It'd been a couple weeks since the Weighing of the Wands. The first task was only weeks away and the nerves still hadn't really set in like they seemed to for Harry.

Everyday he was moving closer to me at lunch and dinner, trying to ask me questions about various spells and incantations he'd yet to learn. There was a span of three days that he'd convinced himself that first task would have something to do with a potion, causing him to become a nervous wreck. It wasn't until I reminded him that nothing about brewing a potion screamed daring and courageous like the first task was supposed to be.

I didn't see the true extent of his nerves until the Daily Prophet articles started to come out and the Slytherins and angry Hufflepuffs started to tourture him, making fun of him for crying over his dead parents.

Though Harry had been the main attraction of the first article published, Viktor and Fleur hardly being mentioned, and my name not being brought up at all, surprisingly enough, I was next in line.

George had the paper in hand one Saturday morning, reading it aloud to us as soon as he saw that something about the Triwizard Tournament was the headline of the front page.

"Unknown Gryffindor chosen as Champion," he read aloud. "Sixth year Jordan Winters is suffering under the excruciating pressure of going against her schoolmate, the one and only Harry Potter (covered in previous edition)."

"No offense to Harry, but he's one of the least intimidating people I know," I scoffed. "In what world would I feel pressure from going up against him when Viktor Krum is part of the competition?"

"It's a well known fact that after the death of her mother to unknown causes, Winters is said to have been living in an orphanage in London because her werewolf godfather, Remus Lupin, wouldn't take her in because of his lack of income."

"What does she know about Remus," I yelled. "He didn't take me in because no one wants a nine year old around when they're going through monthly werewolf transformations. He did it to protect me!"

"Well, Rita Skeeter doesn't care about what people do from the good of their hearts," sneered Fred, annoyed at hearing the newest misfeed of information pouring out of the Daily Prophet.

"It seems like the lack of a father figure in her life has turned her into quite the scandalous teenager. After dating Lee Jordan of Gryffindor," George read.

Lee turned an alarmingly bright shade of red at this and immediately started looking for Madeleine.

"She's gonna kill me if reads that!" he said, leaving the table in a rush.

"And Bulgarian beauty Petar Alexandrov," he said, looking at me for an explanation for that one.

"Until he pissed me off and I broke his arms," I stated.

"She's bounced between a long term Squib boyfriend-"

"Ah yes, my long term, gay, Squib boyfriend."

"And several boys from a Muggle sports team she plays on in the summer-"

"All of which are in relationships I got them into," I clarified. "Yeah, she's putting out all sorts of spot-on information here."

"More recently, her triplet sisters, Jet and Jasmine, have been quoted in saying," George cleared his throat, preparing the mock the sound of their voices. "'Well, I haven't seen her away from the Weasley twins in quite some time. One of them always has their arm around her if they're not making out in front of our classrooms.'"

"You've got to be kidding me," I groaned, moving to slam my head against the table.

"Hey!" scolded George, grabbing my forehead to make the impact of my forehead on the wood a little lighter. "It's not so bad, Winters. Sure it doesn't make you look great, but I honestly don't think anyone's going to care much about how many relationships you've been in."

"Hey Winters!" someone yelled from the Ravenclaw table as if on cue.

I turned in time to see a sixth year boy throwing a crumpled piece of paper in my direction. I uncrumpled it and read the message written for me.

"Yeah," I grumbled, forcing the paper in the directions of the twins. "No one's gonna care at all."

"Want us to do something about it?" asked Fred, glaring at the boy who'd thrown the paper.

"No…" I said, gathering my things. I looked back down at the paper again. A cutout of my picture in the Daily Prophet with handwritten words covering the border. "Not their fault for not wanting a slag for a champion."

I bunched the paper up in my hand and threw it into a bowl of gravy and started to walk away.

"Uh… Winters," said one of the twins from behind me.

"What?" I yelled, turning around to see George having a stare off with my angry owl who'd climbed into his breakfast.

"I think Bagel's mad that you forgot him," said Fred, trying to conceal a laugh while his brother gently tried to remove the small bird from his eggs.

I whistled loudly and Bagel flew onto my shoulder, dangling three letters from her foot.

