"Who died and made you so happy?" Blaise asked, letting out an amused chuckle as Pansy waved a Potter Stinks flag vigorously under his nose.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Draco commented innocently. All of the school's inhabitants had made their way outside to witness the third and final task, the noise of their cheers heavy on the summer air. The maze did look rather impressive in the dying light, stretching into the distance in the most foreboding way, a thick haze of mist curling above it.
Draco scanned the crowd and smiled when he spotted a familiar bush of brown hair. Even with the mass of students and teachers, the dizzying array of colours, and the cacophony of noise, he could still find her, drawn to her as if they were the only two people. Sensing his gaze, Hermione turned and looked at him. Draco's heart raced as the ends of her lips turned upwards in the offering of a small smile, which he returned, his cheeks burning. Quickly she turned back to Weasel and Weaselette, nodding her head as they spoke to her, their own faces stony in the midst of all the celebration.
"See, there you go again." Blaise turned, gesturing to the grin that Draco immediately tried to suppress.
"Can't I be happy?" Draco asked pointedly.
"Well - yeah, I guess, it's just -" Blaise stuttered, searching the ground for the remnants of his sentence.
"What he means to say is, no one's got hurt yet," Pansy cut in, leaning forward, craning her neck to see around Blaise.
"I can be happy about other things," Draco bit out defensively, taking great interest in something, anything, that was happening on the other side of the stands.
"Such as?" Pansy asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking rather evilly.
"Other things." Draco tried his best not to smile again.
"This is about that gir…"
"Bodnis Fudge?" Theo called, pushing between Blaise and Draco, waving a silver box under their noses and cutting in on whatever can of worms Pansy had been about to open.
"Is that the stuff your Aunt sends you?" Blaise asked, wrinkling his nose at the grey lump Theo held in his fingers.
"Yup," Theo said, popping the P and tossing the lump into his mouth. Blaise turned green.
"I don't know how you eat that," Draco sniffed, "It looks like the crap you scrape up from the bottom of a stagnant pond."
"Tastes like it too," Blaise added, and Draco nodded in agreement.
"I'll have some." Pansy bustled past Blaise and reached into the Silver box, pulling out a piece and sniffing it suspiciously.
"Is it supposed to look like that?"
"I wouldn't Pans, not if you value your senses. One cube of that will kill all of them. Melt the eyes right out your head."
"And rip the lining from your stomach, I was in bed for two weeks afterwards."
"That's because you Malfoy's are such delicate creatures." Theo's smirk died on his face when Draco glared at him.
"You guys are so dramatic, how bad could it be?" Pansy shrugged.
"Bad." Both Blaise's eyebrows rose with the severity of the fudge's awfulness.
"Don't say we didn't warn you," Draco sighed, turning back to the crowd, his eyes immediately being pulled to where Hermione sat. He could tell she was worried, could see it in the stiffness of her shoulders. He wondered if Weasel could tell. Wondered if Potty knew how much Hermione worried for him. He felt the burn of jealousy and hated himself for it.
Sounds of Pansy's disgust pulled him out of his thoughts. He smirked, glad of the distraction. "Told you."
"Sweet magical mother of Merlin, what's in that?" Pansy squawked, spitting the half-chewed fudge between the wooden slats of the stands.
"Death, destruction, all the woe of the world," Blaise explained.
"Like eating a bitesize apocalypse."
"It tastes like bat piss," Pansy gagged.
"Ooo that's a new one." Blaise grinned down at the girl rubbing her back consolingly.
"Got experience with bat piss?" Theo asked, raising an eyebrow as he chewed another piece of fudge.
"You know what I mea - how can you actually eat that?" She screeched, glancing up and watching in horror as he ate the confectionary with no issue, a small, contented smile playing on his lips.
"I don't know what's wrong with you guys, Vinny and Greg can't get enough of the stuff."
"They will eat anything. Literally anything." Blaise nodded at Pansy's words.
"Once caught them nibbling on bat wings during potions."
"Well they are a delicacy in some countries," Theo shrugged.
"Delicacy is just a nice way of saying 'tastes like crap'," Draco muttered, having sampled quite a few foods that his mother had sworn blind were a delicacy.
"Where does your aunt get it from?" Theo looked at Pansy for a moment, as if contemplating whether or not to answer the question, he sighed deeply, shaking the box gently and examining its contents before he continued.
"Well where she lives, the gnomes leave it outside homes as a sort of offering."
"Gnomes are gits, the only thing they'd leave -" Horror dawned on Pansy's face as she realised the magnitude of her mistake.
"We did warn you," Blaise muttered sympathetically, shivering in disgust as remembered his own traumatic experience. Draco had held him back to stop him from beating Theo into a pulp that resembled his beloved fudge.
"Bon appeturd," Draco murmured sympathetically.
"Gnome shit? Are you kidding me?" Pansy screeched, rounding on Theo, who was backing away slowly, his one hand raised in surrender, the other still holding the offending item of food.
"There's no evidence to suggest that, my aunt happens to think they're offerings of peace," Theo commented, scowling as both Blaise and Draco suppressed laughter.
"Is this the aunt that thinks she can talk to rocks?" Pansy asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"It might be," He muttered.
