FIVE | THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

THANKFULLY, ASTORIA WAS BLESSED WITH A SPEEDY RECOVERY AND WAS ALLOWED BACK IN THE DORMS AFTER ANOTHER DAY. Madam Pomfrey had given her strict instructions to avoid any strenuous activities and Nicolette had made it her personal mission to prevent her from needing to. Seline assumed it was guilt.

About two days post 'the incident', the owl Seline's parents had hesitantly rented halfway through her first-year dropped a letter down on her lap. Seline's perfectly sculpted eyebrows turned downwards as it stole a grape off her plate before flying away. Her mother's handwriting was indistinguishable and this only depended her frown.

"Seline", her mother wrote, the 's' being written very sophisticatedly. Seline had always thought her mother's handwriting was really unnecessary and straight-up annoying. (Though, she'd never dare vocalise this opinion to her face.)

"I've been in correspondence with your sister," (Seline also hated the way her mother spoke. Would it kill her to talk normally?) "She's informed me that you've managed to get detention on the second night for bunking off lessons and staying out past curfew! That is not how I remember raising my daughter to behave.

I was willing to let the detention slide until I heard about what happened in the dining hall. Apparently you and some of those no-good kids in your house were fighting with magic? Denika says someone—that Greengrass girl, I believe—ended up in the hospital wing! Appalling, really.

Seline, this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated by me or your father. If you step out of line one more time, I'll have no choice but to pull you out of that school and send you to that finishing school as I'd originally planned. Sending you both to that school was a massive risk and so far, you haven't proved that the risk was worth it.

I know you love it there so do not give me a reason to make you say goodbye to magic altogether. You know I will do it, Seline—don't give me another reason to."

Her blood was sizzling as her eyes landed on her mothers fancy signature at the bottom of the parchment. No 'Love, Mum' just 'Cordelia Winchester' as if she was just a pen pal or something. Her fingers gripped the sides of the paper a little too hard and she felt the edges tear slightly. Not that she cared, the letter would end up in the fireplace later.

Noticing Seline's sudden tenseness, Nicolette leant over and read the letter. "Oh god. . ." She muttered, not prepared for the rage Seline was about to unleash on her sister.

Without further thought, Seline shot up from her seat and marched right over to the Gryffindor table. She could feel the steam pouring out her ears as she got closer.

All eyes were on her as she slammed the letter in front of her sister. "You think you're so good, don't you, Denika?" She shouted as her sister picked the parchment up and read it, her lips parting in shock. "Running straight to mummy when terrible old Seline does anything. What would you know about any of the stuff you told her about? You weren't fucking there."

"I think you should—" Harry Potter begins to speak but Seline doesn't let him finish. She's not in the mood for his bullshit.

Seline's eyes narrowed, "I think you should fuck off, Potter." Seline snaps, before turning back to her sister. "Well? Are you going to say anything? Want a quill so you can write to mum about this as well? I'm sure she'll love another letter from her perfect little Denika—"

"—Bloody hell, Seline, I was worried about you, okay!" Denika snapped, standing up so they were eye level. This was a rare occurrence, usually, Denika avoided fighting with people but Seline was causing a scene. "Is that a crime? Does Slytherin house teach you not to care about anyone but yourself? Oh wait, you've always been like that!"

Seline's eyes began to water but she would not give anyone the satisfaction of seeing her cry—let alone fucking Denika. "Shut up! You have no idea what you're talking about!" Seline turned to storm off before adding one more thing, "don't talk to me again, got it?"
                        
Denika slumped back down into her seat, wiping her eyes with the corners of her sleeves.

"Are you okay?" Asked Ginny, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "What she said was way out of line."

"She was right, though," Denika sighed, rereading her mother's letter. "I should've just butted out rather than make things worse for her with our mum."

Ginny scoffed. "You're defending her? After that?"

Denika shrugged. "You don't understand what our mothers like, Gin. She's nothing like yours—especially when it comes to Seline. . ."

As the conversation carried on, the tanner sister stared at the corridor Seline disappeared down and wondered how everything had gone so sour.

THE NEXT FEW WEEKS BLEW BY, WITH THE STACKS OF WORK THEIR TEACHERS GAVE THEM, THERE WAS NO TIME FOR ANYTHING EXCITING TO EVEN HAPPEN. "I'm literally going to start sobbing if Professor Binns gives us one more bloody essay on goblin rebellions," Nicolette had grumbled one evening as they sat in the common room. They weren't the only students rushing essays.

