The day that Winona and Harry were to speak with Sirius approached quickly, and she found herself excited to see him again. She didn't have the faintest clue how he was expecting to meet them in the Gryffindor common room – especially with him still being a wanted criminal and all – but she was eager nonetheless.
It was not only a Saturday, but also a Hogsmeade weekend. While all her friends were eager to head down to the wizarding village, Winona found herself too drained to bother tagging along. George had offered to stay with her for the day, but she'd insisted he go down with the others, knowing how much he'd been looking forward to it, wanting to pick up some more dungbombs from Zonko's and some extra potion ingredients from Dogweed and Deathcap.
"Seriously, just go," she'd said sternly, pushing a small handful of Sickles into George's hand. "And buy me some more Sugar Quills from Honeydukes while you're there, yeah?"
He'd reluctantly let Katie drag him out, and Winona was left almost completely alone in the common room. There was a small group of first and second years having some kind of chess tournament by the fire, and a pair of seventh years taking the opportunity to get some studying in while the common room was quiet.
Winona sketched leisurely, sunken into the soft, squishy cushions of the couch, bag of supplies cracked open beside her. She used everything from charcoal to watercolours, enjoying the quiet hum of the room's activity, and the warmth of the crackling fire.
Hours passed her by, and she succeeded in keeping her thoughts from straying to Jeremiah and the frustrated look he'd worn only a few short days before when she'd turned down the opportunity of a shag. She focused on her work, and when she was drawing, it was easy to forget the troubles hanging over her life like storm clouds.
So immersed in her drawing, that Winona didn't even notice when she slipped from the present to the future.
Like her mind had reached out into the aether beyond what she could touch, she was submerged in the current of time.
There were great, thunderous roars echoing all around her, and the screamed cheers of hundreds of young, excited voices. Flashes of heat splashed across her face and body, like somebody was dipping her into a sea of flames. There was a shimmer of gold, bright and sparkling in the firelight, and the glint of orange, inhuman scales.
When she came out of the vision, it was to find herself in the exact same place she'd been before, with not so much as a hair out of place. The other Gryffindors were still studying and playing their games, none paying her even a lick of attention.
She sat, undisturbed, on the couch. A glance at the clock told her it was mid-afternoon, and she realised that the other Gryffindors would be returning shortly. Reluctantly, Winona glanced down at her newest glimpse into the future.
She was strangely unsurprised to find another great, monstrous dragon sketched onto her page. Done in far more detail than it had been only days before, it looked angry, with hundreds of sizeable spines protruding from its head, neck and body. Its wings were flared, stretching to the very edges of the page. It looked to be in some kind of a pit, guarding a small, glittering, golden egg.
Most concerning of all was the small figure in the bottom right corner of the page. They were dressed in black and scarlet, a name written clear as day across their back: POTTER.
Terror seized her, and Winona gripped her sketchbook so tight that the edges of the pages crinkled a little under her fingertips. She knew what this was – it wasn't her first vision on the matter, after all – but it was just as terrifying as it had been before.
The First Task of the Triwizard Tournament was only in only a few short days. Harry would be coming face-to-face with this beast in under a week. Harry would be in danger, and there was nothing she could do except draw pictures about it and fret like an overprotective parent.
She found herself suddenly beside herself. Dumbledore actually expected Harry – a fourteen year old boy – to fight a dragon? Was he certifiably insane? Did he want Harry to fail?
She knew Harry had gone with Hermione down to Hogsmeade, and despite wanting to find him as soon as humanly possible, she knew it would be stupid to go looking for him so late in the day. He'd make his way back up to the common room eventually, no doubt sooner rather than later, given the late hour. Besides, without the Marauders Map, she may as well have been searching for a needle in a haystack.
Full of a mounting anxiety, she could do no more than wait, halfheartedly sketching an outline for a piece she wanted to work on later – the Gryffindor Quidditch team, which held all the people at the school she held most dear. Every few minutes she would glance at the portrait hole, eager for her cousin to appear.
When he finally did, it was just after six, and Winona just about launched herself from the couch in her impatience. Harry blinked in surprise when she all but pounced on him, gripping his shoulders and dragging him over to the couch she'd claimed for the better half of the day.
"Winnie?" he asked, letting her shove him down into his seat. Hermione shot the cousins a smile and wandered up to the dorms, leaving them alone to talk. "What's wrong?" he pressed, watching as she scrambled for her sketchbook. "You had another vision?"
"Did I have a vision…" she parroted exasperatedly, flicking to the right page and shoving the book into his arms. Harry had to readjust his glasses as he peered down at the tiny peek into his future.
"Another dragon?" he asked weakly. When he glanced up at her, even his emerald eyes looked pale. "You think there's going to be more than one?"
She quickly shook her head. "I think it's the same one," she said, tapping a stained nail against the paper. It was detailed and full of lifelike colour. Even in her blind stupors, she was able to find the right colours to add, if the time so allowed. "Have you begun working on how to defeat it?"
Harry winced. "Oh – er – yeah – sort of – I mean-"
The look she shot him was dry. "Okay; once more with feeling."
Harry swallowed, looking grim. "Erm, you wouldn't happen to have had a vision about a way for me to defeat-?"
"Shh," she hushed him, checking to make sure nobody was paying attention. The common room was still rather bare, although there were more students there now than there had been an hour before. People may have now known she was a Seer, but that didn't mean she wanted them witness it in action. She wasn't an act in a travelling freak show. "If I had, I'd have come straight to you," she reminded him.
"Great," huffed Harry. "How in the bloody hell am I meant to fight off a dragon?"
"Have you been to the library?" she suggested.
His expression was so flat that Winona regretted suggesting it at all. "Where do you think I've been spending all my time recently? Hermione's practically got us living in there."
Winona said nothing, and Harry sighed, eyes on the table in front of them. He looked so young in that moment, so tired, and she felt a surge of hatred for anyone and everyone who had a hand in forcing Harry to compete in the tournament. It wasn't fair.
"I'll go to Dumbledore," she said suddenly, spurred on by desperation. "I'll force him to take you out of the tournament."
"Force him?" Harry echoed dubiously. "Winnie, you're strong, but Dumbledore's known as the most powerful Wizard in the world for a reason."
"Well what else are we supposed to do?" she asked. "You can't face a dragon, Harry. You might be the Boy-Who-Lived – but You-Know-Who didn't breathe fucking fire!"
If the subject weren't so grim, Harry might have laughed. As it was, he didn't retort. Instead his shoulders sagged, and he looked so tired, like he hadn't slept properly in days. "I don't have a choice, Winnie," he said, sounding so small and sad. "Dumbledore argued for me to get out of it the night my name came out of that goblet. If he couldn't do it then, he won't be able to do it now."
