Just to say that I am very happy with this chapter and found I got carried away by Marnie in all her celebrating. I absolutely love my characters and that most everyone is happier than they've been in a while [poor Fred :( ]. Happy reading!

Our group missed all of the champions by the time we finally got passed everyone in the stands. Angelina and the rest then eagerly pulled me towards the Gryffindor common room since they knew the twins would have gotten enough sweets by now for the party.

It was unbelievable to feel as though all of the worry and guilt that I'd been feeling over the last few months had finally subsided. Of course, it had been terrifying to watch Harry take on a dragon, but he had done extraordinarily well for himself. He was even tied for first with Viktor Krum. I didn't want to admit it out loud, but it had been obvious Harry had out performed Cedric, who had stupidly gotten himself caught on fire. I felt a tiny bit guilty for not running to go find him, but I was too caught up in my excitement for Harry. I knew Madam Pomfrey would have fixed Cedric by now and I would go sneak into the Hufflepuff party as soon as I saw Harry.

Oddly, my group made it back before Harry, Hermione and Ron. I smiled, feeling this meant Ron had indeed reconciled with my brother. This made me inadvertently look over to where George was setting up a punch bowl with Fred; who no doubt were spiking it. This time, Fred didn't turn around and I worried once again that I would never get my best friend back.

But my thoughts were interrupted by a loud round of applause. I turned to see Harry enter with his other two best mates, golden egg in hand. His grin spread from ear to ear and I knew he was pretty pleased with himself. I immediately bolted towards him, pushing a few Gryffindors out of the way in the process. Harry's grin grew a little bit more when I tackled him in a crushing embrace.

"Oi, Marnie, he's still got two other tasks to compete in, don't go breaking him now," Ron said jokingly, causing me to look up at the younger red-headed boy.

His blush was already spread out across his face and I knew he felt badly about all his time ignoring both Harry and me.

I let go of Harry and hugged Ron, happy to see life was going back to somewhat normal.

Ron didn't utter any comprehensible words during our hug, but I just winked at both him and Harry before letting them be accepted into the applauding crowd.

"He did alright, didn't he?" George asked, coming up beside me.

"You bet he did," I replied proudly, watching as Harry's other dormmates huddled around him, Ron and the egg.

But before George could give any sort of come back, the common room erupted with an ear-splitting scream. I quickly covered my ears and noticed that the horrible noise was coming from the golden egg.

"Oi, shut the bloody thing!" I heard Fred holler from the other side of the room.

Harry thankfully obliged, but my ears were still ringing.

"What kind of clue is that?" Dean Thomas asked, one of Harry's other dormmates.

"It sounded like someone being tortured, maybe you have to fight off the Cruciatus curse," Neville posed in a worried voice.

I frowned at him, and then at Harry who immediately met my gaze and shook his head.

"Don't be daft, that's illegal Neville," George replied, taking my hand and squeezing it reassuringly.

The rest of the Gryffindors then started their own line of guessing, each one less plausible than the last.

"I better go off to the Hufflepuff common room," I said once my friends had gathered round, all with a cup in their hand.

"No, stay awhile Mar!" Angelina said, wanting to celebrate with her best friend.

Angelina was happy to see a visible difference in Marnie than Ange had seen over the past month. It was obvious that Marnie had been fretting over Harry and Fred had gone off and completely made it worse. But, watching her brother with pride, Angelina knew Marnie must be feeling on top of the world right now that everyone would be safe for the next little while. Angelina then gave George a meaningful look and couldn't help noticing the slight blush cross his face.

"Yea, we were already by there while we were nicking the food for the party, it didn't sound nearly as fun as ours is going to be!" George said enthusiastically, causing another smile from Angelina.

"Here, let your hair down Marnie!" Katie said, shoving a laced drink into her friend's hand.

"Erm—alright," Marnie said with only mild consideration for still leaving to go find Cedric.

I downed the drink in my hand before grabbing onto Angelina's hand and dragging her towards where many others were already dancing around in their merriment.

Three drinks later I felt as if the world was floating. I was light as a bubble and felt absolutely amazing. I finally reached the punch bowl and put my hand out to scoop more of the liquid into my cup.

"I think I must cut you off love," George appeared at my side out of no where.

I had thought he had been talking up Angelina but he must have seen me trying to sneak another cup.

"I want to go see Cedric now!" I demanded, being overly confident in my lesser functioning to be able to find the common room all the way down into the basement.

George sighed. "You're going to go regardless of what I say aren't you?"