"Bagel is a girl!" I stated before stomping out of the Great Hall.

Despite the cold November air and a thin layer of ice covering the grounds, I was burning up in anger. Bagel hooted at me in surprise as I stopped suddenly at the edge of the Black lake and she almost slipped off my shoulder.

The Durmstrang ship was stopped on the opposite edge, but I could still see into the portholes. There were several boys passing by and getting ready to go in for their own breakfast. Some were getting off a few at a time before the main group and those were obviously the ones who had food on the brain more often than not.

I took Bagel in my hands and sat her on my lap, trying to pull the letters from her leg gently.

"Charlie, Remus, and Chai," I said, looking between the letters. "This should be exciting.

Bagel hooted loudly, scratching at my hands. I pat her head for a moment and handed her some crackers from my rucksack.

" You can go back to the owlery now."

Bagel seemed to glare at me as she took off, still angry that I'd left her alone at the table.

"I cannot believe you missed that!" a girl said from a few meters away.

I turned to see a Hufflepuff girl and her friend going to sit at the edge of the Black Lake on the opposite side of the big tree I was sitting next to. I forced myself against the tree so that they couldn't see me as they continued to talk.

"I just walking into the Great Hall and everyone was freaking out!"

"All I know is that Jonah Melroy from Ravenclaw was taunting the 0ther Gryffindor champion."

"Winters? The one that's always hanging with the Weasley twins?"

"He was calling her a slag because of something that was in the Prophet this morning!"

"You're kidding! That's awful."

"So Winters left, obvious, who wouldn't? That's so embarrassing. I thought that was it when the Weasley twins started yelling at him, saying that he had no right to say anything like that to anyone, let alone the champion. Jonah got up and started mocking them, saying that they were just mad that their girlfriend was finally getting called what she is."

"I thought Fred was dating Angelina Johnson?"

"Apparently she does too, because she got up in his face, saying that he had no right to believe anything written about Winters or anyone else. That it's all just hear-say and if he kept messing with her, she'd take a beater bat to his shins!"

"How'd Fred feel about that?"

"He pulled her away from Jonah and kissed her!"

I smiled at this, proud of them for finally making up.

"That can't be all that happened! When I walked in, both of the twins were being dragged away from someone on the floor."

My grin faded away.

"Well, Jonah thought everything was fine and turned around to talk to some of the other older boys. I guess George heard something he didn't like because all of a sudden he was on top of Jonah."

"I just can't wrap my head around the idea of either of the twins fighting someone. They're so sweet! I mean, yeah their pranks are obnoxious, but the thought of them hurting anyone is just so off character for them."

"Imagine watching it! There was blood everywhere. Jonah was so surprised that he only got one good punch in and it wasn't long before Fred and Viktor Krum were trying to pull them apart. Then obviously Flitwick and McGonagall were there and she kept asking which one of the twins was the one with bloody fists and the broken nose. They wouldn't say who was who and obviously no one was going to rat them out. I only knew because of Angelina and Fred kissing."

"Well, I guess it's safe to assume that they've got detention."

"A week of it with Filch. Said he'd be furious that they got blood on the floor."

Slowly, so the girls didn't notice me, I crept away from the tree and slipped into the castle. I took back corridors and slid into the passageway so no one would try and stop me as I made my way up towards Gryffindor tower.

The common room was surprisingly empty for the events that had just happened. I'd figured that everyone would be gathered around, talking and gossiping. The only people in the common room were the twins and Ron. They were all sitting around one of the tables, whispering about things that I couldn't hear.

The second they saw me, George was on his feet and apologizing.

"Winters, I'm really sorry. I know you said that you didn't want us to get involved, but when he started saying those awful things, I just… I- Oh!"

I paused for only a moment before I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him as tightly as I could without hurting him.

"Thank you," I whispered in his neck.

Slowly, he wrapped his arms around my waist, hugging me back.

"I'd do anything for you, Winters," he whispered back.

When I pulled away, I looked at his injured for the first time. Jonah had most definitely broke his nose. There were still small drops of blood falling down his face, adding to the path of dried blood that was touching his top lip.

