One moment, FitzSkimmons were sitting cuddled up on the common room couch.
The next, they were sitting cuddled up on the Weasley's couch in The Burrow. They quickly shuffled apart slightly before anyone could look their direction and see them getting too aquatinted with each other, looking around to see exactly when they had arrived.
Daisy also muttered in a whisper only the other two could hear, "It definitely wasn't my fault this time."
"No — I definitely think it's becoming unstable," muttered Simmons back. "You didn't do it last time, either."
But before any of them could say anything more, Percy Weasley, who was sitting at the kitchen table looking self-important, said, "It's been an absolute uproar. I've been putting out fires all week. People keep sending Howlers, and of course, if you don't open a Howler straight away, it explodes. Scorch marks all over my desk and my best quill reduced to cinders."
As Ginevra Weasley asked, "Why are they all sending Howlers?", Simmons muttered under her breath, "Quidditch fiasco," to make sure they were all caught up on where in the book they had landed. Fitz and Daisy nodded their understandings.
As the Weasleys continued talking, Fitz asked quietly, "What day are we, before the train?"
Simmons replayed everything Hermione had been through in her mind. "Night before — train leaves in morning."
"Then we should probably pack, right?" asked Daisy. "We know our characters didn't — except yours, maybe."
Simmons nodded.
"Mrs Weasley was supposed to get our supplies, right? The day of the World Cup?" said Fitz. "Harry never actually got them from her since he got back."
"Ronna neither," said Daisy. "We'll go ask her for them, and then go pack. And Jemma and I need to bring our stuff into Harry's room, and expand the cot for all of us."
"Won't that be risky? Two years ago we used sleeping powder..." said Fitz slowly.
"One night, we'll be awake before all the kids, we'll already be upstairs at bedtime, I think we can pull it off — I don't think Ginevra will squeal to her dear mum," answered Simmons.
FitzSkimmons walked over to where Mrs Weasley was busy having a yelling match with Percy over how Mr Weasley had handled his part of things in the clusterfuck that was the post-World Cup Death Eater get-together, waiting until she was finished. When she was, Daisy asked, "Do you have Harry and I's school supplies, and laundry?"
"Oh, yes, of course dears," replied Mrs Weasley, completely forgetting about her argument with Percy as she immediately went into mother hen mode. "I'll go get your supplies, your robes are in the scullery."
Scurrying away, she soon returned with several piles of parcels, which the three of them took off her hands before heading upstairs together along with the laundry Simmons had got out of the scullery. Once they had dumped it all on Harry's cot, Simmons and Daisy went over to Ginevra and Ronna's room to get their trunks, as Fitz began unwrapping all the shopping. When Daisy and Simmons returned, Simmons was also holding her booklist, reading over it to make sure she knew everything they needed.
"We have to have dress robes this year," she said. "I wonder what that's for."
"Can we black tie it?" asked Daisy. "Also what crap did Mrs W buy us for it? Or Fitz and I, since Hermione doubtlessly went and bought her own, along with all her books, the moment the booklist flew into her house. Probably didn't even take the time to untie the letter from the delivery owl, and just carried the owl with her through Diagon Alley in order to look at the list and see what she needed."
"Oh, har har," retorted Simmons, rolling her eyes.
"I assume these are supposed to be them," said Fitz, pointing at two open packages. "At least, last time I checked we weren't allowed to have anything other than black robes for school, and the ones I'm pretty sure are supposed to be mine are bottle green, and yours are dark maroon, like Ron's Christmas sweater every year. But otherwise they pretty much just look like normal robes. What do you have packed, Jemma?"
"These," answered Simmons, pulling robes made of a floaty, periwinkle-blue material out of her trunk. Looking at Daisy, she said, "But I'm all for real dresses. We never wear them back home, and you know half the people here have never seen cleavage before. We did it first year at the Closing Feast and Halloween second year, turned lots of heads and got yelled at by Professor McGonagall for it — good times."
"But when are you going to get them?" asked Fitz. "We spawned in rather late this year. Also, we all need real clothes too, since like always we just got copies of what we're already wearing."
"Does Diagon Alley close at night? Or specifically Gringotts?" asked Daisy. "Because we know the Knight Bus runs at night, and muggle shops are open late. If we can slip out, we could technically go tonight. Else I don't know, maybe first Hogsmeade weekend do the same thing from just outside Hogsmeade, spend the day in London instead of Hogsmeade, and hope whenever we need our dresses isn't until after that — doesn't help with clothes, though. We'd have to owl order those again, and I don't know if Mrs Weasley got Harry enough money for that."
