After the feast on October 30th, Cassius Warrington found himself sitting next to his girlfriend, Sylvia Melville, on a couch in the Slytherin Common Room. She was curled up next to him reading her copy of Confronting the Faceless for Defence Against The Dark Arts while Cassius finished the last bit of his Transfiguration class.
"Do you think I could do it?" he asked quietly, adding the last word onto his essay and setting his quill down. He watched Sylvia carefully as her eyebrows lifted and she held her finger out while she finished the paragraph she was on. She waved her wand at the page and a black and silver bookmark appeared. Snapping the book shut, she tossed it into her bag and looked up at him smiling.
"Sorry Cas, what did you say?" She said, turning her shoulders to give him her full attention. Sometimes he had been so lucky to be her boyfriend. She had been a close family friend for years and Cassius had always been mesmerized by her beautiful brown hair that fell past her shoulders in waves. Picking a strand that had fallen into her beautiful face, he tucked it behind her ear and let out a sigh.
"Do you think I could do it?" he repeated, not having the courage to look into her piercing eyes, he found himself looking down at his hands.
"Are you talking about the tournament?" She asked, confusion evident in her voice.
"Yeah," He responded looking up. He felt her eyes latch onto his and couldn't look away, The blue seemed to swirl as she searched for answers to her mounting questions.
"Well Dumbledore said it would be open to enter till tomorrow evening, didn't he?"
"Yeah, but if I was chosen," Cassius took a deep breath before continuing, "Do you think I'd have a chance to win it or even be picked." He broke their eye contact as she stared at him in shock. He began to wring his hands as he waited for her response.
Sylvia sat there for a moment, the question had caught her off guard. However, she quickly snapped out of her shock and grimaced at the dejected look on her boyfriend's face. She reached out putting her index under his chin and forced him to look back up at her.
"Of course, you can Cas," she stated as if it was so obvious even a rock would agree, "You would blow those international students away if you wanted to. You are a pureblood Slytherin prefect and top of the class. I don't care what those Hufflepuffs say you are much smarter than Cedric Diggory."
After a moment's hesitation, she added softly, "You're also my boyfriend." Leaning in she gave him a kiss before straightening up again.
"I think you should do it," she said.
"But what if it doesn't pick me," he said, "I don't want my friends, let alone my parents to find out that I entered and the ruddy cup picked someone over me."
"Well then let go right now," Sylvia responded looking around the mostly deserted common room and dropping her voice into a whisper.
"That way," she continued, "nobody will know you put your name in until you are picked"
"If I'm picked," Cassius corrected.
"Yes, If you are picked," Sylvia agreed. Cassius quickly bent over his bag and pulled a spare bit of parchment from the bottom. He uncorked his ink and dipped his quill into it. He scribed Cassius Warrington Hogwarts onto a corner of the parchment and once it had dried he tore it off. Sylvia had exited the common room quickly to put her bag in her dorm and Cassius did the same. They met back in the common room a minute or two later. They both pinned their prefect badges on, as they agreed. It would be less suspicious for them to act as though they were patrolling the corridors and they would not be in trouble if they ran into filch or any of the professors.
Cassius kept a tight grip on the little piece of parchment in one hand and offered the other to Sylvia as they exited the room into the corridor beyond.
As they made their way up to the entrance hall, Cassius' nerves began to diminish slightly. Sylvia's pep talk had helped him a lot. It reminded him of what his father had always said. 'Being a Slytherin Pureblood is the most prestigious status you can have at Hogwarts. When the Dark Lord returns you will be welcomed into his ranks without question.' He couldn't help but be skeptical of his father's claim that the Dark Lord would return but who was he to question it. According to his mother, the Dark Mark seemed to be becoming darker over the past year, and that Cassius should start to prepare for his return.
His family had been immensely proud of him in the previous year when he finally asked Sylvia to be his girlfriend. His heart warmed as he remembered how her eyes had lit up and her lips had curled into the most beautiful smile when she had accepted.
"What are you thinking about, Love?" She asked quietly as she watched a smile slide onto his face at the memory.
"Just you," he said, glancing over at her as she blushed heavily.
"Oh," was all she was able to respond. They were just about to reach the entrance hall when they heard thudding footsteps coming in their direction. Before they were even able to panic, Professor Moody appeared at the top of the staircase, wand drawn, looking startled.
"Warrington, Melville, What'r you doin wandering the castle at this time at night?" Moody's gruff voice snarled suspiciously.
"We are prefects, sir," Sylvia explained, "we are on patrol tonight.
"Oh, well I should be going then," he grunted, turning and exiting the hall on the opposite side.
"That was strange," Cassius said once they were alone again.
"He's so creepy," Sylvia complained, "and the constant vigilance shit is a bit excessive."
"No kidding," Cassius muttered. He wasn't really listening as Sylvia continued to rant, instead, his eyes were fixed on the blue and white flame that seemed to be erupting from the wooden goblet that had been placed at the center of the hall. He felt Sylvia's hand rest on his back as she pushed him forward towards it.
He slowly approached it and looked down. For some reason, he felt the need to hold his breath as he crossed the age line. Though he had turned 17 over 2 months ago, he feared that he would be thrown out for some strange unknown reason. It didn't and Cassius let out the breath he was holding. He glanced over at Sylvia who was standing on the other side of the line beaming at him. She, unlike himself, was not turning 17 until January. He looked over at the cup and a sly grin formed on his face. He pulled the parchment in his name and held it over the flames. In a moment of bravery or stupidity, he had yet to decide, he released the parchment and it fell into the goblet. After a moment he turned back to Sylvia and the two walked hand and hand back to the common room.