"Do - do they sell it where your aunt is from?" Pansy asked, clutching at whatever pitiful straws she could.
"Well, no, not really. My aunt sort of hopes it will catch on." Theo shrugged.
Pansy stared off into the distance for some time, her eyes wide, her bottom lip wobbling. Slowly Draco waved his hand in front of Pany's face and shrugged when the girl didn't react.
"I think you broke her," Blaise muttered, turning to Theo.
"I ate gnome faeces," Pansy whispered.
"Acceptance is the key to healing," Draco pointed out.
Cheers picked up as the 'champions' exited the tent, glancing up at their spectators with wonder. Draco sneered when he spotted the messy head of hair attached to Scarface. He glanced down at Hermione who was leaning forward in her seat, no doubt wishing she could be down there with the spectacled wonder. He rubbed his face as his thoughts strayed towards the territory of him fighting through the crowd to comfort her.
"Okay, so bets on who's going to win?" Blaise said excitedly, stepping past a still shell-shocked looking Pansy.
"Diggory, it's a given." Theo nodded, leaning against the railings next to his friend, and glancing down at the champions. "Although it would have been nice to see Fleur dela-yum win, we could have discussed her victory over Fire whiskey and my incredible -"
"You're disgusting," Pansy cut in, sharply.
"Humour. I was going to say humour."
"Of course, you were."
"Back in the land of the living ay, Pans." Pansy gave Blaise a small smile as he flung an arm across her shoulders.
"Just about." Pansy began waving her Potter Stinks flag half-heartedly, a sign that she was putting the faecal fudge fiasco behind her.
"You could always offer a shoulder to cry on."
Theo considered Blaise's suggestion, popping another piece of fudge in his mouth.
"You do realise she is a first-class bitch?" Draco looked down at Pansy as she said this, a scowl marring her usually pretty features.
''Oh, but a very beautiful first-class bitch," Theo crooned. Draco rolled his eyes, momentarily distracted by the hedges closing ranks around Diggory and Potter. Hermione was stood, her hands pressed against her chest and eyes trained on the space where they had once stood. Krum followed soon after, his strides long and sure.
"Reckon he's got a chance of winning Pans?" he asked, nudging her in a suggestive way as the brown-haired witch swooned beside him, fanning her flaming cheeks with her flag.
"Doesn't matter, he'll look fantastic either way."
"You're as bad as Nott."
"Do not lump me in with that turd-eating jerk." Draco chuckled as the maze swallow the Delacour girl.
The buzz of excitement that had rippled through the crowd as the last of the champions disappeared did not ease up, but instead seemed to grow louder with every passing minute, till Draco was finding it difficult to hear Pansy lecturing Theo on how unexpected and shitty her retribution for the fudge incident would be.
The first flare rose into the sky and an uneasy hush descended for few seconds.
"What do you suppose that's about?" Blaise asked when people had started chattering again.
"Bet it's one of the champions," Pansy stated.
"Shoulder to cry on," Blaise informed Theo, wiggling his eyebrows as the blonde which was brought out of the maze.
"I can make that work. Tell her how much I loved her work, a real shame she couldn't make it through but how about we talk about what could have been in her room."
"You're not nearly as smooth as you think you are, Nott."
"I beg to differ, Parkinson."
When the second flare went into the sky, Draco didn't even look up, instead turned to Blaise and grinned. "One galleon says it's Krum." The dark-haired boy grinned.
"I'll take those odds," Blaise said, taking Draco's hands and shaking it.
"I cannot believe your betting against Krum," Pansy said in shock, looking between the two of them disapprovingly.
"Not all of us get all squirmy about the seeker," Theo pointed out, "Two Galleons says it's Potter."
"You're on." Blaise and Draco spoke together, watching the maze intently waiting for the champion to emerge. Draco cheered when the Bulgarian seeker was carried out. With a smirk he collected his hard-earned galleons and slipped them into his pocket.
"Just Potty and Diggory now," Theo stated, chewing on some more fudge.
"Merlin, are you still eating that?" Pansy asked.
"Why wouldn't I? It's good stuff," he mumbled past the food.
"Urgh, you are just…there are no words Nott, no words."
Hermione was still looking at the maze, her hands clasped in front of her, Weasel was talking animatedly by her side, but she didn't seem to hear him or even realise that he was there. Draco looked down at his own hands, trying to squash the jealousy that always rose when he saw them together. He was inspecting the nail of his thumb when he felt her gaze, the Sensieve's magic shifting around him, confirming what he already knew. Hesitantly he glanced up, the world around him blurring into nothingness, all he could see was her. He didn't know what she was trying to communicate, but he smiled at her anyway, because he hoped it would make her feel better.
Suddenly gasps erupted throughout the stadium, followed by exultant cheers as the champions returned. Hermione broke his gaze and turned back towards the maze. When Draco glanced down himself, he knew something was wrong. Potty was gripping the still body of Diggory, trying to fend off people as they moved toward them.
"Merlin," Pansy muttered, covering her mouth as she watched teachers crowd around the two champions.
"What happened?" Theo's box of fudge had fallen out of his hands and its contents skittering across the wooden slats. The answer came from someone on the lower stands, shouted in shock, and spreading throughout the students like wildfire. Cedric Diggory was dead.