"This isn't fair," she groaned. "You're only a kid. They can't force you to fight a dragon against your will. It's gotta be breaking some kind of child protection law, right?"
"If there was a way out, it would already be done," he said sagely, and Winona leaned into his side, dropping her head onto his shoulder and sighing heavily. He reached up, patting her consolingly on the head.
"At least we're speaking to Sirius tonight," she said, voice a little muffled in the material of his jumper. "Talk about a silver lining."
"About that…" Harry murmured, and she lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him. Harry tried not to wince under her stare. "Hagrid wants to see me at midnight."
Winona didn't see the problem. "Tell him it doesn't work for you, and that you'll go see him tomorrow," she said simply. "You shouldn't be out on the grounds that late anyway."
"But Hagrid's never asked me to visit him so late before," he argued. "I think it's important." Winona wasn't convinced, and it must have been clearly written across her face. "We're not meeting Sirius until one," he reminded her. "I'll be back well before then. And if I'm a little late, it'll give you time to speak with him until I get here."
Winona sighed, burrowing into the couch cushions and giving up. "All right," she said grouchily. "Don't be late, though. And try not to get into trouble. Last time you were out on the grounds this late at night, you almost got mauled to death by a werewolf."
"Don't remind me," he grumbled, grimacing into the fire.
"Promise me you'll get back in time?" she pressed.
Harry leaned back to look at her thoughtfully. "You don't want to be alone with Sirius," he said, brow furrowed as he struggled to understand. "Why?"
Winona wanted to deny it, but didn't really see the point. "I've never been alone with him before," she told him. "I'm worried it'll be awkward."
"But he's your dad."
"Ugh," she shuddered in discomfort. "Don't use the 'D' word."
Harry cast her his most reproachful look, which was really quite impressive for someone as young as him. "Winnie, if I found out my dad was alive after all these years without him, I'd wanna spend all the time I could with him," he said honestly, the words sobering to the surprised sixth year.
He was right. There were very few orphans whose parents had miraculously come back from the dead, and she wasn't exactly making the most of it. "It's just so weird," she confessed, leaning into him further, keeping her voice low so the passing students didn't overhear. "He's my father, he raised me for three whole years after I was a born, but now we don't even know a single thing about each other. We're strangers, Harry."
Harry seemed to understand, while at the same time disagreeing. "That's why you've got to spend time with him. Get to know him. I can't always be around as an ice breaker."
Winona narrowed her eyes into slits. "Did you drink an ageing potion while I wasn't looking?" she demanded, reaching up to knock at his head playfully. "You're still only fourteen, right?" Harry rolled his eyes in exasperation. "How'd you get to be so wise?"
"It's not wisdom," he told her honestly. "I've spent my whole life imagining what might happen if my parents came back from the dead," he said quietly, turning his eyes to the fire, the light of the crackling flames bouncing off his glasses, making them seem to glow. "You don't know how lucky you are that it actually happened to you."
Winona stared at her cousin's sad face, taking in the tired look in his eyes and the downward tilt of his mouth. Without hesitating she shuffled closer, throwing an arm around Harry and pulling him tightly into her side. She didn't care if the other Gryffindors saw them curled up together. After admitting that, Harry needed family to hug him tight. And that was exactly what she planned to do.
As she squeezed the younger boy tightly, the corner of his mouth slowly moved up, and she didn't let go even when the frown was replaced by a tentative little smile.
That was how Fred and George found them, Winona wrapped around her cousin like an octopus, Harry looking exasperated but far from unhappy. "Aww," cooed George playfully. "Why weren't we invited to the cuddle session?"
Harry's face flushed and he squirmed until Winona relented and let go. "I'm going to find Hermione and head down to dinner," he told her as he stood to his feet. "I'll meet you here tonight?" he added meaningfully.
"You know it," she confirmed, and he nodded politely to the twins before turning and heading across the common room. The twins collapsed into his vacated seat, George beside her and Fred on his other side.
Her and Fred still weren't exactly on speaking terms – every time she thought of what he'd said to her, hurt and ire simmered beneath her skin like a potion set to boil, and she wanted to scream just to let out some of the steam gathering in her lungs – but he still kept close to her side after Skeeter's article, even despite the gaping rift between them.
"What's tonight?" George asked curiously, and she curled in on herself a little more.
Winona took a quick glance about the room, but nobody was paying them any extra attention. "We're meeting Sirius," she revealed softly.
The twins blinked in surprise. "Here? In the common room?" George asked in confusion. "How?"
"Dunno," she shrugged. "S'pose I'll find out tonight. How was Hogsmeade?"
"It was great," he told her. "Cold though. We jinxed Malfoy while his back was turned. His skin's still stained blue," he sniggered.
"Nice. Did you get the goods?" she pressed hopefully.
"Way to make this feel like a drug deal, Win," he rolled his eyes even as he reached into his pocket to pull free a small, paper-wrapped parcel. "There're your Sugar Quills," he said as he passed them over. "Try to make them last this time."
"I'll do no such thing," she replied, already opening the parcel to slip free a purple one.
"You're not gonna wait till after dinner?" asked George dryly.
"Who are you, my mother?" she countered as she tore off the treat's plastic cover, sticking the end into her mouth and all but moaning at the sugary taste. She was allowed to have one vice, wasn't she? Her addiction wasn't hurting anyone … except maybe her teeth.
"How are things between you and Nott?" asked Fred, speaking for the first time since he'd sat down. Winona's eyes went wide with surprise, and she leaned around George to look at him in wary confusion.
"Fred…" said George reproachfully, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Clearly he knew what was coming, and he was dreading it.
"Why?" Winona asked, the single word carefully measured.
Fred sat up straighter, like he had a ruler glued to his spine. "We just thought you might like to know we saw him snogging the life out of Piper Santiago from Ravenclaw in a booth at the Three Broomsticks today."
George looked about ready to collapse from sheer exasperation. "I thought we agreed subtlety was key, Fred," he muttered from the corner of his mouth, but Winona still heard.
She wasn't sure how to react, staring between the pair of them, thoughts everywhere and nowhere at once. The first thing she knew was the stab of pain she felt in the region of her chest where her heart lay. The knowledge that Jeremiah was off snogging Ravenclaws was hurtful to say the least – although not actually that surprising – and she looked away from the twins, turning her blank stare onto the crackling fire.
George and Fred were silent, and she was glad to have a moment to collect her thoughts without them prattling on. But the quiet couldn't last forever.
