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"SAY, COULD YOU HELP ME WITH SOMETHING, NEVILLE?", VICTORIA ASKED WITH A SMILE. neville immediately turned to the girl, wondering if he would truly be of help to her.

"a-are you sure?? I'm not certain if I could help you much. especially if it's in potions...", neville mumbled the last part.

"have more confidence in yourself neville. I heard from professor moody and sprout that you have an aptitude for hebology don't you?", victoria nicely complimented, making neville's stomach feel bubbly.

"I-I-I-I mean I suppose so", the boy stammered, making victoria slightly smirk.

     "anyways, I was wondering if you had any ideas on how I could stay underwater for an hour", victoria asked.

     she knew the bubble charm would let her breathe underwater for the hour of the trial, but she wanted to outdo others.

     victoria wanted to be first even though the competition didn't entirely matter to her.

"oh! perhaps gillyweed would do the deed", neville excitedly answered as he hurriedly took out his textbook and flipped to the right page.

"where'd you get the book from?", victoria asked, realizing that it was one her and the other students did not own.

"professor moody actually gave it to me as compensation for what happened in class", neville bashfully admitted.

victoria just hummed in response as she knew exactly what neville was talking about. the day that moody had taught the three unforgivable curses, neville was called up and nearly passed out from the tortured spider.

victoria however, thought it was quite intriguing, but had feigned a worried look as hermione had yelled "stop!"

"well if it isn't victoria noir", a familiar voice mocked, making the two fourth-years turn around.

"is there something I could do for you, malfoy?", victoria answered with a hint of annoyance.

she hated when people bothered her, especially while she was nearly about to rope neville into making her the gillyweed that he had mentioned.

neville just nervously watched as malfoy and his goons inched closer to the pair that were sitting in the middle of the library, surrounded by not many others.

"actually there is", malfoy grinned. "leave", he commanded neville, making the boy immediately stand up.

     "don't tell him what to do", victoria said, making neville stop in his footsteps as he awkwardly turned around to look at the two in front of him.

     "I can do whatever I want", draco sternly muttered, making victoria huff out a chuckle.

     "my apologies your majesty, but you don't intimidate me", victoria teased as she lightly pushed away draco, nearly about to leave until he had grabbed the girl's thin wrist.

     "listen, I tried being nice to you, but if you keep rejecting my sincerity, I'm afraid I'll have to make your life a living hell once you transfer", draco lowly threatened.

victoria merely raised a brow, giving the boy a look a mischief.

"a living hell you say? then do your best I suppose", victoria nonchalantly said.

     "however, I must warn you. if you try pulling me down, I will swiftly pull you down to hell with me", victoria whispered as she then snatched her wrist from draco's grasp and walked beside neville.

     "come on neville. we've got a project to start on don't we?", the girl nicely asked as neville just aggressively nodded his head in agreement.

draco watched as the two disappeared from his sight.

a few had looked up from their books but had resumed to studying as draco looked more pissed off than ever.

"drag me down with you huh? we'll see about that", draco uttered as he hastily left the quiet library.

•♛•

"alright contestants! you have exactly one hour to find your sorely missed person", dumbledore announced.

     "on your mark, get set, GO!"

     victoria, victor krum, and cedric immediately dived into merpeople deep, a lake at hogwarts that resided many merpeople that held mini tridents.

     harry was then hastily pushed in by moody after he had swallowed the gillyweed that neville had made for him, per victoria's request.

     victoria's feet painfully transformed into fins as the side of her neck was split open like gills, for breathing under water.

     once the initial shock was over, the girl hurriedly swam through the mounts of tangling seaweed.

     perhaps it was her imagination, but a merperson had swiftly glazed past her, making her more alert than ever.

however, victoria continued to swim through the copious amounts of extra seaweed as she had reached the destination of where four hostages were strapped by the ankle of a single seaweed.

she observed as she immediately went towards ron, assuming that that was her sorely missed person.

victoria knew that cho was cedric's while the rest she didn't exactly spare a glance, as she was running out of time.

to make matters worse, victor krum, who had transfigured into a shark had bit apart the seaweed as he hastily swam upwards, making victoria cast a charm at ron's seaweed.

victoria then hauled ron up towards the surface, trying to outrun victor, as cedric was right behind her.

after another 10 minutes of reaching the shore, victoria coughed as the professors helped the unconscious bodies up onto the deck.

the three "sorely missed" people awoke with a spell from professor mcgonagall, seeming fine as if they hadn't been underwater for who knows how long.

victoria huffed as she came in second, right behind victor. though that didn't matter too much as she still placed in front of him since she completed the first task better.

"victoria??", ron confusingly said.

"oh ron! I'm so glad you're okay", victoria smiled as she cupped the boy's hands with her own.

hermione simply rolled her eyes as victor draped a dry towel around her.

"I-I know I should be honored for you saving me...but I think I was supposed to be harry's....", ron mumbled.

victoria let out a chuckle of disbelief.

"I'm sorry...what?"

"I think harry was supposed to—"

suddenly, just a few seconds before the timer went off, harry had resurfaced with draco.

harry coughed as draco had quickly awoken after another charm of mcgonagall's.

"while ms. noir did come back as second, I'm afraid I'll have to place her and mr. potter in third and fourth place", dumbledore announced, making many gasp and whisper.

"p-professor dumbledore, may I ask why I got demoted a place?", victoria tried to calmly ask, though nearly failing as her fury could be seen in her clenched fists and perplexed eyes.

"ms. noir, you and mr. potter have swapped people. mr. weasley was supposed to be saved by harry and mr. malfoy was supposed to be saved by you", dumbledore explained as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

"but professor, why would malfoy be my sorely missed person??", victoria questioned.

"why of course because of you two's friendship! mr. malfoy in fact came to me first and offered as tribute", dumbledore chuckled.

victoria looked at draco in disbelief, making him grin as she then glanced at madame maxime.

"victoria, it's alright my dear. I'm still very proud of ze accomplishments that you 'ave made", madame maxime smiled, patting the girl's shoulder.

     "mais madame! je—"

     "let it be bygones victoria. as they say, la vie il faut la vivre (life is for living)", madame interrupted.

     victoria subtly glared at draco as the boy who just mouthed something, making her slightly squint her eyes.

"to hell we go".

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