"Welcome students
Chapter 11: Fighting Fire
"Before we can begin the feast, we would like to ask that the Salem students take seats at their traditional team tables in order to save space." He asked not unkindly. I sighed and said good-bye to those that I sat near. Troy sent me a sad look that I returned as he walked away towards the Ravenclaw table. I walked to the other end of the hall to find the Slytherins.
Lo and behold, there was Viktor Krum. And my ever favorite cuzzy.
Draco Malfoy.
"Shawn, wake up, you have to enter your name into the goblet." A voice said over me as they shook me awake. I cracked open an eye to see that Carmen, the other 6th year in my room, was standing over me.
"What?" I asked confusedly as I sat up.
"You're seventeen today! You need to enter the Tri-Wizard tournament!" Carmen said excitedly. I looked around and rubbed my eyes tiredly, trying to stifle a yawn.
"Oh…your right." It's really sad when you forget your own birthday.
"Well come on! Let's go to the Great Hall!" Carmen began to throw my uniform at me as she pushed me into the adjacent bathroom. We were staying in our plane, which had been expanded to hold us in rooms of four.
I came out 20 minutes later dressed in my black polo and skirt. She smiled at me and linked arms as we exited the room with a smile. It was weird being friends with a girl. I was the only girl in the Defensive curriculum, so I never really interacted with that many girls.
"Come on, Shawn!" She pleaded as she dragged me along. I barely had the chance to grab my white sweatshirt and backpack before she pulled me out the door. And so we were off.
"I wonder who the goblet is going to pick from our school." She said excitedly.
"Yeah, I don't really care that much. It's just a stupid competition." I yawned with boredom. Okay, so I was actually really excited, but I don't like to get my hopes up.
"You're just saying that so you don't look like an idiot when you don't get chosen." A voice chuckled behind me. I turned to see Troy standing there. I grinned at the smirk on his lips and slipped an arm around his shoulders, steering him towards the Great Hall.
"At least I can enter the tournament." I matched his smirk easily. His eyes filled with momentary rage as he stomped his foot onto the ground.
"I can't believe I'm missing the cut-off by ONE DAY!" He complained loudly. Troy's birthday was on November 1st, tomorrow, so he wouldn't be 17 at the time of the judging. It sucks for him, but Nick and--well, I thought it was hilarious.
"Where's Nick?" Carmen asked eagerly. I raised an eyebrow, as did Troy. Was that jealousy in his eyes?
"How should I know?" He asked callously.
"You are rooming with him…" I gave him an odd look.
"Whatever, just enter your name Shawn." He glared moodily at the Gryffindor table where Nick was talking to the Weasley twins that I had met last night.
"Touchy, touchy." I stuck my tongue out at him and he poked my side, which caused me to emit a loud squeal and a twitch. He laughed at me. Jerk.
I grabbed a piece of…"parchment" (I hear they call it), and grabbed a pen out of my bag. I scrawled my name out in my painfully un-girly chicken scratch, before throwing it into the goblet.
I looked over to see Carmen tossing her name in as well before she smiled at me. I smiled back before we each grabbed one of Troy's arms and dragged him to the Gryffindor table.
"Shouldn't we be sitting at our respective tables?" He sighed.
"That's no fun." I grinned as I sat him down next to the Weasley twins. Nick looked up at us with a blank look, and didn't respond when I sent a kind smile his way.
I began to spoon some eggs onto my plate while listening to Carmen chatter away about her new eye shadow. Both Troy and Nick seemed engrossed with her, and I looked suspiciously between the two.
I was about to respond to Carmen's question ("Do you think the yellow eye shadow goes well with my eyes?") before she gasped slightly.
"What?" She continued to stare at my face.
"Hello…?" Still nothing. By now both Nick and Troy were looking at me funny as well.
"Guys, what's going on?" This wasn't funny, what was wrong with my face?!
"Shawn, do you feel warm or anything?" Carmen asked with concern. It seemed as though the healer in her was coming out, because she reached out to touch my forehead. I batted her away as I shook my head no.
"Not really, why?"
"Because your face is bright red. Are you nervous about something? Embarrassed maybe?"
"Not that I'm aware of…" This is really odd. Carmen reached out to touch my forehead again, this time I allowed her to. She pulled back with a gasp. Troy, Nick and I gaped at her hand, which was quickly turning an angry shade of red.
As I saw her hand begin to turn red, I noticed that my body was feeling rather warm. I managed to loosen my tie a little uncomfortably, while Troy and Nick tended to Carmen. Neither of them seemed to notice that they were working together while being civilized.
I looked down to see my arms turning bright red as well. It seemed as though my skin was burning, but I wasn't feeling any excruciating pain.
I tried to ignore the looks that my three friends were now sending me as I reached out to grab a bagel. Pulling out my wand I prepared to apply a light flame charm when I noticed something odd. There were five burn marks--in the shape of fingers--right where I had just clasped the bagel. I looked down at my hands in confusion, idly hearing the three gasp in alarm. Squinting in concentration a light flame began to appear on my fingertips. Quickly clenching my fist, I looked around in hopes that nobody had noticed. The only three that had were Nick, Troy, and Carmen, all staring at me with identical looks of alarm on their faces. If this had been any other time, I would have laughed.
Actually, I was just about to laugh, when the pain hit me.
Hard.
"Oh fudge." I murmured as my eyes rolled back into my skull. Then, all I saw was blackness.
FIN
A/N: So I'm going to try this thing where I update somewhere around 1000 words everyday. I'm sick of how the plot isn't going anywhere, and hopefully this can give it a nice kick-start. There's a poll on my profile page, so you can vote if you'd rather have this or the old way of updating. Please review! Also, I'm sorry if I don't reply, as I'm not sure what's going on with the site, and if anything is going to work.
-Shawn
