"Sometimes you pick your friends and sometimes they pick you."

The next morning, McKenna woke up and spent a few minutes just laying in bed and thinking. She thought mostly of the night before. The argument she had gotten into with Fred was somewhat silly, but she really didn't want him to possibly have a chance at being in this tournament. She wouldn't be able to handle it if he or George died. It was already bad enough that Angelina had told McKenna before they went to bed that she had decided to enter. Angelina had been her best friend since first year, and Fred and George had been her best guy friends since third year. She tried to tell herself that it was solely their close friendship that made her nervous for them, but she really wasn't sure if that was the case, at least where Fred was concerned.

She thought back to the moment at King's Cross when she felt the butterflies in her stomach and wondered if it were possible that she could like Fred. She had never really given the possibility much thought before, but she supposed it made sense. They had known each other for a while and got along extremely well. She knew him better than anyone else did, except maybe George. On the other hand, she wasn't sure if she wanted to like anyone right now. Not after what had happened over the summer. Only Angelina knew what had happened. Plus, what if something happened or went wrong with Fred and their friendship was ruined? That would be horrible.

Sighing, McKenna rolled out of bed and started getting ready. The last thing she wanted was to be late for her first day of classes.

When she finally headed down the stairs to the common room, she began to wonder if everything was okay between her and Fred. She didn't know if they were still fighting or not. She knew she wasn't angry at him anymore, but maybe he was still angry at her. They had never gotten into an actual fight before. They had had little arguments, but the one last night had definitely been the worst, and it hadn't even been that bad. McKenna hated to think what would happen if they ever got into any worse arguments.

"Kenna!" a voice called from behind her as she was reaching the portrait hole. She turned to see Fred jogging towards her.

"Fred?" she asked hopefully, a small smile appearing on her face.

"Do you want to go down to breakfast together?" he asked, looking just as hopeful as she did.

"Uh, sure," she said, shrugging. "Where's George?"

"He's already down there with Katie," Fred answered quickly.

"Oh," McKenna said, nodding.

They stood there silently for a moment before Fred stepped forward and pushed open the portrait. "After you," he said.

"Thanks," she whispered.

They started down the hall together. Fred had his hands in his pockets and McKenna was nervously picking at her thumb while she stared at the ground. "Are we-?" she began, stopping and finally turning to actually look at Fred.

"Okay?" he finished, stopping to look at her as well.

"Yeah," she said with a small laugh, brushing a strand of her wavy hair behind her ear.

Fred nodded. "I wouldn't have asked you to go down to breakfast if we weren't," he said.

"Are you still thinking of entering?" she asked tentatively.

Fred looked up at the ceiling. "George and I have our reasons for entering. Of course, my reason may be slightly different than George's, but I haven't really worked that out yet."

"What?" McKenna asked, confused.

"Nothing," he said quickly. "Just, please, I don't really want to explain it right now, but there is a reason for why we're trying to enter."

"What aren't you telling me?" she asked. "We've never kept huge secrets from each other."

"I will tell you sometime," he said, "just not now."

"Fred," she began.

He simply shook his head. "Not now."

"If you enter," she said, "and you somehow manage to fool this judge, and you end up competing, I want you to promise me that you will be careful. Don't get yourself killed, Fred." She whispered the last sentence.

Fred reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. "I won't. Don't worry about a thing," he said. They started walking again and he continued. "You have to admit, wouldn't you be excited to watch me or George compete in these tasks?"

"I guess," she said. "I mean, I would be proud, but terrified."

"So you would be proud of me?" he asked.

"What? Yeah, I would. Why do you ask?"

Fred just shook his head and mumbled something that sounded like 'why I need to enter.' "No reason," he said more clearly.

"So, Angelina's entering," McKenna said, changing the subject.

"Yeah," Fred answered, "but I don't understand why you won't."

"I don't want to," she said forcefully.

