The Lost Potter || Draco Malfoy [BOOK 1]

Chapter 47

During the last week before the third task, I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to do well during the tournament, especially with Harry by my side. For that entire week, all Harry and I did was train as much as we could. We dueled each other, along with Ron and Hermione. Surprisingly, Draco practiced with us sometimes too; which Ron wasn't too happy with.

At one point, we even let Ariel and Remi throw fruit at us in one of the empty classrooms to test out agility while being cuffed together. To be honest, it was quite fun, and I was actually believing that we could have a chance of winning this thing. It would have been extremely cool—being the youngest champions to win the tournament.

The day before the third task, I decided that I needed a temporary break from thinking about it. The more that I thought about it, the more that I over-thought—which was never good. So directly after my classes, instead of going to train with Harry, I ventured to the Hogwarts grounds to go on a light jog.

It had been forever since I last exercised, and a jog was the only thing that could take my mind off of things. For the next half hour, I spent my time jogging around the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest and eventually made it to the quidditch pitch.

The mazes were dark forest green, and they were around twenty feet high at that point. They weren't exactly as high as the quidditch stands, but the stands could only have been about ten feet higher. The outskirts of the quidditch pitch were completely void of the maze, but the middle was covered in grassy shrubs that looked extremely easy to get lost in.

I almost left the pitch, not wanting to be framed as some sort of cheater, but then I saw someone sitting in the quidditch stands. He looked tall and lean, with a tuff of golden hair on top of his head, and his arms were crossed over his chest. I squinted my eyes and realized that it was Cedric Diggory.

He didn't seem to notice me, and he stared at the clear blue sky as if he was deep in thought. His Hufflepuff robes were a bit untidy, and I didn't know why, but I felt a powerful urge to talk to him. It just felt extremely important, even though I didn't even know what I was going to say to him.

I jogged up the staircase that led to the top of the stands and walked towards where Cedric was seated.

"Hey Cedric," I greeted when I was about ten feet away from him. His eyes shot over to me as if I frightened him by my sudden appearance, then a smile melted onto his face and he relaxed.

"Hey Maya," said Cedric as I sat down on the bench next to him. "What brings you here?"

"I went on a jog around the grounds to take my mind off of things, and I walked onto the Quidditch grounds," I said. "I saw you in the stands and I decided to say hello."

Cedric nodded in understanding. "I needed to take my mind off of things too," said Cedric. "The task has been stressing me out for a bit, that's all."

"Hey, you're going to do great," I said, nudging Cedric a bit with my shoulder. "You're really talented. Besides, all that matters is that you tried your best, right?"

"I guess you're right," said Cedric half-heartedly. "Thank you."

"Of course," I said. "Do you want to talk about something that isn't the task?" I asked.

"Please," said Cedric. "If I think about it anymore my head just might explode."

"Well, what do you want to talk about?" I asked.

Cedric hesitated for a second and then went on with what he was going to say.

"How's Malfoy?" asked Cedric. He didn't seem mad or upset, but there wasn't a bit of a playful edge to it either.