black and white ✰ g.w.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The next two weeks went by fast and before anyone knew it, the first task of the Triwizard Tournament was upon them. Students only had morning classes and lunch before they were to make their way down to where the task would take place. Angelina, Alicia, and Olivia walked down together. Fred, George, and Lee had left them so they could go around and have people place bets on what would happen during the task. Olivia had almost not allowed them to do so but George's challenging grin make her choke on her words.

"What's going on with you? You're a prefect, you're not supposed to let anyone get away with anything," Angelina said as they made their way to the stands. "I mean, I'm not complaining, but I've never known you to be lenient for anybody."

"It's because she likes George and she doesn't want him to think she's stuck up," Alicia said.

"I just don't like unnecessary conflict," Olivia said.

Her friends scoffed. "You don't like unnecessary conflict? I'm sorry, but was it not you that threw a dungbomb into Oliver's room just because you were bored?"

"And was it not you that organized that elaborate prank on Ben and got your whole family to participate because you think it's funny when he's angry?" Angelina added.

"It is," Olivia said. "And it wasn't the whole family. Grandpa, Uncle Henry, and Sarah wouldn't do it."

"You're literally the queen of unnecessary conflict," Alicia said. "Honestly, I don't know how we didn't see this coming. You and George are perfect for each other."

"Liv, this is so exciting," Angelina said. "We could go on double dates! How cute would that be?"

"It wouldn't. I don't want to go on a date with you," Olivia said. "Besides, George doesn't know about any of the prank stuff and he doesn't like me."

"Oh, codswallop," Alicia said. "If he didn't like you, he wouldn't bother to spend so much time with you. And once he finds out about all of the pranks, he'll only like you that much more. And you'll get married and have a bunch of chaotic children that'll burn your house down."

The thought made Olivia smile, but she immediately looked down at the ground, hoping her shoulder-length hair would block her face. "Not true."

"Look, to prove it to you, we'll just leave an empty seat next to you and when the boys join us, we'll see where George sits," Angelina suggested.

And so that's what they did. Angelina and Olivia sat next to each other, leaving an empty seat on Angelina's left and another on Olivia's right. Alicia sat one seat over from Olivia. If asked, they would act as if they were angry with each other; this was highly believable, seeing as the two bickered often.

"Um," Alicia said, looking down in the center of the stadium where the champions would compete, "why are there eggs and why is only one of them gold?"

"They're dragon eggs," Fred said. He, George, and Lee were just joining them. As expected, he sat down next to Angelina, George between Olivia and Alicia, and Lee on the other side of Alicia. Alicia smirked at Olivia, who rolled her eyes.

"The golden egg is the one the champions have to get," George said.

"And how do you know all this?" Angelina asked the twins.

"We've just been to see our brother Charlie," Fred said. He nodded in the general direction of the older Weasley boy.

"He works with dragons in Romania," George said.

"You're not saying that the champions are fighting dragons?" Olivia asked hopefully.

"That's exactly what we're saying."

Olivia looked to the sky as if saying a silent prayer.

A few minutes later, a dragon was brought out, the canons went off, and Cedric came out. It seemed all of Hogwarts was chanting "Diggory! Diggory! Diggory!" except for Fred and George, who were actually cheering for the dragon. Olivia looked at George with a questioning expression, and he looked at her and winked. Flustered, Olivia quickly looked away. Alicia had witnessed the whole thing and began to laugh.

To distract his dragon, Cedric transfigured a rock into a labrador so that he might sneak past to get to the golden egg. This method seemed to work a bit, but then the dragon got bored with the dog and turned on Cedric. He was badly burned but retrieved the egg just before being sent to the tent set up as a makeshift infirmary.

Next was Fleur. She used a charm to make the dragon sleep. Since dragons were extremely large creatures whose scales usually deflected spells, Olivia was greatly impressed by this. Fleur then went for the golden egg, but while she was sneaking past the slumbering dragon, it snored, letting out a jet of flame that set her skirt on fire. She put the fire out with water from her wand, however, and got the golden egg.

Viktor was third. He cursed the dragon to make it blind, and while it allowed him to sneak past and retrieve the golden egg, the dragon began to stagger around, smashing all of the real eggs.

"Not so brilliant now, is he, Liv?" Angelina joked.

Last to compete was Harry. This was when Olivia became extra nervous and began to bite her nails out of worry. Angelina noticed and quickly grabbed her hands and pulled them away from her face.

"Relax, Liv, it's Harry," said George, who had noticed. "He's had - what is it? three? four? - near-death experiences now. If he was meant to be dead it would've happened a long time ago. He'll be fine."

"If you say so," said Olivia.

They watched as Harry got out his wand and yelled out a spell, which they couldn't hear from where they sat. A minute later, his broomstick was flying towards him. He mounted the broom and flew around the dragon, forcing it to abandon its eggs so he could dive for it and grab the golden one. He succeeded in a much shorter time than the other three, and for that, he received a lot of praise.

[word count: 1039]
[written: 5/15/20]
[published: 6/12/20]