"Circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, but never lose sight of your goal." -Mario Andretti


"Go ahead, just do it, Ange," McKenna said. They were standing in the doorway to the great hall where the Goblet of Fire was set up. It was a Saturday, but it seemed that a lot of people had woken up early to see who would be putting their names in.

"It's more crowded than I thought it would be," Angelina said, fiddling with the slip of paper in her hand where she had written her name and school.

"It doesn't matter," McKenna assured her. "Just do it quickly if you're nervous. Run over, drop in your name, and run back."

"Come with me?" Angelina asked. "Just stop outside the Age Line since you're not actually putting your name in."

McKenna nodded and followed her friend to the center of the room. "Go," she urged, nudging Angelina forward. Taking a deep breath, Angelina stepped over the Age Line and dropped her name into the Goblet of Fire. There was applause from the other Gryffindors in the room. McKenna noticed Harry and Ron standing by Hermione, who was sitting with a book in her hands, but watching Angelina instead of reading it.

"Well, I did it," Angelina said. "No turning back now."

There was another cheer, and McKenna turned to see Cedric Diggory slipping his name into the goblet. She clapped politely along with Angelina and a lot of the other students in the room.

"Are you entering?" Oliver Wood asked, coming up to her. Why did he keep talking to her all of a sudden? After what had happened over the summer, she had gotten the impression that he didn't want to talk to her.

"No," she said with a laugh. "Did you decide to enter?"

"Yeah, I put my name in early this morning," Oliver said.

McKenna didn't get an opportunity to answer because there was the sound of excited yelling from the doorway. Both she and Angelina looked up to see Lee, Fred and George running into the room, waving small bottles above their heads.

"Looks like they made the Aging Potion," McKenna said.

"We did," Fred answered, overhearing her and holding up the bottle in his hand that contained a miniscule amount of potion. "We only needed about a drop each to make us a few months older."

"Fred and George agreed to go first," Lee said. "It was very gallant of them to be the guinea pigs."

"Oh, I agree," McKenna said with a snort.

"It's not going to work," Hermione chimed in. She was flipping through her book in annoyance.

Fred and George looked at each other and smirked before sitting down on either side of Hermione. "Oh yeah? And why's that, Granger?" Fred asked.

Hermione snapped her book shut. "You see this?" She pointed to the Age Line.

"Yeah, we see it," George said.

"We do have perfect vision after all," Fred said.

"It's an Age Line," Hermione said, ignoring them.

"Really?" George gasped in mock surprise.

"I thought it was there for decoration," Fred added.

McKenna laughed and Fred turned to shoot her a grin while Hermione looked more annoyed.

"It's an Age Line," she repeated more forcefully.

"So?" Fred asked, smirking.

"So," Hermione repeated. "I don't think this Age Line or Dumbledore for that matter could be fooled by something as pathetic and dim-witted as an Aging Potion."

"Ah, but that's why it's so brilliant," Fred said.

"Because it's so pathetically dim-witted," finished George.

McKenna watched in amusement as Fred and George stood up on the bench next to Hermione and uncapped the bottles in their hands with smiles on their faces.

"Ready, Fred?"

"Ready, George."

"Bottoms up," they said together, linking arms and raising the small bottles to their lips. A cheer rose through the crowd as they jumped off the bench and within the boundaries of the Age Line. Another cheer went around the room when after a few seconds of being there, nothing happened.

With identical grins on their faces, Fred and George simultaneously slipped pieces of paper with their names on it into the Goblet of Fire. When once again nothing happened, a third cheer, the loudest one yet, rang throughout the room. Even McKenna found herself clapping, feeling impressed by what was going on. Of course, she knew that rules were rules, but she sometimes chose to simply ignore that fact, especially when she was with Fred and George. That was why she almost didn't expect what happened next.

With a flash of blue light, Fred and George were ejected out of the circular Aging Line and thrown across the room. Shrieks and gasps were heard from many people in the room, including McKenna. She pushed her way to where Fred and George had landed with a thump to see if they were alright, but when she got there, she stopped short.

