doesn't it?" he asks, mirroring my concerned expression. "He told us to bring my cloak."

"You don't think it's something with the task, do you?" I lower my voice, although no one is very close to us.

He gives a subtle nod. "I thought that too."

I can feel that same sinking in my stomach as I imagine finding out what the first task is. It's better than finding out the day of...but part of me is fine with putting it off.

I can't do it, I think.

Yet, just hours later, after dinner, I find myself walking across the grass with Harry under his invisibility cloak. We're both silent, but neither of us stay quiet in fear of getting caught. We're simply...in fear.

"Hagrid," Harry calls out softly as we approach him. He stands by the door of his house, looking around anxiously, wringing his hands. His head snaps over to where he heard Harry's voice.

"Don't take the cloak off," he quickly orders, right as Harry was reaching down to pull it off of us. He stops, letting go of the fabric. "Just follow me. And be quiet!"

"Hagrid, is your hair brushed?" Harry asks.

"Shh!" he hisses as he starts toward the forest. "Elizabeth's there too, right?"

"Yes," I say softly.

"Good."

We follow him into the forest, staying not far behind Hagrid. I can feel my worry growing as it gets darker and darker, Harry's breathing and the sound of our footsteps all I can focus on to keep myself from freaking out. A noise, some sort of roar, erupts in the distance, causing me to flinch; Hagrid doesn't seem surprised, continuing on as if it didn't concern him.

"Look!" Harry whispers in my ear. "Do you see that light?"

I pull him over to get a better view up ahead, and sure enough, there's a faint, flickering light. Another roar cuts through the air, louder this time.

My heart begins to race. What if this really is the first task?

The first sight of the dragons causes me to freeze in my tracks. Hagrid continues walking toward Madame Maxine, who stands near the clearing that the dragons are being kept in. I turn to Harry, the fire illuminating his face through the cloak. He turns to me at the same time, his eyes wide, face pale.

"This is the first task?" he mumbles.

I nod silently, turning my head back. "I guess it is."

He starts walking toward them, gently nudging me along with him. I take slow steps forward, feeling my throat closing up as one of the dragons roared, the sound nearly bursting my eardrums. More fire, then a face appears, sporting a mouth filled with horrifying, weapon-like teeth. We stop maybe five feet from the edge of the clearing, staring at the monsters.