six fair play

♡

"I WOULDN'T RELY on Sleeping Draught, Luce," said Fleur a little uneasily, after Lucy had presented the previous event and ideas that had stemmed from it to her.

The two blondes were currently sitting in their carriage dormitory, so many books scattered over the beds you could barely even see the sheets, anymore. Lucy had told her best friend everything from the night out in the woods, and since then they had taken up their spare time researching dragons and ways to fight them - Lucy practicing many spells as she did so.

"Yeah, I know," Lucy nodded. "I think we're only allowed a wand... I think I could pull off the Stunning Spell, though... as long as I back it up with an Extinguishing Spell..."

"Hm," Fleur replied, deep in thought, as the two continued with their research.

They had been doing this often, since the reveal of the dragons, for Lucy wanted to be as much prepared as possible for the first task - and Fleur wanted to help her friend with everything she could, knowing fully well if she had been picked Lucy would happily sacrifice her free time in figuring out a way for her to get past a dragon. Not to mention, Lucy was her best friend, of course - and what are friends for?

In fact, if there was the option for Fleur to walk into the arena with Lucy to help her girl out, she'd have done so without hesitation.

Lucy only wished the task had been something else, because she'd had no idea until now how complicated dragons actually were - there were way too many breeds, for starters. Each breed had various different defence mechanisms, which made the job of learning how to protect herself from one even harder. For example - Common Welsh Green's prefer to prey mainly on sheep and other small mammals, and avoid human contact altogether, which was handy to know. But then again, Lucy had no idea which Dragon she'd be facing, and there's the likes of the Hungarian Horntail, who enjoys having humans as a food of choice whenever possible.

It was astonishing, the fact that they weren't even supposed to know they were facing dragons. Did the wizards organising the tournament want them all dead, or what?

It was practically impossible to figure out what to do. But, Lucy had been a huge fan of the muggle tale Alice in Wonderland when she was younger, and the one thing it had taught her in life was that difficult tasks were only impossible if you believed it was. And she'd go by that rule for the rest of her life.

Not to mention, they wouldn't have brought in the dragons if they didn't believe the Champions could face them, would they?

As much as Lucy needed it, spending almost every bit of free time she had researching dragons with Fleur was beginning to become tiresome, and the blonde was still haunted by the fact that she was supposed to be sticking to her word when she swore to herself she would make sure all four champions would have an equal chance of winning (just so she could beat them without having the burden of the fact she'd been given an advantage on her shoulders).

Yet, according to Harry Potter, who had very awkwardly approached the blonde the day after the exposure of the dragons, Krum already knew about the beasts, because Harry had ran into Karkaroff on the outskirts of the forest that very same night.

So, all that was left was Cedric.

Trying to find one boy in a crowd of three Wizarding schools was bound to be hard, but Lucy had never dreamt it would be this difficult. Whenever she'd search for him outside, he'd be somewhere inside Hogwarts, whenever she lurked the halls in hope of seeing him appear, he'd decided to venture out onto the grounds, she literally couldn't get it right. Truth be told, she ended up feeling like a bit of a stalker.

"Why do you want to find him so bad?" Misty asked, a day or two later, raising an eyebrow at Lucy's stress.

The four Beauxbatons girls were using up their free period spending their time in the Hogwarts castle - their school carriage was nice, obviously, but it did get a bit claustrophobic, no matter the size of the enlargement charm on it. A change of scenery was much needed. Plus, what was the use of staying at a brand new castle for the year if they were just going to hide in their own, familiar school carriage?

Also, Lucy was hoping to catch Cedric coming out of one of his lessons. But of course, her friends didn't need to know that - although, she could tell Fleur had her suspicions.

"Do you fancy him?" Verity asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Lucy frowned. "No, I barely know the guy. I just want to make the tournament fair so that I can win properly,"

Fleur raised an eyebrow.

"Well, if you won't have him, I will," Verity said, a smirk creeping up on her face. "He is gorgeous,"

"You think everyone's gorgeous," Lucy teased, giving her a playful glance, before becoming distracted by the opening doors and bubble of crowds of Hogwarts students exiting their lessons.

The blonde tried her best to search for the brunette boy with the yellow tie, but it was extremely difficult considering the amount of students swarming the corridor, all kinds of different colours flashing about the scene.

