November was upon them quicker than Emma had wanted and after the announcement at the Halloween Feast the night before, Emma had even more worries to contend with. First and foremost was now the topic of the Ball. However, she made her friends promise that they wouldn't mention it until after the First Task, even if they were asked by someone. There would be time afterwards, she couldn't lose focus now.
Their evenings were still spent in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom where Emma spent her time constantly going over the opposite potions and preparing them as best as she could. She was getting more successful each time she tried which was exciting, but she didn't want to get too complacent as her nerves would heighten during the actual task. She needed to practise some more under pressure.
However, on the Wednesday evening, a week before the First Task, she found that, somehow, she had managed to slip behind with her homework due to spending all of the time preparing the potions. Victoire and Ruby were fine as they had started completing their work while Emma worked on the potions as she was getting better. Unfortunately, Emma couldn't do homework and brew at the same time.
That was why she was found in the library after dinner, with three books open and two sheets of parchment, looking up start charts for the Astronomy lesson that she had that evening. She was just grateful that she had already been pretty far ahead with her classes that the assignment wasn't too tricky.
"Hey stranger," said a familiar voice from beside her.
Looking up, Emma saw that she had been joined by her cousin who also had a pile of books in her arms. Emma noticed the copy of Advanced Potion Making amongst them.
"Hey," Emma replied. She put down her quill and put the lid on her ink pot just in case she caught it and spilt it everywhere. Unfortunately for her, the spilling of ink was a relatively common occurrence, so she had more than learnt her lesson. "How are you?"
Elsa placed the books on the table and sighed before she sat down beside her cousin. "Stressed. There are only nine days to the First Task and I'm going through all the opposite positions I can think of and still have no idea what we'll be asked to do."
Emma raised her eyebrow, so her cousin knew that too. "How did you find out about the opposites?"
"Professor French-Gold told me," Elsa said with a frown. "Were you not told by Professor Longbottom? I had assumed that would be the case." She gasped loudly and several onlookers turned to listen in. "Have you only just found out? That's not fair."
"No!" Emma said quickly but quietly to bring the noise level down and stop people from trying to listen in to their conversation. "Actually, I was told twice. Once by Moaning Myrtle of all people. I've been practising for the Task in her bathroom."
Elsa chuckled. "You could have just asked Professor Longbottom to use a classroom. That's what I've been doing. I've been using one of the old Charms classrooms."
"I never thought of that," Emma muttered quietly. "I can't believe it's to do with Potions though. It's my worst subject."
"You can't go into it thinking like that; a defeatist mindset never helped anyone," Elsa chastised, reminding Emma of Victoire, no wonder the two got along. "Think of it like Quidditch instead."
Emma raised her eyebrow at her cousin, thinking she'd lost the plot with the amount of work she had under her belt. "Potions is not like Quidditch."
"No," Elsa agreed with a chuckle, "but you're good at Quidditch. You never enter a match thinking that you're going to fail, do you? Especially now that you're the Captain. You go in with confidence, but you also have to think of what could happen if something goes wrong. That's what you need to do with this. Prep as much as you can, but also have a backup plan."
"That's a good idea actually," Emma said.
She quickly pulled her second piece of parchment towards her, one that she had just been making notes on before writing her essay and took the lid off of her ink. After dipping her quill in the liquid, she wrote down what Elsa had suggested.
After she dotted the full stop, she looked back up at her cousin. "Can I tell you a secret?"
Concern shone on Elsa's face before she nodded. "Always."
"I'm terrified about all of this," Emma murmured quietly. "Everyone keeps telling me that I'm going to be fine, but what if I flop? I'm going to go down in history as the girl who–"
"Was chosen as the youngest Interhouse Champion and who did brilliantly in spite of that handicap," Elsa interrupted with a kind smile. "You're so much better than you think you are, Em, you need to stop being so hard on yourself. If it helps, my mum is going to be on hand as an additional Healer in case there are any accidents and I'm there every step of the way. I know we're competitors and they said don't get too personal, but you're my cousin and family comes first. If you're in danger, I'll help you."
Finally, Emma smiled. "I know and you know I'd do the same."
Elsa nodded. "Exactly, so don't panic." She sighed and went to pick up her books. "You said two people told you about the opposites aspect. Who was the other?"
"Oh," Emma murmured, having momentarily forgotten that she'd revealed that. "It was bloody Mills of all people. She just came up to me out of nowhere after the Quidditch match and told me. To make us even apparently."