"I hardly think he'd notice," Seline pointed out, tapping her quill against her textbook. The trio were spread out on one of the numerous fancy rugs. An array of papers and books were fanned around them, creating the illusion they'd done more work then actuality. "What page was the reading on the aftermath again?" Selina asked Astoria.

"712, I think," Astoria replied, twirling her hair around fingers as she furiously rewrote her antidote recipe for potions. "He won't actually poison us, will he?"

Astoria was referring to when their potions mastered had hinted he might poison them before Christmas. A ludicrous way, thought Seline, to test if their antidotes worked. "He better not or I'll sue."

Even Care of Magical Creatures was making them work extra hard. The Blast-Ended Skrewts were growing extremely fast.

(Even though nobody had figured out what they were supposed to eat yet.)

(Seline had decided that their purpose was to be living garbage disposals. . . As well as explosive vampires. . . )

During one lesson, Hagrid had suggested that as a part of their "project", they come down to his hut on alternate evenings to observe them and make notes.

"I will not." Draco Malfoy had responded flatly when Hagrid suggested it. "I see enough of these foul things during lessons, thanks." Seline felt exactly the same way, to be honest and couldn't wait until she could drop this subject.

The half-giants smile faded instantly. "Yeh'll do wha' yer told," he growled, "or I'll be takin' a leaf outta Professor Moody's book. . . I hear yeh make a good ferret, Malfoy."

Seline was still disappointed that she'd missed that. Imagining Draco running around as a ferret sounded absolutely hilarious to Seline. She watched as his face flushed with anger but, obviously still traumatised from the ferret thing, didn't make a sarcastic retort.

"Ugh, I wish that I didn't have to take that annoying class." Said Seline when her and her friends made their way back to the castle for dinner.

Astoria and Nicolette both nodded in agreement. "I know right?" Said Nicolette as they walked into the entrance hall, "he's only got the job 'cause Dumbledore likes him. You know, he didn't even finish his Hogwarts education. Moron got kicked out in third year 'cause they thought he opened the chamber of secrets. We're all more educated than him."

Seline's eye widened at this revelation.

"That's not a nice thing to say, Lottie," Astoria said, coughing slightly.

"I'm just being honest," Nicolette shrugged, grinning at the brunette girl. They continued down the hall, talking about all sorts of things from their dream pets (apparently Nicolette wanted to take a page out of Salazar Slytherins book and get a giant snake: "Not like a Basilisk or anything wild, just one big enough that people won't mess with me.") to their favourite songs.

"Ooh, whats that say?" Seline asked, pointing towards a sign that a few Ravenclaw girls were gathered around.

Pushing past them, Seline read the notice.

TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 O'clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early—

"Ha!" Nicolette said triumphantly, "looks like Snape won't get time to poison us after all!"

Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.

"Ooh, I can't wait to meet a cute French boy," Seline said excitedly and her friends shrugged.

"Yeah, I suppose," Astoria mumbled, not meeting Nicolette's eye for some reason.

Seline frowned. "Is that a bruise on your neck?" She asked, poking Astoria's neck. Panicking, Astoria threw her hand over the bruise and nodded.

"Yes! It's a bruise!" She exclaimed before coughing awkwardly. "I mean, yeah it's a bruise. From when I passed out in the great hall."

"That was a nasty fall," Nicolette agreed quickly. "I'm surprised you didn't get more bruises."

Seline's frown deepened. "Yes, but shouldn't it have healed by now?"

Biting her lip, Astoria shook her head. "For a normal person, yeah. . . but I'm a really slow healer, remember?" She said unconvincingly.

Seline looked at Nicolette. "Why do you have one too, Lottie?" Asked Seline, suspicion growing. "Were you guys practising duelling without me or something?"

"Yes!" They both exclaimed a little too enthusiastically.

"Well. . . okay." Seline shrugged before alarm struck her face. Astoria gulped loudly. "A, you're not supposed to be duelling, you're still recovering!"

Relief washed over both their faces and Astoria nodded quickly. "Right, how irresponsible of me. . ."

The Triwizard Tournament seemed to be the only thing that people wanted to talk about all week. Seline was beginning to grow tired of it—it's not like she could participate in it so, why should she really care?

She also noticed that the castle was undergoing a very serious cleanup. Portraits that she'd thought had never been cleaned, got scrubbed down furiously. The suits of armour were also suddenly shiny as could be. And they moved without making an obnoxious squeaking noise.