"Winnie?" Fred asked, sounding a lot more hesitant than before. Maybe even a little bit guilty. "You okay?"
"Fine," she replied, the word a reflex. She took a breath, trying to sound less defensive. "I'm fine."
"You don't look fine," said Fred slowly, blue eyes flickering over her expression, which she could feel was tense and dark.
"Jeremiah and I never said we were exclusive," she told them, brisk and short. "He's perfectly welcome to snog whomever he likes." They said nothing, and when she looked up, George looked just as unconvinced as Fred, both of them staring at her knowingly. "Hungry?" she asked them smoothly.
Expressions wary, the twins nodded their heads.
"Let me go put these Sugar Quills away, and then we can head down to dinner, yeah?"
"All right," said George carefully.
Winona stood to her feet, shouldering her art supply bag and holding her parcel of Sugar Quills close to her chest. She was glad for the moment to collect herself, taking the stairs two at a time until she reached her dorm.
Hope was sitting on her bed, three books open in front of her. Winona called a greeting, but her fellow Gryffindor barely looked up from her work, too busy struggling through her Potions essay.
Winona put away her things and then disappeared into the bathroom, shutting the door securely after her and leaning her forehead against the slab of wood. She took several large, deep breaths in and out, hoping the extra air would calm her racing heart.
She was hurt … but not quite upset.
She'd been telling the truth. Jeremiah was welcome to snog whomever he wished. She wasn't going to stop him. But she couldn't help but feel like this were some kind of attack on her. She refused him one day, and the next he was sucking face with the first of what she was sure was many in line? And Piper Santiago was one of the easiest of them all. If he wanted a quick, meaningless shag, he'd certainly gone to the right place.
She was angry – irrationally so. What did it matter? Fred had been spot on the day he'd discovered them – Jeremiah was only using her for her body anyway. It wasn't as if he were at all interested in who she was as a person.
Taking a final, steadying deep breath, Winona glanced in the mirror to check she looked okay. Her blonde hair looked ratty, and she hurriedly piled it onto her head, attempting to arrange it artfully, but ultimately giving up and splashing some cold water on her face before heading into the dorm to change from slippers to chucks, then waving to Hope and heading back down to the common room.
Fred and George hadn't moved. They were talking in low voices as she descended the stairs. Fred caught sight of her immediately and their conversation petered off. "Ready?" she asked, and they hurried to nod.
Once they stepped through the portrait hole George sped up until he was walking a few yards ahead of the other two. Winona turned to Fred expectantly, because the twins rarely ever did anything unintentionally.
Fred reached up to scratch awkwardly at the back of his neck. "Sorry about how blunt I was before," he apologised stiltedly, looking anywhere but her eyes.
She thought it was ironic he were apologising for this when there were certainly far more important things he could have been begging for forgiveness over. She cut her eyes to him, narrowed and shrewd, but Fred didn't seem to notice.
"I know I could have approached it with a little more tact," he said, hands tucked deep into his pockets. "I just thought it was something you should know."
If she was holding her breath for an apology, she had a feeling she'd pass out long before it came. Her expression was rueful and tired. "It's all right," she said with a shrug, tucking her hands into the front pocket of her hoodie.
He paused, seeming to chew on his next words. "Are you okay?"
Glancing up at him, she felt a tinge of inexplicable relief when he finally met her eyes, concern shining in his own. "Really, Fred, I'm fine," she told him. "It's not like Jeremiah and I are an actual couple or anything. I couldn't care less who he snogs."
And she was surprised by her own flush of relief when she realised it was true. She really didn't care. Jeremiah could do what he liked, and it had no effect on her whatsoever. The force of the realisation was like a weight off her shoulders, and Winona stared down at her feet, enjoying the lightness in her chest. It felt an awful lot like freedom.
Fred, however, just winced, looking away as though she'd said something unsavoury. Looking back up at him, she waited for him to say something. "I guess, before this whole Nott thing, I never thought you'd be the type to…" he trailed off, not seeming to know how to word it.
That feeling of weightless freedom disappeared, replaced by a bitterness she hadn't been expecting. "Whore around?" she sniped, hands balled into fists inside her pocket. "Yeah, you made that perfectly clear."
Fred looked hurt, but she didn't particularly care how he felt. "You know I didn't mean…" he began to say, trailing off before he could finish, not seeming able to find the words.
"I think you did, Fred," she said, staring at the path ahead of them. George was walking casually, far enough away that he wouldn't be able to hear their hushed conversation. She wondered which side he would choose, should it come down to it. Would he stay by his brother's side out of loyalty, or did he think what Fred had said meant he deserved to be the one on the outs?
Fred reached for her arm, but unlike Jeremiah's hard, unforgiving grip, Fred's fingers were gentle as they wrapped around her smaller wrist and carefully turned her to face him. She reluctantly stopped walking, tilting her head back to look him in the eye.
"Look, Win, I was just so…" he trailed off again, lost for words. Winona wasn't sure she'd ever known Fred to be so speechless.
The ire in her heart began to recede, and she stared up at him, hopeful for something she didn't know how to put into words. "So what, Fred?" she asked, barely a whisper.
Fred's ears had gone pink, and his eyes seemed deeper than usual, like the sea during a storm. His fingers remained curled gently around her smaller wrist, and she wondered if he could feel her racing pulse against his fingertips. Winona waited, barely breathing at all, for him to say something. For him to say anything.
"Fred?"
They turned as one to see Angelina walking towards them, a sour look on her face, and Fred ripped his hand away from hers in a hurry. Winona took a large step back, tucking her hands back into the front pocket of her hoodie.
Angelina's shrewd eyes darted between them, until she focused her attention on Fred. "Ready for dinner?" she asked him shortly.
Fred said nothing, just nodded his head. Angelina held her hand out to him, and Winona watched as he hesitated for the briefest of moments before taking it, looking away from Winona and letting Angelina lead him into the Great Hall.
Left standing in the entrance hall, Winona thought she was alone until she felt an arm sling around her shoulders. "He's an idiot," George told her cheerfully, beginning to angle her inside the Hall. "But so are you, so you can't exactly complain."
Winona said nothing, letting George guide her towards their table. Dinner passed without issue, and before Winona knew it they were all wandering back up through the castle to the common room. She took a seat in the corner, between Alicia and Lee, watching as Katie and Fred started up a rather intense game of Gobstones.
One by one the Gryffindors in the common room began to trudge up the stairs to bed. Their group was one of the last to disperse, all of them caught up in the competitiveness of their friends' Gobstones match.
"We really should go up to bed, guys," said Angelina as she glanced at the clock on the far wall. "It's getting late, and we have a big day tomorrow."
