Hey guys! It's time for Chapter 37 - and I want to let you know that there's a pretty major reference to a part of the movie Enchanted. So if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watch it - especially because it's a good movie and you should watch it regardless. So enjoy!

(Disclaimer: See Chapter 35.)

Chapter 37:

That Famous Happy Ending

"Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.
'What're you two doing here?' Ron asked.
'Looking for you,' said George. 'McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Hermione.'
'Why?' said Hermione, looking surprised.
'Dunno...she was looking a bit grim, though,' said Fred.
'We're supposed to take you down to her office,' said George."

"You said they never mention who George gets as his partner?" Fred said a few days later, flopping down on his bed next to Molly.

"Nope," she said. "You go with Angelina, and then George goes, but we don't know who it's with."

"So...you think we get George and Angelina together, and then we go together?" Fred said.

"Wait, what?" Molly said. "You think I'm going to that thing? It promotes nothing more than wizard supremacy by making it seem like wizards have to get with other wizards and make wizard babies. You do that long enough - just look at the Hapsburgs."

"But don't you have to?" Fred asked.

Molly's face fell. "Oh, right," she said. "This whole 'being the champion' thing is ruining everything. And because of that stupid Cursed Child nonsense, the Yule Ball has to go as planned, or else there will be children who no longer exist."

"Well, maybe you can stage something," Fred said. "You're an entertainer - put on a show for us."

Molly suddenly drew her wand -

"And don't do the Lumos thing again, we get it, you have an idea," Fred said.

"You know me too well," Molly said. "I gotta talk to McGonagall."

"Professor McGonagall?" Molly said, walking into her Head of House's office.

"What is it?" McGonagall said, looking up from her desk.

"It's about the Yule Ball - I don't want to participate in the traditional way," Molly said. "Now I know it's a tradition, but I can't stand for an organized attempt at wizard supremacy - not while my mother's name is being sullied as a 'struggling songwriter' with whom I'm attempting to reconnect."

"Don't let Rita Skeeter bother you," McGonagall said. "She's the emblem of yellow journalism."

"I know, but other people don't think that," Molly said. "And there's just - other stuff that I don't really want to talk about right now - the point is, I can't do the champion dance. So I have a proposition - I run the music while the other champions dance."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "We've already booked the Weird Sisters."

"But I could open for them," Molly said. "Just a song would suffice - plus, most people don't dance during these things anyway."

McGonagall took a second to think. "Okay," she finally said. "But one song only - and you must clear the lyrics with me."

Molly smiled as she headed out the door. "Of course - thank you so much, Professor - YOU WON'T REGRET THIS!"

McGonagall looked on as Molly ran into the hallway. She nodded and smiled, going back to her work.

"I think it's A life goes by, romantic dreams must die, so I bid mine goodbye and never knew…" Stella said as she and Molly sat in the Gryffindor common room with a scroll of parchment and a quill pen.

"Then...So close was waiting...waiting here with you and now, forever, I know…"

"And then the awesome twirl," Stella said, and the two laughed. This was going to be fun, Molly thought.

Suddenly, Ron burst into the room, Ginny following him.

"I can't believe it," he muttered. "I just can't believe that I bloody did that."

"It's fine, Ron," Ginny said, obviously trying to calm him down.

"What happened?" Molly asked, even though she knew.

"I just tried to ask Fleur Delacour out to the Yule Ball!" Ron burst. "Fleur bloody Delacour!"

"What?" Stella said, though Molly could hear a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Yeah - you heard me right," Ron said, his face the same color as his hair.

Ron sat down on the couch, Ginny sitting next to him. Almost immediately, the door opened again to Harry, looking distraught and then seeing Ron.

"What's up, Ron?" he said, walking over.

"I can't believe it - why did I do it -"

"What?"

"He asked Fleur to the dance," Stella said.

Harry's eyes widened. "You what?"

Ron shook his head. "I was right next to her, she was talking to Diggory, and this wave just came over me, and I went up and talked to her - she looked at me like I was a sea slug, and I just came to my senses and booked it."

Stella stifled a laugh.

"She was probably putting her veela charm on Diggory," Harry explained. "But he's already going out with Cho."

He sighed. "Do you think I should even go out with anyone?"

Molly was panicking. "What about Parvati?" she blurted out. "You could go with her - and maybe Ron could go with Padma."