"Fine, have it your way," Fred said, raising his hands defensively. "Anyway, it's good to know another Gryffindor is entering. Legally, anyway."

"Yeah," McKenna sighed.

They reached the great hall, and took a seat across from George and Katie. Professor McGonagall was just passing out the schedules. "Switch," Fred demanded, snatching McKenna's schedule away from her only a moment after she had received it. He handed her his own schedule and she smiled as she noticed they had all the same classes. They had been in the exact same classes every year since third year. Before that, they had had only a few classes together here and there. In fact, their matching schedules had ended up causing them to become friends. Sort of, anyway.

McKenna had been sitting in the common room, doing her homework, when the twins had taken a seat on either side of her, and without a single greeting, asked if they could do their homework together. McKenna had been surprised since they hadn't really talked before then, but she agreed. The twins must have seen her surprise and confusion, though, because it was the first thing they addressed after she agreed to their preposition to do homework together.

"I know you're surprised, but we've noticed something," Fred had said.

"You're in every one of our classes," George continued.

"We've never had that happen with anyone besides each other before, not even Lee," Fred said.

"Oh." McKenna hadn't known what else to say except, "I'm-,"

"—McKenna Collins," Fred said. "We know who you are."

"We do pay attention in class," George began.

"When we want to," Fred had finished with a smile. "And we pay attention enough to notice that you're in all of our classes and that you seem very nice and smart, so we want to be your friend."

"I'm guessing you also pay attention to realize whose cauldrons you blow up in Potions?" she asked.

"You remembered!" George gasped. "Yeah, we did yours last week. This week it's that Slytherin, Montague's turn."

"I'm already awful at Potions," she said. "Snape gave me a zero and a detention for that and I really can't afford to do poorly in that class."

"It's one zero, relax," Fred had said. "George and I have gotten plenty of zeros before and plenty of detentions, but we've never failed. That's because-,"

"—we always know exactly where the line is in order not to cross it," George finished.

"So will you help us?" Fred asked. "George and I can even help you with your Potions homework in return."

"Is the whole being my friend thing just a way to get help with your homework?" McKenna asked. "Because if you're using me-,"

"Of course not," George had interrupted.

"I will hurt you," McKenna finished, her eyes narrowed.

"There won't be any need. We just want to be your friend," Fred had said. And that's what they had been ever since.

"Hey, who's zoning out now?" McKenna snapped out of her trance to see Fred waving his hand in front of her face.

"Sorry, what?" she asked.

"Here's your schedule back. I'm guessing you've noticed we have all the same classes together, as usual."

"How will I ever survive?" McKenna asked, shaking her head.

"How will you survive?" George asked. "The better question is how we are going to survive." He gestured to himself and Fred. "You're a horrible classmate."

"Which is why you wanted to randomly be my friend in third year," McKenna said, rolling her eyes.

"It wasn't random," Fred said. "We had every class together and you were best friends with Angelina and so were we, yet we didn't really know you, so we thought we ought to introduce ourselves. Plus, you were nice and smart—you still are—and we really did need help with our homework."

"You don't have to kiss up to me," McKenna teased. "Just because we had a little argument last night doesn't mean you have to give me all these compliments."

"It's true," Fred argued. "You are nice and smart and you love to laugh, which is always a big plus, for me at least, and you're-,"

"Wow, Freddie," George said with a smirk. "You really are on a roll with the compliments this morning." He smirked, causing Fred to blush, but he hid it quickly as George continued speaking. "I hope you're saving some to use on me, the more handsome twin, later."

"Seems like you're complimenting yourself enough for the both of us," Fred answered.

George stuck out his tongue as McKenna giggled and rolled her eyes. She was glad things were okay between her and Fred again. The last thing she wanted was to not be speaking with him, especially at the beginning of the school year.

"Well," Fred said after they had finished eating. "It's Transfiguration first. Are we ready to begin another exciting year at Hogwarts?" He held out his arm to McKenna and she looped her arm through his.

