My shoes hit against the grass as I pointed my wand at him. "Protego!" I said stopping him from hitting Harry. His cold laugh filled the graveyard and his menacing red eyes flashed everywhere. "Avada Kedavara!" And all there was green light and nothing else.

I woke up, shaky and sweaty from the nightmare. "Are you alright, Leo?" I squinted through the dark and saw Madam Pomfrey's face. "Yes, madam. I just had a nightmare" I replied wiping the sweat drops from my forehead. "Well," Madam Pomfrey said pulling open the curtains letting the sun rays fall inside "I think it's time to get up. Professor Dumbledore told me to send you to his office at nine am sharp!" "It's only eight thirty right now!" I said looking at the clock.

"By the time, you'll eat breakfast, Malfoy, it'll be nine already"

"Ugh.. fine!"

Pomfrey was true to her words. By the time I put the last piece of toast in my mouth, it was 8:50 a.m. already. I quickly darted out of the Great Hall without saying a word to anyone and I didn't even realise it, in a few minutes I was in front of the gargoyle to Dumbledore's office. Pomfrey told me that the password was Cockroach Cluster.

The gargoyle swung open letting me inside. I climbed up the marble stairs and onto a landing with a wooden door. I knocked on the door and opened it slightly. "Professor Dumbledore?" I called. "Leo Malfoy. Well, I see that Madam Pomfrey delivered my message to you," Dumbledore's voice came "Come on in". I walked inside and looked around.

I'd never been to Dumbledore's office before and it was a place I would've given anything to live in. The floor was made of out oak wood just like the bookshelves in the Ravenclaw Common Room and two golden staircases went up to what I called a tiny balcony. The walls around Dumbledore's desk were shelves full of books and strange and whimsical devices. The wall behind the deadly had thousands of portraits of all the previous Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts.

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk with a bunch of parchments laid before him. "First time here?" Dumbledore asked me his eyes twinkling. "Yes, Professor" I replied "It's a remarkably beautiful office".

"I could agree so. Whoever decorated this place has the minds and skills of a real architect. Please sit down, Leo"

I nodded and took a seat in front of Dumbledore. "You might me wondering why I called you here," Dumbledore said "early in the morning. First of all, I wanted to congratulate you on your bravery yesterday. Jumping on a dragon's back. Especially a Hungarian Horntail. I wouldn't do that even in my wildest dreams". "Oh, Professor" I replied turning slightly pink "It was nothing".

"Also, Madam Pomfrey tells me that whenever you space out or faint you will mutter a few words and Miss Padma Patil recalls one of them to be the word 'madman'. Any idea why?"

"Madman? No idea, Professor but yes though, part of it is true"

"Whatever do you mean, Leo?"

"I do easily and randomly faint or space out at any time of day. Even back at home. Also parts of my body swell up at peculiar times"

"Yes, yes," Dumbledore replied looking down at a parchment "I remember Professor Moody telling me about your leg the other day".

"Exactly"

"Forgive me for being so weird," Dumbledore said "but you may go now. I wish you luck on the next task and I can tell you that something exciting which will be happening on Christmas night, which your head of house, that is Professor Flitwick, will tell you all in a few days". "Thank you, Professor" I replied smiling and exiting the office. I went down the stairs and headed to the dormitory where Padma was plaiting Adidas's hair. "Hey, Leo" Adidas said waving a wand, lazily "Your hand fine?" "Madam Pomfrey is good at mending things" I replied throwing myself onto my bed. "Where were you during breakfast?" Padma asked raising her eyebrow "Couldn't find you at all".

"Dumbledore called me over to his office"

"Dumbledore?! You?!"

"Yeah, Padma. Leo's the champion. Anyway, quickly finish my braid!"

"Have some patience, Adidas"

The other day, my eyes flickered open just to see everyone soundly asleep and the dormitory completely dark except for the few sun rays coming from my window. "God..." I murmured getting up from bed. I pulled on my robes and scarf and headed to the Common Room, where only two people were there. A seventh year boy was sitting on the armchair, doing his homework and a blonde haired girl was by the bookshelves, searching for books.