"Yup!" I said proudly before spinning on my foot, almost tripping, but then regaining my footing to head towards the portrait hole.

I had made it out into the hallway with medium effort and looked in either direction, trying to orient myself properly.

"Come on," George said, instantly appearing again at my side.

"George!" I shrieked excitedly before grabbing onto his arm.

"Merlin, you are drunk!" George exclaimed, clamping his hand over mine that was already looped around his arm before slowly guiding me down the stairs.

"What are you doing here, away from the party?" I asked confused, still wondering what had happened to Angelina.

"Making sure you find Cedric safely and then having a stern conversation with him that he will keep you safe," George said more seriously than I had anticipated.

I giggled, not really knowing why.

"He's scared of you," I said, before shaking my head and covering my lips with my other hand. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that!"

George laughed, "He has reason to be."

"You would hurt him?" I asked, picturing George now in a duel against a dragon.

Wait, weren't we talking about Cedric?

We stopped abruptly and George put both of his hands on my arms so that I was now facing him.

"Marnie, you are my very best friend in this entire world. The thought of anyone ever hurting you makes me too angry to even contemplate, and I know Fred feels the same way," he added with confidence.

I sighed, feeling my cheeks become wet before I could figure out why.

"But he's the one hurting me," I said, causing George to bow his head and sigh deeply.

"And I may not be able to forgive him for that, but I know he is hurting himself even more," George replied in a soft voice.

I stared at him, feeling my mind was too foggy and muddled to make much sense of what was going on.

"I know he cares for you deeply, you can see it with the way he always looks at you," George said again.

I looked at him confused, thinking I may have missed the first part of his new sentence.

"Fred?" I asked, feeling something rise in my chest.

George chuckled slightly, "No, I said Cedric. It's the reason I don't give him as much of a hard time as I would probably like. I know he cares for you very much."

I nodded, remembering my quest I was on to go and find my boyfriend.

"We're here Marnie," George said, lifting his hand to gesture towards the barrels.

"You have to knock," I said, already wanting to get inside and wrap my arms around Cedric.

I was hoping the dragon hadn't eaten his arm or anything. Then I shook my head, no it had only burned him.

Then I inhaled sharply, that wasn't much better if the dragon had burned off a limb, maybe I should have gotten here sooner.

"I will let you knock Marnie, you already got Fred with that prank once before," he said before he stood back.

I looked at George with a grin before turning back to the stacked barrels and knocking like I always did. When the secret door revealed itself, I could here the telltale sounds of a party. I entered and was surprised again to find George at my side. I actually felt the hushes from people as George walked into their common room. I guess his reputation was preceding him.

"Marnie!" I heard my name exclaimed excitedly before I turned and laid eyes on Cedric.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I counted all four limbs to be intact.

"George," Cedric greeted, although I could tell he was masking his confusion.

"I'm just here to make sure Marnie is taken care of, she definitely had a few drinks at the party for Harry."

Cedric looked at me and smiled.

"Thank George, I appreciate that. Marnie won't leave my sight," Cedric replied, putting his arm around me in the process.

George nodded before giving me one last smile and disappearing out of the secret door.

Once George was outside, he started to walk back towards his own common room despite his known follower. This individual was never as stealthy as they thought they were.

"What are you doing here?" George asked in an exhausted sounding tone, despite being wide awake.

Fred stepped out of the shadows and quickened his pace so he was walking in step with his twin.

"I saw Marnie tumbling out of the common room and wanted to make sure nothing happened to her," Fred shrugged.

"And I'm sure you noticed me follow her, or at least realized I pretty much led her all the way to the Hufflepuff common room," George replied sharply.

"I did, but I still had to know," Fred said in an anguished voice.

"You heard her?" George asked, already knowing the answer.

He turned his gaze slightly to look at his twin, who had a few silent tears running down his face. George had argued with Fred too many times to count by this point about convincing his stubborn brother to swallow his pride and apologize to Marnie. But George feared that so long as Cedric was in the picture, Fred would continue to punish himself for loving Marnie by keeping his distance. It was completely insane, not to mention it was hurting Marnie just as much in the process, but George assumed that Fred didn't even contemplate how deeply his own feelings ran for Marnie.

George and his heart broken twin walked back to their common room in silence, feeling the weight of their best friend's absence on their shoulders.

XXX

Once George had gone out of sight, I was swept away into the less rowdy party. We landed on another makeshift dance floor where Cedric began swaying me around pressed up against his chest.

"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner, my brave champion," I said, still leaning into the warmth of his chest and feeling each of his breaths press against my cheek.

