"EXACTLY WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SAYING then, Potter?" Aurelia snarls scathingly, crossing her arms over her chest as she tries to appear intimidating but tears threaten to spill.

Harry struggles to find the words, he seems to be regretting confronting her about this. It's probably not the best time, she's possibly witnessed a murder and recovered from a concussion all in the span of a few days. Harry Potter, for once, had went looking for trouble and he really regrets it.

"Are you saying that I'm what? Only friends with Neville because my aunt — who I haven't seen since I was a wee babe! — wants me to get close close to him in some horrible plot to hurt the rest of the Longbottom family or what? Do you think I'm only friends with Neville because I pity him? Which one is it? Huh, Potter?!"

"I —"

"What gives you the bloody right —" Aurelia laughs abruptly, "Now this is the more important question — what gives you the bloody right to jump in and judge me like this when you have never bothered to learn anything about Neville before. You don't care about Neville enough to come here and judge me about this!"

"I —"

"You don't think I do that enough on my own, Potter? You don't think that I worry that one day Nev — Neville's going to see me how much I look like her and decide he doesn't want to be my friend or — or what if he doesn't want to be my friend at all, what if it's all been a lie what if Neville's only friends with me 'cause he's scared of me?! You don't think I don't hate myself for what she's done, you don't think I blame myself!"

Harry frowns, this is a lot more than he bargained for. He hadn't expected Aurelia to lash out like this, as far as he knew her — or thought he knew her — this kind of behaviour wasn't in her nature.

The tall twig of a girl had always intimidated her for reasons he could never explain. He considers her to be one of his friends and before this year she had always wore a smile on her face but there had always been something about her that made him uneasy.

He doesn't want to think that Aurelia's a bad person but that woman had looked so similar to her that for a moment he had thought that is was Aurelia who had been chained to that chair. And the revelation delivered by Dumbledore that the two of them were related had stirred weird protectiveness over Neville inside of him because it didn't make sense to him as to why Aurelia would be Neville's friend.

Something else had to be going on here, Aurelia had to be using him because she's got to be just like that woman. After all, the memory showed that Aurelia was her daughter, she did call the woman 'mama' and in Harry's mind, the apple never falls far from the tree — just look at Dudley.

But, Harry does feel bad that he's made her cry, which in all fairness, isn't a hard task to accomplish these days. Still, he feels a pit in his stomach as he stands awkwardly in front of Aurelia.

She rambles on about how she's trying not to be like them, her face turning red and her hair turning gold, something Harry knows is not a good thing from Neville who never shuts up about her.

"Please, stop crying." Harry says, "I didn't mean it like that."

It's a lie but Aurelia doesn't need to know that, anyway, he hadn't meant to offend her this badly.

Her eyes narrow "Then how did you mean it, Potter?!"

"Well, Dumbledore told me that you saw what I did ("Of course the bloody old bat did!") and that you know what your mum —"

"AUNT!" Aurelia yells, gold curls tinging red.

Harry gives her his trademark confused look "But, you called her —"

"I was a dumb baby! I thought she was but really she's just my aunt." Aurelia says angrily, "My parents gave me to her because they thought I was dying and they didn't want me."

"Oh, well, okay —" He doesn't look like he believes her.

"She's not my mum!"

Harry raises his hands in surrender "Okay, okay!"

"If Dumbledore told you I know then why are you asking me if I do?"

"Well, I want to, er, know if Neville knows." Harry says, the look on Aurelia's face tells him that's the wrong thing to have said.

"Why do you want know, huh, Potter? Do you think that would change anything between Nev and I? Do you think that would stop him from being my friend?!"

"No?"

"Then why do you want to bloody know?!"

"Well, I just wanted to make sure that, well, Neville knew what he was getting into —"

"And just what is that supposed to mean?!"

Harry pales, feeling like he's digging his own grave "I, well, nothing."

When he had learned that Neville is best friends with the daughter — sorry, niece — of the woman who helped torture his parents Harry had the need to make sure Neville was safe with Aurelia.

Aurelia flinches, her shoulders slump and the fight seems to leave her "I'm not dangerous."

Another trademark confused look is given because he didn't say that, out loud, at least.

"I wouldn't hurt, Neville . . . I am not like her . . . I'm not my family . . . You barely know me, you don't know what I am or what I am not capable of, Potter, but since you don't want to bother asking me yourself, I'll let you know now that I am not capable of what my aunt did and I am capable of being good. I can be good. I will be good. I will." Aurelia tells him, voice quivering with emotion.