Filch, the school's squib caretaker, was acting meaner than usual. Any student that forgot to wipe their feet before entering the castle would get yelled at. He scared a group of first-year girls into hysterics one night.

Even the teachers were tense about the arrival of the other schools. "Longbottom, kindly do not reveal that you can't even perform a simple Switching Spell in front of anyone from Durmstrang." Professor McGonagall barked at the end of a particularly difficult lesson, during which Neville had accidentally transplanted his own ears onto cactus.

Seline and Nicolette had laughed so hard when they'd left the class. "They should just admit that he's a squib and be done with it." Nicolette had chuckled, "it's a shame though, his parents were legendary Aurors back in the day."

"Wait, really?" Seline scoffed, not believing it. Nobody related to Neville Longbottom could be a badass—like, come off it! Nobody with that last name can be cool.

"Oh yeah, Frank and Alice Longbottom were very good at their job. But something happened to them. . . can't remember, I think it had something to do with Bellatrix Lestrange." Nicolette explained, flicking her hair out of her face.

"Who's Bellatrix Lestrange?" Asked Seline, blushing at the look Nicolette sent her. Sometimes Seline felt utterly clueless.

The day that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were supposed to arrive was filled with immense excitement. "I heard a rumour that Viktor Krum was coming." Seline heard Pansy Parkinson telling her friends at the Slytherin table.

"He's the Bulgarian seeker, right?" Asked Seline but she merely received a glare from them.

Awkwardly nodding at herself, Seline decided not to sit near them. Without looking at her seat, Seline sat down. Her stomach dropped when she'd realised who'd she'd sat beside. She honestly needed to start checking where she sat before sitting down.

Blaise Zabini glanced at her wearily before clearing his throat, trying to gain her attention. "Yes?" Seline snapped, glaring at him sharply.

Her fellow Slytherin stared down at his plate as he spoke. "I'd like to apologise."

Seline's eyes narrowed. "What I said was way out of line, I guess." Seline thought this was the worst apology ever. "And I'd like to try and become friends, maybe."

Hesitantly, Seline agreed to forgive him and try to be friends. "Wicked." He grinned before continuing his conversation with Theodore Nott about Quidditch.

Hogwarts had a buzz about it for the rest of the day—no one was paying attention to any of their lessons. Safe to say Snape took away a lot of house points during their afternoon lesson.

When the bell rang early, Seline and her friends raced down to their dormitory. Tossing her school bag on her bed, Seline exclaimed, "this is going to be so exciting!" She rushed to the mirror and began examining herself—hair was fine, makeup could be better and her stomach was still flat.

"I know right?" Agreed Pansy Parkinson before realising who she'd agreed with.

The six girls rushed downstairs to meet with the rest of their house. "Nott, tidy up your robes. I don't want anyone from my house going out looking like that." Said Professor Snape, glaring at Seline's classmate.

"I swear to god, Baddock, you are not wearing that ridiculous hat, Get rid of it!" Snape roared at one of the first years, scaring him so much that Seline was sure he'd cry about it later. "First years, get in front and other grades follow. Let's go, people!"

"Bloody hell, I've never seen Snape so animated," Nicolette muttered quietly, making Seline snigger.

"Is it just me or is his hair greying at the roots?" Astoria commented and Nicolette gasped.

"Oh my god, it is!"

The students filed out of the castle and lined up outside. Seline was separated from her friends and pushed into the fourth row beside Draco Malfoy. "Ugh, kill me now." She grumbled.

"It would be my pleasure." He retorted, accidentally stepping on her foot.

Seline groaned in pain. "Ugh, watch it you git!" She said, pushing him away from her.

"Winchester, Malfoy. Cut it out!" Snape yelled at them from the front.

"Dickhead," Seline muttered under her breath, attempting to move away from Draco as much as possible without getting caught by Snape. He mimicked her under his breath.

The night was cold and Seline could see dusk approaching. The moon was already beginning to shine over the forbidden forest. Draco's complaints to Goyle about the cold were cut off by Dumbledore's booming voice.

"Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!" He called out excitedly.

Students looked in all sorts of directions, Seline was peering behind herself when Draco Malfoy spun her around. "There." He said, pointing towards the deep blue sky above the forbidden forest.

Seline would've been more excited about it, except her mind was a bit preoccupied at the moment. All she could focus on was the hands Draco had yet to remove from around her waist. Noticing how tense she was, he quickly retracted his hands, shoving them in the pockets of his robes. "Erm. . ." Draco coughed awkwardly, averting his gaze back to the nearing carriage.