Lucy sighed - this was absolutely hopeless. Until they were going to have another Champion gathering, there was no way she was going to find Cedric anytime soon, there was too many - oh shit, there he was.

Just as she'd turned her head towards the open window, Lucy spotted the boy surrounded by his yellow-tie-crew heading across the grass, and did not hesitate. She leapt off the window still she'd been sitting on and rushed towards the door - ignoring the, "Bye, then?" from Fleur.

"Cedric!" she called, jogging slightly to catch up with him. "Cedric!"

The boy frowned, turning around, but his face eased at the sight of Beauxbatons' golden girl calling after him. His friends, however, were watching her with a strange mixture of awe and confusion. But whatever - she wasn't here for them, she needed to speak to Cedric.

"Er - Lucy," Cedric greeted with a smile in an attempt to cover up his bewilderment as to why she wanted to see him, so badly. Lucy glanced at his friends, some of which looking her up and down, and she for some reason feeling the need to tug her blue skirt down a little further.

"Can... can we talk?" she said, a hint of awkwardness rising in her voice.

"...Yeah?" he replied, becoming even more puzzled.

And the two walked over to a free bench, ignoring the wolf whistle from one of Cedric's friends, before sitting down. Cedric gazed down at the girl with an inquiring look as he waited for her to explain whatever it was she so desperately needed him for.

Lucy glanced around to check nobody was listening in.

"Lucy, what's going on?" said Cedric.

"Dragons," she blurted out. He frowned even more.

"You what?"

"Dragons," Lucy repeated. "They're the first task. I can't remember exactly what they said, I think it was something about getting past them, I-"

"Woah, um, hold on," Cedric said, slowing the girl's rambling until it came to a halt. "Dragons? Wha... Are you serious?"

Lucy nodded, wide-eyed.

"They've got one for each one of us,"

Cedric looked lost in thought, before he blinked, and his eyes flicked back to the blonde with slight suspicion.

"How do you know?" he asked. "We're not supposed to know..."

"I- Er-" Lucy spluttered. "Madame Maxime found them in the forest, so she showed me," she decided to leave out the part about the Hogwarts Gamekeeper - she didn't want him getting in trouble, considering he helped her, whether it was really to charm her Headmistress, or not.

Cedric's expression didn't shift. "Are you trying to mess with me, Miss Lunette?" he questioned, suspiciously. "Is this your game plan?"

"What?" Lucy raised an eyebrow, as though she couldn't quite believe what he was saying. "No, thank you very much, I'm perfectly capable of winning without having to use mind games on my competitors,"

"Right," said Cedric, panic beginning to flash over his eyes. "So... why are you trying to help me?"

"Because it makes it fair," Lucy continued. "Krum and Harry know, too, so you'd be the only clueless one. And if we all know about them, then at least whichever one of us wins the task would technically have done it fairly. You know, with the same knowledge as everyone else,"

Cedric nodded, before pausing. "Krum and Harry know, too?" he repeated slowly.

"Yeah,"

"...Because you told them?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "No, Harry was there too, you can ask him! And he was the one who saw Karkaroff, who obviously told Krum - but I don't think how everyone found out is important, is it? I'm trying to help you, if it wasn't obvious enough to guess?"

Cedric's skeptical expression faded, and he blinked, shaking his head.

"No, yeah, right," he said. "Sure, sorry. Thanks,"

"You're welcome," Lucy said impudently, standing up. "I guess I'll see you Tuesday, if not before then, Mr Diggory?"

Cedric let a smile slip at her mocking, also standing up. He almost seemed surprised the conversation had ended, so quickly.

"Yeah," he said, the information Lucy had just given him still ticking over in his brain. "Yeah, see you around,"

Lucy smirked as she headed back to her friends.

At least she had good competition - Cedric being skeptical of her giving him tips for nothing clearly conveyed his brains - she'd have been weary of her competitors, too. In fact, she quite liked that he'd been so suspicious of her. It showed there was a bit more about him, rather than just his pretty face. Then again, he didn't get Hogwarts Champion for his looks, did he?

This tournament was going to be fun.