She gives him a determined glare before turning on her heel and gliding down the corridor, Harry can only describe it as, looking as though she's an angry ghost.

He doesn't even have time to offer her an apology but, seeing how upset and angry she had been by the accusations he had made, Harry doubts she'd accept it. He also thinks Aurelia kind of blew the whole situation out of the water; he never said she was evil, she had — which is probably a good thing because he almost did and he would've regretted it the moment she started crying.

ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ

Aurelia Black had loved Neville Longbottom from the moment she had met him. It hadn't always been a romantic kind of love, when little eleven-year-old Aurelia had met Neville for the first time, she knew that in some way they would be soulmates, from just one shy smile that he would be very important to her.

She believes in soulmates, not just romantic ones but platonic ones as well and she likes to be that her and Neville are soulmates. She doesn't care what kind of soulmates they are just as long as they're in each other's lives for a very long time.

Although her parents hadn't been very loving towards her, they had been very loving towards each other, leaving Aurelia to be a hopeless romantic, (and to this day, Draco may deny this fact, he's just as much of a hopeless romantic as she is) her parents had the most loving relationship despite the fact it had been arranged. Aurelia always wanted what they had, she just wanted someone to love her wholly. More than anything, she wants to be with Neville Longbottom, she wants to hold his hand, to kiss his cute, chubby cheeks, and kiss his plump, soft-looking lips but like, as his girlfriend.

It scares her although, weirdly enough, as much as she wants Neville to be her boyfriend, the idea of that actually happening causes her heart to race in both a good and bad way — what if she isn't enough for him, what if he realises he doesn't like her anymore, and then it ruins everything. Even their friendship. It's likely to happen because she's never enough for anyone.

Harry doesn't think you're enough for him, what if he's right? What if you're not even enough to be Neville's friend? What if you don't deserve to hold Neville's hand, to be hugged by him, to be anything to him? What if you're just like her?

Aurelia shudders as these horrible thoughts cloud her brain. She wishes they wouldn't, their friendship is so strong, so certain, so pure and it hurts her heart to question it. She just wants to be completely confident in what they have again but, the last year had made it hard for her not to.

Then, Harry came and delivered the final blow to her confidence. She had often questioned the irony of her friendship with Neville but before this year, she'd never really dwell on those thoughts. Aurelia would either dismiss them or Neville would do something that would make her realise her those thoughts were wrong. They never plagued her for long.

However, this year it had been different. These worries seemed to plague her every waking moment, so much so that it was getting harder and harder to dismiss.

"I don't deserve you!" Aurelia declares bursting into the greenhouse where Neville is tending to some plants.

Neville tells her that's not true, moving some plants out the way to make room for her to sit. Aurelia sits up on the table, as she normally does when Neville's in the greenhouse after class but lately she hasn't spent much time with him so he's surprised to see her tonight.

"How's your head?" Neville asks before she can start her rant.

"It's fine. BUT! That's not why I'm here, I'm here to tell you that I don't deserve you and some other things that will make you hate me." Aurelia says, uncharacteristically brashly.

"I could never hate you, not — not even the Imperius Curse could make me hate you." Neville vows.

Her heart swells, she fiddles with her thumbs and her brash tone softens as she says: "This just might."

He knows it won't.

"Let's just start this off by saying, I was a dumb, stupid baby — well, I still am a dumb stupid baby, I just have a better judge of character now." Aurelia takes a deep breath, "I only learned about this from Lyra a few months ago and, well, you see . . . I almost died when I was born, my parents didn't want me because of that and well, I was girl. So, they gave me to a House-Elf, expecting me to die during the night, I suppose . . . But, B — Bellatrix called upon it for Merlin knows what and it panicked and brought me along. I suppose, she healed me too, y'know, helped me survive the night . . . After that, well, Bellatrix never gave me back to my parents and . . . Well, this bloody part, I've known since I was a wee thing and please don't hate me for this —"

Neville gently squeezes her hands "I won't hate you."

"I was a baby and I didn't know any better. Merlin, I'd of clung to a warm blanket and slapped the label 'mama' on it if my parents had let me. For the longest time, I thought that Bellatrix was my mum. Then I went though a phase when I was three where I started calling her her 'mama' again because I went and convinced myself that she loved me more than my actual mother. In my wee toddler brain that meant that Bellatrix was my real mum, like I said I was a dumb and very confused wee thing. And I am so so sorry for —"

"Why are you apologising?"