"Tonight would be hard to do, but we could get out early enough tomorrow morning to spend the day in Diagon Alley and muggle London getting what we need, before arriving at the Hogsmeade Station in time to meet the train arriving," answered Simmons. "I remember exactly when the train arrives every year, and I'm sure we can pay the Knight Bus enough to get us there fifteen or thirty minutes early or so. Of course, the Weasleys will be all panicky and probably spend the entire day looking for us and have half the country scouring every magical street and known location of Harry and Hermione trying to find us, but the Weasleys always wake up late, so I'm pretty sure we can be out of Diagon Alley long before they could start looking for us. And they still need to make sure they get the twins and Ginevra onto the train, or else figure out some other way for them to get to Hogwarts, which will help us as well.
"But we're all so used to waking up at all kinds of ridiculous hours, that we can easily wake up at say 04:00, before even Mrs Weasley will be up to start cooking breakfast, and get out far enough towards the nearby town to call the Knight Bus. If Diagon Alley and Gringotts are already open, we can easily be in muggle London for breakfast, but even if Gringotts doesn't open until 08:00, 09:00, I'm pretty sure we'll still beat any search and rescue parties from the Weasleys and Dumbledore, and be out in muggle London where they'll never have a chance of finding us before we Knight Bus to Hogsmeade in the evening. We'll have shit to pay when we get there, but we do every year for at least one thing. Also, we need to get your two's books for the extra classes you'll be taking with me that Harry and Ron aren't. Though I think we should just do the show up to class and not bother telling anyone route this year, rather than trying to convince Professor McGonagall."
"What about Divination for you, and for us for that matter?" asked Fitz. "Because in the book we're taking it and you aren't, though we all agree it's useless, and we will be taking your extra classes of Arithmancy and Runes, so it's not like we'll need it for the hours."
"Well, Hermione isn't time traveling this year, which means we won't have the time-turner to help us, so if nothing else we'll have to see if it overlaps at all with anything we do care about," answered Simmons. "But even still, I'm definitely leaning towards 'no', as it's completely useless except in the rare occasions of true prophecies like Trelawney had at the end of last year, which aren't affected at all by schooling anyway. If any of us ever have a true prophecy, it won't matter a hill of beans whether we took the class or not."
Shopping and classes settled, they returned to packing and making a list of everything they would need to buy the following day, before expanding Harry's cot enough that they could all three cram onto it if they snuggled up together enough, Simmons throwing several locking charms on the door before they climbed into bed together to hopefully prevent Mrs Weasley from trying to check on Harry to make sure he was in bed when everyone else finally went to bed themselves. But before actually climbing into bed with her spouses, Simmons cast the counter charm on their trunks that the twins had taught them two years earlier for shrinking Harry's cot back down to normal size after enlarging it at night, which thankfully worked just as she had hoped, and shrunk their trunks down to a size small enough to be able to slip into their pockets in the morning.
~FSK~
Very early the next morning, after a thankfully undisturbed sleep, FitzSkimmons walked out of The Burrow and down the path to the nearby road.
Before they had left, Simmons had slipped a note under the door to Ginevra and Ronna's room that read, 'Harry, Ronna, and I are taking the Knight Bus to Hogwarts, as we have a few more things we need to buy for the school year. We are perfectly safe, and will be waiting at Hogsmeade Station for the arrival of the Hogwarts Express this evening. ~Hermione'.
They also set Pigwidgeon free to fly up to Hogwarts on his own (Hedwig was still off delivering Harry's letter to Sirius), while Simmons carried Crookshanks under her jacket with her to keep the kneazle from having to get wet in the rain that was falling out of the sky. Once they made it down to the road and Daisy stuck her wand hand up, a moment later the purple triple-decker bus came screeching to a halt in front of them, before the door opened to present Stan Shunpike.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this morning," he said, before spotting who it was asking for a ride. " 'Arry Potter! You're up early! And isn't this Hogwarts Express day?"
"We have some things we need to get done today that we can't while stuck on the train, so we're taking the Knight Bus instead," answered Fitz. "And right now we need a ride to Diagon Alley, but we'd also like to go ahead and schedule a trip from London to arrive at Hogsmeade Station fifteen minutes before the train arrives — can we do that?"