"More than ready," she said with a smile. She heard George disguise something in a cough from behind them. She didn't catch what he said, but apparently Fred did. He turned and sent George a glance and shook his head ever so slightly. "What was that, George?" McKenna asked, turning to face him. He looked at her innocently and swung his and Katie's intertwined hands back and forth.

"It was nothing, Kenna," Fred said. "Come on, let's go. We don't want a detention from McGonagall on the first day. Even I think the first day of school is too early to be getting detentions."

"Oh, well we certainly can't have that then," McKenna joked.

"Stop it," Fred laughed, nudging her.

"No, you stop," she said.

"No, you," he said.

"Old married couple," George said from behind them in a sing song voice.

"Shut up," Fred sing-songed back as McKenna giggled.

By dinner time, McKenna felt exhausted. She had always felt the first day of school exhausting and she figured most students could agree with her. They had gone from a relaxing summer break to waking up early and dashing around an ancient castle to get to classes where they were given homework, something everyone dreaded.

"I can't believe McGonagall gave us this much homework on the first day," George groaned as they approached the front staircase on their way to dinner.

"Welcome back to school," McKenna teased. She was walking in between Fred and George. Katie was on George's other side and Angelina, Alicia and Lee were behind them.

"Want to do our homework together later on?" Fred whispered into McKenna's ear.

She giggled. "If this is just a way to get your homework done," she teased, "I will hurt you."

"You threatened to do that in third year, and yet I'm still fine," Fred answered.

McKenna punched his shoulder. "Now you're not," she laughed as Fred's hand flew to his shoulder and he let out a small, mumbled, "Ouch."

Her laughter dwindled to a stop when she heard a loud, obnoxious, familiar voice coming from the entrance hall. "Weasley, hey, Weasley!"

Fred and George both looked over the staircase railing, but the voice, belonging to Draco Malfoy, wasn't talking to them. McKenna joined Fred and George at the banister to see Ron turn around to face Malfoy, who was standing with Crabbe and Goyle, a smirk on his face.

"What?" Ron asked impatiently.

"What's Malfoy up to now?" Lee groaned.

"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" Malfoy said, waving a copy of the Daily Prophet in the air and speaking loudly, so that everyone could hear.

"Your dad was in the paper?" McKenna hissed to Fred and George. "What for?"

"We didn't know he was, but it probably has to do with the World Cup," George said.

Fred shook his head. "It wouldn't be about that. It's probably about Mad-Eye and his dustbins."

"Listen to this," Malfoy cried. He straightened the paper out in his hand and cleared his throat as he began to read. "'It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office'."

"Arnold?" George asked.

"Seriously?" Fred rolled his eyes.

Malfoy was looking back at Ron, now. "Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" He smirked and continued to read. "'Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers, or 'policemen,' over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene'."

"I don't believe it," Fred said. "Malfoy's really going to make a big deal out of this."

"It's Malfoy, what do you expect?" McKenna hissed.

"Look, there's a picture, Weasley!" Malfoy said, looking thrilled at the opportunity to further make fun of the Weasley family. "There's a picture of your parents outside their house. If you can call it a house, of course. Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"

Ron was shaking with fury, but McKenna didn't have time to focus on him because Fred and George had pushed away from the banister and were running the rest of the way down the stairs. McKenna shot a wide-eyed glance at her other friends before running after the twins and grabbing their arms. "Hold on," she said, "just wait."

"McKenna," Fred said, trying to pull away from her. "He's not going to say that and get away with it."

"You can't get involved, or else you'll get in trouble, too." She held onto their arms tighter.

"You know, you're very strong," George said, straining to pull away.

McKenna didn't say anything, but continued to make sure they couldn't attack Malfoy.

"Go away, Malfoy," Harry said, grabbing Ron's arm. Hermione grabbed his other arm and they made to turn away, but Malfoy spoke up again.