"Because it's a horrible thing —"

"No, it's not."

Aurelia gives him a confused look and Neville absentmindedly tucks a strand of gold hair behind her ear as he thinks of a way to explain himself.

"It's not a horrible thing, Ari . . . I mean, she couldn't have been always evil, she had to care about someone at some point."

Neville frowns, their foreheads are touching now, he struggles to find the right words to explain himself. He knows that what he's about to say doesn't make much sense but he knows if anyone's going to understand, it'd be Aurelia.

"I — Bellatrix Lestrange is a horrible and wretched woman but she couldn't have horrible the whole life at — at least I hope she wasn't. It — It's terrifying to think that someone could be born evil, it's terrifying to think of her as this killing machine with no feelings . . . That's how Lyra describes her, Gran never speaks about her or any of them, but Lyra only ever talks about these horrible things she done, she's never once said a good thing about her and that — that's her older sister."

He sniffles "It's not like I want to hear that she's a saint or that I think that because she's done good things that she's a good person, nothing would ever make up for what she's done but when I hear from you or Ellie that she was nice to you, it makes her less scary in my mind and — and that's all I want . . . I don't want to be terrified of her because she's locked in Azkaban, I've got nothing to be scared of because she can't hurt me but Lyra's makes her to be this huge threat that I need to be scared out of my skin of and I — I don't want that. So, it's good to hear that she cared about someone other than You-Know-Who."

"I never said she was a good person!" Aurelia says quickly, golden eyes going wide.

"I know you didn't but you make her less scary to me." Neville says softly, "You're the only one I can talk to about this, the only one I feel comfortable with . . . You understand better than most because she didn't just destroy my life but yours as well . . . Besides, it's not like you're actually her . . . Biological? . . . Daughter, you turned out just fine and so did Ellie."

"I still feel bad." Aurelia mumbles, fiddling with the hem of her skirt now.

"You shouldn't . . . She's your family, if anyone has a right to like her, it's you. I — I don't think it matters what you think about her as long as you can say that what she did was wrong and horrible and you — you do. I mean, you still love your parents even though you hate what they do? I think the situations are no different."

"I —" Aurelia says but Neville cuts her off, seeing the fight in her eyes, she's got an argument on the tip of the tongue but he's not going to hear it.

"Ari, you're my best friend, nothing's going to change that. This doesn't change how I see you nor does it change how I see you." Neville says firmly.

His nose brushes against hers and Aurelia realises two things, one being that she feels much lighter having confessed this and the other being that they're really close. Closer than usual. Her cheeks burn and palms grow sweaty, he could kiss her, her heart races, she could kiss him.

He did say he likes-likes you so that must mean he's thought about kissing you at least once so it's not like he'd be against a little kiss now. But, it doesn't mean he's thinking about kissing you right now.

Their closeness doesn't mean anything out of the usual, Neville probably doens't realise that he's closer than normal. It's always been hard to tell as they've both been very affectionate since, well, forever. There isn't a day that goes by that they don't hold hands or hug; Neville does most of the hugging as Aurelia believes she doesn't give good hugs. But, the point is, they've always been extremely close so this doesn't quite mean anything.

They both pull away, and just in time too, Professor Sprout enters the greenhouse. However, she must notice some tension between them as she gives them a teasing look.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"Erm, no?" Neville says, blushing.

"We were just practicing!" Aurelia says quickly.

"Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" Sprout asks lightly.

"No, I mean, for the — the third task!"

Sprout grins at Aurelia "Well, don't mind me. I'm just here to fertilise the Bubotubers."

Neville goes back to repotting the plants and Aurelia tries her best to help him but she's not really good with that aspect of Herbology.

Flustered, Neville in a low whisper says: That colour looks good on you — that red."

Aurelia's eyes widen, realising he means her lipstick. He was thinking about kisssing you! Bloody hell!

ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ

Time seems to move quickly for Aurelia and before she knows it, she's sitting at the Gryffindor table on the morning of the third task.

Her head throbs, her stress levels are probably too high to be normal, there's not a thing she's looking forward to — except maybe seeing Mae and Remus again. Aurelia will be so thrilled when this tournament is done, she'll be even more thrilled to she her parents — oh.