The first three rows of students jumped back quickly as the carriage landed in front of them. Seline saw Neville Longbottom step on a fifth-years foot and sniggered.

Seline watched intently, standing very still so that she didn't touch Draco again, as a boy in pale blue robes jumped down. He fiddled with something on the carriage and unfolded a set of golden steps. Seline's eyes almost popped out of her head when she saw the largest woman she'd ever seen step out of the carriage.

Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many students (Seline included) standing on their tiptoes to get a better look at this woman. The only person Seline had only seen this tall was Hagrid.

Kissing her hand, Dumbledore greeted her. "My dear Madame Maxime," he said. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr." Said Madame Maxime in a deep French accent. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"In excellent form, I thank you."

"My pupils," said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands behind her carelessly. Seline squinted and saw about a dozen students gathered behind her in light blue robes. One very handsome blonde boy caught her eye and she almost swooned aloud.

"' As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Asked Maxime.

"He should be here any minute," Dumbledore responded. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?" Seline noticed the Beauxbatons students shivering behind Maxime.

"Warm-up, I think." Maxime nodded. "But ze 'orses—"

"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them," said Dumbledore, "the moment he has returned from dealing with a slight situation that has arisen with some of his other—er—charges."

"Ruddy Skrewts," Seline muttered under her breathe, clutching the finger that one had bitten during their last lesson. It was a miracle she hadn't developed some awful infection yet.

"Burn them all," Draco said to her and she couldn't help but giggle. His comment wasn't even that funny but boy did she hate the Skrewts.

"My steeds require—er—forceful 'andling," said Maxime, looking as if she doubted any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts could do to the job. Honestly, Seline couldn't blame her. "Zey are very strong. . ."

"I assure you that Hagrid will be well up to the job," Dumbledore said, smiling.

Seline tuned out the rest of their dull conversation. She wasn't all that interested in what Madam Maxime's horses ate.

Seline gazes hopefully at the sky, waiting for the Durmstrang students to arrive. It was silent apart from Madam Maxime's horses stamping impatiently.

"Can you hear that, Draco?" Asked Crabbe, his brows furrowed. Before she could listen, a Gryffindor sixth-year Seline thinks is called Lee Jordan exclaimed to look at the lake.

Seline peered over the younger students head to see the once calm water ripple. Suddenly, right in the middle of the lake, a giant whirlpool appeared. It looked like a giant plug had been pulled out at the bottom of the lake.

Slowly, a black pole rose from the heart of the whirlpool. "It's a mast!" Seline heard Harry 'captain obvious' Potter say. She was pretty sure the first years could see it was a mast.

As if something straight out of a movie, a giant ship rose out of the water. It gleamed in the moonlight, having a weird skeletal look to it.

Seline saw the boat drop it's anchor at the docks and people began to disembark from the ship. A man leads them all, "Dumbledore!" He called heartily as he walked up the steps. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"—Yeah, my dad's friends with him. They go way back." Seline heard Draco bragging to a group of fifth-year Hufflepuff girls that stood behind him.

"Mustn't have very good taste in friends, then." Said Seline and the Hufflepuff girls sniggered. "Karkaroff, I mean."

Draco's face flushed red as he glared at her. "Dear old Hogwarts," Karkaroff said, glancing up at the castle. "How good it is to be here, how good. . . Viktor, come along, into the warmth. . . you don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold. . ." Seline watched him beckon forward a very familiar-looking student.

"Wow. . ." Seline muttered, staring at the Bulgarian seeker. "What a man. . ." She understood why Pansy was so excited about him coming.

Beside her, Draco scoffed.

     SELINE WAS FINALLY ABLE TO CATCH UP WITH HER FRIENDS WHEN THE HOGWARTS STUDENTS BEGAN TO FILE BACK INSIDE THE CASTLE. Near them, Seline heard some sixth-year girls fussing over Viktor Krum. "Do you think he'd sign my hat in lipstick?" One asked her friend.

Sitting down at the table, Seline and her friends continued to discuss the new students. "Oh, I wish the Beauxbaton students sat at our table." Seline sighed, staring dreamily at one of the blonde French boys.

"He wouldn't talk to the likes of you anyways." Grumbled Draco, sitting down beside her. Her dreamy expression faded instantly and she scowled at him.

