A/N: This is kind of a prequel to Songs of Yesterday/Dreams of Today. But it also makes sense if you haven't read either of those.

1 – What's in a Name

On the morning of the First Task Draco woke up with the feeling of dread, settling deep in his stomach. But why? Today was The Day. Today was finally the day where everyone would see what a fraud Potter was. That there was nothing more to her but a pretty name. No, strike that. Her name wasn't even pretty. It was all about the story behind it. The Girl Who Lived.

A-MA-ZING.

After lunch was finally over, there was nothing he wanted to do more than settle in the audience next to his fellow Slytherins and enjoy The Girl Who Lived making a fool of herself. It would serve her right. He was already trying to come up with a funny name for afterwards. Something like "The Girl Who Lived No More"? That was a good one! But there it was again. The same sinking feeling from this morning. What did it mean?

"It's starting!" Pansy giddily exclaimed from his left. He turned just in time to spot the blue grey dragon that entered the arena. A dragon? Were they serious? Were they actually trying to murder all the champions?

"Shit! That's a real life dragon!" Pansy grabbed his arm in excitement. "Guess, we'll finally be rid of Potter by the end of this!" The girl cackled in amusement, grinning widely.

"As if Dumbledore would let his favourite Gryffindor die," Draco said with a scoff. "Such a pity, though." He sighed deeply, the words sounding strangely hollow in his ears.

"Wouldn't be the first time a student dies in the Tournament," Zabini chimed in from a row behind them.

"Let's keep our fingers crossed then," Pansy hissed gleefully.

"Shut up banshee, your screechy voice is ruining the show," Bulstrode said, throwing crackers at the girl's head.

"How dare you? Just because you have a crush on Diggory-"

"We can't all carry a torch for Malfoy."

"I swear if you don't-"

The bickering of the two girls was interrupted by a shared gasp that went through the audience. At once their attention was drawn toward the scene in front of them. The dragon was looming above Diggory who had a huge red gash all across his back. He was aiming his wand at a rock and after a flash of orange light, it turned into a huge dog. Instead of the boy, the dragon's focus had shifted to the dog now. The Hufflepuff made use of the draagon's momentary distraction and ran over toward the nest. Before he reached it, though the magical creature seemed to lose interest in the dog and sent a red, hot fireball after the boy. Although his shirt was halfway burned off, he continued sprinting to the nest and snatched up the golden egg that was sitting amidst the other normal ones. And just like this, everything was over.

"That was actually quite smart," Zabini commented, as everyone around them started to cheer.

"Come on, a first year could have come up with such a baby trick," Pansy muttered, still seemingly disgruntled.

Diggory and the dragon left the arena in two opposite directions and the jury gave him his score, which Draco forgot right away. The next dragon – a green one this time – entered, along with the Beauxbatons champion who looked as if she was about to be sick.

"Her pretty face won't help her much now," Pansy taunted.

"Unless the dragon is male," Zabini whispered, eyes glued to the French girl. Pansy rolled her eyes. But she kept silent, instead focusing on the dragon and the girl. Her strategy seemed to be to hide behind rocks and send spells at the magical creature. But none of them did any real damage. Then she fired a spell at him that put the dragon into some kind of trance. While the creature started snoring, the witch carefully tip-toed over to the dragon's nest. She had almost reached it, when a loud snore caused the dragon to send a fireball at her, setting her skirt aflame! If she hadn't ducked in time she would have been hit full on. Draco saw the headmistress of Beauxbatons get up from her seat and angrily argue with Crouch who was trying to hold her back. It seemed like the champions really were on their own.

A second later the crowd began to applaud again. The witch's robes were wet but she triumphantly held the golden egg up into the air. Pansy was sulking next to him, clearly not impressed by the champion's success. Now, there were only Krum and Potter left. The former strode into the arena confidently, a chorus of 'Krum!'–calls echoed loudly throughout the Slytherin and Durmstrang crowd. It seemed like a storm building up around him, swallowing him up, and suddenly he was calling along with the others, becoming a part of the loud mass. It gave him an excuse to lose himself in the crowd and forget about that strange sinking feeling that had been with him all day.

This time around, it was over fairly quickly. Krum hurled a spell at the creature, hitting one of its eyes and caused it to cry out in a way that Draco was sure was not exactly usual for dragons. The champion picked up his egg, received his score and that was that.

Then it was finally Potter's turn.

"How long do you think it'll take for Potter to become a heap of ash?" Pansy asked, leaning in close to him. Draco didn't really listen to her. His attention was fixed on the monstrous beast they had picked out for Potter. It had to be nearly double the size of all the previous dragons. There were sharp spikes running along its back and tail.

"Phew. An Hungarian Horntail," Zabini commented. "I see why they are called 'Quick and Painless' now."

Draco chalked the heavy feeling that settled in his stomach down to anticipation. Soon, that annoying Gryffindor would be gone from his life once and for all.

"Quiet now, we want to enjoy this," Pansy hissed. "Right, Draco?" She looked at him, bulgy eyes full of excitement.

"Of course," he agreed with a superior smirk. "So much for The Girl Who Lived." He snorted. Huh. He could come up with a better remark, couldn't he?

