Her conversation with Krum turned into a very interesting one about the Triwizard Tournament. Claire had expressed that it was a good idea to have it, but she feared Cedric would enter.
"Who is Cedric?" He asked.
"My boyfriend whom I care about and don't I don't want him to get hurt." Claire said.
"So you have a boy friend I see." He said she could hear the disappointment in his voice.
"Psst! Hey Viktor…" Draco called across the table.
"Vot, do you need some thing?" he asked his head turning to Draco.
"I wouldn't talk to her she's a muggle lover…" Draco said.
"Oh go shove your finger up you ass Draco you jerk." Claire said to him becoming angry, she was really looking forward to putting that dung bomb under his bed.
"So vot if she loves muggles, I don't mind them most of my fans are muggles." Viktor said.
"None like Granger!" Draco said arrogantly "She'll really stink up a room, gees I can smell her now." Draco laughed and Claire had had it. She marched over to Fred and George asking them if they had their Mongo Dung Bomb.
"Yeah we have it but you said…" Fred started
Claire snatched it from between them and went up to behind Draco who was laughing, no one noticed as she slipped the dung bomb in his hood. It made a slightly low hiss and Claire walked off before he turned to Crabbe who was mauling a turkey leg.
Fred and George were laughing hysterically, "Even better Black…" they said giving her a thumbs up.
As dinner progressed Claire was feeling very satisfied with her self she happily ate her dessert and moments later Pansy covered her nose. "Eww! What is that fowl stench?"
Goyle sniffed the air and dry heaved covering his mouth. Claire wished she had that thing that Fred and George they weren't kidding it was fowl she stopped eating.
Viktor had covered his face with his napkin, and proceeded to eat.
Snape notice the commotion that had been stopping a lot of the chatter all the Slytherin's and Drumstrang students were gagging.
As the feast had ended now Dumbledore stood up and made a few more announcements over the Slytherin's coughs and chokes, "Now be for we hurry off to bed I need to remind you all that no one under the age of 17 may enter the Triwizard Tournament, if you are chosen you will not have to do the end of the year exams that is all." Dumbledore said.
Claire sighed a relief Cedric wasn't 17 till "TOMORROW!" Claire yelled suddenly causing a few heads to turn and look at her, she saw Cedric looking over at her among the gagging students. She got up forgetting the putrid smell that Draco was in tears over. People were starting to realize it was coming from him.
"Oi! Malfoy what is that stink?" the twins asked as they passed him, "Goodness you reek!"
The next day in the common room, people were tired of the smell that seemed to linger when Draco was in the room. Claire left finally to go down to the great hall she found Cedric sitting with his friends and she walked over.
"Oh gees Cedric, send her off…" she heard one of his friends mumble.
"Don't say that…" he said and Claire smiled at him, "Happy birthday Cedric." She stood on the tips of her toes and kissed him. His friend scowled from behind.
"Thank you, I'm glad I'm 17 now it's a good age." He said.
Claire pursed her lips disapprovingly and reached into her pocket, "I have some thing for you." She pulled out a parcel and he smiled as he took it.
"Let's see ohh…" He looked at it was a snitch in a glass case that hovered on the snitch a\was an inscription. "All the love on your 17 birthday Claire…" he read as the ball hovered in the tiny case.
"Wow this is great I love it!" he said kissing her.
"I'm happy you like it…umm you aren't going to try for that Triwizard Tournament are you?" Claire asked subtly.
"Yeah…why?" he asked and then he looked in her eyes and saw her fear "Claire I know that look, hey it will be okay, you hear your grand father they're taking extra precautions this year, I'm doing it tonight if you want to be there?"
"I just fear that some thing bad will, happen I don't want to lose you." She said clutching onto his robes.
Cedric went close to her, "I'll be fine really, I just want to do something this year seeing as there is no Quidditch." He said. Cedric kissed her cheek and went back with his friends.
That day in potions Claire whispered in hush tones to Hermione about the conversation…
"Something to do…her I am scared for him and he's bored and wants something to do, typical boy excuse!" She hissed pouring the correct amount of beetle wings in their potion.
"Well he is older than you and knows more magic, maybe he feels confident." She whispered back throwing in the perfectly measured frog eggs.
Neville's cauldron melted beside them and Seamus yelped as sticky green muck spilled all around.
