Hey everyone this is a longer chapter but I didn't like how it was when I split it into two chapters. Sorry about that! Hope you enjoy!
Chapter Ten
Time went by fast with the twins. She was spending all of her time advertising Weasley Wizard Wheezes to the Slytherin students in the green tinted common room and having the richer students place their bets on which wizard or witch they thought would come in first place for the first task. Draco Malfoy and his gang were the highest bidders against Harry Potter. Draco sneered, "I bet Potter won't last five minutes in the first task. Last place for him 10 galleons on it."
"10 galleons?" Natalie repeated back in disbelief.
"Did I stutter, Flint?" His cold eyes narrowed, and he crossed his arms, Goyle and Crabbe mimicking this action on either side.
"Guess not!" She held out her hand and took his money and wrote down the amount that he betted. Pansy bet 3 galleons against Fleur sneering about how a part Veela would be allowed to enter the tournament.
The day of the first task was filled with excitement. After breakfast in the Great Hall, the trio went to find a quite spot to go over all of the bets they received. They went to a hidden broom closet they found in their second year. Natalie insisted that the twins take her portion of any winnings from her entry. "Think of it as an investment. You owe it back once you all have a booming joke shop."
Fred kissed the top of her head and George ruffled her hair, both of them thanking her dramatically while they grinned ear to ear. The twins loaded up a container for each of them with a leather pouch for last minute bets and various samples of their WWW products to be purchased on the way outside to the arena. Fred intertwined his fingers with Natalie's and tugged her towards the arena as him and George shouted in unison about what they were selling.
Both of the twins had sold all of their joke products by the time they reached the arena. They stood next to Hermione who was looking very nervous. "I went to go talk to him. Ronald and Harry still aren't talking."
George nodded understandingly. "Ron is hurt. He'll be okay. Don't worry about it, Hermione."
"Yea," Fred added with a devilish grin, "If Ronald keeps whining we can give him something to cry about we are testing out a potion that actually makes you cry different colors. He would be a great person to test the side effects out."
Hermione rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I think he would rather pass."
"Guess it'll have to be paying first years again…" Fred frowned.
"First years?" Hermione looked at him with rage in her face. "Fred, you can't be seriously testing—"
"No time!" Natalie cut off the fourth year. "Look!" She pointed her finger towards where her gaze was. Dumbledore was on a stage announcing the task of rescuing an egg from a dragon.
A dragon? Natalie couldn't believe it! She grabbed Fred's hand tightly, thankful that he did not successfully enter his name into the tournament. Thinking of Fred made her shoot him an accusing glance. "Charlie handles dragons…"
George laughed. "You didn't tell your girlfriend?"
Fred blushed. "Top secret! Sorry. Weasley information only."
Natalie shook her head in disbelief. He had known what the first task would be for a while possibly and never told her. She would have to get back at him for this somehow. She wasn't sure but she would have to ask George for help possibly.
Cedric Diggory had to face the Swedish Short-Snout. The crowd cheered and flashed signs that supported him that were enchanted to show the Hufflepuff colors dancing wildly in the stands. He used a Transfiguration spell to charm a rock in the arena into a dog. It barked around and dashed away from Cedric, distracted the dragon. Cedric went for the Golden egg, using his quidditch skills to run fast and try and stay hidden from the dragon.
"Oh no!" Natalie cried and covered her eyes.
The dragon turned his attention back towards Cedric and let out a loud roar. Heat went across Natalie's face and she knew that the dragon was breathing fire at the young Hogwarts student. "It's over, it's over." Fred comforted Natalie as the stands erupted into cheers.
Natalie uncovered her face and saw that Cedric got burnt but he retrieved the egg.
Fleur Delacour was next in facing her dragon. She was challenged with the Common Welsh Green and she had enchanted the dragon to fall asleep. "That's rather boring." George complained.