♡

"Okay, remember, the Sleeping Charm will put it into an enchanted slumber," said Fleur, as she and her friends accompanied Lucy to the Champions tent. "And then-"

"-And then I waste no time in getting past it, since it's most likely only temporary," Lucy finished, nodding at the plan the two girls had conjured up in the past couple days. "If it wakes up, use the same charm whilst it's getting up, because it's more vulnerable in that position... only use spells of attack if it's absolutely necessary, because angering a dragon makes the task ten times more difficult... that's it, right?"

Fleur nodded. "You've got it! You're going to do amazing," she said, wrapping her best friend in a hug. Lucy returned it, squeezing her shoulders, tightly.

"I bet I'll get a really shitty dragon," she whined. "Watch me get eaten. I'll be dragon food,"

"Um, hold on, who are you and what have you done with our Lucy?" said Fleur, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Misty chimed in. "Our Lucy wouldn't call herself dragon food. Who's this bitch?"

Lucy let out a weak laugh. "You're right," she said, shakily. "I'm talking shit, it's the nerves,"

"There she is!" Misty beamed.

"You'll be fine," said Verity, with a reassuring smile. "Use the nerves as adrenaline,"

Lucy nodded, still trying to assure herself.

"I love you guys," she said, wrapping them in one last hug.

"We love you more!" Misty beamed into her shoulder.

"And if you totally freak, find us in the stands and we can shout to you," said Fleur. Lucy smiled, and nodded.

And next thing she knew, she'd heard hundreds of 'good luck''s from various students in the passing, before entering the Champions' tent, feeling awfully sick and knowing perfectly well how pale and clammy she looked.

Cedric was the only Champion here, at the moment, and had been pacing when the blonde walked through the entrance. His head snapped up to see who had entered, and he gave Lucy a small smile, once recognising that it was her.

"Hi," she said awkwardly, her heart beginning to pump at the realisation kicking in that she'd very soon be facing a great beast alone.

"Hey," he replied, visibly equally as nervous. "You all set?"

"No," Lucy admitted. "I mean... yeah, but... no... you get me?"

"...I get you," Cedric nodded, with a smile.

Lucy found a stool and placed herself on top of that, twiddling her thumbs as she went over her plan in her head.

"I wish it had been something to ease us in more gently," she said, after a moment of silence. Lucy hates awkward silences - especially when her nerves were all over the place. She needs to talk to ease herself, a bit. "Like swimming, or something,"

Cedric let out a soft laugh. "I'll take a swimming race over a dragon, any day,"

Lucy grinned. "I'd still beat you, though,"

"Oh, really?"

"One hundred percent,"

The door of the tent swept open again, and in walked Krum, looking even more surlier than usual, followed by Mr Bagman who greeted the Champions with a jolly tone, heading over to the corner of the tent, to sort something out.

"Alright... Viktor?" said Lucy. She wasn't entirely sure what the Durmstrang boy wanted to be called, but referring to him by his last name when she knew both the Hogwarts Champions by their first felt kind of rude.

His head, which had been lowered, snapped up and his eyes flickered to her face, before forcing a small smile, and greeting the Beauxbatons girl with a nod.

"You all prepared?" asked Cedric, in an attempt of making conversation.

Krum nodded with a weird seeming shrug, which would have looked strange to anyone who wasn't a Champion - but, being in the same boat as him, Cedric and Lucy did not need for him to talk to understand exactly what he was expressing.

There was another moment of awkward silence, the sound of Bagman fiddling with whatever it was he was doing being the only noise to meet Lucy's ears. She couldn't think of any conversation starters, and so exchanged glances with Cedric every so often, the two giving each other small smiles as they did so.

And then, a very stressed-looking Harry Potter appeared.

"Harry!" Lucy was the first to greet him, thankful for a reason to start talking again. "I was wondering when you'd get here - these two have been talking my ears off about this first task!" she added jokingly, referring to the two boys.

"Harry! Good-oh!" said Bagman happily, turning around to face the boy. "Come in, come in, make yourself at home!"

Harry awkwardly made his way over, as Bagman beckoned for the other three to join him.

"Well, now we're all here - time to fill you in!" he said, brightly. His overexcitement was making Lucy feel even more nauseous - why was he always so hyped up?

