TRAINING WHEELS—
champions.

006

The tables in the Great Hall had been shifted around to make more room for the important assembly that was about to take place. It had been the talk of the school all week and everybody was dying to know whose names were going to be pulled out of the Goblet of Fire.

Amora had had a rather restless nights sleep prior to today. She tossed and turned all night long, her golden duvet ending up down by her feet one moment and then up by her neck the moment after. She even went to sit down in the common room after a few hours, staring at the fire with amber eyes and her legs curled to her chest.

The brunette was more than thankful that her friends were too young to put their names inside the Goblet and that she only had to stress over Cedric. She'd grown up best friends with her cousin. As they grew older, they drifted apart a little, the three year age gap sometimes proving differences in maturity and different interests, but they loved one another dearly.

If anybody asked Amora who her first friend was, it was Cedric Diggory. She knew on his bedside table that he had a picture of him at merely three or four with Amora sitting in his arms, only a few months old. It swelled her heart when she found out about it.

"Amora, stop biting your nails," Hermione scolded, smacking the shorter girl's hand.

Amora lowered her fingers. She hadn't even realised that she had been biting at them from where she sat at one of the tables, watching the chaos of the four houses merging and sitting wherever their hearts desired. Most of the Slytherins stuck to themselves, including Draco and his gang. He had Pansy Parkinson speaking in one of his ears, but Draco looked bored, resting his chin on his hand and staring at nothing. They were sat by the Durmstrang boys, right near the front.

"Sorry..." She apologised with a small sigh. "I didn't even know I was doing it."

"Let the girl chew her nails, Hermione," Ron sat down behind them on a bench a little higher up, Leon and Neville on the other side. "It's either that or she makes those knots in the ends of her hair."

Amora turned and sent the ginger boy a small glare. "I don't do that anymore," she huffed. "I stopped over the summer."

"I can tell," Hermione beamed, reaching a hand out and holding the ends of Amora's dark locks. "It looks so healthy."

One thing Amora always did absentmindedly was fiddle with the ends of her hair, except when she was nervous, she would sort of mat it together by rubbing a small lock between her fingers, and then she'd run her fingers through the small knot as if to soothe her. She always kept her hair in plaits to try and stop her from doing it, but over the summer she'd worked on her bad habit, and thus her beautiful hair was down and ready to be admired by... Well, probably just Hermione, really.

"Thanks, Hermione," Amora smiled back.

"What about mine?" Leon teased, poking his head through the two girls' shoulders.

"You need a haircut," Amora reached out and ruffled her hand through his dirty blond hair.

Hermione giggled. "Honestly. You're starting to look like the twins."

"Hey," George turned around from the bench in front of them to glare and then turned back around, self consciously running a large hand through his ginger hair which had grown to nearly his shoulders.

"Sit down, please," Professor Dumbledore suddenly called from in between the four tables, and sure enough everybody listened to him, the Great Hall falling silent. "And now the moment you've all been waiting for... The Champion Selection."

He threw his hand out and the candles around the room started to dim, plunging the room in nearly total darkness aside from the Goblet at the front of the room. Its blue flames illuminated the faces of students in every year the same blue colour, burning in their eyes.

Dumbledore touched the cup with both hands before he backed away and waited for a few seconds as the flame burst into a pink colour. A note came flying out of it and swam its way into Dumbledore's clutch. Amora felt her heart start to race and her breath hitch, wondering who could possibly be the first picked.

"The Durmstrang champion is Viktor Krum," Dumbledore called, a chorus of masculine cheers following, Krum's schoolmates all grabbing him by the shoulder and roaring their approval.

Everybody else applauded for him too, until the flame turned its pinky-red colour once more and another name was spat out of the Goblet. Again, it flew into Dumbledore's fingers.

"The champion from Beauxbatons..." He turned it around. "Is Fleur Delacour."

More applause rang and Amora clapped along, but now all she could think about was that Hogwarts was next, and she prayed that Cedric's name wasn't written on that piece of paper. When the Goblet spat out the third and final name, tension filled the room. Everybody wanted to know who would be representing their school.