It turned dangerous quickly as while she was retrieving the golden egg, the dragon snored and let out a jet of flame and set her blue skirt a flame. She let out a shriek before remembering her wand and putting the flames out. She retrieved her golden egg and the Ravenclaws and the Beuxbatons girls erupted into cheers for the girl.
"Krum must be next!" George screamed to Fred and Natalie over the loud chanting.
Victor Krum was set up to face the Chinese Fireball dragon. He whipped out his wand and put a curse against the dragon that blinded it temporarily. The dragon panicked since it could not see to protect the golden egg and crushed it slightly.
After Victor retrieved the damaged egg, it was deemed that he would lose points since the egg was damaged. Slytherin and Durmstrang began to boo at the news. Once the crowd quieted down after the news of the lost points, Harry Potter was called to be last.
His dragon looked like the nastiest of the four. He had to go against a Hungarian Horntail. "Oh no…" George began.
"Charlie warned us about these. Real nasty dragons the Horntails are." Fred sighed and rubbed the back of his head, clearly worrying about the Gryffindor who was now faced to steal a dragon from this fierce dragon.
Harry raised his wand and nothing happened. "What the bloody hell is he doing?" Natalie asked.
Hermione shook her head. "Hopefully something good."
Soon, his firebolt came shooting towards the young Gryffindor who gracefully hoped on it and went flying past the Dragon. Harry really was a phenomenal flyer. He somehow was able to dodge and dive between the dragon's attacks. He got slashed on the shoulder but managed to grab his egg. Harry also lost points from getting slashed on the shoulder but the Gryffindors didn't care.
The Gryffindors were like a mad house when Harry got the egg. Fred and George were chanting, "Party at Gryffindor Common Room!" to anyone who was wearing crimson and gold. Natalie's heart sank a little. She felt like an outsider, she had been in the common room before, but this wasn't her place. Harry was their champion, not Slytherin's.
The twins didn't even notice that she had drifted away from the crowd towards Penelope who was wearing a emerald and silver scarf. "Hey." Natalie said softly as she tugged on her friends robe.
"Hey, Natalie! Where have you been? With Fred and George, I assume?" Penelope looked over her head trying to spot the red head twins.
"Yea but I left them, I figured we could hangout tonight."
Penelope smiled understandingly. "Adrian and Marcus are planning on sneaking in a few butterbeers into the common room tonight. Want to join?"
"What are we celebrating? Potter didn't lose." She snorted softly at the thought of Draco Malfoy cursing more buttons and handing them out to people to scare the 4th year Gryffindor with the wild hair.
"Yes… but neither did Cedric. We are still rooting him on. You know Hufflepuff and Slytherin has to stick together."
"Yes, because they're the only house that likes us." Natalie laughed.
Penelope covered her mouth to try and stifle a laugh. "Well… you seem to be an anomaly with Gryffindor. Someone in that house really seems to like you." She wiggled her eyebrows and shoved her shoulder playfully into Natalie.
The girl laughed at her friend as they walked into the castle towards the Slytherin common room. Pansy Parkinson galloped up beside them, "I heard you guys were getting Butterbeer?" Her eyes lit up in hope.
"Yes… we can get some for you." Penelope laughed. "Don't tell the others. We want more for us."
Pansy bit her lip. "I sort of already told Draco and Blaise but they're the only ones."
"Oh Christ. They probably told people too. We're about to have an entire Slytherin party on our hands." Natalie slapped her head on her forehead and sighed. "I better go warn the boys that they will need to get more supplies from the spot."
Pansy giggled. "Thanks, you both are the best!" She ran off to go stand next to Zabini and Malfoy and whispered into their ears.
"What on earth have we started…" Penelope laughed as they walked into the common room. One thing was for sure, Natalie was not going to get her potions homework done tonight.
The Slytherin common room was in incredibly high spirits. Whoever Adrian and Marcus get their Butterbeer from, they somehow also managed their hands on a bottle of Fire Whiskey. Natalie laughed as they took a swig from the bottle and looked like they just inhaled a flame itself. "Oi, you try it if you're so tough." Adrian laughed and pushed the bottle towards the blonde Slytherin. "Since you hang out with Gryffindorks all the time, you should be brave enough to handle it." He smirked down at the girl.
