Chapter Seven: Distracting Dragons

November 24th 1994

Families

"Mum, Dad, Lisa this is Carina Black," Angelina chirped, dragging her parents over towards where Carina was standing with James, Remus, and Keith.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. And Mrs. Johnson," Carina said politely. "This is my godfather, James, and my uncles, Remus and Keith."

The adults all shook hands while Carina and Angelina whispered last minute plans to each other.

"Are you girls nervous?" Keith asked, looking quite excited himself.

Carina and Angelina exchanged glances and scoffed. "Please," Angie said, "It'll be a piece of cake."

Carina held her hand up for a high five, immensely proud of herself for successfully corrupting yet another person to the ways of sarcasm.

"I think you're both a bit too relaxed," Mr. Johnson worried.

"We're just well prepared," they answered in unison.

"Are you trying to replace Hermione?" James wondered.

Carina looked deeply offended. "I can have more than one friend!" she insisted. "Hermione just decided she wasn't 'family' and would wait to walk us down. What's wrong with having several best friends?"

"Nothing, sorry, didn't mean to accuse you of anything," James said, wide-eyed at her increasing ire. Apparently he'd hit a sore point.

Carina sighed. "Sorry, overreaction. Damn Weasley was mocking me about the same thing."

"Weasley? Which one?" Mrs. Johnson asked.

A sour expression appeared on Carina's face, and Angelina groaned. "Mum, did you have to?" she whined.

James looked like he very much wanted to agree with Angelina.

"Ronald. He's a pig-headed, unintelligent, sorry excuse for a wizard who has no self-control and no work ethic!" Carina began.

Remus cut her off, "Carina?" he asked sweetly.

Carina looked at him, her eyes narrowed.

"Pulling pigtails," Remus said with a huge grin.

Carina looked absolutely disgusted.

After Lunch

"I feel ill," Cedric complained.

Angelina, Hermione and Carina looked at him like he was insane. He and Hermione were walking Angie and Carina down to the champion's tent before the task.

"You aren't even competing!" Hermione tried to use logic.

"My best friend, sister is, and so is one of my other best friends!" Cedric protested. "You can't tell me you don't feel a bit ill yourself!"

Hermione sighed, conceding the point, with a worried glance at the two girls who wore smirks and did not look even slightly nervous. She was certain Carina had a plan, but that did not do much to reassure her. After all, she knew her best friend better than anyone, and Carina had a wicked streak that Hermione thought the world was better off not discovering.

"Lighten up, Friends of the Champions," Carina smirked. "We'll be fine."

"What Carina says, goes," Hermione informed Cedric with an annoyed expression. "We're no longer allowed to express our worry for our dearest friends."

Cedric snickered. "Is it just me or would no one else get away with that?"

"No one else would get away with it," Carina promised. "Just try me and find out."

Cedric shuddered. Hermione rolled her eyes and Angelina snickered.

Viktor Krum

"Accio Firebolt!" Krum yelled, and when his broom arrived he did some extremely good flying to get the golden egg without much more than a scratch on him.

Fleur Delacour

Fleur cast a conjunctivitis curse at the dragons eyes, following up by transfiguring several nearby boulders into large dogs and dodging spouts of fire as she ran to get the golden egg. She got a pretty severe burn on her right arm, but other than that was okay.

Angelina Johnson

Just like they had planned, Angelina first cast the scent muffling spell, followed by the silencing spell, followed by disillusionment. This done, she quickly copied Fleur by transfiguring boulders, though hers were transfigured into large balls with a lot of bounce, that she quickly placed unbreakable charms on and sent for the dragon as she made a run for the egg.

Carina Black

Carina shocked the crowd by following Angelina's example for the most part. When the time came to transfigure though, Carina shocked them even more by using the little known spells to create a fully functioning Golden Snitch. To be more accurate, she created a dozen, and they were blue and bronze, not golden. She followed their creation by enlarging them and directing them at the dragon as she went for her own egg.

After The Task

"You girls kicked ass!" Cedric congratulated them with a huge grin.

Angelina and Carina beamed, exchanged glances and hugged the hell out of him.

Hermione gave them a mock pout, "What about me?"

Carina smirked wickedly. "Want a hug, Mia?"

Hermione took a step backwards as she nodded hesitantly.

Cedric caught Carina's frantic hinting and walked behind Hermione. Angelina stood a few feet away on her right side. At Carina's signal – her smirk widening – the three of them all hugged Hermione at the same time, making a Hermione sandwich.

Hermione squealed and in retort began to tickle Carina, who was very, very ticklish and was sent into fits of giggles. Angelina and Cedric exchanged smirks and joined Hermione in tickling the girl-who-lived.

Carina gasped for air, "If you don't stop I'm going to pee my pants!" she informed them.

Hermione would later wonder what had possessed her to fall for it, but she, Cedric and Angelina relented at this point. Carina smirked at them and started running. "Can't believe you fell for that!" she cackled at them.

Angelina and Hermione exchanged plotting glances as Cedric took off after Carina. They nodded and murmured, "Accio Carina Black!"

Carina came flying back towards them and they proceeded to tickle her again.

In-between giggles, Carina pouted at them and accused them of cheating.