"I didn't expect you until later, I'm sure the Gryffindors held a hell of a party for Harry," he said in an easy tone.

There was no hint of jealousy or annoyance in Cedric's voice which always made me love him even more. He knew I loved him, but I had my own allegiances to my house and my family.

"But, don't think I'm letting you leave so easily," Cedric whispered and squeezed his arms tighter around me.

"Well, this is exactly where I want to be," I said, continuing to let him lead me in a slow dance, despite the quick pace of the song.

It wasn't even so much of a dance as an easy swaying with our bodies pressed up against one another. We stayed like this for an unknown amount of time before Cedric's friends coerced him away for more celebrations. Cedric, in turn pulled me along as he was congratulated by his housemates and some other Ravenclaws who had crashed the party.

At some point I finally found a seat, and once I sat down, I felt as if I would never be able to get up.

Cedric was only a short distance away, talking with Liam, and turned his worried gaze towards me every few minutes.

"Come with me love," Cedric said once he ended his conversation with Liam and people had started to filter towards their beds.

I figured no Gryffindor would dare be in bed yet, but we were probably an entirely different breed.

"Where are we going?" I asked, hearing the whining in my voice since I didn't want to walk all the way back across the castle.

"Not far," he said with a wink before leading me up a set of stairs instead of back out through the common room door.

We reached a similar looking door like the one's in the Gryffindor towers and Cedric opened it to reveal five four-poster beds with yellow curtains instead of red.

I stopped, feeling my heart skip as I thought of my mother and that she would have called one of these beds her own all those years ago.

"We're just here to sleep," Cedric said, mistaking my pause for trepidation.

I smiled and looked up at him.

"I know, but I wouldn't mind if you wrapped your arms around me," I said before planting a kiss on his cheek.

He smiled and gave me his quidditch jersey which ended up being a nightgown on me.

I then ran at him once I came out of the lavatory and jumped onto the bed he was already lying on.

"Calm down little lion," Cedric said with a smile, trying to move out of the way of my discombobulated movements.

"Alright little badger," I replied, lying down beside him and burrowing under the covers.

Cedric closed the curtains before he settled down and pulled me closer to him. I felt him wince before he moved into a better position.

"Did the dragon really hurt you?" I asked in a whisper, remembering the sheer fright I had felt watching him become covered in flames.

"A little, but Madam Pomfrey healed me up all right," he replied, running his hand through my hair to move it aside and run his lips over my ear.

I felt shivers run down my spine as I nestled even closer into him. He exhaled a deep breath which covered me in warmth before he settled his head back onto his pillow with me wrapped tightly in his arms.

"I wouldn't have been able to handle watching you take on a dragon," Cedric whispered, already drifting off to sleep.

"Yea, but I would have been the greatest champion!" I said, causing him to chuckle into my hair.

"My little lion, the greatest champion," he replied again before I knew he was asleep.

I felt my own eyelids becoming heavy before falling into a comfortable sleep.

"Good morning my little badger," I heard someone say over my head.

"Cedric?" I asked but didn't feel the words escape my lips.

"Don't get her confused, she's going to be a lion!" I heard another voice say, causing my eyes to flash open.

I looked up and saw a much younger Sirius standing over me beside a mobile of quidditch pieces which hung over my bed… was I in a crib?

I looked around me and stopped when I noticed a little toddler lying next to me with black hair—that must be Harry.

A woman came into my view, the one who must have called me little badger. It was of course my mother.

"There is nothing wrong with Hufflepuff!" my mother chastised Sirius who was pulling a now awake Harry into his arms.

"Listen Lena, you and Penn were the only formidable Hufflepuffs I have ever met and I think that was just a fluke," Sirius replied cheekily.

I watched as my mum shook her head and was now bending down to pick me up.

"You can be anything you put your mind to little badger," she said with a kind smile before planting a kiss on my cheek.

I moved my hand to where I had just felt my mother's lips. Her kind face and warm embrace sent tears to my eyes, but of course none fell. I could only feel the smile I was giving my mother.

"Well, Harry here is going to be a champion lion!" Sirius exclaimed, raising him over his head which brought Harry into a fit of laughter.

"No! I am the greatest champion!" I exclaimed loudly, causing everyone else in the room to pause.

"Right you are love, right you are," Sirius said proudly, coming over and kissing my cheek.

"Better get these two champions ready for breakfast," my mother said happily as I watched Sirius carry Harry out of the room.