"I mean the least he could do is respect that I have fears about this." Claire said, "I'm just so tired of MEN!"
Every one including Professor Snape looked at her, "Miss Black is there a problem?"
"Yes I am just having a very bad morning, sorry about my sudden out burst." She said.
"Certainly we all have bad mornings, Miss Granger 5 points from Gryffindor, try to keep your conversations to class." He said and waved away Neville's mess.
Ron made a rude gesture behind Snape's back as he looked at each person's cauldron.
"Oh Hermione I'm sorry…" Claire mumbled.
At the end of class Claire volunteered to clean, she said it was payback for losing Gryffindor house points.
When she had cleaned she took hers and Hermione's potion up to the front, "Professor really the conversation…I was the one who was talking Hermione really had nothing to do with it." Claire said.
"I know but Miss Black you are in Slytherin why on earth would I take points from my own house?" Snape said his Black eye flashing at her a sinister stare.
"But that's not right…how can you do something like that." Claire retorted.
"Miss Black what I can give students in my house is detention and that is what you've just received." He said.
Claire set the potion on the desk and went to let it go, but he took her hand still holing the vial, "You are too much like your parents, fairness and equality don't exist in my world, and if you're smart Miss. Black They won't exist in yours."
She tried to pull her hand away, "There are many reasons I should be in a different house, I care about others and I love, you do neither Professor, why I have no clue, mum reckons its because of Harry's mother Lily…ahha I've hit a nerve Professor."
Snape squeezed her hand so hard that the vial broke in her hands and the liquid and glass seared into her skin, "So cocky and arrogant just like your father, Miss. Black fill a new vial and be out of my sight…" he muttered and put his head in his hands.
Claire shakily handed him a new vial and grabbed her school bag and left hastily, Her hand was bleeding and what was worse she heard cheering from in the Great Hall, people were putting their names in the goblet. Thunder sounded from some where and seventh year Hufflepuff group came in from herbology, he was putting his name in now, he lied and told her that evening. She followed them in, and saw him drop a small piece of paper in the goblet. He turned to see Claire, and she started crying silently blood was dripping steadily from her hand and Cedric noticed.
"Claire? Are you okay…" he asked as he came over to her.
"Cedric…I dreamt that you were dead last year…I didn't want to tell you, I just I didn't want you to enter because I saw you…I SAW YOU!" Claire shouted. Tears falling quickly now, a few of his friends twirled their fingers near there heads she ignored them.
Cedric moved closer to her, "You're acting crazy Claire; seriously chill out…it was just a dream."
She slapped him before she realized what she was doing he caught her breath and turned and bolted from the hall. She ran somewhere away from them all to the owlry and slummed down on the stairs out side the door. She was sobbing harder now and she didn't care who heard…except.
"Vot is it are you okay, Claire…"
She looked up through the sting of her tears at Viktor his brow was focused in a frown as he looked at her, "Is it your boyfriend…did you two have a fight?"
Claire nodded and Viktor saw her hand… "Vell I see you've hurt yourself, here I help…" he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed her hand with it.
"Thank you…ouch." Claire said.
"Glass…vot happened with glass?" he asked as he pulled the tiny pieces out.
"I accidentally broke a vial…are you entering this tournament too?" Claire asked him.
"Vell, I have too, my father and Karkaroff want me to enter, and vell with my Quidditch fame I have to." Viktor said tying the handkerchief around her hand.
"I really wish Cedric listened to me…" Claire said.
"I see this boy Cedric, he has strength, and a desire to be vot is the word. "He gestured with his hands a large space.
"Huge...a bid success, he needs to be greater than Harry I think…he knows I'm friends with him." Claire said.
"Harry Potter, is very famous…he is huge." Viktor said.
"You're famous…" Claire stated.
"But I keep Clear head…I don't let fame go here." He said gesturing to his fore head.
"You're sweet Viktor, but be careful okay if you ever get picked as a champion…" Claire said smiling at his antics.
Claire sat alone after a while Viktor had left to put his name in the cup…she sat under an eave that blocked the rain from the steps of the owlry. She had almost forgotten where she was when a bell sounded from somewhere…
"Shit! Transfiguration!" Claire ran as quickly as she could given that the mud that was thick as she slipped along. Claire skidded into McGonagall's class soaking wet and panting. She looked up at her the class was taking notes and covering their noses, the Mongo Dung Bomb had not worn off yet. A few people whispered as she made her way to the front.
