CHAPTER FOUR
ADELE P.O.V.
The Great Hall had never ceased to amaze me, but today as I gazed over at the chandeliers, the long golden-brown tables, the high chairs at the end of the room for the professors, I felt nothing but a dull ache. I still hadn't been able to get the infirmary incident out of my head.
There had been some talk about giant Pegasus-carried carriages flying out from the sky, and a huge ship emerging from the Black Lake, but I couldn't pay any attention to them, due to my brain almost exploding from too much Harry.
As a result, I entered the Great Hall looking like a zombie. If it hadn't been for Draco and Blaise sandwiching me like a couple of bodyguards, I wouldn't have been able to find myself a seat.
"Drakey-poo!"
"Zabini, how's it going?"
"Adele, hi!"
Oh joy, we had arrived in time to meet the rest of our brethren. I shook my head devoid of thoughts of a certain Gryffindor, and smiling took a seat next to Theodore Nott.
"Hey Theo, how was your summer?"
"Pretty good, though Stella left home for St. Mungos."
I winced. There was no one in the world Theo Nott cared for more than his sister, Estella.
"Don't worry Theo, I'll make it up to you. I have chocolates back at the dorm, and they're screaming your name." Theo grinned. He had quite an attractive smile, if only I wasn't hung up on that idiot Potter. Speaking of whom, I hadn't seen him enter the Hall. I looked around for him at the Gryffindor table. Just then, I felt a pair of eyes on me. I turned, praying their colour would not be a definitive green. Lo and behold, they were.
Harry was staring at me from his seat right across from mine, two tables away. He was sitting with Hermione and the Weasley boy, as usual, but he had eyes only for me. I would love to say that I was as confident as I usually make myself out to be, but reality had me blush like an idiot and look away quickly.
Fortunately, a distraction in the form of Crabbe materialized in front of me.
"Crabbe!" I yelled joyfully. Vincent Crabbe had been a personification of precisely one-third of my humour over the three years I called Hogwarts my home. He was an adorable soul at heart, even though he looked like a Rottweiler.
Crabbe grinned, and his face looked like it was being torn apart. "Adele!"
He sat down, but the poor dear accidentally tipped the table forward, so that the chair across from him precariously tipped, dumping a furious Millicent Bullstrode down to the ground.
I howled with laughter, almost falling down myself, before Draco steadied me.
Millicent opened her mouth, but was interrupted by the raised arms of Professor Dumbledore.
The command and control Dumbledore exercised over such large gatherings of teenage wizards was incredible. Everyone stopped what they were doing, and tuned into Dumbledore's words with complete attention.
"Now that we're all settled and sorted, I would like to make an announcement."
It was about time, I was ravenously hungry and wanted nothing more than to dig into glorious food.
"This year, Hogwarts will not only be your home, but home to some very special guests as well. You see, Hogwarts has been chosen to host a legendary event."
I furrowed my brow, he had peaked my curiosity.
"Oh, I know. My father told me about this," said Draco loftily.
I wanted to slap him.
"You little worm. Why didn't you tell us about it?"
Draco was about to reply, but Blaise shushed him.
"The Tri-Wizard Tournament."
A gaggle of voices began whispering, Dumbledore's spell over his audience broken.
I had heard a little about the tournament from my no-good mother, apparently it was all about conquest and dangerous things and glory, attributes that I would never be capable of, according to her. I glanced at Draco, I knew him better than anyone else, which is why I knew that he would be an eager competitor.
"Now for those of you who do not know, the Tri-Wizard Tournament brings together three schools for a series of magical contests. From each school, a single contestant is selected to compete."
"That's going to be me." It seemed as though Draco was incapable of keeping his mouth shut.
I glared at him, his superior expression melting away.
"Now let me be clear- if chosen, you stand alone. And trust me when I say these contests are not for the faint-hearted."
Draco puffed out his chest. Pansy drooled. "Oh, Drakey, my hero," she swooned.
I shot her a disgusted look and hit Draco on his rock-hard chest. He smirked. I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Please help me welcome the lovely ladies of the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and their headmistress Madame Maxime."
The double-doors opened to the reasons I will never have a boyfriend. The women who fluttered in were incomparably beautiful. Jaws dropped indiscriminately. Their bodies were swathed in blue silk and their perfume was overpowering.
One of them stepped out, her silky blonde hair flowing down her shoulders. She looked up demurely, from under long lashes fringing sky blue eyes. She had a smirk on her doll-like features and her rosy lips parted in a sigh. Boys stared at her, transfixed. Girls stared at her, transfixed. Professor Flitwick stared at her, transfixed. I glanced over at the Gryffindor table. Harry was quite openly gaping at the girl.
Rage flowed through me, and I clenched my fists under the table. I glared at the girl. I wanted to devour her soul. Who did she think she was, prancing around acting like the goddess I knew she was?
