The time leading up to the third task was uneventful for most students, and as such time seemed to go a lot faster than it did throughout the rest of the year - except for maybe the fifth and seventh year students who had their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s to prepare for.

As Vicki was in sixth year she only had the usual run-of-the-mill end of year exams to study for.

"Don't be fooled, just because it's not N.E.W.T year doesn't mean you can slack off. You should be using this exam period wisely, to prepare yourselves for the gruelling ones to come next year!" Professor McGonagall would always preach in Transfiguration, with all of Vicki's other teachers giving very similar warnings.

As Vicki (for once) was able to keep away from drama after the Easter holidays, nothing eventful happened for a while. She managed to successfully juggle spending time with friends, school work, prefect duties and of course seeing Fred.

In no time at all the school year was almost at a close. There was now only six weeks to go until the students would board the train to take them home, and five weeks to go until the third task.

There was a definite excitement in the air as time trudged on towards the end of the Triwizard Tournament, with all three schools waiting with bated breath to see which school would take home the cup. However the third task was being overshadowed by the approach of the end of the year. Unlike the first two tasks which were sandwiched between nothing in the academic calendar (and thus students had nothing else to look forward to) the tournament would conclude a week before the official end of term. Vicki was thrilled for the conclusion of the tournament, but she was even more excited for the summer holidays, and being able to do proper activities with Fred.

"Hey, I've got some gossip." Stephanie Fawcett said to Vicki as she sat next to her at dinner one night.

The friendship was no longer strained after the train ride home from the Easter holidays where all the tension had dried up. But Vicki still kept her guard up a little, saving most of her in depth conversations purely for Fred or Cedric.

"Ooooh, yes?" Vicki asked, spinning around on the bench to give Stephanie her full attention.

"Ludo Bagman is apparently in the castle. This means that there's some Triwizard business going on tonight!" Stephanie gleefully stated.

"I-is he?" Vicki stuttered.

The Bagman plan that Vicki had been devising with Fred and George all year had officially been put on a hiatus. Bagman had gone radio silent ever since Fred and Vicki had declared their love at the second task. He hadn't sent her a perverted letter in months, or even a regular one vying for her attention.

In turn, Vicki hadn't reached out to Bagman either now she knew the game was up. Unknown to her, Fred and George had also had a conversation and came to an agreement they would try and keep Vicki out of it. The disagreement was between the twins and Bagman, and the sexual letters he had been sending her was sick.

"Yep! Apparently he was in the Entrance Hall just twenty minutes ago, complaining he was ravishing. I wonder what tournament business is happening tonight." Stephanie mused.

"I might go and find Cedric and find out. I'll give you all the goss when I do." Vicki said to Stephanie before jumping up from her bench seat and walking away.

She walked through the spacious hall but instead of going over to the Hufflepuff table, she made her way to the Gryffindor one instead. She didn't even care if Steph noticed, she'd make up some story later. She just knew she had to reach the twins as quickly as possible.

Sometimes both the twins and Vicki would play minor pranks on each other in the Great Hall at meal times if they ever needed to speak one another (Vicki was now getting closer to George as she had partially joined the Gryffindor sixth year friendship circle) by sneaking up behind one another at their respective house tables. But tonight Vicki wasn't going to bother. Tonight was now serious business.

"You two, Entrance Hall. Now." Vicki greeted the twins gruffly as she came behind them, put a hand on each of their arms and pulled them up off the bench seating.

The twins said nothing (Fred bit back making a sexual comment about Vicki's assertiveness as he knew it would be inappropriate) but shot each other quizzical looks as they followed her out into the now empty Entrance Hall.

"What's up, Vicki?" George asked as soon as they were alone. George was completely perplexed about why he was being dragged out with Fred for a private discussion, but Fred had an inkling what this could be about.

"Bagman is here! Right now!" Vicki hissed to the twins.

"Where?" George quickly responded as he looked around the empty hall.

"The kitchens, I believe. What do you say? This is probably the last shot we'll ever get at confronting him before the end of the tournament. All or nothing." Vicki proposed.

It only took Fred half a second to respond.

"Absolutely not. This is out of the question. George and I will get our money back another way. I don't want to expose you to that creep anymore." Fred immediately dismissed his girlfriend, and looked to his twin to provide backup.

George hesitated a little, but eventually agreed with Fred.

"Yeah, leave it to Fred and I. We'll go confront Bagman ourselves."

"What do you plan to do if you barge into the kitchen and there's teachers present? You're not even supposed to know how to get in. They might change the method if they know you know how to get in." Vicki teased Fred. She knew she should have been furious that he was attempting to tell her what to do, but she knew his worry only came from a place of love and not malice.

"Well what's your genius plan to get around that predicament then?" Fred snorted and then crossed his arms defensively.

"I'm a prefect. The kitchens may be out-of-bounds for students but it makes a lot more sense for me to be in there than you. I could easily spin a story to a teacher and it would be accepted. You kind of need me in this operation." Vicki sheepishly smiled.