"But I'm too emotionally invested in this game to leave now," argued Alicia, but Katie was already beginning to yawn, so they reluctantly ended the match, giving a dramatic shake of hands and a small speech each to end what they called the 'ceremony'.
Finally Alicia, Angelina and Katie all said goodnight to the boys before turning to leave. It was Angelina who noticed Winona wasn't following.
"You coming?" she frowned.
"Nah, I'm gonna stay up and sketch some more by the fire," she told them with a nod at the bag tucked into the couch cushions at her side.
"But it's late, Win," complained Katie, gesturing at the clock which proclaimed it was swiftly approaching half-past ten.
"You know me," she replied flippantly. "No rest for the wicked."
The girls rolled their eyes, knowing how stubborn she could get. "All right, but try not to wake us when you eventually come to bed, yeah?" Alicia sighed – because it had happened plenty of times before.
Winona tossed her a lazy salute and they said their final goodnights. Winona looked away as Angelina leaned in to capture Fred's lips with her own, giving him a kiss that was perhaps a little too passionate for the public setting. The others looked equally as uncomfortable, turning away with rolls of their eyes.
Angelina pulled away with a small, satisfied smile, and Fred cleared his throat, not seeming to know how to react. With a final wave the girls turned and headed up the stairs to bed. Lee, Fred and George had remained where they were, lounged about in the corner of the common room they so often claimed as their own, the tips of Fred's ears stained a bright, embarrassed red.
"Well, we might as well head up too," said Lee as he stretched his arms high above his head. He paused suddenly, peering across at Winona curiously. "Unless you want company, Win?"
"Nah," she waved him off. "You'll just distract me."
Lee grinned, patted her on the head and trudged up the stairs in the direction of his dorm. This left Winona and the twins alone, and she turned to look at them curiously.
"You're not heading to bed?" she asked, tilting her head even as she began to fish out her sketchbook and a small selection of pastel pencils.
The twins exchanged a meaningful look, communicating in the way that only they could. "We thought we'd stay up with you," Fred eventually said, looking away from George to meet her eyes, "so that way, you don't have to speak with Sirius alone."
He looked almost desperate, and she figured he was searching for a way to make up for the things he'd said in recent days past. But this wasn't what would fix it. She wasn't even sure anything could.
Winona waved them away. "Thank you," she told them quietly. "But I think, as hard as it may be, this is something I have to do alone. I have to learn how to speak to the guy at some point, right? Might as well start now."
The twins didn't looked convinced. "If you're sure…" said George slowly.
Winona smiled at him fondly. "I'm sure," she promised. "Really, though, thank you for offering."
They gave her identical smiles, standing to their feet and beginning to make for the door leading to their dorm. Fred paused by her chair, hesitating and debating his next words. "If anything happens … if you need me – us – then you'll come up to our dorm?"
She'd have Harry with her, and she was sure he'd be plenty enough support by himself, but she didn't say that to Fred, merely nodding her head. But he knew her too well, knowing the look in her eyes meant no. With a sigh, he turned away. "All right. G'night."
"Night," she replied, and then they were gone, disappearing up to their dorm.
Winona relocated to the couch by the fire because it was the most comfortable. She grabbed the throw that was slung over the back of the couch, tucking it around her for extra warmth then settling in for a few hours of sketching.
She worked contentedly on the piece of the Quidditch team, adding more concrete lines, then beginning on the colouring. It was nice to see them all, even in drawing form. She missed the school's Quidditch matches. She may not have been on the team, but she loved to go down to the pitch, kiss the twins on the cheek for good luck and watch them kick some arse on their brooms.
Winona kept one eye on the clock, watching as the minutes passed slowly.
Eleven thirty … twelve … twelve thirty … twelve fifty-five…
Harry still hadn't appeared, and Winona spun in a circle as if she may spot him lurking in a corner. She was just beginning to get worried about him when there was a low coughing from the fireplace.
Spinning on her heel with her heart in her throat, Winona peered into the flames, suddenly understanding exactly how they were going to be speaking with Sirius – and really, she should have figured it out much sooner.
Sirius' head was floating in the crackling flames, and there was the slightest hint of a smile on his face. His eyes remained deep and haunted, but Winona knew that was from all the taxing years he'd spent in Azkaban, rather than having anything to do with her.
"Winona," he greeted her, saying her name with great relief – like until that moment, he'd been holding his breath. Winona thought that, in many ways, so had she. She quickly scanned the room to be absolutely certain they were alone before kneeling at the fireplace, tentative but admittedly a little excited.
"Most people call me Winnie, you know," she told him quietly, resting her hands on her knees and smiling hesitantly.
"Winnie," he corrected himself, and his smile seemed to grow. His eyes – exactly like hers – flickered around the room. "Harry?" he asked, smile giving way to a frown of concern.
"He'll be here," she assured him, and Sirius seemed to believe her, nodding his head. "How've you been?" she asked, noting that the gaunt, malnourished look his face had held last time she'd seen him wasn't completely gone. He certainly looked better, though. Not quite so haunted.
"I'm fine," he told her dismissively, as if his own wellbeing didn't matter. "How are you? Is everything okay at school?"
She smiled, a little wry. "I wouldn't say things are 'okay'," she said with a sarcastic laugh. "My cousin's being forced to compete in a tournament that could very well kill him, and the entire school now knows I'm a Seer, and is punishing me for it, and things with my best friend in the world are iffy at best."
She was rambling a bit now, and she had to take a mental step back. Sirius wasn't her therapist; he was barely even her father.
"Yes, I did manage to see Skeeter's article," he said, and the bottomless look to his fiery eyes only grew. "I didn't know you were a Seer until I read it."
Winona winced, realising she hadn't even considered that Sirius was going to find out along with the rest of the world. It had been something she'd wanted to tell him herself. "I was going to tell you in person – next time I saw you," she said apologetically, and just a little bit awkwardly. "It didn't feel like something I could just drop into a letter."
Sirius smiled sadly, and she knew why. He wasn't sad she didn't tell him – he was sad that he hadn't been around to know sooner. He was sad that he hadn't been a part of her life before now. "So, you see the future?" he asked, and she couldn't blame him for wanting to know more.
"I draw the future," she corrected thinly. "It's rather complicated."
"Your mother was always guessing what was going to happen before it actually did," he told her, a fond sort of nostalgia to his voice. "I wouldn't have called her a Seer – she didn't magically know the future – but she always seemed sensitive to her inner eye."
Talking about her mother wasn't an easy thing for Winona to do. She didn't like it at all; it only left her all the more aware of the gaping hole in her life where her mother should have been. Swallowing around the lump in her throat, Winona tried to act like the words weren't a knife cutting through her tendons.
