AN: So guess what? Remember what I said in my last update of Honor Bound? That the forum I'm a member of is having a Triwizard Tournament? Well, this is my entry fic for it! This is the preliminary round, where the Goblet of Fire chooses the competitor from each House for the rest of the Tournament. That means I might not even make it past this round, if my story isn't good enough. I hope that it will be, though, and that I do a good enough job to be chosen and continue through the tasks.

So, the gist of this part of it is this: the Heads of the four Houses generated a list of ten prompts each. The prompts that they chose are what we have to write our entry for. We have to choose four of the prompts from our House, actually. Gryffindor's prompts were chosen by the lovely Lexi, a.k.a. The Cinder Crown. Seriously, she's great. Go talk to her!

Anywho, the prompts I choose are (location) Greengrass Manor, (dialogue) "You are too important to just... die!" / "I'm not important. Everyone will do just fine without me." / "Who cares about everyone? What about me?", (quote) "Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for each other." and (character) Ariana Dumbledore. Don't worry, those seem like they'd be totally unrelated, but I have a cool story idea.

Enjoy, and I hope you get to see more of my Triwizard writings!

Word Count: 1.2 K

Also, extra thanks to my beta for this, ChocolateWonder!

Ariana fully remembered the day she met Joseph Greengrass. She had gone over to the nearby park to play. A few local Muggle boys had come over and started harassing her. They had seen her doing magic accidentally and were either going to make her show them again, or prevent her from doing magic ever again. They were smacking her and pinching her and she was crying. For a six year old, this was the worst thing to ever happen to her.

One of the blows nearly knocked her out. She fell to the ground, hitting her head. Stars started to dance in her vision, and she began to go unconscious.

"Stop!" a voice exclaimed. Ariana heard it through her fear and pain, and it was like hearing angels. "You know better than to harass a little girl."

Ariana's attackers seemed to be afraid of the boy who spoke, at least enough so that they were instantly backing away, muttering things like, "Freak—weird—tomorrow…"

Once the others had left, the boy who had saved her came over and touched her arm. "Ow," she whimpered. It was the arm the boys had been pinching. "Why'd you help me?" Her voice was barely audible.

"Looked like you needed some help," he answered. "I'm Joseph. Joseph Greengrass." He seemed to be a few of years older than her, maybe nine or ten.

"Ariana," she replied hoarsely. "Thank you for helping me."

"Don't worry about it," Joseph answered, helping her to stand. "They are only local bullies. They must have noticed you doing accidental magic, correct?"

"Well, yes," Ariana replied. "But… how did you know?"

"I'm a wizard, too, you know," he told her. "We live in the big house up on the hill. Greengrass Manor."

Ariana was shocked and pleased to hear this. It meant she didn't have to hide from this boy. She knew the house, of course. Everyone in the village had known that the Greengrasses were extremely rich and also that they very rarely stepped foot in town. "Did you sneak away? I know your family doesn't come into the village very often."

"Yeah," Joseph grinned. "Better get back, but first I'll walk you home, make sure you get there safely."

It was about five minutes to Ariana's house. When they arrived at the door, they said goodbye, and that they would try to see each other again soon.

However, their friendship did not last long. After Ariana had explained what happened, her mother, Kendra took Ariana to St. Mungo's. They told her that with such brain damage Ariana had been given, at such a young age, she would never be able to perform magic properly again. They did not, however, understand its true extent.

Once this was found out, Percival went after the boys who attacked her, ending up in Azkaban for his actions. He died there after a year.

Kendra, fearing that they would lock Ariana up if they discovered the true extent of Ariana's mental state, the family moved to a new town not very far away, called Godric's Hollow. They kept Arianas presence as secret as possible, and only a few neighbors even knew of her existence.

She only saw Joseph a few times, because although Kendra knew the boy had saved her from the attackers, she did not want them to get too close. Her brother Albus kept this after their mother's death.

It was because of this separation that Ariana began to fall for Joseph. They began with slow friendship, born of pain and stars the day he rescued her. As their visits grew fewer and fewer, by the time Ariana was fourteen, they had fallen in love.

During one of their visits, Ariana told him so. By this time, he was seventeen, and quite handsome.

"Ari…" he murmured, their hands intertwined. "I—we can't be together."

"Why not?" she asked. "I'm nearly old enough to wed. We can be betrothed on my fifteenth birthday in a few months."

"Ariana, I'm dying."

Ariana definitely heard him, but could not fully process it. Dying? She had already lost her mother and father. Was she now to lose Joseph?

"What?" Ariana asked, her voice trembling. "What do you mean?"

"I'm sick," he answered. "I have a muggle disease called cancer. I am going to die before I'm seventeen. I was diagnosed a couple of months ago."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Ariana questioned him. Now she was upset. "You're too important to just… die!"

"After your mother died, I didn't want to worry you even more. But my parents don't care. They just want an heir. That's the only reason they're trying treatments, but they aren't working. Everyone will do just fine without me."

Ariana was getting angry now. "Who cares about everyone? What about me?"

"We don't belong with each other," Joseph reminded her. "My parents would never allow me to marry a common girl and both of us are messed up. Don't think I don't know about your magic problems. You can't control your magic, and I'm going to die in a few months."

"Perhaps it's our imperfections that make us perfect for each other," Ariana argued, still upset. How could he not understand?

"I'm sorry, Ari," he whispered, emotion filling his voice. "But I won't be coming back. I don't want you to see me once I start really getting sick."

Joseph left the house quickly, and that was the last time Ariana saw him. She saw the obituary in the local paper three months later. The picture it displayed was an older one, from childhood. Joseph was standing in front of the gigantic Greengrass Manor on the hill in her old town.

It reminded Ariana of how they had met.