"Of course, of course," answered Shunpike excitedly.
"Also, once you drop us off outside the Leaky Cauldron, can you take Crookshanks straight up to Hogsmeade Station?" added Simmons, holding up the fluffy, grumpy kneazle. "We'll obviously pay you fare for him, and you can just drop him off there and he'll hang out around the station until we arrive this evening, but we'd rather not try to carry him through London with us."
Once again Shunpike readily agreed, and they climbed aboard the Knight Bus. As it was just after four in the morning and there were no other passengers aboard the bus at that very early hour, they arrived outside the Leaky Cauldron in just a few minutes, parting ways with Shunpike for the time being to head into Diagon Alley.
But before they stepped off the bus, Daisy asked, "Is anything in Diagon Alley actually open yet, or are we going to have to wait? And if we do, what time does everything start opening?"
"Gringotts is always open, as is the Leaky Cauldron if you want breakfast. Flourish and Blotts normally doesn't open until eight, but opens at seven on Hogwarts Express Day for anyone who forgot to get their books until the last minute, and if you knock on the door any time after about six-thirty, Mr Blott will probably hear you and let you in. Everything else is generally eight or nine, though many do open an hour earlier today."
Thanking Shunpike and bidding him goodbye, FitzSkimmons went through the Leaky Cauldron and hurried down Diagon Alley to the snowy white building towering over the rest of the street. They would have liked to stroll, taking their time since they had a couple hours before they'd be able to buy the books they needed from Flourish and Blotts, and because they knew the Weasleys were even more hours away from waking up and discovering that FitzSkimmons had dipped and were doing their own thing for the day, but the rain had started coming down harder by that point, so they had to hurry to keep from getting completely soaked.
~FSK~
Just in time to be rushed to try to make it to the train before it left at eleven, Ginevra Weasley awoke to the sound of everyone hurriedly getting ready to leave for Kings Cross.
After throwing on her clothes and stuffing a few last objects into her trunk, she headed out the door, nearly stepping over and completely missing the note that had been slipped under her door. But she saw it just in time, and picked it up to see what it was. A few seconds later, she ran screaming down the stairs to her mum. And a house that was already rather harried as Mr Weasley talked to Mr Diggory in the fireplace, moved up a notch to full-blown panic. Mr Weasley insisted he had to go help Mad-Eye out — though he couldn't remind his wife why since there were students present who could hear the news a few hours earlier than they would already — so it fell to Mr Diggory to inform Dumbledore that Harry Potter and the older Weasley daughter were missing and needed to be found instantly if not far sooner.
By this time, however, FitzSkimmons were already long out of Diagon Alley or any other magical location, and into the thick of muggle London, where no wizard could ever hope to find them.
Not that Dumbledore didn't try, of course. Like FitzSkimmons' second year, he eventually found out from the barman Tom at the Leaky Cauldron that the three of them had in fact come through, and even eaten breakfast there, but had headed out into muggle London barely after anything in Diagon Alley had started opening, and he had no clue where they were.
~FSK~
As it was, FitzSkimmons had gone by Gringotts first to get plenty of gold for anything they could need, along converting a lot more into pounds for when they went out to buy clothes. Then they returned to the Leaky Cauldron for breakfast and to waste time until Flourish and Blotts opened, for Fitz and Daisy to get the extra books they needed for Hermione's classes, and for Simmons to find a few mounds of books for a little light reading between their classes and homework. In addition to all their new books, they also stuck their trunks and bags of galleons in the magical, smaller on the outside bag the saleswitch gave them once the store had opened, before heading out into the wide world of London.
Out in their world, they scoured the shops for the best clothes money that wasn't theirs and would magically replenish the next year could buy them, picking up several different dresses for each of the girls, ranging from daring and slightly slutty, to formal and appropriately revealing, to more everyday and conservative — something for every possible occasion they might run across that year. They also got several different bounty hunter-esque outfits for Fitz to wear, since suits were right out because of Leopold, along with all the day to day clothes they would need for the whole year, subtly slipping all the purchased bags of clothing into the magical bag so they only had one bag to keep up with.
After a nice lunch, they walked over to The National Gallery to spend the afternoon, glad they weren't stuck on a train like everyone else going to Hogwarts was. But eventually they had to climb back on board the Knight Bus, and ride up to Hogsmeade train station.
~FSK~
Try as they might, Dumbledore's minions couldn't find Harry and Ronna Weasley anywhere.