"So maybe it runs in the family?" she asked quietly.
"Maybe," he allowed, matching her volume.
There was a moment of easy quiet. "Where are you?" she asked curiously. "How'd you get hold of a fireplace to use?"
Sirius' expression turned sheepish. "Uh, I broke into a wizarding house to use their Floo," he confessed, and looked stunned when Winona only snorted.
"Breaking and entering," she chuckled. "Badass. I like it."
"Desperate times, and all."
"Well, you're already branded as a criminal," she joked wryly, "you might as well earn the title."
Her comment surprised him, and he laughed. She liked the sound, it made it hard to believe he'd been locked away in a wizarding prison, surrounded by the foulest creatures to walk the earth for twelve years. That place had robbed him of his youth – of his family – but it hadn't taken his spirit. Not entirely.
She was struck, suddenly, by how easy this all was. It wasn't hard to talk to Sirius – in fact it came startlingly natural. She felt their connection even through the flames, and it reminded her of the way she'd felt about Harry when they'd first met – connected in a way she couldn't quite explain. It was comforting, and warmth spread through her veins, lighting her face up with a gentle smile.
"I'm sorry I haven't written more," he said suddenly. Winona blinked at him, surprised by the apology.
"It's okay," she assured him. "You've been on the run. I don't imagine you have parchment and ink just laying around."
Sirius shook his head. "It's still no excuse," he said quietly. "I think I just…I wasn't sure what to say. I mean, what can I say to make up for twelve years of missed…everything?"
Winona sighed, leaning a little bit closer. "You don't need to make up for anything," she told him honestly. "The important thing is that you're here now. So just be here."
Sirius hesitated. "I don't know how to be a dad," he confessed.
"I don't know how to be a daughter," she admitted. "I guess we'll just have to figure it out as we go."
Sirius smiled, but before she could think of something else to say, the portrait hole opened, its sound echoing throughout the empty common room. "Harry?" asked Sirius quickly, panic flashing on his face.
A moment later her cousin tripped into view. "It's him," she confirmed so he wouldn't worry about being seen, and Harry rushed to their side, relief in his bright green eyes.
He fell to his knees with a thump, but he barely seemed to feel it, staring at Sirius intently. "Sirius — how're you doing?" he asked hurriedly.
"Never mind me, how are you?" Sirius countered.
Winona watched as Harry began to say that he was fine, only to cut himself off and rethink his answer. And then he was talking, and Winona realised just how much he must have been keeping inside as it all came out to Sirius in that moment. Like a torrent, the words poured from his mouth. Winona watched Sirius' reaction as Harry told him all about how no one believed he hadn't entered the tournament of his own free will, and how Rita Skeeter had lied about him in the Daily Prophet, and how he couldn't walk down a corridor without being sneered at, and also about his friendship with Ron, and how frustrated he was by the behaviour of the guy who was supposed to be his best friend.
"…and the other day Winnie had a vision of the first task being dragons, and now Hagrid's just shown me the things, and, Sirius – I'm a goner," he finished in a panic, eyes wide and hands very nearly shaking.
"Dragons we can deal with, Harry, but we'll get to that in a minute — I haven't got long here … I've broken into a wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be back at any time. There are things I need to warn you about," said Sirius, steady and sure as he took in his Godson and his daughter, both staring at him, loyally awaiting his instruction.
"What?" asked Harry, voice full of a mounting dread.
"Karkaroff," said Sirius flatly. "Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"
Harry had never looked more perplexed. "Yes," he answered shortly, brow furrowed so low it was nearly hidden behind his glasses. "But – he – what?" he spluttered in confusion.
"He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I'd bet everything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year – to keep an eye on him," Sirius told them quickly. "Moody caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place."
"No wonder Karkaroff hates Moody so much," Winona murmured, thinking about Karkaroff's hate-filled glowers in Moody's direction over the last few weeks.
"Karkaroff got released?" asked Harry slowly, bewildered by the news. "Why did they release him?"
"He did a deal with the Ministry of Magic," Sirius replied, his tone bitter and dark, telling them exactly what he thought of the whole thing. "He said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names … he put a load of other people into Azkaban in his place. He's not very popular in there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who passes through that school of his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well," he warned.
"Krum," Winona nodded, turning her eyes to Harry. "He may be an idiot, but he could definitely do some damage in the right circumstances," she added, and Harry began to turn just a little bit green.
"But, wait … are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the goblet?" Harry asked warily, sounding about as sick as he looked. "Because if he did, he's a really good actor. He seemed furious about it. He wanted to stop me from competing."
"We know he's a good actor," said Sirius darkly, "because he convinced the Ministry of Magic to set him free, didn't he? Now, I've been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet, Harry-"
"-you and the rest of the world," muttered Harry bitterly. "Did you see the article on Winnie?"
"I did," Sirius said quickly, eyes clouding at the reminder of what Skeeter had done to his daughter. But then he was back on task, continuing with all the ferocity of a charging bull. "But more to the point – reading between the lines of that Skeeter woman's article last month, Moody was attacked the night before he started at Hogwarts. Yes, I know she says it was another false alarm," Sirius said hastily, seeing Harry about to speak, "but I don't think so, somehow. I think someone tried to stop him from getting to Hogwarts. I think someone knew their job would be a lot more difficult with him around. And no one's going to look into it too closely; Mad-Eye's heard intruders a bit too often. But that doesn't mean he can't still spot the real thing. Moody was the best Auror the Ministry ever had."
"So, what are you saying?" asked Harry slowly. Winona glanced at the clock, and seeing the late hour, she knew he must have been approaching exhaustion. "That Karkaroff's trying to kill me? But – why?"
"I'd like to know that too, actually," Winona said, looking back at Sirius' floating head. The flames were hot on her face, but she leaned closer still, watching as he hesitated in what he was going to say next.
"I've been hearing some very strange things," he said lowly. "The Death Eaters seem to be a bit more active than usual lately. They showed themselves at the Quidditch World Cup, didn't they? Someone set off the Dark Mark … and then – did you hear about that Ministry of Magic witch who's gone missing?"
Winona hadn't – at least, she couldn't remember hearing about it – but Harry apparently had.
"Bertha Jorkins?" he asked in surprise.
"Exactly … she disappeared in Albania, and that's definitely where Voldemort was rumoured to be last … and she would have known the Triwizard Tournament was coming up, wouldn't she?"
Winona wasn't sure why this was important, and she almost felt like an audience member on the edge of her seat to find out. "Yeah, but…" Harry hesitated, slowly putting it together, "it's not very likely she'd have walked straight into Voldemort, is it?"
