Henrietta Potter || Draco Malfoy

11 - Ferret Face

Good God, Colin Creevey has a brother. I've literally now got two of them following me around, beaming at me like I'm Jesus or something.

That aside, the school year began with an exciting start. We finally found out what Draco was harping on about on the train - Hogwarts is going to host an event called The Triwizard Tournament.

Sadly, it's only for students aged seventeen and over, so it didn't look like I would be having much to do with it.

We also had a new teacher called Professor Moody. Everyone calls him Mad-Eye due to his freaky roving eye. He may very well be my most favourite teacher in the world after what he did to Draco

It had been the evening after our first day of classes. Ron, Hermione and I were queuing up for dinner when a loud voice rang out behind us.

"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"

I groaned, turning around to see Draco, Crabbe and Goyle looking thoroughly pleased about something.

"What?" Ron had said shortly.

"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" Draco dramatically pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet with a flourish and spoke very loudly so everyone present could hear. "Listen to this!"

He read the whole article out loud. Mr Weasley had been involved in a tussle with a policeman and the article accused him of being an embarrassment to the Ministry. I could feel Ron dying next to me.

"And there's a picture, Weasley!" Draco said, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house - if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"

Ron was shaking with fury besides me. Everyone was now looking.

"Get stuffed, Malfoy," I spat. "C'mon, Ron..."

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" Draco sneered. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"

"You know your mother, Malfoy?" I said, while Hermione and I grabbed the back of Ron's robes to stop him launching himself at Draco. "That expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Had she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"

Draco's pale face had gone slightly pink. "Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter."

"Keep your fat mouth shut, then," I yelled, turning away.

BANG!

The little prick had thrown a curse at me while my back was turned. Luckily, the lousy shot missed me by inches and instead hit the wall next to me.

By the time I could reach for my wand to fight back, there was another loud BANG.

"OH NO YOU DON'T LADDIE!"

I spun around to see Professor Moody limping over. His wand was out and he was pointing it at a white ferret shivering on the floor, exactly where Draco had been standing.

The whole Hall was silent as we all stared in horror at the ferret.

"Did he get you?" Moody growled, looking at me.

"No, the idiot missed." I laughed nervously.

The ferret started to run off, but Moody was quick.

"I don't think so!" Moody roared, pointing his wand at the ferret again - it flew ten feet up in the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upwards once more.

"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned," He growled, continuing to bounce the ferret up and down. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do..."

I just couldn't believe what I was witnessing. A tiny part of me actually felt sorry for Draco, but I would never, ever admit that out loud.

Professor McGonagall angrily stepped in and turned Draco back to normal. I'd never seen him look more humiliated in my life. His face was pink and he refused to meet anyone's eye as he scurried away.

That was a great day.

***

We had visitors for the Triwizard Tournament. Two other schools were to compete - Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. Ron was ecstatic when it turned out that Viktor Krum was a Durmstrang student.

All the students who wanted to compete in the tournament had to put their name in a thing called the Goblet of Fire.

I was going down to breakfast the morning after our guests arrived, when Cedric Diggory strode up behind me, a big eager grin upon his face.

"I'm putting my name in," he said excitedly, beaming down at me.

"That's great!" I said, "I'll have everything crossed for you."

I walked the rest of the way with him to breakfast, both of us giggling about Draco the ferret boy.

I wished him luck as he stepped up to the Goblet of Fire. Students cheered and he gave me a wink as he dropped his name in.

My flushed cheeks had not gone unnoticed by my Gryffindor chums.

***

Oh. My. Shitting. God.

So it turns out I'm going to be a Hogwarts champion in the Triwizard Tournament. Unbelievable.

Looks like my fourth year isn't going to be a quiet one after all...