"When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag-" he held up a small sack of purple silk. "-from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different - er - varieties, you see,"

Of course.

"And I have to tell you something else, too... ah, yes! Your task is to collect the golden egg,"

Lucy nodded with understanding, yet still had to go over in her head what Bagman meant. Collect the golden egg... dragons lay eggs... perhaps one would be golden? And they'd have to get past... yes! Get past the mother dragon to get the golden egg... oh, shit.

She glanced to her left at Cedric, who looked slightly green, clearly also managing to figure out the vague words of Bagman.

"The thing is, never piss a mother off, because she'll absolutely twat you," Lucy thought aloud.

"Thanks for the tip," Cedric said light-heartedly, overhearing. "Although, I'm not sure if that makes me feel worse,"

"Yeah, well," Lucy responded. "You wouldn't be the only one,"

Bagman opened up the neck of the purple silk sack, and held it in front of her.

"Ladies first," he said.

Lucy held her breath, shakily putting her hand inside the bag, trying not to think about it too much. The fact that she was picking between such a diverse species that could change the fate of whether she'd succeed through the task or not caused the feeling of sickness to bubble even more.

Longing for the suspense to be over, she clasped her hand around what felt like a tiny tail, and pulled out a perfect miniature model of a dragon, and almost sighed with relief. A Welsh Green - still difficult to go up against, no doubt, but she could've landed herself in a much worse position...

She only wished the real dragon would be the same size as this model.

It had the number two around it's neck, and so she assumed she'd be second. Thank Merlin, that was probably the best position. Not first, but not having to wait so long as being third, or fourth. "So far, so good," she could picture Fleur saying. A determined expression overcame her face.

Krum was next, and pulled out a scarlet Chinese Fireball. It had the number three around it's neck. The boy didn't even blink - perhaps he felt too sick for any physical movement. Lucy understood the feeling.

Cedric put his hand into the bag, next, and out came the a blueish-grey dragon Lucy recognised from her many hours of research as a Swedish Short-Snout, with the number one tied around it's neck. The blonde felt a surge of pity for Cedric, at the sight of his number. But, hey, perhaps he might be able to handle it better than her.

And finally, Harry pulled out what Lucy had known what was coming - the Hungarian Horntail. Her heart sank for him. Underage, competing against seventeen year-olds, and now having to face the most dangerous dragon of the four? That boy had the worst luck in the world.

Still, she couldn't help but feel relieved she hadn't ended up with the Horntail.

"Well, there you are!" said Bagman. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take them on, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr Diggory, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, alright?"

Bit vague, Lucy thought.

"Now... Harry... could I have a quick word outside?"

"Er... yeah..." Harry said blankly, and so the two disappeared out of the tent.

Since Krum was either to panicked to, or just simply didn't want to speak, Lucy decided to turn to Cedric yet again, her nerves practically spilling out of her, at this point.

"Erm... which dragon did you get, again?" she asked, knowing perfectly well his answer, but having no other idea of how to make conversation, other than expressing how apprehensive she was.

"The Short-Snout," he replied anxiously. "And yours is the Welsh Green?"

"Yep," Lucy nodded, pausing with a gulp. "And I'm after you, so don't get too blooded up, it might put me off," she added, with a teasing glance.

Cedric let out a weak laugh at her joke, shaking his head.

"I'll try not to - for your sake, obviously, Miss Lunette,"

"I appreciate it, Mr Diggory,"

Their conversation was interrupted by a whistle, and Cedric's face lost any colour that had restored itself in the last couple minutes with the Beauxbatons girl.

"Erm... good luck?" Lucy said. She didn't envy him at all, in this moment.

"Thanks. And you - see you on the other side," he added, his lips curving upwards for a split second.

Lucy nodded, giving him a warm smile. And she watched him disappear out of the tent.

The Tri-Wizard Tournament had never felt so real - the suspenseful moment of awaiting the next whistle lingering as though it would last forever.

A/N: Lucy's about to do the first task! Aaaaahhh! I'm scared for her lmao even tho she's like 10000x braver than me

I love how slowly her and Cedric are getting to know each other tho like 🥺

Also how she just casually talks to Harry and he's just: 👁👄👁

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you thought

<3