In My Dreams [Draco Malfoy]

chapter nine: the first task

INDIGO

Over the next few days, I divided my meals between sitting with the Ravenclaws and sitting with my brother. It felt oddly normal to be breaking my time between friends and family, and if I let myself forget why Blaise and I had begun spending time together in the first place, it would have been. Aria seemed to suspect that there was more to this than I was allowing to meet the eye, and she was right, of course. I would have told her as much if I could be sure that the information wouldn't put her life at risk.

It still didn't feel quite real. I had grown up believing that our father's death had been a mystery, and, in many ways, had accepted that it would always be one. Now Blaise and I were posed with the possibility that the mystery could be solved, and I was left standing somewhere between relief and the wish that things could go back to normal. A part of me wished I had never known that Blaise's mother might be responsible, even though, I realized, another part of me had always thought that. Mum had said that the rumor was just that—a cruel rumor, meant to demonize a woman who had lost her husband far too young. But the string of mysteriously dead husbands that followed had rubbed me the wrong way, too many to be wretched luck, and even now, as I wished that Blaise had never told me his suspicions, I knew he was onto something...

The First Task in the Triwizard Tournament would take place that following Tuesday. Blaise and I had seemed to agree that we would be spending the event with our separate groups of friends. He knew I didn't want to be around Draco as he needlessly goaded Harry, but I did want to discuss Harry and the Tournament with my friends.

As we walked onto the stands and sat down, I came to the startling realization as to why I had even become so invested in Harry's life and impending defeat of Lord Voldemort in the first place, why I had unintentionally implicated my friends. It was because I, like many others, believed that He was back and that Harry was the only one that could stop Him. There would be less disappearances and more peace of mind throughout the Wizarding World when it was over, but I had my own selfish reasons for wanting Harry to win as well. I would never have to see another vision of Voldemort killing someone and know that it was going to happen. Even if I continued to get visions of the past, I would at least know that it was in the past and never again have to fear the day when He announced His return. Because when He did make that declaration, He would do so with flair and a lot of people would die as a result.

The thought welcomed chills to come skittering up my spine and I shuddered.

"Are you cold?" Aria asked.

I blinked. "Oh... no," I said. "I'm okay."

"You're sure?"

I nodded, my voice coming out more assertive now. "Yeah, I'm sure."

I imagined that I looked cold compared to everyone else. Where most had bundled up in their winter cloaks, mittens and earmuffs, I was still dressed in my fall cloak, scarf wrapped around my neck. It was embarrassing to admit (even to myself), but I overheated when I was anxious and to say that I was anxious now would be putting it mildly. Not only would I have to watch Harry (a.k.a. the possible savior of both our world and my future sanity) risk his life, I would have to watch Cedric do the same. And that alone made it so much worse.

Aria, probably understanding where my mind had wandered to, took this as a sufficient claim and turned her head to watch what had once been the Quidditch Pitch. We hadn't had any Quidditch matches this year but the teams were hosting inter-house friendlies so they could, at least, stay in Quidditch-playing shape. I had seen one such match only Sunday afternoon and the Pitch had looked perfectly normal.

Now it looked like the site of an explosion.

What had once been grass was now rocky terrain, the champions' tent on one side, infirmary tent nearby, and a mound of burnt grass and sticks on the other. I looked at it with confusion. It was enormous but there was nothing inside of it, so it wasn't some creature's home. Besides, there was another large tent in the woods a couple yards away, from which I kept hearing roaring and shrieking. Something big would be the subject of this tournament, that much was certain. But what?