Sunday morning I woke up with someone pressed against my back. There was an arm wrapped around my chest and another holding me from under my neck. I gasped and pulled myself away, falling off the common room couch and almost onto Lee's head.

I grabbed at my neck, checking for wounds. Then at my chest. Then back at my neck feeling something wet dripping down towards my chest.

"What's going on? Why are you on the floor?" asked George, in a 'I just woke up' voice. He looked at me a little closer and a look of worry washed over his face. "Why are you crying?"

I took a few deep breaths and scanned the common room, trying to get my boundaries.

Fred was asleep across the top of the couch in some kind of impossible balancing act, the butterbeer cake on the table by his head and the loud snores pouring out of his throat like an animal. Lee was lying on the floor next to me in a ball, one of the common room blankets wrapped around him like a burrito.

George was laying on the couch where I'd just been, startled and his arms now empty.

"Winters?" he asked, flailing around to try and sit up in front of me. He reached out to touch my face, trying to wipe away the tears streaming d0wn my face, but I swatted his hand away on impulse. "Hey, I'm sorry."

He was still doing his best to wake up, wiping the sleep out of his eyes and trying to cough the tired out of his voice.

I wiped away the tears away myself and stood, trying to straighten my clothes.

"I need to write Remus," I told him, grabbing my rucksack at the end of the couch and finding my wand on the window sill I'd been sitting on the night before.

"Winters," said George, following me out the portrait hole.

I turned for a second to seem him struggling to take off the tie he'd fallen asleep in. It was twisted around his neck and the knott had gotten tighter as he slept.

"I don't think you're making it better," I told him.

He looked up from his tug of war game and frowned. He looked defeated and worried out of his mind.

I checked the surrounding passageways to see if anyone else was around, but we were alone at seven in the morning on a sunday. So, I slowly walked towards him and pulled his hands away from the tie to help him untie it without making it any tighter.

Before I could back away, the tie dangling on either side of his neck, he took my hands.

"I'm sorry, Winters. If I overstepped my boundaries, I'm really sorry."

I shook my head and pulled my hands away.

"It's not your fault," I said, forcing a smile. "I'll see you later, okay?"

He didn't argue, but he didn't more to leave either. He ran a nervous hand through his hair and dropped his head to look at the floor.

Quickly, before him or I could comprehend my actions, I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my head into his shoulder in a short but tight hug, before I pulled away and made my way down the marble staircase and towards the owlery without looking back at him.

There I pulled a notebook out of my bag and started to draft an impossible letter to Remus. The first couple times I wrote the letter out I talked about how I'd only entered to piss off my sister. Scraped that to talk about how I knew he'd be mad that I entered, but I was excited to compete, but I knew that that was a lie, so I dropped that one as well.

It took over an hour for me to get my thoughts under control so I could write a genuine letter to my godfather.

Dear Remus,

Thank you for the birthday gifts. The chocolate is very good and the sweater… well, I can see what parts you knitted. Tell Mrs. Weasley that I said thank you for helping with it.

I guess you've heard at this point that the Triwizard Tournament is at Hogwarts this year. They had to draw an age line around the Goblet of Fire to make sure no underaged wizards entered… I know you see where this is going already, so yes. I entered and so did Jet and Jasmine. Fred and George also tried to enter, but they just grew beards and acted like grouchy old men for about an hour because their birthday isn't until April.

Viktor got chosen as the Champion from Durmstrange and a Veela girl from Beauxbatons got picked as well. And I promise you I wouldn't have entered if I thought for even a moment that I'd have any chance of getting picked… but I did.

And please don't be too mad. You know me, and that I can handle it. I'm more worried about Harry. He somehow got picked as well. Everyone seems to think that he somehow entered his name into the Goblet, but I know that he didn't.

He's really scared, Remus. I know he won't dare to tell you that, but I can tell. I've got a really bad feeling about this. If Harry didn't put his name in, I'm not sure who did.

Love, Jordie.

Ps. I miss you loads. You should try and come watch one of the tasks… for Harry, obviously.

As I finished writing and was whistling for Bagel to to me, there were two sets of footsteps leading up into the owlery. I dropped through one of the open windows and onto the outside ledge, not wanting them to see me, whoever they were. I needed more time alone.

Harry and Hermione appeared at the top of the steps and she handed him a piece of parchment, a quill, and some ink. She strolled around the long lines of perches, looking at all the different owls, while Harry sat down against a wall and write out what seemed like a very, very long letter.

Or I was just hidden behind a wall at an uncomfortable angle for too long.

"Finished," he told Hermione finally, getting to his feet and brushing straw off his robes.

At this, a large snowy owl came fluttering down onto his shoulder and held out its leg.