"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins," said Sirius grimly. "She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It's not a good combination, Harry. I'd say she'd be very easy to lure into a trap."
Winona didn't like the sound of this at all.
"So … so Voldemort could have found out about the tournament?" Harry deduced, horror beginning to sink in, eyes darkening with anger and confusion. "Is that what you mean?"
Winona understood now, piecing it together herself. "But surely Dumbledore wouldn't let Karkaroff step foot inside these walls if he suspected–" she began to say.
"If he suspected," Sirius interjected meaningfully, and she let out a sharp breath. She had a lot of issues with Dumbledore, but if there was one thing she knew, it was that he wouldn't knowingly put this school or its students in danger – particularly not she or Harry. Like it or not, they were far too valuable to his agenda to let anything bad happen to them.
"So, are you saying that you think Karkaroff might be here on Voldemort's orders?" Harry pressed, struggling to process this information.
"I don't know," Sirius replied stiltedly. "I just don't know … Karkaroff doesn't strike me as the type who'd go back to Voldemort unless he knew Voldemort was powerful enough to protect him. But whoever put your name in that goblet did it for a reason, and I can't help thinking the tournament would be a very good way to attack you and make it look like an accident."
A shiver zinged down Winona's spine, and she grit her teeth against the feeling of a strange, lingering something in the aether of time that she wore as a constant companion. Like her inner eye was trying to tell her something, but she couldn't quite see what it was. Not yet.
"Looks like a really good plan from where I'm standing," said Harry with a wry, tired kind of grin. And it was true – evil infiltrating the school on a mission to kill him? It was sort of old hat by now. "They'll just have to stand back and let the dragons do their stuff," he said bleakly.
"Right – these dragons," said Sirius quickly. "There's a way, Harry. Don't be tempted to try a Stunning Spell – dragons are strong and too powerfully magical to be knocked out by a single Stunner, you need about half a dozen wizards at a time to overcome a dragon."
"Yeah, I know, I just saw," said Harry thinly, and Winona wondered exactly what had happened down at Hagrid's Hut.
"But you can do it alone," Sirius told him. "There is a way, and a simple spell's all you need. Just-"
But both Winona and Harry whipped around as one, catching the low sound of footsteps on the staircase behind them. Winona climbed quickly to her feet, shifting so she was stood between Harry and Sirius and whoever it was coming down the stairs.
"Go!" Harry hissed at Sirius from behind her. "Go! There's someone coming!"
Harry climbed to his feet too. There was a tiny pop in the fire behind them and they knew Sirius had gone. Winona felt his disappearance like a loss. She missed him already, and could only hope they'd get another chance to talk face-to-face sometime soon.
She looked up to see Ron appearing at the foot of the stairs, his maroon pyjamas impossible to miss, even in the darkened room. Winona could have cussed – whether he and Harry were in a row or not, he never would have told anyone that Sirius had been at Hogwarts (however briefly). And that meant that Sirius could have stayed longer. She grit her teeth in frustration.
"Who were you talking to?" Ron asked suspiciously.
"What's that got to do with you?" Harry snarled back, and Winona turned him, surprised by the venom in his voice. "What are you doing down here at this time of night?"
"I just wondered where you-" Ron broke off, shrugging. "Nothing. I'm going back to bed."
"Just thought you'd come nosing around, did you?" Harry shouted combatively. Winona reached out, gently touching her cousin on the arm.
"Harry, he didn't know–" she whispered so the redhead couldn't hear, but Ron was now just as fired up as Harry.
"Sorry about that," spat Ron, his face turning red in his anger. "Should've realised you didn't want to be disturbed. I'll let you get on with practicing for your next interview in peace."
Harry seized something small and round off the table to their left and launched it as hard as he could across the room. It hit Ron on the forehead and bounced off. Winona stared, wide-eyed, unsure what to do.
"There you go," Harry hissed. "Something for you to wear on Tuesday. You might even have a scar now if you're lucky … That's what you want, isn't it?"
He strode across the room toward the stairs, and Winona trailed after him. "Harry," she tried to say.
"Not now, Winona," he replied, short and sharp, before disappearing up the stairs to his dorm.
Ron stood in the middle of the common room, staring after Harry in something like shock. "We were talking with Sirius," Winona revealed before she could talk herself out of it.
"What?" Ron asked dumbly.
"Just now, we were talking to Sirius in the Floo," she explained slowly. "That's why he's so pissed. You interrupted us." Ron grimaced, looking away from Winona, not seeming to know what to say. "You shouldn't be so hard on him," she couldn't help but add. "He didn't ask for any of this, Ron. And you don't get to be a dick just because you're jealous."
Ron said nothing, which surprised Winona, as she'd been expecting him to argue. She sighed, deciding to just give up and go to bed. She felt tired enough that she might actually get some sleep, for once.
"Night, Ron," she said, turning and heading up the stairs, the call of her mattress overwhelming.
Winona slept surprisingly well and woke late the next day. It was Sunday, so she stayed lounging in bed for a lot longer than was advised, enjoying the warmth of her covers and halfheartedly dozing until there was simply no more sleep left in her.
She dressed warmly, and as she was tugging on her shoes the door opened and Alicia walked in.
"Oh good, you're finally up," she said with just a hint of teasing. "It's almost lunch, y'know?"
"It's the sabbath," Winona retorted. "It's the one day of the week we're expected to sleep in."
"Pretty sure that's not what that means," Alicia rolled her eyes.
"Let me have this," Winona replied, lacing her left shoe and climbing to her feet. "You said it's nearly lunch?"
"I was just grabbing a jumper before heading down," she said, fishing in her trunk a moment before pulling out a pretty pink sweater, pulling it on over her top. "You coming?" she asked, heading for the door.
Winona followed Alicia down the stairs, greeting the others as they saw her, all of them flowing towards the portrait hole to head for the Great Hall.
When they got down there, the first thing Winona did was look along the Gryffindor table for any sign of Harry. After a few moments, it was clear he wasn't there, and so she sat down beside George instead, frowning to herself as she chose a banana muffin from the pile.
Her friends chattered around her, idly contemplating what the First Task was going to be on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it wasn't long until they turned to Winona, remembering what they'd only just recently learned about her abilities.
"Go on then, Winnie," said Lee eagerly, leaning forwards in his seat. "If anyone's going to know what the First Task is going to be, it's you."
Distracted and defensive, Winona frowned. "Why me?" she asked dumbly.
The others stared back at her as though she'd lost her marbles. "Because, apparently, you see the future?" said Lee slowly, like he were dealing with an idiot.