Silence fell over the twins as they pondered over what Vicki was saying.

"She kind of has a point…" George trailed off.

Fred shot a filthy look towards his twin, and began darting his eyes between George and Vicki. He was expecting either one of them to waver under his gaze but they both stood strong. George was staring back at Fred with a blank look whilst Vicki had crossed her arms and was looking mightily unimpressed.

"Alright, fine. This is our last shot. I don't mean to tell you what to do Vicki, but I worry about your involvement. Bagman is creepy, plus who knows what he's capable of. Our future is already shot - but yours is still so bright." Fred said to Vicki as he slowly approached her and put his hands on her shoulder.

This caused her to drop both her crossed arms and her hard look on her face - she even shot Fred a small smile.

"Last attempt, I promise. Besides it's not just about you two anymore. He's bullying my father at work. He can't get away with this." Vicki stated.

The trio then made their way down to the kitchens. It was an easy trek from the Entrance Hall as they only had to go down one flight of stairs to end up at the painting of the pear near the Hufflepuff common room entrance.

Vicki was the one to tickle the pear to get in. It was decided she would go in first in case any teachers were present and she'd make up a story that she was in there after hearing reports of unauthorised access by students. If the coast were clear she'd wave in Fred and George who would stand behind the painting and keep themselves hidden, but ensure they could still see Vicki from their hiding place.

She stepped in cautiously and immediately looked around the kitchens. It looked how it did most times she went in there. House elves were rushing around carrying pots, pans and trays. Everything was in full swing. Aside from the numerous house elves running about there was one single lone human who was scoffing down a meal at one of the tables.

"Bagman!" Vicki called out. Her voice was flat - it held no animosity, but no warmth either.

"Hartwell." Bagman responded after looking up, no friendly tones in his voice.

In fact, Vicki noticed Bagman was considerably different tonight. Every time she had seen Bagman he was always smiling brightly. He always looked cheerful and had a charismatic spring in every step he took. But tonight he held no smile on his overgrown boyish face. He looked quite cold.

She went to signal to the twins that the coast was clear but she was surprised to see both of them appear on either side of her.

"Evening, Bagman." George called out to Bagman with a cheeky grin.

"I take it by now you'll have realised that the pretty Miss Vicki is actually with me?" Fred added on, copying the same cheeky grin his twin wore as he wrapped a protective arm around Vicki's waist.

"Yes, I gathered after the last task. Now tell me. What do you kids want?" Bagman asked Fred.

"See it's interesting you refer to us as kids-" Fred responded quickly.

"-Considering the very dirty things you've been putting in your letters to Vicki, I don't think you see her as a child at all." George added on.

The humans in the room all fell silent upon the twin's words. The kitchen was still rowdy with all the house elves scurrying around, but no one spoke up as the twins' words sank in.

"I see. Well I don't fancy sitting around listening to unfounded accusations so I'll be off. I do recommend that you all cease contact with me or I may have to seek ministry advice on how to get you all to stop harassing me." Bagman cooly stated as he jumped up from the seat he was sitting on and attempted to stride out of the kitchens.

"I think the only one who has any grounds for claiming harassment is Vicki. There's letters you've written to her when she was clearly underage saying very inappropriate things." Fred snarled at Bagman, which caused Bagman to stop in his tracks and turn around to face the trio again.

"Yes, well. If your pretty little girlfriend knows what's good for her, she'll keep her mouth shut about that. Underage or not, it's not a good look for her to be courting an older high ranking ministry official. Tongues will be wagging, and she'll be known for being a little tramp. She has a bright future ahead of her, but I'll ensure that's taken away should anyone catch wind of our correspondence." Bagman stated viciously.

Upon hearing Bagman's threat towards Vicki, Fred immediately did two things. Firstly, he forgot he was a wizard capable of conjuring powerful hexes. Pure human instinct ran through him. Secondly, with rage coursing through his veins, he clenched his fists and stepped forward in order to chase after Bagman and throw a punch his way.

Luckily both George and Vicki anticipated Fred's movements as they were both able to latch onto an arm each to stop him in his tracks. He struggled against them both in order to continue his attempts at hurting Bagman (and managed to cause Vicki to slide on the floor as he was much stronger than her) but once Bagman had left the kitchens he went limp.

Fred was still much too angry to speak, so it was George who spoke up first.

"What an absolute scumbag. I'm sorry he's now threatening you, Vicki." George said sadly, regret etched all over his face.

But instead of looking fearful of Bagman's threats, Vicki was amused. She even began to giggle madly.

"What?" The twins asked in unison, Fred's curiousity causing the last of the rage to leave his body.

"People don't make those kinds of threats unless they're scared. If he had a case against us for harassment, or wanted to tarnish my reputation with absolutely no repercussions he'd just go and do it. Bagman is running scared and is trying to, in turn, scare us into dropping it." Vicki grinned mischievously.