"Sorry Professor…um I hurt my hand so I was getting it fixed up." Claire said showing her the makeshift bandage that was Viktor Krum's handkerchief.
"Very well have a seat next to Miss. Parkinson and copy the notes on the vanishing spell on the board.
Claire sat down ant went to work immediately; she occasionally looked up to McGonagall seeing her wrinkle her nose at the smell. Claire went to the dining room after class and sat at the Slytherin table alone and tried again, she felt so bad having slapped Cedric she wondered if he would ever speak to her again.
Cedric sat back in his bed he was nervous about the goblet producing the Champions that night, what's more he felt terrible about what he said to Claire about her being crazy…her knew her mother had died almost three months ago now and she was afraid of losing him too. He knew it was all too natural for her to feel that way, and he knew he deserved that slap across the face he wiped the blood she had left off and tried to find her. But she was a good hider and he couldn't find her any where.
Cedric got up and made his way to the dinning room on his way out he ran into Viktor Krum in the Entrance Hall he stopped and waved to him.
"I vont to speak with you…" He said.
Cedric was shocked and thought it was cool Viktor wanted to speak to him, maybe he knew that he was a seeker too.
"What about…I'm all ears." Or so he thought.
"I vonted to talk about Claire, you really hurt her to day, I know this because I spoke to her today." He said.
'Look I don't need to discuss my girlfriend with you…" Cedric said.
"Vell you have no choice, I see her she has love for you…and you fed her to the dogs." Viktor said, "It's not right in my country to treat a woman like that."
"You have a lot of nerve you know, you don't know what it's been like for her…" Cedric started.
Viktor held up a hand, "But you do know what she has go through and still you treat her warning as a mere act of insanity…"
"Look you have no right to assume this, she needs to under stand that I want to give something to Hufflepuff some kind of victory, besides some Quidditch match against the Gryffindor's by their seeker falling off his broom." Cedric said.
"Then you will lose her, you do love Claire don't you?" He asked.
"Of course I do I would not have gone looking for her if I didn't." Cedric said narrowing his eyes passed Viktor seeing Claire at the Slytherin table.
"Then you better tell her and apologize for not taking into heart her concern for you…" Viktor walked off and into the dinning room and sat next to Claire. He watcher her turn her head to look directly at him and she was sad he could see that, she turned back to her plate that as empty.
Dumbledore stood up and everyone in the hall was silent, "Before we begin the teachers have requested that I get all students to turnout their hoods, there has been since yesterday a very fowl smell in the corridors…and Mr. Filch has not found a single dung bomb any where." He said with a hit of humor.
Draco turned out his hood and the Mongo Dung bomb now much smaller fell onto his plate.
"EWW! MALFOY it was you!" Yelled a Slytherin Prefect.
The hall erupted in laughter and Dumbledore silenced them all, "Good now that we found the source of the smell, Mr. Filch if you please there is the over sided dung bomb…goodness Mr. Malfoy you walked around with that all this time…any way Now the Goblet of Fire will revel to us who our three champions are…" Dumbledore said.
Claire watched as the cup glowed bright red and a small paper flew out, her grandfather looked down at it and looked up, "The Bauxbatons Champion is Fleur Delacour!" he called out. The hall Clapped for her and she got up and went to the back room.
"The Next Champion will be… Viktor Krum!" He shouted. Viktor kissed her on the cheek and got up, he looked at Cedric who noticed the kiss and disappeared into the back room.
"And Finally Hogwarts Champion…" Claire clutched the napkin beside her. "And it is CEDRIC DIGGORY!" He called. The hall erupted the Hufflepuff's the loudest of them all he smiled is sexy smile and made his way up to the room.
He turned to see Claire the only one in the sea of cheering people who sat terrified and tears streaming down her face.
After that her grandfather began to speak again she hardly noticed the cup go bright red and another paper flew out it wasn't until she heard her grandfather yell "HARRY POTTER!" She snapped to look at her best friend get up and move nervously to the front.
"This can't be happening!" Draco hissed
"I couldn't agree with you more Draco…" Claire said to him.
Every one looked in surprise as a shaky Harry disappeared into the back room with half the teachers following after.
Oh dear... Thank you for reading!