"Apparently," she echoed with a scowl.
"Well, we've yet to actually see this talent in action, have we?" he countered, and she had to admit he had a point there. She took a bite of her muffin, saying nothing. "So?" he pressed, and she looked back up at him dryly. He was eyeing her with eager impatience.
"So?" she parroted tonelessly.
"Can you look into future and tell us what the First Task is going to be?" he asked, voice tight with exasperation. He knew she was making him work for it, but she didn't care.
"I don't need to," she told him, and the others all looked over at her in surprise.
"You don't wanna know?" asked Alicia curiously. "Not even for Harry's sake?"
Winona lifted her shoulder in a casual shrug. "I already know," she confessed, and the group fell utterly silent. She looked up, bewildered by the reaction.
"You already know what the First Task is going to be?" asked George from beside her, and she glanced over at him, nodding when she met his eyes. "And you didn't tell us?" he asked in more of a whine than anything else. "Them I can understand," he added, jerking his head in the direction of the others before gesturing to himself and Fred, "but us?"
Winona rolled her eyes at his dramatics. "It was only the other day I found out," she assured him.
"Well?" Fred pressed, leaning forwards, the excitement coming off him in waves. "What is it?"
"I'm not telling."
"What?" his face fell, and she almost felt guilty for it. "Why not?"
"So that you'll be just as surprised as everyone else," she explained.
"Come on, Win," groaned George, tugging at her arm like a sulky, impatient child might tug at their parent.
"Yeah, Win, come on," chimed Fred immediately, shooting her a wide, charming grin from where he sat opposite her, beside a frowning Angelina. "How can you say no to a smile like this?" he asked sweetly, and although the argument was ridiculous, she did have to silently concede that his smile was awfully convincing.
To cover the wave of affection she felt at the sight of it, she arranged her features into something resembling annoyance. "I'm not a magic 8-ball, you know," she snarked. "You can't just shake me and expect to get answers."
Most of the group had no idea what she was talking about; except for Alicia, the only one of them to be a Muggleborn, and to understand the reference. She snorted into her blueberry muffin, and Winona looked to her with a small smirk.
Lee disappointedly grumbled something about impossible women, and the twins quickly got distracted by a passing group of fifth years wearing bandanas as if in some sort of gang, calling out teasing insults about their fashion choices like a pair of girls.
"D'you know where Harry is, today?" Winona leaned across the table to ask Katie and Alicia.
They shook their heads. "Haven't seen him since breakfast," said Katie with a shrug. "Wonder how he's doing?" she mused. "It must be a lot of pressure, this whole Tournament thing."
"He's all right," Winona told her quietly. "It's not that much more pressure than he's had any other year," she added, recalling his first, second and third year all being just slightly more stressful than the typical Hogwarts student's. "But it still isn't easy on him. I think he's terrified. He doesn't want to do this, and they're making him. It's wrong," she said vehemently.
"Y'know, you've always been really protective over Harry?" Alicia said, tone echoing her surprise.
"He's a good kid," she said, scanning the Great Hall again, searching for his head of unruly black hair. "Which is why I wanna find him, make sure he's okay after last night."
"What happened last night?" asked Katie innocently.
Realising her slip, Winona hurried to wave a hand casually, as though pushing aside the question. "Nothing," she said as convincingly as she could. "He's just had a rough few weeks." She popped the last morsel of her muffin into her mouth and stood to her feet, swiping a shiny red apple from the stack on the table as she moved. "I'll see you guys later on."
Katie and Alicia waved in farewell just as Lee and Angelina roped them into what she was sure was a riveting conversation about their Herbology homework. Winona tapped George on the top of his orange hair as she passed, and he batted at her hand with a low grumble that made her smirk.
Ron was sitting with Seamus and Dean further along the table, and when Winona dropped into place beside him he started with a low yelp of surprise. "You see where Harry went earlier?" she asked without preamble, giving him no time to recover.
Ron's expression immediately shuttered, and he scowled at her like she'd just said something offensive. "No. How should I know?" he asked grouchily.
"Chill, I'm just asking," she replied, rolling her eyes before turning to the other boys expectantly. "Either of you seen him, or are you pretending he doesn't exist, too?"
Dean snorted at her words, while Seamus eyed her with annoyance. "On my way down to lunch I saw he and Hermione heading into the library," Dean told her easily, not seeming to be as combative as his friends. "Try looking there?"
"Thank you, Dean," she said primly, shifting her eyes at the other two judgementally. "At least one of you has manners."
Ron said nothing, staring down at his roast beef sandwich moodily. Winona rolled her eyes, sweeping to her feet and leaving for the library.
It was mostly empty, what with everyone being down at lunch, so the two fourth years were relatively easy to find amongst the towering stacks. After creeping past Madam Pince, hiding her forbidden snack from sight, Winona plopped down in the chair beside her cousin, who jerked in surprise at her sudden appearance. "Whatcha reading?" she asked him curiously, taking a noisy bite of her apple.
With a small groan that told her exactly how little he wanted to be there in that moment, Harry lifted the thick tome in front of him so she could see the cover.
Basic Hexes for the Busy and Vexed.
"Strange choice of reading material," she quipped, and Harry sighed, sinking lower in his chair. Winona leant forwards, eyeing the page he was on. "Instant scalping," she read aloud, eyebrow quirking up in surprise. "And who're we scalping?" she asked him cheerfully.
"A dragon, hopefully," he replied lowly.
Winona frowned. "But they don't have any hair."
Harry groaned again, letting his head drop until his forehead banged against the page, the sound echoing throughout the empty library. "I'm going to die," he said, gloomy and without hope.
"Well, probably, with that attitude," she agreed. He sighed, sitting up straight and pulling off his glasses, reaching up to rub tiredly at his eyes. "Where's 'Mione?" she asked moments before the frizzy-haired girl herself appeared from the aisle over, two thick tomes held in her arms.
"Right here," she said, dropping the heavy books down on the table, a swirl of dust particles thrown up into the air. "You can't eat that in here," she added disapprovingly, beady eyes narrowing at the sight of the apple she held in her hand.
Winona didn't deem that worthy of a response. "I assume you've scoured the entire dragon section from top to bottom," she said plainly. Hermione nodded. "And?"
"Nothing."
"Dammit," Winona sunk a little in her seat, slouching back against the wood. "So you have no idea what Sirius was trying to say before he got cut off?"
"None," Hermione confirmed grimly. "We've looked through every book I can think of. At first we tried books specifically on dragons, but because Sirius said it was a simple spell, we decided to look through some basic spell books, hoping to find something there."