"George," I said sadly, touching the pads of my finger to his crooked nose and then the blackening around his eyes. "He got one good hit in, I guess. Hit you hard enough to give you two black eyes to match your nose."

"You should see the other guy," said Fred, grinning wildly. "He'll be in the hospital wing for a couple of days."

I took George's hands in mine and observed the broken skin on his knuckles and the swelling on the rest of his hands.

"Come upstairs, I'll clean up your face," I told him.

"Have fun you two," hummed Rom.

"Watch it pipsqueak," I warned, pointing my wand at him. "I'll make you look like your brother."

"Don't threaten him with my charming good looks!" said George, wiping blood from his nose.

I rolled my eyes and forced George upstairs and into the boys dorm as we couldn't go to the girl's dormitories without taking a slide back down into the common room.

"I can't believe you," I muttered, finding a wash clothes in the bathroom and sitting him on the edge of his bed.

"We could just magic all of this away," he said, flinching as I touched his nose.

"I want to do something for you after what you did for me," I said, scrubbing the blood from under his nose. "Besides, I don't use spells on other people unless I have to."

"Why's that?" he asked, grabbing my wrist when I bumped his nose again. "Ow."

I sat on the bed next to him and pulled my hand away.

"Stop moving and I won't touch your nose."

"Why don't you use spells on other people?" he asked again.

I sighed and moved to his hands, gently cleaning the blood from his split knuckles.

"There's a lot of hurt in my past that's caused from people casting unwanted spells. I never want to be the reason someone feels the same kind of things that I felt when I was younger. And I don't like using healing spells when I can do things myself. I've learned a lot at the orphanage. There's a lot of kids there and accidents happen. You've gotta learn how to help them when you can't use magic outside of school."

George looked at me with his blackening eyes and I looked back down to his hands, feeling guilty that he'd gained them because of me.

"Hey," he said, tilting my head up to look at him. "I'd do it again."

"You-You've got something on your lips," I told him, reaching up with the cloth.

He looked sad for a moment. Sad that I hadn't recognized what he said to be true. Sad that I was ignoring what he'd done for me.

"Blood?" he asked, forcing a smile.

"My lips," I whispered, pressing mine against his before he could comprehend what I'd said.

I felt him smile a little as he kissed me back. Then, his hands found their way to the sides of my face, pulling me deeper into the kiss. I dropped the wash cloth onto the bed and then pressed my hands against his sides, trying to keep myself steady.

"That was really smooth," he said, pulling away, a dumb grin on his face.

I looked down, feeling the heat rising to my face.

"Also my first kiss," he said softly, making me look at him and his bright red ears.

"But, you're almost seventeen!" I said, stunned.

"Fred's always been more of the romantic type, I guess. I've always been to busy being his wingman."

"I'm sorry…" I said, grabbing at the wash cloth and continuing to clean his knuckles with my shaking hands. "I didn't know."

"Hey," he assured, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear. "I'd do it again."

His ears somehow turned an even brighter red when he said this.

A million times over…

"You're thinking very loudly," I told him, trying not to laugh.

"I was hoping you'd hear me," said George, grinning.

I just shook my head and looked back down to his hands. I pulled some bandage wrap out of my bag and started to gently wrap it around his knuckles.

"I didn't think you'd ever have it in you to hurt someone," I said, watching specs of blood bleed through the fabric.

"I didn't either, to be honest. The only people I've ever hit before are my brothers, and I've never hit them hard enough for them to actually be hurt, either."

"You Weasley boys are something else," I said smiling. "I can't even comprehend how your parents got so lucky to have so many kids who've got such kind hearts."

"They put them in us," he told me. "If you've ever met my parents, you know that they're the kindest people you'll ever meet. I figure that when you grow up with nothing but love and food around you all the time, you have to absorb some of the goodness."

"My parents were like that," I said. "Kind all the way through. They'd have done anything for my sisters and I, but apparently I'm the only one who got any of their good hearts."

George pressed his hand against my chest, feeling the beating of my heart.

"You have the biggest heart of any person I've ever met, Winters. I mean that. I wouldn't have fought a guy that's twice my size if I didn't believe that."

Should I kiss her again?

"You should definitely kiss me again," I whispered.

I don't know how I got so lucky.

-George Weasley