"Fred, this letter is brilliant! You've really captured the scenario really well. Your words are non emotional, you're just stating the facts. That he illegally gambled with two then-underage wizards, and that he sent very dirty letters to a then-underage witch, and that if he doesn't pay up what's owed, we'll blab it all over Britain." Vicki stated to Fred the next morning as he showed her the letter he wrote the previous night.

"George isn't too happy about it. He's worried we're going to get into trouble for blackmail." Fred said quietly to Vicki, afraid George would overhear him.

After the confrontation with Bagman the previous night, it was made clear that there was no way Bagman was going to pay back the winnings to Fred and George purely by being badgered. It was made clear that either they would need to up the ante, or give up. And the Weasley twins certainly weren't ones to give up.

Therefore overnight the two came up with a plan in that they would make good on their threat of exposing Bagman. Overnight the two wrote a letter outlining a plan of making Bagman's nasty deeds public should he not pay them what they owed. But in the morning George had gotten cold feet and was beginning to panic about the plan.

After Fred had grabbed Vicki after breakfast in order to get her opinion on the letter, George had nipped to the loo and was taking quite a while to come out. Fred made (quite literal) toilet-humour jokes to Vicki about George's time spent in the boy's toilets.

George eventually came out, and it was clear he had splashed his face with cold water as he still had water trickling down his neck.

"Alright, let's go." Fred said forcefully before George had the chance to greet Vicki, or protest.

The three walked in silence as they made their way through the castle, all the way up to the top of the West Tower where the Owlery was located. The silence was broken by George as they grew closer to the top of the tower.

"I really don't agree with sending this letter. That's blackmail, that is, we could get into a lot of trouble for that." George suddenly protested to Fred and Vicki.

"Yeah, and you won't be complaining if we get a nice fat payoff, will you?" Fred bit back.

Vicki remained silent as she trailed behind the twins, leaving the two to argue amongst themselves. The two twins kept shooting disagreements back and forth until all three of them burst into the top of the owlery.

The problem was that they weren't alone. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were already occupying the floor - and would have heard the twins' bickering about blackmail.

"What're you doing here?" Ron and Fred asked at exactly the same time.

"Sending a letter." Harry and George both responded instantly.

"What, at this time?" Both Hermione and Vicki asked suspiciously.

The two groups stood in silence eyeing each other off. Vicki knew that Harry, Ron and Hermione were obviously up to no good, but she didn't care. She couldn't uphold her prefect duties right now when she too was partaking in very questionable activities. She just wanted for her boyfriend to send the letter and run.

"Fine - we won't ask you what you're doing, if you don't ask us," Fred mentioned as he quickly shifted his hand so that Bagman's name was covered on the letter.

Everybody stayed silent as they eyed each other off like a deer caught in headlines. Surprisingly the only one brave enough to speak up was Ron, the twins' youngest brother.

"Who're you blackmailing?" He barked out questiongly.

Both Fred, George and Vicki all wiped the faux smiles off their faces. Fred stared down Ron menacingly whilst George and Vicki shot uneasy glances towards all three of them.

"Don't be stupid, I was only joking." Fred spoke up, trying to sound easygoing.

"Didn't sound like that." Ron shot back quickly.

Fred and Ron began shooting accusations and insults back and forth, with George eventually jumping in to compare Ron's meddling to something Percy would do. This eventually got Vicki to butt in as well.

"If we were up to any good, d'ya really think I'd be here as well? Helloooo, I'm still fighting with Mildred Tate to prove my worthiness as Head Girl. I can't get involved in anything as silly as blackmail." Vicki piped up.

As Vicki distracted the younger trio with this (false) logic, George used the opportunity to approach Vicki's owl, Fez, and tie the letter to the owl's leg. George then picked up the handsome brown owl and took him to the window. With one last hoot, Fez took off into the cold air.

"Well Ron if you don't want to be compared to Percy, stop telling people what to do then. See you later." George grinned after his plan of distracting Ron worked, and with just a feeble wave Vicki shot towards the younger trio, Vicki, Fred and George turned around and left the owlery.

"What do you reckon they were up to?" Vicki asked the twins as they all made their way back down the steps through the castle.

"No idea. Those three are always up to no good," Fred shrugged, but wrapped an arm around his girlfriend "But who are we to judge?"

Vicki and the twins made their descent through the castle, however as they reached the Entrance Hall to go to breakfast they were met with a very stern looking Professor McGonagall who beckoned them over.

The trio sent each other uneasy glances as they approached the deputy headmistress. There were always a number of reasons she would want to see either of the three - mainly good reasons in Vicki's case and not-so-good reasons in the twin's case. But it was too much of a coincidence that all three of them would be called over by McGonagall straight after sending a controversial letter by owl.

"Professor Dumbledore is requesting the three of you to his office." McGonagall stated in an authoritarian manner.