"Well that makes no sense," Elsa said, just as confused as Emma had been when Regina had told her. "She must get something out of it. Odd. I'd keep an eye on her."
"Always do," Emma muttered lowly before she sighed. She looked at her Astronomy book and Elsa got the hint.
"I'll leave you to your homework," Elsa said as she stood up and picked up her stack of books. "I'll see you later and if I don't get a chance to speak to you before the Task, good luck."
"Thanks, Els," Emma replied. "You too. Bye."
Elsa then made her leave and Emma returned to her Astronomy homework, but she was even more distracted than she had been when she first started. However, she shook her head to clear all thoughts of what Elsa had said and reopened her ink pot once more to continue with her work. For now, the Tournament wasn't the most important thing on her plate.
oOoOo
Once Elsa had left, Emma was able to finish her Astronomy essay quickly and even managed to complete her essay for Arithmancy and the worksheet for Care of Magical Creatures, meaning that she was on top of her assignments once more. That was until Professor Tinker assigned them an extra-long essay in Defence Against the Dark Arts.
The entire lesson had been quite tense from the moment Emma and her friends walked into the classroom. Not wanting to throw all the revision in at the end of the year, Professor Tinker had decided that she would cover previous topics every so often. Therefore, today's topic had been Third Year topic on Animagi and Werewolves.
From the moment she saw the topic on the chalkboard, Ruby had been in some sort of distress. It was then heightened when they received their assignment which was to continue on that topic. They had to compare and contrast the signs of how to spot the difference between an Animagus and the typical werewolf.
As soon as the lesson was over, Ruby let out her inner frustrations.
"Stupid bitch!" She snapped. "Who does she think she is? And on the day of the fucking full moon too?" Ruby started squeezing her fists as she did when she was agitated. "It's not fair, I don't want to relive it! I have to face it every month as it is! We've already covered this subject, and we all received full marks, so there is literally no point in going over this."
When Emma reached out to soothe her friend, Ruby flinched away before she backed off. When Emma looked like she was going to say something Ruby turned on her heel without saying a word, shooting off in the opposite direction to the Great Hall.
Emma and Victoire turned, both anxious, as Ruby had never reacted like that whenever werewolves had been mentioned. She had been excused from the lessons in Third Year, but then again, they had had a different teacher then and Professor Tofty had known Ruby's grandmother and respected the situation and not forced her to attend. Professor Tinker was probably none the wiser of the situation.
"Should we go after her?" Victoire asked.
"No," Emma replied as she pushed the door open to the Great Hall. "She needs to be left alone. We'll only agitate her further."
Victoire looked like she wanted to disagree before she nodded. "Poor thing."
Ruby was still nowhere to be seen as they reached their Herbology lesson after lunch. Professor Longbottom got on with the lesson promptly on time, he never questioned why someone was missing in front of the entire class in case it was for personal reasons. He would just approach the missing student's friends during the lesson and speak with them privately.
Therefore, halfway through the lesson, the Professor made his way over to where Emma and Victoire were working on repotting the Screechsnap.
"Is Miss Lucas alright?" Professor Longbottom asked quickly, making sure the boys working on the tray beside them weren't listening in to the conversation.
"Ruby was affected by the Defence Against the Dark Arts assignment," Emma revealed quietly. "It's on Animagi and Werewolves and it's the full moon so she's quite…" she trailed off, unsure as to how to finish her sentence.
Fortunately, Professor Longbottom understood where Emma was going as he nodded. "I see, it can't be easy for her. I shall have a word with Professor McGonagall to see if there is a trinket she can have that will make the Full Moon easier."
"We'll make sure she's caught up on the lesson," Victoire assured the teacher. "I've never seen her so riled up. She just needs to calm down."
"I completely understand," Professor Longbottom said kindly. "She's not in any trouble for missing class. Her wellbeing is much more important. Pass on my regards."
"We will, Professor," Emma assured him as he walked away, checking in on other groups to make sure they were adding the right amount of dragon dung to the pots so that they weren't too crowded.
"I hope Ruby is in Transfiguration," Emma murmured once they were concentrating on their plant once more. "She never misses a class with French-Gold. I just wish there was something we could do to help. Maybe if we spoke to Professor Tinker?"
However, Victoire had clearly not been listening. Her eyes then flashed as an idea came to her. "My dad's affected too, my mum gave him a silver bracelet that stopped the affects as much." She bit her lip. "But they're really rare. I can ask my mum where she got it, if that helps?"
"I can't see why it wouldn't help," Emma reasoned. "But let's discuss this later and with Ruby involved. I don't think she'd appreciate it if she thought we were talking about her behind her back."