"You know, there are plenty of other places to sit at the table right?" Seline retorted, fighting the urge to push him off the bench.

"Maybe I like it here." Draco shot back, "and maybe I wanted to talk to Nicolette, my childhood friend."

"Bull, you only talk to me when your mother wants something from my parents," Nicolette interjected and Seline shot him a gleeful look.

"Whatever. I'm not moving." Said Draco, turning to look away from her.

At the table over, Seline saw Ron Weasley calling at the Durmstrang students, hoping they'd sit with him. Loser, thought Seline as they walked towards the Slytherin table.

"Iz this seat taken?" Asked a deep, heavily accented voice from behind Seline. Slowly turning around, she saw the one and only Viktor Krum standing there.

"Er—it—no!" Seline stuttered, sliding away from Draco to make room for Viktor. She saw Ron Weasley scowling at her from across the hall and she was very tempted to stick her tongue out at him.

"Fank-you." He said appreciatively, sitting down beside her. She watched in awe as he took his fur hat off. "It iz quite nice 'ere." He said, gazing around the great hall in awe.

"Yes. . ." Seline mumbled, dazed. ". . . it is."

"Draco Malfoy." Said Draco, holding his hand out for Viktor to shake. The fellow seeker took it and shook it a little too hard for Draco's liking.

"Viktor Krum. Nice to meet you." Said Krum politely. Seline noticed his attention was occupied on something at the Gryffindor table. Trying to follow his line of vision, Seline's eyes kept landing on Hermione Granger. But why would Viktor Krum be looking at her of all people?

She ignored Denika as she tried to catch Seline's eye. Instead, the brunette turned her attention back to the handsome Quidditch player beside her.

Unable to form a coherent sentence to say to Viktor, Seline watched as the Beauxbatons students stood up as Madam Maxime entered. A couple of Hogwarts students sniggered as they shamelessly stood until Maxime sat down.

She noticed that Filch was putting out extra chairs for the guests. Frowning, she turned to Nicolette who was talking to Astoria enthusiastically. "Why's Filch putting out four chairs rather than two? Can't he count or something?"

Both girls shrugged.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and—most particularly—guests," said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said Dumbledore. "I now invite you to eat, drink and make yourselves at home!"

Draco saw Seline, in the corner of his eye, frown at the Bouillabaisse that appeared in a dish in front of her. "What is this?" She said indignantly, "where's the coleslaw that's usually here?"

"It's french," Viktor Krum told her politely and Draco's eyes narrowed as he offered her his spoon. "It iz quite nice." He assured her, noticing her hesitation. Shrugging, Seline ate it and smiled at him.

"It's actually really good, wow." She smiled at him. Though, Draco later saw her gargling some water—obviously trying to get the taste out of her mouth. For some reason this made Draco feel triumphant.

The next time Draco looked up at the staff table, he saw Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch Sr. sitting at one either side of Maxime and Karkaroff.

The feast was soon over and that meant Draco didn't have to listen to Seline and Krum giggling together anymore as Dumbledore stood in front of the hall, ready to address everyone. Every eye in the room was on him as he began, "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket, just to clarify the procedure we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

The students clapped much louder for Bagman than Crouch. The guy just seemed way more likeable.

"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts.

"The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch." Said Dumbledore gazing at the caretaker who seemed to be in the corner of the hall, carrying a wooden chest encrusted with jewels.

"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman." Said Dumbledore as Filch placed the chest carefully on the table before Dumbledore. "And they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways. . . their magical prowess—their daring—their power of deduction—and, of course, their ability to cope with danger.

"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Dumbledore went on, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after three tasks will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Draco saw Dumbledore tap the casket three times with his wand. The lid creaked open slowly and Dumbledore reached inside. He pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been completely boring had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue flames.

He honestly felt quite bored. His father had already told him everything Dumbledore was saying—in even greater detail. Sometimes Draco wondered if his father just lived the sound of his own voice because if there was one thing Lucius Malfoy knew how to do—it was make a ten minute story drag on for forty-five minutes.

🌸 KARLA RAMBLES 🌸

don't hate seline too much, guys—she's going through a lot (plus she's literally fourteen). both sisters deserve better.

also,,,, i feeel like this chapter had too much dialogue lifted from the book so i thought i'd just cut it off there lol. like, if you wanna reread that scene go pick up the goblet of fire ahaha

double also - i feel like im bad at writing enemies to lovers/slow burns because i feel like i've already put too many draline crumbs

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