Ron smiled. "Maybe," he said. "Hey, did you hear who Neville asked? Hermione!"

"Really?" Harry said.

"She said that she was already going out with someone, but she was probably just trying to get away from Neville - I mean, who would want to go with -"

"Ahem," Stella said. "I'm still here. Neville and I are friends."

"Oh," Ron said, blushing. "Right - but the point is -"

Suddenly, Hermione entered. Molly sighed.

"Stella? How about we take our work upstairs?" she asked.

"Good idea - I don't think I could concentrate with all this noise," Stella said, almost automatically.

As quickly as they could, they hurried upstairs to Fred's room, Molly humming So Close to herself as she closed the door, the sounds of Hermione, Harry, and Ron arguing just barely audible behind her.

They arrived in the room, and Fred was in there alone, holding a bundle of folded paper. To Molly's surprise, his face was serious.

"Have you seen the Daily Prophet?" he said.

"Uh...no," Molly said. "Why?"

"Well, um...you might want to sit down for this," Fred said.

Molly placed herself on Fred's bed, and Stella sat next to her. Fred handed them the paper - a newspaper issue. Molly looked at the article above the fold and her eyes widened:

TIME-TRAVEL IN THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT

There is a scandal plaguing the Hogwarts Triwizard Tournament, and it's not the one you might think. A bit of insider reporting has revealed that one of the Hogwarts champions, none other than Miss Molly Evans, isn't from this country, this continent - even from this time.
Evans and several other friends from Hogwarts have come to this time from the future - an exclusive report from the Daily Prophet reveals that there are eight time-travellers, including Evans, known in their circle as the Guardians. They have shared their secret with no one - well, almost no one.
Evans and her roommate, Miss Mackenzie Room, were overheard talking about their friendship with one Mister Fred Weasley, mentioning something about a secret that they've shared with him, something other than their mysterious way of being here in the first place. They neglected to discuss further.
In their conversation, the two also mentioned that there are books about the wizarding world, about Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived himself. These books, according to the girls, are not simply biographies, but novels written about Potter and released to the Muggle world, marketed as fiction. They also mentioned someone named Delphi who had sent them to the past, although Delphi may just be a code name for someone in their posse.
This revelation comes as no surprise to certain students. "Molly and her friends always seemed a little strange to me," said Draco Malfoy, one of Evans's classmates at Hogwarts. "Last year I caught them in the bathroom with a Time-Turner - and I didn't dare tell anyone...That bathroom ghost, Madison - she's one of them, too, and she made the mistake of dying in the process."
He refers to Miss Madison Clark, a Hogwarts student who died under mysterious circumstances three years ago and currently haunts the bathrooms along with her owl, Opa.
It is unknown what Evans and the rest of the Guardians are doing at Hogwarts, but it may be their aim to interfere with the tournament itself, and therefore they must be kept on high alert. Otherwise, the entire wizarding world as we know it could be gone forever.

Molly sat there for a second, stunned.

"I told Mackenzie it was a bad idea to open the windows," she finally whispered.

"You know how I said Rita's article was the best thing I had ever read?" Fred said quietly.

Molly nodded.

"I don't think it's very funny anymore," he finished.

"She WHAT?" Madison screamed at nobody in particular. "Hang on, I gotta slam myself into the wall a few times."

She geared up to run into the wall, but Molly held out her hands. "We don't have time for that right now. We have to figure out what this means for the Tournament and the future."

"Well, we don't have to worry about keeping this a secret anymore," Zoë said.

"They 'neglected to discuss further?'" Jonah said, slapping the Daily Prophet issue with his hand. "What does that even mean? It wasn't like you were talking to her - you just ended a conversation."

"Permission to curse," Stella said. "A lot."

"Not the time," Ava said. "What about the Yule Ball? So much of the future hinges on the Yule Ball."

"I had already talked to McGonagall," Molly said. "I'm not dancing in the ball - I'm singing the first song and then handing it over to the Weird Sisters. Then we can leave to go see Coco."

"Can I come, too?" Fred asked.

"Maybe," Molly said. "I have to check to make sure you're not needed over break - you might be, thanks to all the stuff with Ludo Bagman."

"God, I almost forgot about that," Fred said. "George and I were talking about it earlier today, but it feels like a lifetime ago."

"But will McGonagall still let you do the song?" Beatrix asked. "I mean, now that she knows - maybe she'll think you're part of some conspiracy to alter the future."