Victoire nodded and dropped the subject, turning her attention to their pot and dumping the seeds of the plant in too forcefully so that they started screaming and flying around causing more work, rounding them all back up again. However, that just made the class go quicker until it was time to head to Transfiguration.
The girls packed up quickly and made their way to their next class, hoping to find Ruby before they entered the classroom, but she wasn't to be seen outside. Her whereabouts were revealed when they popped their head around the classroom door and saw her sitting at her desk with Professor French-Gold perching on her desk in front of her. She was looking sympathetic while Ruby spoke.
Both girls outside were curious as to what was going on, but they didn't want to interrupt. Instead, the stayed outside until the rest of the Gryffindors made their way from the Greenhouses, making too much noise for Professor French-Gold to ignore as she called everyone into the classroom.
As they entered, the professor was no longer sitting in front of Ruby and had moved to the front of the classroom, awaiting the rest of the students to pile into the classroom.
Emma made her way over to where Ruby was sitting and sat beside her. When Ruby didn't look up, Emma didn't want to push her, so she simply said, "hi," as she pulled her book and wand out of her bag.
Professor French-Gold then started the lesson. They were still working on the Vanishing spell, but they'd since moved from the snail and had moved onto the mouse. Whilst still small, it was a vertebrate, so it proved more of a challenge, even Emma had not yet successfully Vanished the mouse, she kept leaving behind the tail, an ear, or more frustratingly, a single, lone whisker.
However, halfway through the lesson, she held her wand aloft above the mouse in front of her and waved her wand directly, calling, "evanesco," and the mouse let out a high-pitched squeak before completely disappearing.
"Well done, Miss Swan," Professor Gold-French congratulated. "Take ten points for Gryffindor."
Emma beamed brightly at her triumph.
"You can spend the rest of the lesson doing what you like," the professor said with a knowing smile. "I know you have a more pressing matter at hand."
"Thanks," Emma murmured before she pulled out her copy of the Advanced Potion Making, but making sure that no one could see what she was reading in case they figured out the topic the First Task was on and started reading the Wiggenweld potion to herself, trying to memorise the steps as best as she could.
By the end of the lessons, she had firmly remembered the first step, but that wasn't saying much. She packed up her belongings and waited for Ruby and Victoire to join her as they made their way up to the Common Room before dinner. They didn't speak as they walked, not wanting to accidentally upset Ruby any more than she already was.
They were halfway up when Ruby finally broke the silence.
"I'm sorry," she muttered. "You know how I get at the best of times and today just seems to be worse."
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Emma assured her as they started towards the Gryffindor Common Room. This time when she reached out to squeeze Ruby's arm, the brunette didn't flinch and accepted the move. "You have every right to be annoyed. Actually, Professor Longbottom said he might speak to Professor McGonagall about finding something to help."
"That's what Professor French-Gold suggested too," Ruby murmured. "I got to class early and she saw I was upset. I guess all the teachers know as she asked me if it was because of the full moon. Did you know she went to school with my mum? I never knew so she was telling me about her school days. Although my mum was Gryffindor and Professor French-Gold was obviously Ravenclaw, but they were in the same year. It was nice."
Emma smiled. "That's great. I hope Professor McGonagall does help but Vicki's also had an idea."
Ruby's eyebrows rose with curiosity. "Oh yeah?"
Victoire smiled. "Yeah. My mum gave my dad a silver bracelet that helps him cope. I thought maybe we could find you one."
"I wouldn't be opposed," Ruby murmured slowly. "I'm not sure how it would help though? Your dad was scarred when the Greyback hadn't transformed, I have half of his blood in my body with the curse."
"It should work in the same way," Victoire said. "It blocks the moon's effect on your body, so I assume the reaction in your blood. I'll have to look into it. I honestly don't know why I didn't think of it sooner."
"It's okay," Ruby said with a small smile. "It's better than nothing."
They reached the Common Room and Victoire spoke the password before they entered. With how quickly they made their way up, they managed to grab the sofa in front of the fire, everyone's favourite spot, before pulling out their work to see what needed to be completed.
"Maybe we should leave the Defence Against the Dark Arts assignment until later," Victoire murmured as she placed that at the back.
"Thanks," Ruby replied as she checked the list. "I think we just have the Potions essay to do, that's due in tomorrow."
"I finished mine yesterday," Emma said as she pulled out her completed essay. "I was on a roll when I was in the library after talking to Elsa."