"Hullo, Leo Malfoy" said a familiar misty voice. Luna turned around from the bookshelves to see me. "Hi, Luna" I replied yawing. I noticed her clutching a book titled 'The Fascinating and Unique Creatures of Britain'.  "You know," she said flipping the book open "this time of day is perfect for a walk by the gardens".

"Really?"

"Yes. I was hoping you could join me"

"Yeah," I said smiling "Why not?"

A few minutes later, I found myself outside the castle gates with Luna Lovegood taking a nice and pleasant stroll. "The air is quite fresh, is it not?" Luna said. I nodded and kept on walking. "You know, I heard we are having some big event soon" she said going through the pages of 'The Fascinating and Unique Creatures of Britain', absent-minded. I suddenly went back to the conversation I had with Dumbledore.

"...I wish you luck on the next task and I can tell you that something exciting which will be happening on Christmas night, which your head of house, that is Professor Flitwick, will tell you all in a few days"

"Yeah, yeah. We are" I said. "Excuse me?" "Well, Dumbledore called me to his office yesterday," I explained "and he said that something exciting will be happening on Christmas and Flitwick would soon tell us what it is".

"Ooh. Well, I hope Professor Flitwick does tell us soon because I can not wait"

"Yeah, me too"

"Bluebells!" Luna cried suddenly. I raised by eyebrow in question but Luna was faster than me. She ran through the dewy grass and the zephyr flowing through her hair and suddenly landed down on the grass in front of a huge rock. I walked on over to her and sat next to Luna in a crouching position. In front of her were a bunch of bluebells or as Luna called them by their proper name, Hyacinthoides non-scripta. "They're my favourite flowers to use in flower crowns" she said.

"You make flower crowns?" I asked her interested "My mother used to buy them when I was young girl" "Yes, I do" Luna replied "My cousin, Ellen Lovegood taught me how to make them. You must know Ellen. She's in Hufflepuff" "Sorry, but I don't know her" "Oh, I'll introduce you to her some time" Luna said plucking a few bluebells. In a few minutes (with some twists and turns and vines) Luna made a flower crown out of bluebells and handed it to me.

"Is this for me?" I asked. "Yes, Leo. But if you mind, I want to do a little finishing touch". "Yeah, take it" I said handing the crown back to Luna. She pulled out her wand from her robe and tapped the bluebells. They turned bronze in colour and Luna handed it back to me. "Here you go! A little house pride!" Luna said clapping her hands happily. Before the crown could even touch my head, a humongous shadow covered Luna and I.

"Hullo, Luna Lovegood and Leo Malfoy" Rubeus Hagrid said looking at us, smiling. "Good morning, Hagrid" I replied holding up my hand in greeting. "Why you two up this early on a Thursday? I thought all you stayed up late an' woke up right before breakfast". "Oh, Luna here's just trying to take me for a walk" I replied. "Ahh.. anyway, got to go. Also to tell you, something big'll be happening on Christmas. See you" Hagrid said heading back to his hut.

"I told you, Luna" I said smirking. "When did I say you were wrong, Leo?"

"Leo, quickly pack up" Padma hissed from the seat next to me "We don't want to be late to lunch!" There were only a few minutes left for Charms class to end and Professor Flitwick had just finished telling the class our homework. "Not so fast, Miss Patil" Padma spun around and saw Flitwick looking at her from his desk. "Sorry, Professor" she mumbled turning bright pink in colour.

"As I was saying," Flitwick continued turning to the rest of the class "a principal part of the Triwizard Tournament is soon approaching. The Yule Ball" "The Yule Ball?" a voice came from above Padma. Cho Chang was leaning towards Flitwick, interested immensly; "We're having a ball?" she asked her eyes lingering on Flitwick and then on Sue, who was sitting right next to Cho. "Certainly, Miss Chang!" Flitwick replied "the ball will be held on Christmas night from eight pm to midnight. The champions," he said gesturing his head towards me "will be opening the ball with a traditional dance with their dance partner--" TING!

Everyone scrambled out of the class and headed off for lunch, Padma being the first but I stayed back. "Professor Flitwick?" I asked. "Yes, Leo?"