I then opened my eyes and saw that light was filtering through the yellow curtains. Cedric's arms were still across my waist which caused me to lean into him.

"You up Marnie?" Cedric asked in a groggy voice.

"Five more minutes!" I moaned, causing him to laugh.

"Better get up love, we need to go down and get some breakfast."

"Alright," I conceded, before finding my robes from yesterday pressed and folded at the end of the bed.

Man, I owed Posy big time. She sure had my back—and had a devious side.

XXX

"What do you mean Marnie never came back last night?" Fred heard his twin shouting from down in the common room.

He froze in place as Harry and Ron dashed past him on the stairs.

"What?!" the two younger boys asked as Angelina sighed and filled them in.

Seconds later I heard everyone exit, which caused me to follow right behind at a safer distance. Everyone made it down to the Great Hall and let out an audible sigh of relief when we all saw Marnie sitting with Hermione at the Gryffindor table.

"Where were you?!" Angelina asked as she sat beside her best friend.

"Erm—I was hoping you didn't notice. I fell asleep at Cedric's. AND BEFORE YOU SAY ANTYTHING, ALL WE DID WAS SLEEP!" Marnie said definitively before anyone made a fuss.

Fred felt his chest relax as he took a seat at the far end of the group beside Lee.

"That woman is a right old beast!" Marnie further exclaimed moments after Hermione had shown her something in the Daily Prophet.

Marnie flung the paper onto the table where Angelina picked it up and read it aloud.

"Young Hogwarts student, Marnie O'Hara attaches herself to as many champions as she can get her hands on after being rejected as a champion herself. The seventeen-year-old girl, obviously hungry for a shot at fame after living in the cast shadow of her adoptive brother, probably entered Harry's name if only to amp up her family's legacy. Now dating Cedric Diggory, the Hogwarts'rightful champion, she sets her eyes on more glory to make up for the loss of her mother and the poor status of her father…"

Angelina stopped reading at this point while Marnie sat seething.

"Just forget it," Hermione said, but her advice fell on deaf ears.

Fred knew that anything that had to do with her father, but especially her mother hit a sensitive topic for Marnie. Plus, of course nothing that cow had written was true.

Fred clenched his fists and saw Angelina crumple up the paper in solidarity.

"Attention, Gryffindors!" Professor McGonagall shouted which stopped anymore discussion of the article. "Everyone, follow me please."

Every Gryffindor student followed suit, not ever daring to go against McGonagall's orders. She led them all down to a vacant classroom which had an old gramophone cued up in the center.

"What the bloody hell?" Fred heard his brother Ron whisper under his breath to Harry.

Everyone was now lined up against the wall and faced McGonagall who was standing in the center of the room.

"Now, as a part of the tradition of the Triwizard Tournament, there is to be the Yule Ball, held on Christmas Eve," McGonagall announced, causing a heavy silence to fall across the students.

"Now, as is obvious, the Yule Ball is indeed, a dance. And as part of this tradition, each of the champions will open the ball by initiating the first dance before the rest of everyone can join in. And I will not have any of my student acting like a bunch of buffoons in front of the other schools or houses. Now, grab a partner," she ordered before starting the music from the gramophone.

The boys were all standing with their backs pressed against the wall. Neville, a little surprisingly, was the first to step forward. He grabbed Ginny's hand in a friendly manner and escorted her to the center of the room where McGonagall proceeded to give them instructions.

Fred looked around and saw that Angelina was the closest girl standing near him, so he grabbed her hand in turn and dragged her out near Neville; maybe to keep an eye on his younger sister.

"May I?" George asked from beside me with a smile.

I took his hand and was led out towards the other pairs of semi-frightened Gryffindors who were all dancing under McGonagall's instruction.

"I thought you would be with Ange," I replied slyly once George was leading me in a waltz.

He sighed rather dejectedly and then I noticed her dancing with Fred.

"What a git!" I said rather angrily, knowing George had been harbouring some feelings for Ange since last year.

"He must know!" I said, wanting to storm over there.

"He does," George said simply.

At this point I was fuming so George led me away from the pair of them, obviously not wanting to engage like I was gearing up to do.

"I would much rather be dancing with you love," George said in a dapper tone.

I laughed. "And why is that?"

"Because Ron was going to ask you instead."

It was my turn to laugh. "I wouldn't have minded."

George raised his eyebrows in disbelief but then continued to dramatically lead me all around the dancefloor before McGonagall had had enough and sent us on our way, but not before almost threatening me to carry the Gryffindor name proudly when I danced with Cedric on Christmas Eve.