"There she is!" roared Draco when Oleandra arrived in the common room. "Our champion!"
It seemed as though every Slytherin student had been waiting for her in ambush, ready to give her a hero's welcome. They weren't as boisterous as students from the other three Houses, but how could they not cheer for her? Oleandra couldn't help but notice that some of the older students were standing on the sides of the room, eyeing her carefully, instead of joining in.
Of course, not everyone was convinced that a fourth year had the capacity to act as champion; if everything had gone to plan, the Goblet would have only pulled names from a pool of sixth and seventh years. Yes, being Hogwarts champion was a great honour, but it was also a great responsibility: depending on her performance, Oleandra would either go down with Slytherin in infamy as a House of losers, or they would collectively become immortal in people's memories as the greatest Hogwarts House.
A lot was riding on Oleandra's shoulders; in fact, she could already feel the heavy weight of expectations on her shoulders. Or maybe it was just that they were going numb from all the friendly claps she was receiving on the back. But still, Slytherin took care of its own; until such a day came that Oleandra became a burden, the others would stand at her side.
"So, does that mean we're on speaking terms again?" Oleandra asked when Draco, Crabbe and Goyle came up to her after the crowd dispersed.
"My father ordered me to stay away from any of the Greengrass sisters," said Draco dismissively. "But he never said anything about Triwizard champions. In fact, he told me it wouldn't be a bad idea to get to know them."
"Is that so?" said Oleandra in amusement. "And what does Pansy think about that?"
"What does Pansy have to do with anything?" asked Draco in confusion.
"Nothing!" said Oleandra quickly, slipping away.
After all that excitement, Oleandra could take a load off her mind, and she drifted off to sleep quite easily compared to the last few days when she went finally went to bed. And when Oleandra went down to the Great Hall for breakfast the following Sunday morning, she found that her popularity hadn't lessened overnight. A veritable mob formed around her, Daphne and Tracey. Pansy was even chattering away in her direction as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
As she sat at her seat, she noticed that Ron was sitting alone at the Gryffindor table. That was strange; usually, the Gryffindor Golden Trio were inseparable. Upon seeing her, he rose halfway up from his seat, before sitting back down, as if he had changed his mind. If there was something he wanted to tell her, it was probably a little intimidating to have to face down a small army of Slytherins all by himself…
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In the following days, Oleandra found that her newfound popularity as Hogwarts champion among Slytherin House didn't extend to the other Houses as far as she would have thought. In theory, a school's students would cheer for their own champion, but Hogwarts was extremely divided.
Students of House Gryffindor simply didn't like her because she was their rival House's Seeker, who had led Slytherin to two Quidditch Cup victories when they felt they should have won. Draco Malfoy had also been fanning the flames between the two Houses in recent years as well, accentuating the divide.
Students of House Hufflepuff had been banking on Cedric Diggory becoming Hogwarts champion and winning them some glory for once, so they were extremely disillusioned. Not only was Diggory not selected as champion, but two fourth years had been chosen instead! Luckily, they were not the type to hold grudges, their anger would likely fade away after a few weeks. But for now, they were giving the stink eye to both Slytherin and Gryffindor.
As for House Ravenclaw, they didn't really care which one of the two champions was the real one; they were both too young. All they could hope for was that Oleandra and Harry didn't embarrass their school in front of the others. After all, a school's prestige in academics would also reflect on them, when they graduated!
It also didn't help that Fleur Delacour was extremely appealing to the menfolk, and that Viktor Krum was universally popular among enjoyers of the sport of Quidditch… which was basically everyone who had a pulse, or breathed air.
So far, Gryffindor and Slytherin had kept a healthy distance from each other, surrounding their champions with bodyguards, in case the other side tried anything sneaky or underhanded. Even so, Harry and Oleandra had a few classes in common, so their housemates wouldn't be able to protect them from each other forever!
When Oleandra arrived at Professor Hagrid's cabin for her Care of Magical Creatures class, which Slytherin shared with Gryffindor, one might have forgiven her for thinking she had just walked onto an ancient battlefield. Those who had arrived early had separated into two distinct rows, and they were glaring at each other. Professor Hagrid was in the middle of them, looking awfully nervous.
"So, er—" said Professor Hagrid in a somewhat panicked manner, "Is ev'ryone here? Yeah?"
The last few students were scrambling down the hill from the castle, trying not to slip on the wet grass.
"Ah, look, boys, it's the champion," said Draco upon spotting Harry. "Got your autograph books? Better get a signature now, because I doubt he's going to be around much longer… half the Triwizard champions have died… how long d'you reckon you're going to last, Potter? Ten minutes into the first task's my bet?"
"So, bit o' sad news, the Skrewts have bin killin' each other off," said Professor Hagrid loudly over Draco's voice, "So I was thinking ter let 'em get a bit o' exercise, ter let 'em get rid o' their excess energy. Your jobs fer today will be ter give 'em a walk. Here're some leashes."
It just so happened that the students also needed to let off some steam; they were letting their House rivalry go to their heads. And so, for the rest of the class, the students forgot all about their troubles. Survival was given precedence, as they helplessly tried to hold on for dear life to their leashes as the Skrewts, who had grown to enormous sizes, rocketed about with their explosive back-ends.
Even if Oleandra dug in her heels, strengthened herself with the Giant's Strength rune and got Cloak to stabilize her, the Skrewts were relentless, and quite successful, in their attempts to shake her off. At least she could fly; most students would be jerked off their feet and onto their stomach when the Skrewts blasted off. It would then be a race against time to get back up again before the Skrewts' rocket-powered behinds came off cooldown, and they were dragged off again by the leash.