I was distracted from my vindictive thoughts by an abnormally large woman striding in, through the doors. She made her way up to the podium to Dumbledore, who had to bend down to kiss her knuckles with as much dignity as he could muster. She waved her hands, and all the breathtaking females glided over to the Ravenclaw table, where Hogwart's students eagerly made place for them.
Dumbledore's voice boomed out again, "And now, meet the proud sons of Durmstrang."
The double doors opened again. I accidentally bit my tongue.
Streaming through the door, one after another, were the most attractive males I had ever seen concentrated in one gathering. The level of testosterone went through the roof as my eyes flew from one to the other. They were dressed in capes that hid their bulging muscles underneath. One of them, clad in grey, with tousled black hair and molten gray eyes caught my eye. He looked flushed, the pink in his cheeks clashing adorably with his pale skin. He lifted his chin to display his exquisite bone structure, and turned towards me. Our eyes locked, and he winked.
Draco growled, and threw his arm around my shoulders protectively. The boy smirked and turned away, but not before I caught the glint in Harry's eyes, and apprehended gleefully, his murderous expression.
My scandalous thoughts were interrupted by a well-built man with a fluffy cape, and a disgruntled expression. He looked vaguely familiar, so I peered at him, and my eyes grew wide.
"Della, what is it?"
"Blaise that's Viktor Krum!"
I almost had a fangirl moment right then and there, and would've probably shrieked had it not been for my brother's warning hand on mine. Viktor Krum was my favourite Quidditch player, and ever since the World Cup, I had been in raptures about him.
To my gleeful surprise, the Durmstrang lot were made to sit at the Slytherin table. I had half hoped that Krum would be sitting here too, but apparently a seat for him had been reserved at the professors' table. My disappointment rapidly changed to heart palpitations when I noticed the boy from earlier that evening make his way toward me. He eventually reached Crabbe, who slid sideways to accommodate our new guest.
As if on cue, magical plates of food situated themselves before us. I could hardly control my excitement, it had been ages since I had eaten. I immediately heaped a generous slice of what looked like a huge pie onto my plate. I looked at it quizzically. "This isn't an English dish."
"It's called Pirog. Famous Russian dish," added the mystery boy, in heavily accented English.
"Oh, and what do people call you?" I fluttered my lashes coyly. "My name is Sergei, pretty lady."
I giggled, blushing. "I'm Adele."
"And I'm Draco. Nice to meet you, touch her and I will rip your throat out."
My eyes widened. I could not believe he just said that. But Sergei didn't seem to mind, he looked like he received death threats from arrogant blondes about their redheaded best friends all the time. "The pleasure is all mine, Drakoo," he replied mispronouncing 'Draco' to an extent where 'Drakoo' turned red with rage.
Blaise burst out laughing, and Theo and I joined in.
"Your attention, please." Yet again, I turned to face Dumbledore, begrudgingly so, but my eyes flicked toward Harry, his expression unreadable.
"I would like to say a few words- Eternal Glory; that is what awaits the student who wins the Tri-Wizard Tournament. But to do this, you will have to complete three extremely dangerous tasks. For this, the Ministry of Magic has seen fit to impose a new rule. To explain this, we have the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation: Mr. Bartemius Crouch to—"
Professor Dumbledore was cut off by what seemed like a décor malfunction. The enchanted ceiling exploded into a shower of sparks. At a second glance, I saw that it was actually lightning. Lightning and thunder raging across the enchanted ceiling. Draco's hand found mine and I looked over at his face, paler than usual. Draco never did have a penchant for thunder, ever since he was left outside by his nanny, during a thunderstorm.
I wasn't bothered much by it, I actually though storms were beautiful. Theo interrupted my musings by nudging me, and I looked over in the direction he pointed. I yelped, and almost jumped out of my skin. There was a terrifying man hobbling towards us with his one leg, matted ginger hair and a plastic eyeball. I'm not going to lie, he was probably one of the most horrifying people I have ever met in my life. And my mother buys prostitutes from Knockturn Alley. The man raised his wand, shouted something unintelligible, and the storm immediately dissipated.
"Who's that?" I whispered to Blaise, affirmative that the inner Ministry geek in him would know the answer. "That's Mad-Eye Moody, he used to be an Auror for the Ministry. Crazy good, before he became as loony as a Lovegood."
"Why is he here?" asked Draco, quite over his thunderstorm fit.
"There's been some word that he's going to be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor," supplied Theo.
Oh no. Defence was one of my favourite subjects, besides Potions of course, and the thought of having to look to that vulgar man for knowledge was downright scary. I composed myself and looked back up to the professors' dais and saw Moody take a seat. Perfect. I made a face as a wizard stepped onto the podium and began the most anticipated speech yet.
"After much deliberation," started Barty Crouch, "the Ministry has concluded that for their own safety, no student under the age of seventeen shall be allowed to put forth their name for the Tri-Wizard Tournament."