"The Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory!"

Amora felt as if her life had flashed before her eyes and felt like she had jinxed it as she watched her grinning cousin step up to go and shake their headmaster's hands. The Great Hall was the loudest it had been so far, especially from the Hufflepuffs who were glad to finally have something interesting happen to their house for once.

Amora clapped for the last few seconds when she had finally processed that she wasn't dreaming, but it didn't stop the small frown written across her delicate features. She would worry about her cousin, but when everybody else was so happy for him, it was hard not to be supportive herself. It did make her smile slightly to see everybody appreciating Cedric anyway.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore called above the cheers and whistles. "We now have our three champions. But in the end, only one will go down in history. Only one will hoist this chalice of champions, this vessel of victory, the Triwizard Cup!"

He turned quickly and pointed his finger at an object covered by a sheet, the sheet immediately soaring into the air and revealing a grand cup that glistened blue in the light. However, the applause was cut short when the Goblet started to light up again, its flames reaching higher and higher until they burst pink.

Another name shot out of the cup, much to everybody's confusion.

"What in the world..." Amora sat forwards as she watched Dumbledore peel open the slip.

"Harry Potter..." He muttered in disbelief. "Harry Potter?" He called, and everybody's eyes started darting around for the boy who already had enough popularity to last him a lifetime.

Amora frowned down at Harry who sat in front of her next to Seamus Finnigan, wondering when and how the hell he'd even managed to get his name in the Goblet when the twins couldn't. She quickly realised that something was wrong when she saw the fear-stricken look on Harry's face. He'd gone paler than a ghost.

She reached forward and placed her hand on his shoulder as Dumbledore roared his name again in anger.

"Harry," she whispered, silently letting him know he should face their furious headmaster.

"Harry, for goodness sake," Hermione muttered and hauled him to his feet.

Harry started to slowly take steps towards Professor Dumbledore. The silence of the room made Amora feel immensely bad for Harry. She couldn't imagine how much she would be panicking right now if she was put in his shoes. Just the afternoon before he'd been telling her how he'd had enough adventures at Hogwarts to last a lifetime and he'd rather not put his name forward in three years when he was finally old enough.

Dumbledore handed him the slip with his name on it but didn't shake his hand like he did with the three other champions. Harry watched him cautiously, edging back to his seat and trying to ignore all of the glares and curious looks he was receiving.

"He's a cheat!" Somebody called.

"He's not even seventeen yet."

Poor Harry.

D.M + A.B

When the rain lashed down later that evening, it felt like some cruel pathetic fallacy to how Amora was feeling. Not only was Cedric a Triwizard champion, but it looked like Harry was going to be one, too. That was an extra person that Amora had to worry about, and boy did she worry a lot. It was like second nature to the Hufflepuff who feared the death of her loved ones more than her own.

People were returning to their common rooms with the curfew coming up in the next half an hour, but Amora found herself pacing one of the empty halls, swallowing thickly as she scrunched her fists up to stop her fingers snapping to her hair.

A group of third year Gryffindor boys walked by her whilst she paused to look out one of the windows and she heard them talking about Harry-- just like the whole school was. Her loyalty for her friend burnt in her chest and she bit down on her lip before calling after them, attempting to make her voice sound strong.

"You probably shouldn't talk like that about Harry when you don't know the truth," Amora told them all sternly.

"Oh, come on!" The one with rectangular glasses and blond hair snickered. "Who are you kidding? Potter obviously put his name in the Goblet. As if being The Chosen One isn't good enough for him, he wanted to have Eternal Glory, too!"

Amora frowned, realising rumours were probably going to start spreading fast about the Potter boy, just like they always did. She slumped down on the edge of a window, watching the rain lash down faster against the glass. It was one of Amora's favourite sounds, yet it brought her no comfort tonight.

"You should get to bed," Harry's voice came from behind her.

The brunette turned, more than surprised to see him there. She was waiting for Cedric to return, but Harry would do for now. Amora lifted herself from the raised concrete she had been resting against, a solemn expression written across her usually bright face.

