The Girl Who Lived (Draco Malfoy x OC)

The Third Wheel

November 24th 1994

Harper stood on the rocky terrain staring at the imposing white tent, her brain synapses firing like a hyped up internal aurora borealis. It was only a matter of minutes until she would be fending for her life in the nearby arena. When Ginny revealed to her that Charlie was bringing dragons over for the first task in the tournament- well she had fainted right there and then in the Gryffindor common room. It didn't get any easier for her in the next few weeks leading up to the first task. Running into dead end after dead end in the library to find a way to survive this bloody contest.

A pregnant sigh wracked her body, hands fisted in tension.

Ginny squeezed her shoulder. "You've got this, Harp," she reassured. "You have been practicing the Summoning Charm for weeks now. Once you're on your broom, there's going to be no stopping you."

"Except the big bloody dragon," she gestured wildly into the air.

"Stop doubting yourself!" Ginny said, her own patience running thin.

Harper had to give it to her best friend. From the moment Dumbledore pulled her name out of the goblet, she was nothing but supportive. She stayed up with Harper every sleepless night, held her hand through every sudden panic attack and stood beside her every day in the library while she and Hermione looked for solutions. Her eyes ran over the little Weasley, blanched skin and purpling bags under her eyes. She smiled at Harper, but she could see that it wasn't meeting her dulled eyes.

"I really cannot thank you enough for everything you have done for me this year, Gin," she spoke softly.

This time her eyes sparkled a little more. She squeezed her again, pulling her close and resting her chin on her shoulder. "You can thank me by surviving," she joked without the humour.

Harper closed her eyes, settling her own head against Ginny's as they wrapped their arms around each other. The hug would never be long enough for Harper. She hesitantly let go, knowing her next step was into the champions tent and then into the arena.

"Bets, place your bets!" Fred's voice could vaguely be made out in the distance amongst the students walking to the once Quidditch pitch.

"Bets taken!" George followed. "Bets taken here!"

"Are you serious?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "They never miss a chance do they?"

"Getting a breath of fresh air are we, Potter?" Malfoy's obnoxious voice punctured the air, "I guess you won't be doing it for much longer." The posse of Slytherin's around him burst into laughter. Unlike a majority of Hogwarts school, they weren't holding any banners for Harper or Cedric. From this distance it looked like Crabbe actually adorned a Krum scarf.

Typical, Harper mused.

Usually she would appease Malfoy, throw back some equally bating comment, but Harper didn't want to waste her last few breaths on the snake. So she simply ignored him, noticing how his smug grin faded as he continued to the arena.

"Miss. Potter!" McGonagall's shaken voice called as she wandered over. "You should be in the tent now, Mr. Bagman will be explaining the procedure shortly."

"I'm on my way, Professor," Harper replied.

"Good good, don't panic," she went on to say as though her brain wasn't already mental soup, "just keep a cool head. We've got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand. The main thing is just to do your best and nobody will think any the worse of you."

She stopped just short of the white tent. An unstoppable snowball in the pit of her stomach growing larger and larger. Harper was struggling to concentrate on anything she was doing already and she hadn't even seen her opponent.