Fred and George were just sitting up, seemingly unharmed, but they had white hair and beards. McKenna didn't know whether to laugh or not. Instead, she bit her lip as she looked down at her friends. Everyone in the room filled in around her and there was complete silence until a small chuckle came from the doorway. It was Professor Dumbledore. "I can't say I didn't warn you," he said, still chuckling slightly. "I think it would be best if you two headed up to the hospital wing and allowed Madam Pomfrey to get rid of those beards, however dashing they may make you look."

McKenna let out a small giggle and Fred's head snapped around to look at her. He was biting his lip and he looked embarrassed and hurt. McKenna stopped laughing and looked back at him, concerned. She didn't get the chance to say anything, because George dragged his twin to his feet and they walked out of the room together.

"I'm going with them," McKenna said to Angelina as the crowd thinned out. "I'm going to find out what's wrong with Fred. Did you see the way he was looking at me?"

"Just now? Yeah, he was embarrassed that you laughed."

"I figured, but why? What Dumbledore said was funny. The beards are funny. I'd have thought Fred would have agreed. I mean, George was on the verge of laughter, so I don't understand why Fred was so embarrassed."

"You mean you don't know?" Anglina asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Know what? Did Fred say something to you about anything?"

"No, but I thought it was obvious. I thought you might have figured it out but were just ignoring it since he's your best guy friend and all. I—well, I'm not going to tell you if you don't know. Fred should tell you. I'm personally happy for him, if my suspicion is right, because of-." She stopped short and clamped her mouth shut.

"What are you talking about? You do know something."

"No," Angelina answered, shaking her head, her eyes wide. "Like I said, Fred hasn't actually told me anything, so if my guess is right, I don't think I should be the one to tell you since I'm technically not even supposed to know. You should get him to tell you. I'm not saying a thing."

"But what did you mean when you said you were happy for him and all that?"

"It's nothing, really," Angelina said quickly.

"Fine," McKenna said after a short pause. "I'll see you later." She left the room and headed up the stairs to the hospital wing. When she got there, she saw Fred and George, still bearded, sitting side by side on the edge of a bed near the door while Madame Pomfrey stood at the nightstand, pouring a potion into two cups.

"Kenna!" George said with a smile, waving her over.

Madame Pomfrey glanced at McKenna before turning back to the twins. "Drink this," she said, handing them each a glass of the potion she had been pouring, "You should be back to normal within a few minutes. Honestly, fooling around with potions. It's not safe."

"It was just a simple Aging Potion," George said. McKenna noticed that Fred was oddly silent and he wasn't meeting her gaze. She bit her tongue, though. She couldn't very well say anything with the nurse there.

"This time it was a simple Aging Potion," Madame Pomfrey said, "but next time it'll be something worse. Anyway, drink up and then you may go." With a slight nod at McKenna, she turned and headed for her office.

McKenna sank onto the bed across from the twins and looked at them.

"Don't say it," Fred said, finally looking up at her. "Don't say anything."

"I wasn't planning on it," she answered, knowing exactly what he meant.

"You told us not to do it. You knew Dumbledore wouldn't be that stupid, and you didn't want us to enter anyway. Hermione knew it wouldn't work too. We were just stupid." Fred stared back down into the untouched potion in his hands.

"Drink," McKenna ordered, shooting both of the twins a look. George did as she said at once, wrinkling his nose and quickly setting the glass down. Fred, however, didn't move a muscle. "Fred," McKenna continued, looking at him perplexedly.

"Fred, I know you're embarrassed, but drink up unless you want white hair and a beard forever, which I don't think is a good idea. It's far too old of a look for you," George said.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," McKenna said as Fred finally downed his potion and slid it onto the nightstand beside George's. Their beards were shrinking and their hair was slowly going back to red as they stared at her. "It was funny," she said.

"I agree," George answered at once. "Right, Fred?" He nudged his brother.

"No," Fred said.

"Yes," McKenna argued.

"No," he answered.

"Your beards could've given Dumbledore a run for his money. I think he was jealous. That's probably why he sent you up here and wouldn't let you keep them." McKenna was desperate to make Fred see the hilarity of it all.

Fred finally cracked the tiniest of smiles. McKenna looked up to see George mouth "keep going" to her.

"And think of it this way," she said, "at least we know what you'll look like in sixty years. Don't worry, you age well." She leaned forward and patted his hand. He flipped his hand over and squeezed her fingers in his.