She shakes her head, she's picked up the habit of referring to Mae and Remus as her parents since the last Hogsmeade trip.

Beside her sits Neville, he's trying to get her to eat something but she's not in the mood to eat, her stomach hurts too much. He eventually realises that she's not going to eat so he offers to help her practice and she's about to take him up on that offer when Professor Sprout approaches her, requesting that Aurelia follow her. Aurelia gives Neville a quick kiss on the cheek before following after Sprout, who leads her into a side chamber where it seems that champions' families have been gathered.

Seeing Mae is like a rush of relief and energy all mixed into one, Aurelia runs straight into her arm and Mae squeezes her so tight.

"Wee moon." Mae says lovingly, running her fingers through Aurelia's hair which had turned red to match Mae's.

"Mum — er, Mae!"

Mae holds her tighter at that.

Standing behind Mae is Remus "Hello, Rory."

Aurelia smiles shyly "Wotcher, Remus."

"Merlin's beard, are you ever starting to sound like Nymphadora!" Andromeda's voice pipes in.

Aurelia's eyes light up as she spots her aunt and uncle walking towards her "You guys came too!"

"Of course, love! We wouldn't dare miss it, Nymphadora would've loved to be here but she had to work, she said she didn't want to miss you winning the Triwizard Tournament for anything but duty called." Andromeda says, hugging Aurelia.

"I'm not going to win."

Ted ruffles her hair, smiling fondly "Keep your chin up, Lia, you're tied in first place with Harry Potter, you stand a bloody good chance of winning."

Aurelia doesn't care about winning but she's grown more fond of the idea as the tournament comes to an end. She'd be more motivated to win if she bloody knew who put her name in the damned cup, to see their face when she comes out of that labyrinth victorious is the only thing she wants. But, she still hasn't a clue who put her in this mess. So, her goal at the moment is to bloody survive.

As she pulls herself free from her aunt's grasp, there's a light tap on her shoulder. It's Fleur who's asking if she can introduce Aurelia to her family, Aurelia's fine with that and Fleur begins to gushes about how great Aurelia's been to her in French to her parents. Then, Aurelia introduces Fleur to her family.

Fleur's gaze rests upon Mae as she asks in french: ❝Your mother, is she by chance related to the fanged-earring man over there?❞

At this, Fleur smiles shyly and Aurelia can't recall ever seeing the blonde do something shyly before.

❝Aye, technically she's his aunt.❞

❝So, you're cousins with him?❞

❝No, neither Mae and I are related to him by blood. I'm not even related to Mae by blood . . . If anything, he's like my older brother. Why? Do you, perhaps, fancy him?❞

Aurelia smiles teasingly while Fleur blushes.

❝His name's Bill Weasley, he's a Curse-Breaker.❞

Smiling shyly again, Fleur glances at Bill ❝He is, how you would say, very pretty.❞

❝I suppose.❞

❝You wouldn't know, you're too busy eyeing Neville.❞

❝Fuck yeah, I am.❞

Aurelia doesn't deny this because it's said in French and it's been whispered to only Fleur.

Fleur rolls her eyes, kissing Aurelia's cheeks as she and her family head out of the hall.

Viktor comes by with his family, he says a few things in his native tongue to his parents. Whatever he says, it's good because he parents give her grateful looks before they follow their son out of the hall.

Smiling brightly, Mae says: "I see ye have made yerself a lot of friends this year."

"Aye."

"That's great, I'm glad ye have, wee moon. Say, would ye mind givin' me a tour. Ye know, I haven't been here before."

Aurelia grins as she links arms with Mae, exclaiming: "O' course!"

ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ

Despite having a rather enjoyable afternoon, Aurelia finds herself scared stiff by dinner time. She's not ready for this, it's all so overwhelming.

Finding it too hard to breath, Aurelia slips out of the Great Hall when she thinks no one's paying attention. Aurelia leans against the wall in the side chamber, taking a deep, shuddery breath.

It'll all be over soon, she tells herself. That does nothing to soothe her nerves because she knows no matter what happens, whether this tournament ends well or in flames, she'll never be the same again.

Her body shakes and tears blur her vision.

"Ari?" Neville questions, slipping into the chamber.

"Ye — yeah?" Aurelia chokes out, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Wh —" He stops himself, he knows what's wrong, "Er, they've got chocolate cheesecake at my table —"

"M'not hungry."

Neville stands beside, grabbing her hand.