"If anyone's going to be reasonable, it's McGonagall," Jonah said.

"Besides, she isn't a big fan of Skeeter, either," Molly said. "We should be fine. But we need to make a plan. Are you guys in?"

Mackenzie looked at the rest of the group, then back at Molly. "Of course we're in."

On the last day of term, Molly walked over to Beatrix during dinner and whispered something in her friend's ear. Beatrix nodded, leaning over to Padma, who was sitting next to her. She whispered something in Padma's ear, and Padma's eyes widened.

"Ooh," she said. "That sounds really mean."

"It's necessary," Beatrix said. "Now tell Viktor."

Padma nodded, scanning the room. She spotted him at the table up front, sitting with Karkaroff. As quickly as she could, she ran over and whispered the plan in his ear.

"That sounds really tricky…" he said. "I love it."

Padma smiled.

"And now," Molly could hear the booming voice of Dumbledore say outside, "give it up for the current Triwizard leader, Molly Evans!"

Molly took a deep breath and walked out, the Weird Sisters' instruments sitting stationary on the stage. She pulled out her wand and whispered "Sonorus" into it.

"Thank you for letting me sing tonight before the Weird Sisters come on," she said, using the wand as a microphone. "I have one song to sing tonight, and it's a ballad - but I want you to dance to it with someone whom you did not ask to the ball tonight."

The audience was hushed.

"For example…" She looked over at the table where the other champions were sitting. "Hermione - you can dance all you want with Viktor the rest of the night, but for this song...maybe…"

She looked for Padma's turquoise gown in the audience and spotted it.

"Maybe you could dance with that young gentleman with the red hair," she said, gesturing to Ron. His eyes widened, and he blushed.

"So let's begin. Find your partner!" Molly said.

And the shuffling began. The Triwizard champions stood up and found another partner in the audience. To Molly's delight, Hermione walked into the audience, her beautiful blue dress parting the crowd like a river, and held her hand out to Ron. Molly sighed with relief and raised her left arm, the instruments lifting behind her.

A slow song began to play, and Molly held up the microphone.

"You're in my arms, and all the world is calm, the music playing on for only two," she sang. "So close, together, and when I'm with you, so close to feeling alive…"

The audience started dancing, Ron and Hermione in the center of the room.

"A life goes by, romantic dreams must die, so I bid mine goodbye and never knew...so close was waiting, waiting here with you, and now, forever, I know…"

Even the slow way they were dancing reminded Molly of Robert and Giselle. Her plan - the plan to get Ron and Hermione together by recreating the climax of Enchanted - was working perfectly.

"All that I wanted...to hold you...so close…"

In the corner of the room, Molly could see Neville and Stella dancing together. They caught eyes, and Stella smiled at Molly, as if subliminally saying, "It's working."

"We're so close to reaching that famous happy ending, almost believing this one's not pretend," she continued. "Now you're beside me, and look how far we've come...so far, we are so close…"

Molly looked up to see Beatrix, hovering in midair under a Levitation Charm. To the side of the ballroom was Ava, holding her wand up in deep concentration. Beatrix pointed her wand at Ron and Hermione, dancing below, and whispered "Lumos."

A spotlight rained down upon the two. Hermione, turning red, smiled bashfully as Ron twirled her once, twice, three times. The music played behind Molly, and her face was beaming with pride.

Just a few people away from Ron and Hermione were Viktor and Padma, dancing together, moving ever-so-slightly closer to the couple in the spotlight. After the instrumental break was done, Beatrix whispered "Nox," and the spotlight faded. Ava carefully steered her to the wall and then down to the ground, nobody noticing.

"Oh, how could I face the faceless days if I should lose you now?"

While Molly was singing the bridge, Padma walked over and tapped Hermione on the back, Viktor standing behind her. Molly couldn't hear what Padma was saying, but she knew exactly what it was - "Mind if I cut in?"

Hermione, looking distraught, nodded and stopped dancing, walking away. Padma took Ron's hands and steered him back into the crowd. Molly couldn't see Viktor, but she could see Hermione slowly back up and walk away from Ron.

"We're so close to reaching that famous happy ending, almost believing this one's not pretend...let's go on dreaming, even though we are...so close, so close and still...so far…"

Ron and Padma ended the dance in a deep bow, Hermione looking on from the back of the room. The music ended in a violin swell, and the audience started to applaud.