"It's not true, is it?" Amora questioned him. "What everybody's saying."

Harry sent her a soft smile and it was the first time he'd smiled since his name had been spat out of the Goblet of Fire. "You don't seem to think so."

Amora's cheeks heated up at the realisation that he'd heard what she said to the third year boys. She tucked some hair behind her ears and sighed loudly.

"Of course I don't think so," Amora spoke. "After what you said at the library last night and the looks on Hermione and Ron's faces when Professor Dumbledore said your name... I just know that you would have told them if you'd gone and done it yourself."

Harry moved to sit down and Amora sat back down next to him. "Thank you," the green-eyed boy breathed. "Even Ron doesn't believe me right now."

"Ron will come around," Amora promised him, her hand moving to pat his hand from where it rested on the space in between them. "He's your best friend and he loves you. He's probably just confused and worried about you."

There was a small silence as the pair sat there. Some Hufflepuff girls walked by from the year above, smiling at Amora on the way. Amora waved, a smile of her own on her face, but she couldn't quite force it to meet her eyes. She had too much on her plate right now and they were only a week into the school year.

"Are you?" Harry asked quietly.

"Am I what?" Amora frowned.

"Are you worried about me?" He sounded scared to ask.

"I am," Amora admitted, feeling the pit in her stomach grow heavier with anxiety. "Between you and Cedric, I don't know who I'm going to be rooting for," she joked, trying to lighten the tension and some of Harry's own nerves.

Harry chuckled, shaking his head. He looked glad that Amora had tried to ease the mood. After a second or two, he stretched his back and then stood up.

"I should go. Curfew is soon."

"Right," Amora nodded in agreement, knowing it was probably best for her to wait in the common room for Cedric anyway. "Good night, Harry. Try not to stress on it and have a good night's sleep."

"Thanks, Amora," he whispered, and his green eyes never left her figure as she wandered down the hall, all the way out of his sight.

Amora only had to wait another six minutes before Cedric was coming into the Hufflepuff common room, laughing with his friends. The look on his face screamed pure joy-- a huge contrast to Harry who looked like he was on the verge of a breakdown. Amora felt a tightness in her chest, one that she knew she would have to ignore if she wanted to support her cousin.

"Cedric," she called, rushing towards him.

"I got in!" He grinned at her, grabbing her and pulling her into his chest for a moment or two. "I'm officially a Triwizard champion, Amora! Can you believe it? A Hufflepuff-- Triwizard champion!"

Suddenly, Amora didn't want to voice her concerns to him. She knew that it would be selfish to rip away his excitement and remind him about how scary each tournament could be. Instead, she found herself smiling, and she hoped it looked genuine.

"I can believe it, because you deserve it, Cedric," she promised him, and it was the truth. "Uncle Amos is going to be so happy."

Cedric's face lit up even more. "He will be, won't he?"

"Of course," Amora murmured before she noticed a line of other Hufflepuffs waiting to talk to their most famous member. "I'll let you get to your fan club."

Cedric snickered and shook his head, scruffing her hair up with his hand. Amora feigned a glare but smiled as she moved past him, patting down her dark hair. She glanced over her shoulder as she started to head towards the girls' dormitories, finding her the tall boy hugging a girl in his year as somebody else clamped their hand down on his shoulder and started chanting his name.

"You did the right thing," Leon suddenly appeared out of nowhere, making her jump. "By supporting him, I mean. That's what Cedric needs right now, and it's all you can offer."

Amora nodded in agreement. "You're right, though. He'll probably be fine, anyway. He might even win."

"I don't know, Harry Potter always seems to come out on top of everything," Hannah Abbott shrugged from the other side of them, and only then did Amora realise the blonde had been lurking there.

Amora sighed. "Either way, Harry and Cedric are both good people. If it's not Krum or Fleur, they'll be happy for each other."

...

fun fact: when i was at school i ended up being in every single house at some point or another :) but i was mainly in red in primary and yellow in secondary!

thanks for reading <333

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