"I can't use you," Harry told it, looking around for the school owls. "I've got to use one of these…"

The owl gave a very loud hoot and took off so suddenly that its talons left a visible gash in his shoulder. It kept it's back to Harry all the time he was tying his letter to the leg of a large barn owl. When the barn owl had flown off, Harry reached out to stroke the snowy owl, but it clicked it's beak furiously and soared up into the rafters out of reach.

"First Ron, then you," said Harry angrily. "This isn't my fault."

Hermione gave him a sympathetic look before they hurried down the stairs of the owlery.

I jumped back through the window and started to tie the letter to Bagel.

"Yell at Remus if he forgets to feed you when you get there," I told her, stroking her head. "Be safe."

Bagel hooted softly before jumping out of the window and soaring away from the castle. I watched her for as long as I could. I really just wanted to leave with her.

I took the stairs back down to the main floor as slowly as physically possible and took a lap around the school before I made my way back inside. By the time I got back into the main entrance, breakfast was almost over and there were very few people left at any of the tables.

I saw the back of the twins' heads and slowly walked towards them, but stopped as I got close enough to hear what they were talking about. It's something I'd expect them to be whispering about, but with only twenty or so people still left in the Great Hall, it made sense that I could hear them from five feet away.

"I don't know, she's done that since first year. Used to wake me up all the time, but either she's gotten better or I stopped noticing it," said Angelina.

"I hear her talking in her sleep a lot," said Alicia. "Asking for help or for someone to leave her alone. I'm not sure what happened to her, but I'm sure it's not your fault, George. Probably just something from her past."

"I've just never seen someone try and get away from me so fast if I wasn't throwing a stink bomb at them…" George trailed, dropping his head onto the table. "Do I smell bad?"

"I think it's more that she's just a little not all there…" said Alicia.

I found myself cracking my knuckles in aggravation.

"Jo!" said someone from the Entrance Hall.

Every head at the Gryffindor table turned to see me standing there, angry bubbling off of me.

"Winters," said Fred sadly. "We didn't-"

"Didn't know I was here?" I spat. "Because it'd be okay to say that I'm not all there if I wasn't here?"

"Jo!" said Viktor again as he came up from behind me. "Am I interrupting something?"

His droopy eyes looked between us, worried that he'd be intervening whatever tension was so thickly present between the group sitting at the table and me.

"No…" I said, forcing myself to be calm as I turned away from them to walk out of the Great Hall with him. "What's up?"

"It's just… I know that there's several interviews coming up for the champions. Have you any idea of what they'll ask."

"I suppose it'll be different for everyone…" I trailed. "You'll probably get asked about Quidditch and the World Cup."

He groaned at this.

"Vhat if I don't vant to talk about that stuff?"

"Depends on who's interviewing you. Some will just ask you about other things and others will say… not so nice things about you in the Daily Prophet."

"I'm used to that," he told me. "People say I'm quite rude in the papers. I just don't like talking to reporters."

"I know you don't," I said, giving him a small smile. "I'm sure you'll be fine. What does anyone else care about what you say in an interview anyways? You see how all the people here treat you, and I'm sure a lot of them have seen all kinds of interviews you've done."

"Vhat do you think they'll ask you?" he asked.

I thought for a moment and laughed a cold and sad laugh.

"Probably about Harry."

"I hope not," he told me. "You deserve for people to know you. You're really talented, Jo. The vorld deserves to see that."

I smiled up at him, "Thank you, Vik."

As we entered onto the grounds, we could see the rest of the Durmstrang students along with Karkaroff on their way to the castle and Viktor waved goodbye to me, a content smile on his face.

"Thank you, Jo."

I wasn't sure why he was thankful. If it was just that he needed someone other than Karkaroff to talk to or if he needed some kind of reassurance, but I was glad I could help him get it.

At some point that afternoon I found myself standing out by the Black Lake, twisting the ring Viktor had given me around my finger. For the first time that year, I felt the sad alone I'd felt so often the previous years.

When Charlie and Jackson left after my second year, I felt the same alone I'd felt after my mom died. No one wanted to talk to me anymore. No one wanted to be friends. That year I learned the art of being by myself. That sometimes it was better to find comfort in your own mind than in other people. I'd gotten used to that until the twins came along.

Even though they pissed me off and irritated me with their antics, I'd found comfort in no longer being alone.

It was the first time that year that I was able to be somewhere without them in front, behind, or around me.

It wasn't a good feeling anymore. The comfort I'd found in being alone for so many years no longer existed inside of me.

I feel like it's all my fault that Winters ran off. That I scared her or triggered something inside of her that I never want her to feel. She was scared of me.

-George Weasley