Natalie bit her lip and looked at the bottle. The tension from around the two students was growing thicker as the time went on. Draco Malfoy snickered. "She won't do it. She's scared."
"Scared?" Natalie whirled around and narrowed her pale eyes. "If I was scared… would I do this?" She grabbed the bottle and began to chug straight from the bottle. It burned like acid as it went down but had the smell of cinnamon.
Penelope cheered her on and started chanting her name over and over again. Students began to join and soon the common room was all shouting her name. When she was done chugging the bottle, the students began to cheer wildly. Malfoy smiled and held up his hands in mock defeat. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Flint."
She giggled and began to feel her cheeks go rosy and the room began to spin a little. The alcohol was going fast to her brain since she never drank. A hand grabbed her shoulder and led her to a leather couch. "Natalie… oh my god you're swaying." Penelope's voice was next to her ear but far away at the same time.
The blonde girl giggled. "You're such a good friend, P…" She wrapped her arms around Penelope's shoulder and gave her friend a huge hug.
"You are too, Nat." Her friend rubbed her back soothingly. "I'm going to be a good friend and force you to eat a chocolate frog. You need some food in your system. Wait here while I go up to the girls' dormitory and grab one. I'll be right back."
Natalie sat on the couch and tucked her legs up next to her. She was watching and admiring the view of the common room. It seemed so different when she was seeing double. Natalie was mesmerized with a mermaid in the window looking out to the lake when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder. Draco Malfoy had plopped next to her and was smirking down at her. She felt herself grow a little annoyed that now that he was a 4th year he could look down at her. "Didn't realize you could be so easily pressured into a dare, Flint."
She frowned. "Well… I'm not easily pressured I just like having a good time. That's all." Natalie was hoping that Penelope would return soon or at least that Marcus would see her trapped in this situation. She looked up and saw him snogging a 6th year and realized that wasn't going to happen.
"How convenient…" He smiled. "I like having a good time, too." Draco was leaning in towards her. Natalie smelled his cologne and the smell of cinnamon on his breath, Fire Whiskey.
"Draco…" Natalie shook her head and tried backing up as far as she could on the leather sofa. "I'm dating Fred."
"Come on, I bet Weasley wouldn't be able to kiss you like this." He was now crawling on top of her inching closer and closer. His arms were on either side of the couch, locking her into place.
"FLIPENDO!" Penelope appeared on the opposite side of the leather couch.
As she screamed the incantation for the knockback jinx, Malfoy went flying and was knocked on his ass in front of the people who were around them. He jumped up to his feet and fixed his Slytherin sweater with a scowl. "My father will hear about this."
"And her father will here that you couldn't take No for an answer." Penelope, who stood a foot shorter than Malfoy, got close to him and acted as though she could look into his eye. "If I were you, I would be more afraid of her father finding out you were trying to crawl on top of his drunk daughter. It doesn't look good."
Tears were filling Natalie's eyes as she realized what could have happened if Penelope wasn't there. She still felt the feeling of his body pressing up against her and the fear that was now filling her chest. How far would it have gone? Surely not that far since they were in the common room. But… it would've been too easy to disappear in the crowd. She felt nauseous. "I'd like to go to bed now." She sniffled in a quiet voice.
Penelope helped her best friend up off of the black couch and gave a sneer towards Malfoy who was now returning to his gang of friends. "You're okay, Natalie. It's okay." She rubbed her friends back as she cried herself to sleep.
The two Slytherin girls slept in Natalie's bed that night. Penelope made sure that if Natalie woke up in fear, that she would hush her back to sleep. Natalie was comforted by the thought of not being alone, it made the dark and bleakness of the night easier to handle and she found herself waking in the morning with her friend both with their heads tucked together in a comforting and platonic way. Natalie kissed her friends forehead, forever grateful to have found such a gem of a friend at Hogwarts.