All through the audience people started pointing at something that was flashing toward them. A broomstick. Potter's damned Firebolt! It raced to the girl's side and stopped in mid-air, where she mounted it. Flying. That was actually a really good plan. Had she come up with that on the spot? Or had she somehow known in advance that she was going to fight a dragon?

"Well, you can't deny, she's a born flyer," said Zabini.

"What? Are you on Potter's side now?" Pansy asked.

"I'm merely appreciating the aesthetic value," he replied smugly. "Oh shit."

Oh shit indeed. Potter had flown close to the dragon, hovering above it to lure it away from its nest. But the creature didn't move an inch. Instead its tail swooshed up, missing her only by a fraction. The attack was followed up by a ball of fire that would have scorched the girl, had she not hurled herself off the broom, hanging on the wooden stick only by her fingers.

"She lost her wand! Did you see?" Pansy exclaimed, giddily clapping her hands. "She's done for now."

The girl was right. It wasn't looking good at all for the Gryffindor. She was just hanging there, helplessly. Her face was a mess of scratches and cuts, features scrunched up in desperate concentration and pain…

And then the horned tail came for her again, aiming for her head. Potter let go of the broomstick with one of her hands and swung to the side to dodge the hit. But it wasn't enough. The dragon's tail crashed against the hand that was still clutching the wood, causing her to let go and sending her flying into the air. Draco didn't know what was louder. The girl's panicked scream or the pounding of his own heart that was almost drowning out everything else. As he watched the wide-eyed girl spiral through the air, he felt as though a freezing spell had hit him, coating his insides with ice that was spreading all over his body. A thought entered his mind. Maybe she won't survive it. What if she doesn't survive it? A weight was pressing down on his throat, making it hard to breathe.

What was wrong with him? Had someone cursed him? He looked around the people surrounding him but everyone's gazes were fixed on the scene enfolding in front of them. Potter was on her broom again. Huh? How had that happened? She was holding onto the broomstick with only one hand. The other one was smeared with blood and carefully cradled against her chest.

"Ugh, does this have to be so barbaric?" A girl piped up. Greengrass if he had heard right. Strangely, Draco found himself silently agreeing with her.

Potter seemed to have changed her strategy now. She was flying around in circles above the Horntail but never close enough for its tail to reach her. The dragon in turn, resolved to spewing fireballs at her, which she dodged each time. He couldn't look away. Even if he tried. And then the strangest thing happened. Every time Potter was nearly hit by a fireball, she became less…

Less annoying. Less infuriating. Less irritating. Less gryffindory. Less arrogant. Less pretentious. Less self-righteous.

Less… Potter. It was like with a word that you said again and again until it finally lost its meaning.

Potter. Potter. Potter.

Potter.

Potter.

Potter.

What did it mean? A name. But what did it mean to him?

He didn't know.

And suddenly she wasn't Potter any more. She was a girl. Not even The Girl Who Lived. But a girl. Who was fighting against a dragon that wanted to kill her. He had wanted the dragon to kill her. Why? Because he found her annoying? Because she had refused to be his friend in first year?

And then? If the dragon really killed her… what then?

It seemed like the Horntail was getting tired of the game. It spread its huge leathery wings and launched into the air. After her. The girl reacted at once, spiralling higher into the air. Then she suddenly swooped down, right as the dragon opened its snout and spat another fireball at her.

She wasn't fast enough. The fire clung to her back, momentarily turning her into a human torch. Draco swore his heart stopped for a moment. All the while, the girl was speeding toward the ground, snatched up the now unguarded golden egg and crashed to the ground, rolling across the earth, which at least put out the fire on her robes.

It was silent for only a split second. Then the audience erupted in cheers and started to call the girl's name like crazy.

"What a joke," Pansy grumbled somewhere below him. Below him? Oh. He was standing. When had he got to his feet? Suddenly, he felt feverish. And foolish. He sank to the bench again. What was wrong with him?

"Dray? Draco. Draco!" Pansy was shaking his arm and calling his name. He glanced around. Most of the people had left by now.

"I know how disappointed you must be. Let's just leave," Pansy purred. "You know, there's still two tasks left." Her grin made a shudder run down his neck. Two tasks left. Two more chances for a champion to die. He didn't let the thought linger. Instead he got up and followed the dark-haired girl down the bleachers.

"I've come up with a good name for her, though. Do you wanna hear it?" She asked, hopping excitedly down the steps.

He raised an eyebrow. Which she took as a sign to continue.

"The Torch Who Lived." She giggled madly, reminding Draco of a crazy four-year-old. He lifted the other eyebrow as well. The image of the girl lit up with flames was still in his mind, freshly burned into his memory.

He snorted. It was slightly funny. If you found horror stories funny.

…

A/N: Who's ready for the story of how Draco started to fall for Haley? This is it! I mean there's more. Maybe 4 chapters or so. I thought that since you can basically witness every moment of Haley developing her feelings Draco deserved something similar to that. Especially, since he's already half in love at the start of the series.
And this is obviously situated before Dreams of Today or Songs of Yesterday. Like a prequel. (I didn't post this in Knight in a Shining Helmet because it's multichaptered and takes place before anything else so it would have been confusing, I think.) Anyway, stay tuned :)