"I'm scared, Neville." Aurelia says, head throbbing as she thinks of all the things that could go wrong.

"I am too." He admits, "But, you're strong and smart and you — you're going to survive. You could even win if you want — wanted to."

Aurelia breathes heavily, her mouth runs dry "I — I —"

"Breathe." Neville says softly, giving her shaking hand a gentle squeeze. Aurelia doesn't think she can, he traces some pattern on her palm.

"You've learned how to stun, freeze, and disarm. You — you've thought of a plan and you've been practicing almost every day for months. It's very un — unlikely that something will go wrong."

"I know but — but, if I — I get too scared I — I'll panic and I — I'll forget and then I — I — I might die."

"You won't die!" Neville reassures her but he won't deny that horrifying thought had crossed his mind more than once.

"I — I — I could! And, no — no one would care. That's why I'm in this fucking thing in the first place, someone wants me dead!"

She grinds her teeth, her breathing gets heavier as her fear mixes with anger. Someone wants her dead and no one cares, they're all so focused on either the tournament or Potter.

Neville lifts her chin up with his free hand "Ari, you're not going to die! You'll get through this alive, okay? You can do it, just — just breathe. Breathe."

Aurelia begrudgingly inhales and exhales giving Neville a pointed look, he squeezes her hand.

"Is there anything I can do to help? Do you want to practice some more spells? We — we've got some time, Ari."

She shakes her head, she'd much rather do something calming like throw herself off the Astronomy tower.

"Anything at all?" Neville asks.

"Kill me."

"Anything except that!"

"Well, I don't have any other ideas besides that. Do you have any wise ideas, Plant Boy?"

Neville opens his mouth to say something but promptly shuts it, turning a violent shade of red.

"Never mind."

"What, Neville? At this point, I'll take anything."

"Any — anything?"

"Anything."

"Are you sure?"

Aurelia nods, please involve putting me out of my fucking misery.

"Absolutely positive?"

"Yes!"

And then, he kisses her.

Leans up on his tippy-toes and presses his lips against hers, gently and softly. He pulls away quickly, it's a ghost of a kiss. Neville doesn't want to overwhelm her.

Aurelia's shocked, it's not what she had expected but, she certainly doesn't hate it.

"That works!" Aurelia says breathless and quietly. She wants nothing more than for Neville to kiss her again, this time, however, she wants to be able to process it, enjoy it even.

"D — does it?"

"I — I think . . . Maybe, you — you could try it again?"

Neville doesn't need to be told twice, leaning up to kiss her again. This kiss lasts longer. His one hand moves up to cradle her scarred cheek, his other hand squeezes her own hand. Neville's lips are soft and they have the faintest taste of orange and mint.

They both pull away, breathless. Neville smiles goofily, his cheeks are so red it looks as though someone's gone and blotched his cheeks with red paint. Aurelia's sure that she looks no different, she probably looks worse, she's considerably paler than Neville so when she blushes it's more noticeable.

Aurelia swallows thickly, she feels a bit confused, fear and happiness mix together. She should be concerned about her the third task and everything that could go bloody wrong and in some ways she is but her brain's trying to process the fact that Neville fucking Longbottom just fucking kissed her! Kissed! Her!

"Ari?"

"Huh?"

"Are you alright?"

She nods slowly "Yeah, I am . . . For now."

She enjoyed the kiss, it felt right and there's definitely butterflies in her stomach but she's also not even an hour away from possibly being killed in a dangerous tournament.

"Did — did you not like the kiss? Oh, may — maybe I shouldn't have kissed you — no, oh, I'm so — so — sorry, I —"

"No, it's not that! I did say you could do anything, I just — well, that wasn't the first thing I was expecting you to do. It was nice."

"It was?"

"Aye. Very."

"Are you —"

"I'm quite sure, Plant Boy. I just — so much is going on and I'm not sure how to react to anything but I did like it. I liked it very much. Very much so, that I wouldn't mind it, maybe, possibly, well, I — I don't know, maybe, perhaps, happening again in the future. I mean, that is, if you — you're okay with it happening in the future, y'know, as well." Aurelia rambles, finger-gunning him.

Neville grins, nodding eagerly "Yeah, ye — yeah, I'd like that very much."

Aurelia gives him a flustered grin "I l —"

Dumbledore's booming voice sounds from the Great Hall, announcing that the third task would be starting soon.

