IV

Potter had tried to participate, and even more than that, he had been selected as the 4th participant of the Triwizard tournament. It was honestly absurd, and the whole school knew that. Regardless, he was accepted and was now competing along with Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff, Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons, and Viktor Krum.

The news had set the trio apart, honestly. Potter and his Weasley weren't even looking at one another, and Granger was just bouncing back and forth between them as far as Cassiopeia had heard around in school.

He was probably gonna die, anyway. He wouldn't survive the tournament. Better equipped people had died.

She was nervous when reaching the arena to watch the first task. She wasn't going to sit with the Slytherins, no. She and Draco had been invited by Aleksandar, one Durmstrang student that had ended up close to her. He'd invited the two to sit with him in a very good seat.

"Dragons!" he exclaimed, excited.

It was terrifying. Cassiopeia didn't understand how some people could just keep staring and, involuntarily ended up curling around Aleksandar more times that she'd ever intended, almost crushing Draco's hand on her opposite side. Each time she heard a whistle or an announcement, her first thought was asking whether the champion was dead on alive.

When it was over, the girl felt relieved. Maybe there was a way of escaping the next task? She didn't need to watch it all, did she?

"I'm not a Gryffindor," she muttered, a bit embarrassed when Draco joked about his sister not looking at the most important moments. "I don't need to pretend to be brave enough to watch all of that."

Aleksandar chuckled and took her smaller hand into his, squeezing it slightly.

"You don't have to be brave," he said slowly, working over his accent. "Your beauty is enough to compensate."

Cassiopeia frowned for a moment, releasing his hand and looking at him and trying hard to decipher if that had been an actual compliment or not, but it appeared to have passed right over her brother's head, as Draco quickly changed the subject.

Just a few metres away, George felt Fred's elbow hitting him on the ribs.

"You're staring."

And he was. The whole time during the task his eyes had fallen on Cassiopeia even without him wanting. And there she was, every time she got scared she had turned to the 7th year from Durmstrang, and he'd smile as he'd just got a prize and not a beautiful girl by his side. He didn't even try to comfort her, and her stupid brother was too focused on the champions to realise she was distressed.

Two arseholes.

"He isn't even paying the right attention to her, come on," he complained to his twin. "Look. He probably said some bullshit! She looked way too annoyed for him to have said something good or even okay!"

Fred turned to him, completely confused.

"And why do you care? It's Malfoy. Girl Malfoy, but still Malfoy!" he crossed his arms. "You've been like that since the cup."

And Fred was right.

Of course, they both knew Cassiopeia since they got into school. He'd known what he needed to know about her. She was beautiful, a bit above average when it came to being smart, very witty, and ambitious. She never started something she didn't plan to finish and knew how to manipulate things to make them better for herself - it was admirable. Oh, and she hated when Draco pulled a 'my father will know about this' because she was all about solving her own problems and him doing the same.

Look, she is not that bad, okay?" he affirmed. "I mean… Not every Slytherin is bad. I think."

Fred was surprised.

"So… What? Do you have a crush on her or something? "

George shifted uncomfortably.

"Pff," he rolled his eyes. "Of course not. That's crazy."