"You said that the champions have to have dance partners"

"Yes, it is a tradition of the tournament"

"Ahh, okay" I said slinging my bag over my shoulder "Just confirming. Thank you, Professor" I quickly rushed out of the class and to the Great Hall where I slipped into a seat between Padma and Liberty Smith. "Why you rushin'?" asked Liberty in her Scottish accent. "Man," I said "have any of you decided who to take to the ball?"

"Yeah" Liberty said but Padma shook her head. "You have?!" "Hmm.. I was thinkin' Terry Boot" Liberty replied "The Boots are good ol' friends with my people so yea. You, Leo?" "I don't know and the champions are supposed to open the bal--" My eyes fell on the Gryffindor table and I fell silent.

"You were saying, Leo?" Padma asked slapping her hand on the table. "Umm.. wait up a second" I replied getting up from the Ravenclaw table and headed out of the Hall. Harry was standing there with Ron and Hermione, chatting rapidly. Ron stopped me and waved. "Hi, Leo!" I waved back and went to them. "Hey, guys" I replied "Umm.. would you mind letting Harry and I talk in private?" "Yeah," Hermione replied pulling Ron towards the Great Hall "we'll be at the Gryffindor table, Harry!" "Okay!" Harry called after them and turned towards me "So, what do you want, Leo?"

I bit my lip and spluttered "Wanna go to the ball with me?" "The Yule Ball? With you?" he asked turning pink.

"Yeah, I mean but if you have someone else in mind, I understand"

"No, I didn't mean that! I'll go with you!"

"Really?"

"Really"

I gave him a quick hug and ran off to the Ravenclaw table, super elated. "Whayofaesbout?" Padma asked me with food in her mouth. "Pardon?" I asked her sitting down. She gulped down her food and repeated, "What's your face about?"

"Ahh, nothing" I replied smiling cheekily "Just got a partner for the ball" "You got one?!" she asked shocked "Already?!" "Yeah," I said "that person was pretty easy to ask out"

↠ End of the chapter! I used the flower bluebells as they're my favourite flowers as well (we're on the same page, Luna... though I've never ever made flower crowns so we may be not too alike.). So for all you guys, here's some additional trivia on Hyacinthoides non-scripta:

Hyacinthoides non-scripta was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his seminal 1753 work Species Plantarum, as a species in the genus Hyacinthus. The specific epithet non-scriptus means "unlettered" or "unmarked" and was intended to distinguish this plant from the classical hyacinth of Greek mythology. This mythical flower, which was almost certainly not the modern hyacinth, sprang up from the blood of the dying prince Hyacinthus. His lover, the god Apollo, shed tears that marked the new flower's petals with the letters "AIAI" ("alas") as a sign of his grief.

In 1803, Johann Centurius von Hoffmannsegg and Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link transferred the species to the genus Scilla, and in 1849 Christian August Friedrich Garcke transferred it to the genus Endymion (now a synonym of Hyacinthoides); it is still widely known as "Scilla non-scripta" or "Endymion non-scriptus". In 1934, Pierre Chouard transferred the species to its current placement in the genus Hyacinthoides. Scilla was the original Greek name for the sea squill, Drimia maritima; Endymion is a character from Greek mythology; Hyacinthoides means "like a hyacinth".

The type species of Hyacinthoides is H. hispanica, while that of Endymion is "Scilla nutans", described by James Edward Smith in English Botany in 1797, but now treated as a synonym of H. non-scripta. Smith had argued that nutans ("nodding") is a more fitting epithet than non-scriptus, which makes no sense once separated from Hyacinthus, but the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants requires the oldest name to be used, regardless of meaning.

Common names for Hyacinthoides non-scripta include bluebell, common bluebell, English bluebell, British bluebell, wild hyacinth, wood bell, fairy flower and bell bottle. In Scotland, the term "bluebell" is used for the harenbell, Campanula rotundifolia.

(Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyacinthoides_non-scripta)

Yeah, I probably bored your minds out... sorry!  Also, thank you to sunflqwers for the amazing cover for this story. She made another cover for this story which I didn't like but I still want to feature it here so here you go! 

Also, two more things I have to say... I deleted my story, Wounds and Scars as it wasn't my best work and I wanted to display better work. Also that Ellen Lovegood (who is mentioned in this chapter) will be appearing in Chapter 14, during the Yule Ball. Nevertheless, thank you for reading this chapter! ↞

~GalaxyPencil