Molly smiled. It had worked!

"And now, please welcome to the stage the Weird Sisters!" Molly exclaimed, gesturing to the side of the stage as she exited the opposite way. As soon as she was out of sight, she whispered "Quietus" into her wand.

Then she realized that Hermione needed to get on the dance floor with Viktor. As quickly as she could, she ran into the hallway and around back to the stairway, where Hermione was sitting. She wasn't crying, but she was close.

"Hey, are you alright?" Molly said. "I'm sorry about all that -"

"You knew, didn't you?" Hermione said, a small smile on her face.

"What did I know?" Molly asked, confused.

"What Rita put in the newspaper. I have a theory of how she's doing that, and for probably the first time ever, she's right," Hermione said. "You know who's going to end up together, and you had Ron and I dance together…"

"You are way too smart for your own good," Molly said, giggling. "I just harnessed the power of music. You two did the rest - you were amazing - but you need to get out on the dance floor. With Viktor this time."

"Why?" Hermione said.

"Because if you don't, you'll turn really mean and nasty to Harry's son," Molly said. "It's in the future."

Hermione smiled. "You're joking, right?"

Molly nodded. "Yeah - I'm joking. Probably."

Hermione started laughing. "See you, Molly."

Molly watched Hermione as she stood up and walked back to the dance floor. I cannot let her find Cursed Child, she thought, smiling.

The dance ended at midnight. As Molly was walking out, she excused herself from the group of Gryffindors heading back to the common room.

"If you'll excuse me," she said. "I need to use the bathroom."

She turned and started to walk to the bathroom, until she was stopped by a tall, pale Hufflepuff who almost looked like a vampire.

"Cedric," she said. "Tell Cho I said hi!"

"Actually, I need to tell you something," he said. "About the egg."

"What is it?" Molly asked.

He checked to see that no one else was there, then leaned in and whispered, "The prefects' bath. Upstairs. It's a pretty good place for a bath. If you know what I mean. Although I suppose you do."

Molly rolled her eyes. "I think so…" she said, her voice turning up into a question.

"Good," he said. "See you soon."

And he walked away.

"He said it," Molly said as she walked into the bathroom.

"No way," Stella said. "How hard was it not to laugh?"

"Very," Molly said. "And now it's time for his fake cousin to take us back to our time so I can cry about Día de los Muertos."

"Let's do this," Jonah said as the Guardians - plus Fred - gathered together in a huddle, a little black rain cloud forming above them.

Over the break, Mackenzie found some sort of American wizarding marketplace where they sold Gillyweed and accidentally bought enough for all the Guardians to take twice. "Make sure to bring some homework," Beatrix told everyone as they left the bathroom the night before the second task. "It's gonna be a pretty boring show."

Molly went back to her room and reread the chapter at least five times, to remember every detail. It was thanks to this task that Harry and Cedric tied, setting up the stakes in the final round - it had to go perfectly.

The next morning, she didn't even bother with a meeting with anyone. She gave Mackenzie a hug before heading out for the task. She said hi to the Creevey brothers, who asked for her autograph for some reason. She shrugged, thought "Why not," and obliged.

She went through the lawn and to the judges' table.

"Just in time," she heard a bossy voice say, and turned to see Percy Weasley sitting at Crouch's spot. "The task's about to start."

"On the count of three," Bagman said. "One...two…"

"Wait!" Molly said. The whole crowd turned to her.

"What is it, Miss Evans?" he asked.

"On three or after three?" she said.

"I don't understand the question."

"Like, one, two, three, or one, two, three, huh?"

"I'd say one, two, three, huh," he said. He turned to Percy, who shrugged and nodded.

"Alright," Bagman said. "One...two...three...huh!"

Molly grabbed the gillyweed from her pocket, shoved it into her mouth, and swallowed hard. She ran into the water, took a deep breath, and started swimming. It was cold at first, then slowly became warmer and warmer. She dared to breathe, and it somehow worked; she felt water rushing through the sides of her neck, where wavy gills flapped in the water.

She swam for a bit and grabbed her wand, knowing the grindylows were coming soon. When the first one grabbed her ankle, she twisted, pointed, and shouted "Relashio!" While she couldn't hear any sound, she saw the water push out from her wand and hit the grindylow, which broke out in red patches.

