Shadows || A Severus Snape Fanfiction

Chapter 16 - A Slippery Slope

A/N: This chapter doesn't feature SS :c But the next one does so hang in there!

Thank you for sticking with the story so far ❤️ I've got so much stuff planned and we're still only in the 'introduction' whoopsie 🙈

Leave a vote if you're enjoying the journey :P

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Very quickly, the school year began to drag. Asha was finding a lot of her classes exceedingly boring, seeing as she had learnt a lot of the magic already, and classes like History of Magic were dull to begin with. But Magical Creatures was usually good fun (Hagrid had them trying to wrangle Blast Ended Skrewts nearly every lesson) and Potions was at least challenging, but being around Snape always made her paranoid that she was being watched or might accidentally give away another piece of herself. She was also very fond of the new DADA teacher and he had mentioned he was going to get them to practice resisting the imperious curse at some point which Asha thought would be very interesting.

On the 30th of October, the long-anticipated arrival of the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students finally dawned. The following evening, during the Halloween Feast, the names of the champions were presented from the Goblet of Fire: Viktor Crum, Fleur Delacour and Cedric Diggory (Despite the fact Asha lacked a feeling of belonging in Hufflepuff, she still felt a strong sense of house-pride when Cedric was announced to be Hogwarts Champion) were selected. Oh, and Harry Potter.

The whole school was furious that the famous 'Boy Who Lived' had somehow weaselled his way into the competition, and Asha was one of them. She had trusted Dumbledore when he had told her no exceptions would be made for underage students. How could she have been so nieve? Everyone knew Dumbledore practically worshipped Harry. In their first year he gifted Harry and his friends only about a bazillion house points for breaking school rules. It was fair to say that Asha was indeed quite bitter.

However, she channelled her bitterness into a brilliant idea and a few days later she found herself face to face with Cedric Diggory.

She had followed him on the way to his Charms class and non-verbally cast Tranquillium Sedato on him - the same frowned-upon spell she had used to coerce Madeline back to East Sussex with her dead child. Cedric drowsily slipped from his throng of friends and disappeared with Asha around a corner. She guided him behind a large tapestry into a secret corridor and lifted the spell.

"Wha... how did I get here?" yawned Cedric, rubbing his eyes. "Er, sorry- who're you?"

"Hi Cedric, my name's Asha, I just wanted a quick word," she said cordially.

"Hang on, aren't you that girl who punched a wall or something? Asha Winters?"

"Yup, that's the one," she admitted reluctantly.

"Huh, I can't actually imagine you being the violent type," Cedric mused.

"Well, I did just bewitch you," Asha reminded him.

"Yeah, about that... pretty sure that's against school rules."

"You gonna report me?" She raised an eyebrow.

"I haven't decided yet," replied Cedric, flashing that endearing smile of his. "So what is it you want? You're not going to ask me to go with you to Hogsmeade, are you? Girls have been doing that all weekend."

Asha gave a small laugh. "No, not quite. I'll get straight to the point; I want to help you prepare for the Tournament."

Now it was Cedric's turn to laugh. "No offence, but I'm not sure there's much you have to offer me. Aren't you only a fourth year?"