There was a milli-second of silence for rapidly vanishing dreams of conquest and glory and dangerous things, before there was a huge uproar.
"THAT'S RUBBISH!" The Weasley twins seemed eager to put into words the thoughts of almost every teenage boy under seventeen present in the Great Hall. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"
Draco looked furious. He opened his mouth, but I beat him to it. "Please Draco, if the words coming out of your mouth have anything to do with "My father" and "hearing about this", I will have to accidentally redeem your hair colour to its previous shade."
Blaise roared, so did half the Slytherin table until Draco sent them a look.
Dumbledore chose this moment to reveal the spectacular Goblet of Fire, a shade of never before seen crystal blue, tongued with a gold border. Blue flames shot out of its mouth and licked the air tantalizingly.
"Anyone wishing to submit themselves for the Tournament," added Dumbledore, "must merely write their name down upon a piece of parchment and throw it into the flames before this hour on Thursday night. "Do not do so lightly, for if chosen, there is no going back."
"As of this moment, the Tri-Wizard Tournament has begun."
Almost everyone had finished eating, only I was left polishing off the last bits of 'Lymonnyk', or so Sergei had told me. Pansy was getting quite restless, she wanted to go cuddle up with her Drakey-poo, and her whining was really getting on my nerves.
"Draco, I beg you, please go make out with Pansy and shut her up so I needn't be privy to her squeaky tones."
Draco smirked at me, quite amused. "Really Della, you want a repeat of that train incident? I could oblige—"
"NO, OH MY EYES, THEY'RE BURNING!" I shoved Draco off his seat. He got up, laughing. "We'll be in a closet…somewhere."
"Don't miss us, Adele," simpered Pansy, her arm possessively around Draco. I would have had a retort, but my mouth was to full of delicious lemon cake to respond. It was Sergei's turn to leave, next. "I haff to report back to headquarters, my pretty lady."
He took my arm, and kissed it, turning around to leave. Theo got up next, "I'm off to write to Stella, meet you back at the dorms?" I smiled at him in agreement. I looked around the Slytherin table, now almost empty save a few stragglers, Blaise and I. This was the case at the other three tables as well. I looked over at the last one, covered with red-gold banners, and my heart leaped to see Harry still there.
I chewed the piece of lemon cake still in my mouth thoughtfully.
"Adele," Blaise began.
"Mmm?"
"What in Merlin's name is wrong with you?" I swallowed. "You've not been yourself ever since the train."
I had always found it hard to keep things from my brother, secrets couldn't be kept from your twin, after all. It was rising up, too fast to halt, and without my consent, the whole incident with Harry, from that fateful night to today afternoon, spilled out.
Blaise blinked. He took a sip of pumpkin juice. He opened his mouth, and closed it.
His features hardened suddenly, and he got up. I rose with him, apprehensive about where his destination would be. I had the inkling of a feeling that it would be the Gryffindor table, and I was right.
Blaise stormed toward the Gryffindors, his head held high. I hurried after him, kicking myself for being so stupid as to tell my protective brother about my love life.
"Potter!" Blaise stopped in front of the Gryffindor in question, who looked up, startled. The rest of the table also looked up, like startled rabbits. I wanted to melt down to the ground like the ice-cream dripping from Ron's hand.
Blaise began his tirade. "Potter, don't you ever think there can ever, ever be anything going on between you and my sister. So keep your dirty thoughts to yourself, and never spew them out in public. My sister remains unviolated and if I ever, ever here of you being anywhere close to naughty with her I will grow you some balls and then castrate you. Look at Adele again, and I will burn your eyes out. Salazar, it was only one night! Plus, she was drunk with love potion, and she never would have done what she did then, while she is still sane. She also loved DEAN, not you, so what gave you the right to invite her into bed? Getting a little ahead of yourself, eh, Potter? If I ever hear of you so much as-"
"ZABINI!" Bless Professor Snape. "Stop screaming like a silly schoolgirl, off to your dorm! One more word and I will slip an overdose of a Draught of Peace into your morning cup of coffee!"
Blaise deflated. He took a deep breath. "I'm watching you, Potter."
Harry gaped like a goldfish. Next to him, Ron had completely disregarded his ice-cream and it was dripping all over his lap. There was utter silence, until, from across the table, Dean replied in amazement, "Adele was in love with me?"
"Shut up, Dean," retorted Harry, crossly. I closed my eyes, and sighed. Why was it always me?
I placed my hand on the table, knocking over a glass of pumpkin juice all over Ron. He yelped.
"Oh Merlin, I'm so sorry Ron, I really didn't mean to-" I was cut off by Blaise's hand, tugging me off before I could do any more damage. I cast a last glance at Harry, whose lips twitched at Ron's feeble attempts to get pumpkin juice out of his hair, and I walked out of the Hall, aware of a pair of brilliant green eyes following me.