"Alright," he said with a small chuckle. "Maybe it was funny, but I just really wanted it to work."

"Why?" McKenna asked. "That's what I've been trying to figure out. I'm actually really hurt that you won't tell me."

"I've tried a few times, but-,"

"We keep getting interrupted, I know," she finished.

"Fred, just tell her everything," George advised. "I'll sit right here with you."

"Okay," Fred said, running his thumb over the edge of the nail on McKenna's index finger. "The main reason George and I entered the tournament was because we want to open a joke shop when we leave school after next year."

"Yeah, I've always known that was your dream," McKenna said. "That's not news."

"In order to open a shop," Fred said, "we need money, which we don't have."

"None," George added.

"What if you-,"

"Ask our parents? No way. You know they don't have a lot of money as it is," Fred said, shaking his head. "And our mum isn't exactly fond of our joke products. She's still sulking over the fact that George and I only got three OWLs each."

"So you wanted to enter the tournament so that you'd have a shot of winning the money."

"A thousand Galleons," George said longingly.

"Wait," McKenna said, "didn't you start saving up last year? You had a good amount of savings already. Do you still have that?"

Fred blushed. "That's the other thing. It's complicated."

"Try me," McKenna said, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, at the World Cup," Fred began, looking at George, who nodded for him to keep going. "We met Ludo Bagman, who we made a bet with about the outcome of the match. We bet all of our savings and-,"

"You lost?" McKenna asked, moving to sit between the twins, letting Fred keep a hold on her hand. It seemed to be making him feel better.

George shook his head. "We bet that Ireland would lose but Krum would catch the Snitch."

"So you were right," McKenna said. "Impressive. How'd you do it?"

"That's for us to know and nobody to find out. Not even you," Fred said, smirking. His smirk faded quickly, though. "Anyway, Bagman paid up, but it was leprechaun gold. The next morning it was gone."

"Why? Why didn't he pay you in real money?"

"We don't know!" Fred exclaimed, hitting his free hand against the bed. "He won't meet with us in person, so George and I were thinking of sending him a letter. If that doesn't work, we're going to have to try another way."

"That's what you two were always talking about on your own," McKenna said.

Fred and George nodded. "You got it. It's what we've been hiding from you," Fred said.

"Why didn't you tell me straight away? I don't care about any of it. I don't care that you don't have a lot of money. I do think it was risky to bet all of your savings, although you did win, and it was completely unfair that Bagman didn't pay you. You deserve to be paid in real money."

"Fred, I think you should answer this," George smirked. "You see, Kenna, I wanted to tell you. I knew you wouldn't care, but Fred became paranoid that you would all of a sudden."

"Yeah," McKenna said, narrowing her eyes at Fred. "There's something extra strange going on with you lately. And why were you so embarrassed about the beard and not being able to enter the tournament and get the money? George is nowhere near as self conscious and embarrassed as you are."

"Well," Fred said. "I really wanted to enter the tournament and do all of those tasks because I thought that then-,"

"Is this a room for sick people or social butterflies?" Madame Pomfrey snapped, coming out of her office.

"Sick people, judging by the smell of medicine," George said.

"Precisely, so I suggest you head on out, unless you are still sick."

"No, we're fine," Fred said, jumping up and pulling McKenna out the door, George at their heels.

"So, continue," McKenna ordered as they walked down the hallway. "You thought that if you entered the tournament…" she prodded.

Fred looked down at their hands before dropping McKenna's small fingers from his and putting his hands in his pockets. "Never mind, the mood was ruined." With that, he quickly took off at a fast walk down the hallway.

"Fred!" George yelled, running after him. "You were in a hospital wing! There wasn't much of a mood to begin with!"

McKenna would have let out a laugh, but instead, she stopped in her tracks, confused. There was still something that Fred was hiding from her and she really wished he would tell her what it was. Besides that, she still couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened between him and Angelina. She had sensed it back in January, and Angelina's secrecy earlier had strengthened that feeling. She didn't know what do make of any of it. She felt like her relationship was falling apart and she didn't know how to fix it.


A/N: Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review! Thanks to anyone who's reviewed so far :)