Dread slams into her, returning at full force. Any positive emotion is sucked from her. Her mouth runs dry and her breathing quickens.

"You — you'll be alright, Ari." Neville says, squeezing her hand and she wishes she could believe him.

They hug each other tightly then Aurelia's sneaking back into the Great Hall to gather with the other champions.

Mae and Andromeda are cheering loudly for her and from the Slytherin table, Elliot's screaming a chant incoherently for her.

This is it.

"IFJENNIFERCONNELLYCANDOITTHENSOCANYOU!" Elliot shrieks as she leaves the hall.

Bagman leads them down to the Quidditch pitch which has been swallows whole by hedges. Aurelia swallows thickly, I'm not ready, I'm not ready, I'm not ready.

She breathes heavily, wiping away tears as Bagman explains something to them, it just goes through one ear and out the other.

A numbness takes ahold of her bones, she can't feel the ground beneath her feet, Aurelia wheezes, hating this feeling of floating.

Bagman says something about points, something about her being tied in first with Harry, Cedric in third with one less point than them. This meant that Harry and Aurelia would enter the maze first.

In her mind, that equalled a recipe for disaster. The two underage and unwilling champions go in to the last task first? Oh no, nothing sounds bad about that bloody idea!

"So . . . Oh my whistle, Harry and Aurora!" Bagman says.

"It's Aurelia!" The older three champions exclaim, Cedric and Fleur give Bagman cross looks.

Cedric gives Aurelia's shoulder a squeeze, wishing her the best of luck and then Bagman blows his whistle. The sharp sound is enough to drag her out of a stupor, she stumbles into the maze after Harry.

When she enters the maze, her panic increases tenfold. It's too quiet. There's no roar of the crowd and Aurelia feels positively isolated. As they travel down the pathway, Harry occasionally looks over his shoulder at her because she's sniffling loudly. He looks like he's going to say something every time he turns but he never does.

Harry hadn't spoken to her since that little spat they had.

Eventually they reach a fork in the path, they glance at each other then Harry goes left and Aurelia takes the right.

Everything becomes a blur, she walks and walks, going left and going right.

She just needs to find the Triwizard Cup. It must be a portkey, it'd be much easier than having the winner walking all the way out of the maze after finding it. Aurelia hopes she won't run into any obstacles.

Aurelia turns right again — no, this way.

The voice is soft, female, and familiar; it brings Aurelia a sense of peace. She looks to her left — yes, that way . . . My moon.

She inhales sharply as she recognises the voice. It's her Aunt Bellatrix.

Her heart begins to race.

Don't you want to win?

How the fuck is she hearing her voice? What the fuck is going on?

Don't you want to win?

Aurelia frowns, is this part of the task?

Don't you want to win?

It must be part of the task; it makes sense, Aurelia supposes. This voice is certainly testing her which is what these tasks are meant to do. She thinks, tightening her grip on her wand, maybe it's a charm or a spell. The voice must appear different to the other champions and it must only be triggered if they're near the cup. Yes, Aurelia thinks, that could make sense. A charm using the voice of a person a champion hates or distrusts the most to test just how willing they are to win.

Don't you want to win?

Aurelia turns left, she wants to get out of here.

Follow me then, my moon. Follow my voice and you will surely win.

Alright, alright, Aurelia thinks, I'll follow you . . .

"BLUE!"

Aurelia blinks, in front of her eyes, albeit a bit blurry, stands the Triwizard Cup.

"What?" She breathes out, her head throbs painfully, how did she get here?

Cedric and Harry are yelling at her.

"You got here first!" Cedric says, shaking her shoulders but, she doesn't remember getting here.

Cedric grins "You won, Blue! Go on, take the cup!"

"I —"

"Go on take it!" Harry snaps, Aurelia glances at him and he looks like pure shit. His expression is clearly pained as he struggles to stand.

"Well, I — well, it is our ticket out of here." Aurelia says groggily, "Let's all take it, we can figure out who won when they ask."

They don't seem to hate her idea so they move forward, Cedric helps Harry do so. She wonders exactly what happened to him, whatever it was, it looks bloody painful.

"Grab it first, you got here first." Cedric said, both his and Harry's hands are inches away from the cup. Harry looks like he might murder her if she argues so she doesn't. Aurelia grabs ahold of the cup and their hands follow suit.

It's over, Aurelia thinks as feeling of relief sweeps over her body and the world starts spinning around her.