Lookouts were posted at the entrances to every wizarding location across Britain, but the lost students never made an appearance at the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley, Kings Cross station, Hogsmeade, Godric's Hollow, the Ministry of Magic, St Mungo's hospital, or any other location lost wizards might go. A few of the braver wizards in Dumbledore's lot even tried venturing out into muggle London, but having absolutely no clue where to search, the quickly returned to the safety of familiarity. All the wizarding portraits that could be contacted had also been flitting back and forth between all their portraits all day inside wizarding buildings, but this was also to no avail — they really had disappeared completely off the face of the earth.
~FSK~
Arriving at the Hogsmeade train platform, FitzSkimmons hurried their way through the downpour to the one small overhang on the mostly open-air platform, where they found Crookshanks huddled against the back wall, staring at them grumpily.
"Sorry, babe," Simmons said softly. "I'd really hoped the rain would let up, and that there was a nicer place for you to stay up here than this. But it was still better than trying to drag you through London with us. Do you want to go hide in my bag now?"
She set the bag down on the bench next to her, and opened the top wide enough for the kneazle to slip into its cavernous interior, before sitting back to wait on the train to arrive.
Ten minutes later, they saw Hagrid trudging down the road to Hogwarts through the downpour towards them, along the long line of horseless carriages they knew would soon take them up to the castle, come to collect all the first years and shuttle them across the Black Lake.
"What 're yeh three doin' 'ere?" he asked in confusion when he saw them.
"Had some errands to run, so we took the Knight Bus up," answered Simmons. "You know, I'm actually surprised there wasn't someone here waiting for us, to see if we came here. I would have expected Dumbledore to have search parties across the country when Mrs Weasley told him we'd disappeared."
"Don' know — haven't seen Dumbledore all day," Hagrid replied gruffly.
"Sounds like there could have been search parties, and he's been busy with them all day," Daisy said to Simmons. "Doesn't explain why there wasn't anyone waiting here, though."
"Because the place we should be is the last place wizards would ever expect us to actually go," sighed Fitz. "Common sense, remember?"
"Oh, true," said Daisy. "Heaven forbid they trust kids to know what they're doing. Although, didn't you put in your note that this is where we'd be, Hermione?"
"It's quite possible Ginevra never even saw the note in their annual haste to leave the house on something that closely, but not quite, resembles time, and even if she did see it, that information successfully getting passed on both from her to Mrs Weasley, and then from Mrs Weasley to Dumbledore, is by no means guaranteed, or believed if it did make it that far," answered Simmons.
But before anyone else could say anything more, they heard the rattle of the Hogwarts Express approaching, right on time.
At the end of the Starting Feast, once all the food had been eaten, Dumbledore stood up to make his announcements.
After reminding everyone that Filch was a buzzkill, and the list of prohibited items was now longer than the list of allowed items, Dumbledore went on to say, "It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."
"Phew," sighed Fitz under his breath to his wives. "Don't have to worry about telling anyone I'm not playing this year. That's a relief."
Meanwhile, a few seats down from FitzSkimmons, Fred and George were mouthing soundlessly at Dumbledore, apparently too appalled to produce sound. The three of them knew how much quidditch meant to the pair, but Fitz was still a little surprised they weren't thinking about how much more time this would give them to get their joke shop business rolling that they were starting behind their mum's back. He quickly whispered as much to his wives.
"It probably hasn't even crossed their minds yet," answered Simmons. "Not that I think it will make much difference if it does, as quidditch is everyones' lives around here, even more than things like a joke shop that will be their lives in two years if they work hard at it."
But Dumbledore was still speaking. "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy — but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely."
"I bet this is what Percy spent the entire summer trying to get everyone to ask him about," muttered Daisy.
"I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts —"
But before Dumbledore could tell them all what the event was, the doors to the Great Hall banged open, and their new DADA teacher clunked in. Dumbledore quickly introduced Mad-Eye Moody, before returning to what he'd been announcing.
"As I was saying, we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the TriWizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."
Dumbledore quickly went on to explain what exactly the TriWizard Tournament was, along with the new rule change that denied anyone under the age of seventeen on that Halloween day the opportunity to enter themselves to be selected to compete. Once he had finished, he bid them all goodnight.
As FitzSkimmons waited for most of the crowds to rush out of the Great Hall, the twins scooted down the table to them.
