different // calum hood + hogwarts

9. the black lake & butterbeers

a week had passed.

calum and elena continued their potions and defense against the dark arts lessons and both of them were getting better at their subjects. when they weren't practicing, they were hanging out with alison, luke and ashton. ashton sort of invited himself into the friend group, but no one seemed to mind, not even luke. word of his and ali's relationship spread around hogwarts and everyone thought they were the cutest couple. word also spread about calum and elena's relationship, but those whispers weren't always so nice.

students wondered why such a sweet hufflepuff girl would get involved with a durmstrang boy. elena didn't let the negative comments affect her, though. she spent as much time as she wanted with calum and made the most of that time. neither of them brought up what would happen to their relationship once calum left hogwarts. it's not like they're an official couple, but both of them definitely felt a connection to other.

when it came time for the second task to take place, the group of friends took a row boat out to the three large towers in the water. elena, calum, alison, luke and ashton found seats together at the top of the middle tower with some other hufflepuff and gryffindor students.

"wow." elena whispers, leaning against the railing and looking out at the black lake as students around her cheer. the view of the lake and the surrounding mountains was gorgeous. she looks down and sees the four champions below her that were getting ready to begin the task.

"careful," calum chuckles, grabbing her arm. "you don't wanna fall from up here."

"oh." she laughs, stepping back from the edge and sitting on the wooden bench beside alison.

calum sits in the middle of elena and ashton, taking her hand in his. elena looks down at their fingers laced together, then smiles up at him. the boy smiles back, but over his shoulder, she sees some of her hufflepuff classmates staring at them. the two girls' facial expressions said they did not approve of elena and calum. they softly whisper to each other then turn away.

"what's wrong?" calum asks when he sees that her smile has faded.

"nothing." elena shakes her head. she takes a deep breath and looks forward once again.

"welcome to the second task," dumbledore announces."last night, something was stolen from each of our champions-- a treasure of sorts. these four treasures, one for each champion, now lie on the bottom of the black lake. in order to win, each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface."

"they have to swim to the bottom of the lake? how are they gonna hold their breath for that long?!" luke asks.

"magic, babe. magic." ali pats his leg.

"ohhh, right." he nods, making the rest of the group laugh.

"you may begin at the sound of the cannon." on cue, a loud cannon is shot, causing students to gasp, but then they begin cheering as the competitors jump into the lake.

"go cedric!" luke yells, waving his hufflepuff flag.

"go viktor!" calum shouts.

"go fleur!" elena says, earning confused looks from her friends. "what? girls gotta stick together." she shrugs and smiles.

an eruption from the lake turns their heads to water below them. harry does a backflip in the air, causing students to cheer even louder for him.

"yeah!" he shouts, then lands back underwater.

all was quiet as the students and teachers waited for one of the champions to emerge from the water with their treasure.

"what do you think these so called treasures are?" ashton asks, leaning forward so he could see everyone else on the opposite side of calum.