"Get you," Victoire teased before getting serious. "In that case, you can pass me your potion book and write down the recipes to the Draught of Living Death and the Elixir to Induce Euphoria."
Emma's eyes bulged at the instruction, but she didn't decline as she needed to know. With a sigh, she dipped her quill in her ink and began writing.
oOoOo
Emma was thankful when the weekend arrived. She still had plenty of homework to do, but that could wait until Sunday when she had the motivation to do it. Instead, she was spending the entire day with Ruby as Victoire was with her sister and cousins for their 'Weasley Weekend' where it was just them for the weekend. It had been introduced to help Lucy adjust to school life. While Emma and Ruby were more than welcome to join, they had decided to skip this one as it was the anniversary of Molly and Lucy's mother's death. It should be family only.
Instead, Ruby and Emma decided to start the morning doing some Quidditch practice, just the two of them. It was basically just the two of them flying up high and pulling stunts as well as throwing the Quaffle at impossible angles, so they had to dive to catch them. It was exhausting but they thoroughly enjoyed it. Emma hadn't laughed that much since term had started. The only thing to make it better was if Vicki and Minnie been there.
After lunch, they headed towards to Black Lake to walk around for a while. They liked to go for a swim in the summer, but the Scottish November wind was far too cold to be swimming now.
"Do you think they'll have a task in here again, like there was in the Triwizard Tournament?" Ruby asked as they started walking around.
"I've no idea," Emma replied. "I'd be fine with that; I can swim pretty well, what with growing on the coast. I don't know how I feel about the mermaids though."
Ruby chuckled. "Yeah, they're pretty freaky. I just hope that if they did do that, they wouldn't steal the Champions friends again. I don't fancy being knocked out and thrown metres under the water."
"Well you have nothing to worry about, I'm sure they'd take Vicki instead," Emma teased, nudging her friend slightly.
"So rude," Ruby scoffed.
Emma laughed. "You know I have no preference between you. They'd struggle picking someone if they did do that, so we could probably count that out." She then smirked. "Although, if they did and Robin was taken for Regina, it would be quite satisfying to curse him while no one is looking and blame it on the mermaids."
"Brilliant," Ruby agreed. "I'd happily look up curses to help."
"You and Vicki have already done enough helping me this year," Emma sighed. "I wouldn't be anywhere near ready without you."
"That's what friends are for," Ruby replied. "We're always going to be there for you, Em. Always."
"I know," Emma said. "I just want you to know I appreciate it. So, who do you think is going to win next week between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?"
The two continued walking around the lake but discussing the pros and cons of the different Quidditch teams and working out which team winning would be advantageous to them. By the time they reached the Great Hall for dinner, the Weasleys were just entering so they joined them to eat. They spent the rest of the evening in the Common Room playing different games before heading to bed for the evening.
When Emma awoke the next morning, she knew she couldn't put off the pile of homework that had built up again despite catching up a few days ago. The professors were really bombarding them with the amount of work they kept giving them. Even Professor Tinker, who didn't believe in assigning too much homework, had upped the ante with her Animagi and Werewolf essay.
Therefore, it was with a heavy heart that when she woke, Emma headed straight to the library as the sooner she was done with her homework, the sooner she could work on some more preparation for the First Task as it was only five days away now. She was almost there with memorising the potions, but she still wasn't perfect.
As she entered the library, heading to the back table where she preferred to work without being disturbed, she saw that there were barely any other students there. There were a fair few Ravenclaws but that was always expected in the library no matter the time of day, they were too studious for their own good. However, Emma realised that Elsa wasn't there, but she probably had Head Girl duties to attend to on a weekend.
Fortunately, her favourite table was free and she sat down, pulling out her books, quill, ink and parchment.
After an hour, she was most of the way through her essay, pointing out all the key differences and the few similarities. She also chose to add a paragraph on those affected by the werewolf curse who didn't transform at every full moon. Oddly enough, as she finished that paragraph, Teddy Lupin himself walked in. He spotted the blonde in the back corner and made his way over.
"Mind if I join you?" He asked.
Emma shook her head. "No, not at all." She shifted some of her work over so that he had more space. "Actually, I'm glad that you turned up. Our essay is on the signs of Animagi and Werewolves and I'm confused on a fact." She moved her essay over to him and pointed to the last paragraph she had written. "Am I right?"
Teddy checked over her work and nodded. "Mostly. I'd just change the part about the needing meaty food, that's not everyone. I know Bill is like that from the scars, but don't give me rare steak or I'll vomit."