"Hey, you lot," began Fred. "If we can find a way 'round Dumbledore, fancy entering with us?"
"Hell no!" scoffed Daisy. "I'm rather fond of this 'living' thing I currently have going on. Dying once was enough for me. And we generally try to stay away from the spotlight, not run into the middle of it."
"Yeah, I'm definitely going with Ronna on this one," said Fitz. "The last thing I want is the entire castle thinking I cheated my way into this tournament for a bit more fame. I'm hated here on a yearly basis already for things that aren't my fault — I have no interest in giving them something to hate me about that actually is my fault."
"We do wish you all the best luck in trying to enter, though," finished Simmons sincerely. "We hope you make it in, and we'll definitely be cheering for you if you do."
The twins stared at them in surprise, before finally shrugging, "Your loss," and standing up and hurrying away towards Gryffindor Tower, presumably to begin plotting their plan for getting around the new age rule. FitzSkimmons stood up as well, before following at a slower pace behind what little remained of the crowd heading to their different dorms.
Once they were in the secret passage that would take them to a few other secret passages and hidden staircases that would eventually dump them out near their married dorm, Simmons said, "You know, when you think about it, the whole age rule doesn't actually make any sense. Dumbledore said that the most worthy student is picked for each school — out of those who enter, of course. Well, if it's unlikely that any student under seventeen will be able to handle the tasks, then logically, the judge won't pick them anyway. On the flip side, if there's someone under seventeen who can cope with the tasks, and is better than everyone who entered who's over seventeen, then who bloody cares that they're under seventeen — they're still the most worthy student by the definition of the word 'most worthy'. The age rule is just virtue signaling by the Ministry, and whoever's arses are on the line for this tournament to go off without a hitch, not actually to make the tournament any safer. Either that, or the 'impartial judge' sucks at his job, which in this world is also a very real possibility, and they just don't want to admit that."
"Sounds to me more like covering their asses for liability sake," replied Daisy. "Because this is the magical world, you'd think they really could create a spell or potion or something that could objectively determine who is the most qualified for competing in the tournament. In which case, everything you just said about underage students either being qualified enough or not getting picked would most certainly apply."
"The only thing I can think of, that's a one in a billion in a billion chance, is if an underage student could convince, or more likely bribe, every other wizard in their school not to enter, leaving them the only option for the judge to pick, despite not being the most qualified in the school," offered Fitz. "Or I guess I should say bribing everyone better than themselves, so they're picked by default, which could still allow less qualified students to enter their names, and no one who entered be qualified. It's something I could see Malfoy trying to do if he was smart enough to think of it. The way I see it, there will be less than eighty Hogwarts students eligible to enter, not all of whom will even want to, which if you promise all of them who do go to enter two thousand galleons not to, payed when their name isn't picked on Halloween, that would be less than a hundred fifty-thousand galleons, probably less than a hundred thousand, and possibly even way less than that. Because most people would be very tempted by twice as much money as the prize that's straight up guaranteed — and that doesn't even include any blackmail you know the Malfoys are capable of, proven back in second year book when Malfoy dad kicked Dumbledore out of Hogwarts. Yes, it's a long shot to ever happen, and has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with bribery and unfair play, but it is a theoretical possibility."
Pushing open the door to their married dorms they had arrived at, Simmons replied, "Yes, it is technically possible, but I really don't think a single wizard would ever think of that plan, and would be even less likely to have the money needed if they did think of it — Malfoy wealth, Potter wealth, isn't the norm, as Malfoy loves to brag to everyone. But I guess what I'd say is, I'm pretty sure that possibility never even crossed the minds of the people in the departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports who set up the rule change."
"Of course, of course," said Fitz. "I wasn't trying to say they might have actually done it for that reason, just that that is a scenario where the person selected, under seventeen or not — an of age student could pull the same stunt — wouldn't be qualified to complete the tasks of the tournament."
"You're definitely not wrong, Fitzy," said Daisy. "That is the one possibility where the rule change could actually be of any real use, if it was an underage pulling said stunt. But I also agree with Jemma — and you, I know you agree with this as well — that they did not write the rule for that possibility, and that it does far more harm than good, by denying students who could possibly be better than anyone allowed to enter. It possibly lessens the quality of the tournament since the best students aren't actually competing, and could change which school wins the tournament. While not doing anything to protect students like they're bullshitting. It's a disgrace, and sacrilege to the point of the tournament, really."