"And no luck?"
"None." There was a beat. "Winnie – you're a sixth year," said Hermione suddenly, and Winona looked back up in surprise. "Have you learnt anything in any of your NEWT classes that would work against a dragon?"
"Bold of you to assume I pay any attention in class at all, 'Mione," Winona joked wryly. Hermione shot her a look that was entirely unamused, and Winona silently reminded herself to know her audience. "Look, don't you think that if I knew how to defeat a dragon, I would have told Harry already?" she asked, and Hermione had to concede the point.
"I'm going to die," Harry groaned again, his voice muffled by the parchment of the book he had his face pressed against.
"You're not going to die," said Hermione sternly, as if she could keep him alive by sheer determination alone. Winona appreciated her resolve, and wished it was enough to work.
She sighed, patting her cousin reassuringly on the back, trying to offer him some weak form of comfort in this trying time. "Come on," she said after taking another bite of her apple. "Put me to work. Three heads are better than two, am I right?"
"Oh no," said Hermione, sounding very distressed.
Offended, Winona turned to frown at her defensively. "I'm not totally hopeless, you know."
"No, not that," Hermione tutted, thrusting her chin to the left in a gesture that told Winona to look. "It's Krum – he's back again."
And she was right, Viktor Krum was slouching into the library, hands stuffed into his pockets. He cast them an intent look with his dark, beady eyes, then settled into a seat nearby.
"Why can't he read on his stupid ship?" Hermione would have insisted it wasn't a whine, but it definitely was. "Come on, you two," she said primly, already picking up her stack of books and nodding for Winona to take the ones that remained, "we'll go back to the common room … his fan club'll be here in a moment, twittering away…"
Winona wasn't sure why this was such a big deal, but she knew better than to argue with Hermione Granger, picking up her designated books and following them out into the corridor back towards Gryffindor Tower.
They spent the night looking through more books, but came up with nothing. Harry tapped out first, proclaiming it to be useless and heading up to bed. Winona and Hermione stayed down a little while longer, stubbornly searching some more, before they too had to concede the same. There wasn't anything in these books that would help Harry defeat a dragon.
Winona was beginning to feel rather hopeless, a cloud of anxiety hovering around her head as she moved from Arithmancy to Defence Against the Dark Arts the next day. George pestered her to tell him what was on her mind, but she refused to budge, knowing she'd have to tell him about the dragons to explain.
Despite trusting the twins implicitly, she didn't want to tell them what the First Task was going to be. Partly for the surprise of it all, and partly because she didn't want to be the one to spill the secret. The less people who knew, the better.
She was surprised, then, when on her way to lunch she was yanked out of the corridor and into an empty classroom. Her first thought was that it was Jeremiah, and her pulse thundered in her ears. When she spun around, however, it was to find Harry and Hermione staring at her, their eyes round and hopeful.
"Oh," she said, both relieved and disappointed to find it was only them. "What's up?"
"We've figured out what to do about the dragon," said Harry, a spark of life in his eyes that hadn't been there the night before. It was nice to see, although somewhat curious.
"You found something?"
"With a little help from Professor Moody," said Hermione, and Harry nodded quickly.
"Well?" Winona pressed. "Don't leave me in suspense."
"I'll use a Summoning Charm," Harry told her eagerly. "Moody said to play to my strengths, and what am I best at?"
"Defeating You-Know-Who?"
Harry rolled his eyes. "He's a great flyer," Hermione said exasperatedly.
Winona pieced it together. "You want to summon your broom?" she asked, eyebrows raised, impressed by the plan.
"It's the only way," Harry insisted, and while Winona wasn't sure that was true, it was a very clever solution to their problem.
"And Moody told you this?"
"He hinted at it."
"Okay, so what do you need me for?" she asked, realising that they had to have brought her here for a reason.
"Well, I only just learnt the Summoning Charm myself, but I'm by no means an expert," said Hermione carefully. "Harry didn't manage to perform it in class. So he needs someone to teach him properly."
"Me? You want me to teach you?" she asked Harry dubiously. "They call me the Queen of Coasting for a reason, you know."
"But you got an O in your Charms OWL," Hermione argued.
Winona blinked in surprise. "How'd you know that?"
"Ginny told me."
"How'd Ginny know?"
"Fred told her."
Winona wasn't sure why Fred would be telling Ginny her OWLs results, but she rolled her eyes at his loose lips anyway. "Look, Harry, I'm not a great teacher," she said carefully. "I barely have the patience to teach myself anything, let alone someone else."
Harry stepped closer, eyes wide and begging. "Please, Winnie," he pleaded with her desperately. "Me learning how to properly cast a Summoning Charm is now literally life or death."
Despite her reservations, Winona knew she couldn't say no. He was right. This was life or death, and Harry would be getting hurt in this Tournament over her dead body. "All right," she agreed. "Sorry for being difficult," she added quickly. "I tend to rebel against responsibility."
"I've noticed," said Harry wryly.
"I'll race down to lunch, bring us back some food," offered Hermione, already heading for the door.
"We're starting now?" Winona blinked in surprise.
The look Harry sent her was utterly flat. "I only have until tomorrow afternoon to learn," he reminded her quickly. "Every minute counts."
And yeah, he was right. "Bring me two ham sandwiches and something sweet, please, 'Mione," Winona said to the other girl. "Oh, and could you let the twins know where I am? They'll think the worst if I don't turn up for lunch."
Hermione nodded obediently, slipping from the empty, disused classroom, making sure the door was shut securely after her.
Winona pulled out her wand, the wood warm and smooth against her skin, and turned to begin. Harry was already waiting, ready to learn, and Winona felt a knot of anxiety tighten in her gut.
"You sure I'm the best person to do this, Harry?" she asked tentatively.
Harry levelled her with a sincere look. "There's no one I'd trust more."
Winona smiled, his words warming her up inside. "All right then, Boy Wonder," she said evenly, shifting her weight from foot to foot in eager preparation. "Let's do this."
A/N: Thanks for your response on the last chapter, guys. Every review means the world to me, and hearing what you guys do and don't like about each chapter makes me better as a writer, so thank you. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
I don't really celebrate Valentines Day, but I wanted to wish you all a happy one nonetheless. Tell the people you care about that you love them, today and every other. Be kind to one another.
Review of the week goes to bridget237 – thanks for your review! It was important to me that this wasn't just a Fred/OC love story, but also a story about a real girl growing up in the wizarding world, and figuring out who she is and where she fits in. I'm glad you're enjoying her characterisation, and even her mistakes. It's all part of being human, and she's still so young. She still has a lot to learn.