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter? So, tell me, is his mother really that porky or is it just the picture?"

Fred and George tried to pull away from McKenna again. Half of the people standing in the entrance hall were looking at them and the other half at Harry, Ron, Hermione and Malfoy.

"Stop," McKenna hissed.

"Kenna," Fred growled. "Let go. I'm going to hit him."

"No, you can't."

"He's insulting my family."

"I know, but please," she begged.

"You know your mother, Malfoy?" Harry asked. "That expression she's got like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that or was it just because you were with her?"

Fred and George both stopped struggling against McKenna and stared at Harry with expressions of near laughter on their faces.

Malfoy's face paled, "Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter," he snapped.

"Keep your fat mouth shut, then," Harry said, grabbing Ron and turning away again.

Everyone screamed as Malfoy raised his wand and shot a spell at Harry that just missed him. McKenna found herself latching tighter onto Fred's arm.

"You're cutting of the circulation to a perfectly good, very muscular arm," he said into her ear.

"Muscular?" she teased. "I don't think so."

Fred rolled his eyes but didn't get to say anything else because Mad-Eye Moody was charging into the entrance hall with his wand in the air. It happened so fast, McKenna wasn't completely sure how it had happened, but one minute, Malfoy had been standing there, his eyes wide and in the next second, a white ferret was in his place.

The entrance hall was thrown into complete silence. McKenna slowly released Fred and George's arms. They were all completely still as they stared at the ferret.

"Did he get you?" Moody asked, breaking the silence. McKenna looked up to see him addressing Harry.

"No, he missed," Harry said.

"Leave it!" Moody suddenly yelled. McKenna jumped again at the outburst, loud in the silent entrance hall.

"Leave what?" Harry asked.

"Not you—him!" Moody answered, pointing over his shoulder at Crabbe, who was attempting to pick up the ferret.

"He can see through the back of his head!" Fred hissed. McKenna nodded. She had just realized the same thing.

Malfoy the ferret tried to run off towards the dungeons, but Moody pointed his wand at him again. The ferret flew into the air before hitting the floor and rising up again. "I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back is turned," Moody growled as the ferret bounced higher and higher. "It's a stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do."

"Professor Moody!" cried a shocked voice. McKenna turned around to see Professor McGonagall on the staircase, holding a stack of books.

"Hello," Moody said calmly, continuing to bounce the ferret against the floor.

"What are you doing?" McGonagall asked.

"I'm teaching," he answered.

"Is that—is that a student?" Professor McGonagall asked, paling.

"Technically, it's a ferret," Moody answered. He bounced the ferret so high, it almost touched the ceiling.

Professor McGonagall let the books tumble from her arms as she pulled out her wand. She ran down the stair case and within a second, Malfoy was laying on the ground, looking quite disheveled. "We never use Transfiguration as a punishment," McGonagall scolded. "Surely Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've," Moody shrugged.

"We give out detentions," Professor McGonagall told him. "Or speak to the offender's head of house."

"I'll do that then." He looked at Draco. "Your head of house would be Snape?"

"Yes," Malfoy said.

Moody nodded. "It looks like I'll be having a chat with Snape, then. Come on." He roughly grabbed Malfoy's arm and they headed for the dungeons.

"Everybody into the great hall," Professor McGonagall said, summoning her fallen books into her arms with her wand. "Move along."

The noise of voices steadily grew louder as the students filed into the great hall, talking wildly about what had just happened.

"That was brilliant," George said, sighing.

"A lot better than beating him up," Fred added.

"Yeah, thanks for holding us back, Kenna," George said.

"See? It was worth it, just like I said," she smirked.

"I want to fix that in my mind forever," Ron said as he, Harry and Hermione found seats next to them. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret."

"I believe he makes a better ferret than a human," Fred smirked, nudging McKenna, who grinned up at him as she felt those butterflies again.

"He certainly does," she agreed as she helped herself to her dinner.