Chuckling, Emma altered what she'd written. "Thanks. How are you anyway? I've not seen you since the match."
"I'm good actually," he said with a smile, clearly not taking the defeat too badly. "I'll forgive the win; the new Chaser tactic was pretty good even if it meant they got past me. I genuinely thought your newbie would want to score everything she could to prove herself so the first one threw me for a loop."
Emma grinned and winked. "That was the plan. Good luck against Ravenclaw next week though!"
"Thanks," Teddy said. "Philip Yao hasn't put the greatest team together so we should have a chance. How are you feeling about the First Task?"
"I wondered how long it would be before you asked about that," Emma said with a sigh.
"You don't have to answer if you don't want," Teddy added hastily. "I mean Mary Margaret won't stop going on about it. It's driving me up the wall."
Emma raised her eyebrow. "Yeah, what is going on there?" Mary Margaret was way too high strung for someone like Teddy, not to mention that she was petty and a bit of a whiner.
Teddy sighed. "She's nice, but so dramatic. I liked her enough and I know she's always liked me. When she was selected as the Hufflepuff Champion, I thought there must be more to her than I was seeing so I asked her out. Big mistake. She's acting like we're going to get married. I've tried ending it, but she won't let me! She's also told everyone I'm taking her to the Ball when I've not even asked her."
"Ask someone else then," Emma suggested, "so she gets the hint."
"That's not a bad idea actually," Teddy said, nodding. He then glanced around before lowering his voice. "Do you think Victoire would want to go with me?"
"It would make her the happiest ever," Emma replied honestly. "She'd love it, Ted."
Teddy grinned. "Great. I'll ask her when I get a chance." He paused for a moment before he continued. "I think August wants to ask you."
Emma's jaw dropped. "What? No! We're just friends."
"He mentioned he wanted to ask a Champion in Charms last week but hadn't got around to it yet," Teddy continued with a shrug. "I mean, he wouldn't go after MM if he thinks we're together and he'd never go near Mills. Lockhead would kill him if he tried. So that leaves you or Elsa, but he didn't say anything about the Head Girl and mentioned you have Quidditch in common so that leaves you."
"Oh." It was the only response she could think of, despite not being the most articulate.
There was then the sound of laughing heard, a rich velvety chuckle that she'd heard very rarely which was definitely never aimed at her. Looking up, Emma saw the owner of the laugh, Regina Mills, along with her gaggle of Slytherin girls, Eloise Gothel and two of the three Tremaines. It looked like Ivy had yet to wake up.
As if feeling eyes on her, Regina glanced at where Emma and Teddy were sitting close and something flashed over her eyes, but Emma couldn't read what it was. Instead, she looked back to Teddy.
"I don't know who I'm going to go with," she said eventually. "Not August, even though he's sweet. I just don't want him to get the wrong idea. I don't want to date until all the Tasks are over, I have too much on my plate to add dating on top of it." She shrugged. "Unless I meet the right person, I suppose."
Unconsciously, she looked up again and looked directly at Regina who was no longer looking in Emma's direction. She looked back at Teddy, missing the way Regina glanced back in her direction now that the blonde wasn't looking.
However, Teddy didn't miss any of it and saw the missed glances. He had always been able to read people's emotions, something his grandmother said he'd inherited from his father who could always put everyone at ease that he met.
"Oh shit," he gasped as it hit him.
Emma's eyes flashed wide. "What?"
"Em, do you like Mi–"
"Teddy, shut up!" Emma snapped quickly. "No!"
"Em?" This time, his voice was gentle, not full of curiosity but genuine concern. "You know it's okay."
Emma shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it." Her eyes started to fill with tears as she panicked. Swallowing nervously, she blinked and a single tear escaped. "I can't talk about it."
Teddy, realising his error, put his hands up. "I won't say any more then but if you need anyone to talk to, you know I'm here for you. Right?"
"I know," Emma said before she pulled Teddy in for a hug, grateful for a great friend.
"You know, it could be reciprocated, she doesn't look very happy that we hugged," Teddy murmured, winking, using his mother's charm he'd inherited to smooth the situation. He knew it was the right thing to say when Emma rolled her eyes and laughed quietly.
"You're a pain, Edward Lupin," she replied. "For that, you can help me finish my essay."
Teddy laughed too but conceded, reading over Emma's essay to help her conclude it. Unable to help it, Emma looked up and saw that Regina really didn't look happy at all at Emma and her company but the blonde was pulled out of it when Teddy started giving her suggestions on how to better her essay. The strange case of Regina Mills would have to wait for another day to be solved.