"Sorry," she bubbled, and swam away into the dark water.

The silence was the worst for her. Not being able to hear anything scared her more than anything. She felt totally alone and isolated. This must be what Orpheus felt like, she thought to herself. I judge him a lot less now.

"How are you getting on?"

She turned her head to see Moaning Myrtle swimming next to her. She gave a thumbs-up. "Where's Madison?"

"I can't hear you," Myrtle said. "Madison fell a little behind."

Molly held out her arms as though to say, "You got it."

Madison swam up next to Myrtle. "Hey, Molly!"

Molly waved.

"You gotta veer left a teeny bit, but you're close," Madison said. "Those mermaids are scary, though, so I'm staying here."

"Me, too," Myrtle said. "They always chase me when I get too close."

Molly nodded and waved as she swam away.

It took at least twenty minutes for her to finally get close enough to hear the mersong, which was slowly getting louder and louder. She finally started seeing them, weird-looking grey people with tails that reached up to their shoulders. Then she turned a corner and made it to the collection of hostages for the champions - Hermione, Cho, Gabrielle, and -

"Fred?" she bubbled.

She swam down to the bottom of the lake and found the sharpest rock she could find. She swam up to the ropes binding Fred and started frantically sawing as fast as she could. After several minutes, the ropes broke free, and Fred floated in place, still unconscious. She instantly swam to Hermione's rope - and she was pulled away.

"Take your own hostage," one of the mermen said.

"This girl has saved my life before," Molly bubbled. "Now I'm saving hers."

She tried to break free and couldn't manage it, no matter how she tried - until she saw Cedric swimming towards her.

"Got lost!" he mouthed, a bubble surrounding his head. "Fleur and Krum are coming now!"

Molly breathed a sigh of relief as Cedric got Cho free and swum with her out of sight.

She finally broke away from the mermen when Krum arrived, darting forward to help him with the rope binding Hermione. Once it broke, he swam away without a second glance.

Molly looked to make sure Fleur wasn't coming, then drew her wand and pointed it at the merpeople.

"On the count of three!" she said fiercely. "One...two...three...huh!"

And they were gone. Molly darted forward and freed Gabrielle, then grabbed her and Fred in each arm and kicked up as fast as she possibly could...faster, faster, faster -

And then she was out. Gabrielle immediately woke up and kicked her way to the edge of the water, to Fleur's relief.

Molly heard a groan as Fred regained consciousness. He opened his eyes -

"Oh, thank God!" Molly said, hugging Fred tightly. He returned the hug, water splashing everywhere. They broke the hug - Fred laughed and moved Molly's waterlogged hair out of her face - his eyes were suddenly determined and scared in equal measure -

And then he kissed her.

OH SNAP

$HIT WENT DOWN

OOOOOOOH

With that out of the way, let's take a look at this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts!

1) The "wizard supremacy" look at the Yule Ball was something I tried to argue on the World Book Club, and apparently nobody agreed with me. Whatever. So I put it in here.

2) The song "So Close" from Enchanted is such an underrated song, even in that movie, and when I was trying to think of a plot point involving the Yule Ball, it was the first thing I thought of. What can I say - the idea stuck with me!

3) Writing Rita's articles in this have been very fun. It's interesting trying to write an entirely different tone, as is required for a newspaper article, rather than simple narration.

4) "Permission to curse...a lot" is another one of my favorite lines that has come out of this.

5) I love that we get to make fun of the "pretty good place for a bath" line!

6) The "one, two, three, huh" exchange is based on a moment in, of all things, the SpongeBob musical, which is a great musical you should listen to right now. (The proshot is available for purchase on Amazon.)

7) I wrote Beatrix's "It's gonna be a pretty boring show" line before I watched Puffs, but it's so much funnier now that I've seen how Puffs made fun of it as well.

8) Like I mentioned before, I'm a big Hadestown fan, and even before that, I loved/hated the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in equal measure. So of course the first thing that would pop into Molly's mind when, for the first time in her life, she's truly surrounded by silence but must proceed anyway, is that myth.

9) And we can't leave without mentioning the kiss! When I first started this story, I wasn't sure whether to have the "will they/won't they" tension between Molly and Fred, but as I developed their characters, I realized it would be kind of impossible to ignore that rush of "now or never" when it came to their story arcs. I'm excited for you guys to see how it continues into the rest of the fan fiction!

Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!