"Have you figured out the egg yet?" I asked Cedric one morning as we walked to class together.
It had been nearly two months since the Yule Ball, and I hadn't really brought up the Triwizard Tournament since then.
"Yea, I figured it out ages ago," he replied rather smugly. "And don't worry, I already gave Harry a hint."
I blushed in response. "I wasn't going to say anything about Harry. Plus, I told him not to tell you about the dragons anyways so I wouldn't expect you to do him any favours."
Cedric stopped and gave me a trying look. "Glad to see where your loyalties lie."
I knew he wasn't really being serious since he was now smiling and began leading me again towards our Care of Magical Creatures class.
"I'm really happy that Hagrid's back," I said as we neared the grounds and I could see him outside near the pens
"Yea, and I'm happy we don't have to raise those skrewts anymore," Cedric replied.
I couldn't help but agree, the skrewts had gotten out of control. Not only did come to burn everyone on a regular basis but they had also started killing each other. Apparently there were only two left that Hagrid had stowed away further back on the grounds.
So instead we spent the class learning about thestrals. It was really interesting to see the invisible creatures eating the slabs of meat we through into the glen for them. Apparently only those who had seen death could visibly see thestrals. I shuddered and prayed that I would never be able to see them despite my curiosity.
"Want to meet up with me after my dinner rounds?" Cedric asked as we headed back up towards the school after class.
"Yea, sounds good. If you want to come to the library I'll be studying," I replied, and Cedric nodded.
After dinner that night I made my way to the library to finish my charms paper and to wait for Cedric to come find me. Once I arrived I saw Harry, Ron and Hermione looking pretty miserable so decided to go and help them instead. But before I could ask them if they needed help, McGonagall approached all of us with a grim expression.
"O'Hara, Weasley, Granger. I need you to all follow me to Professor Dumbledore's office," she ordered before shaking her head at Harry. "Not you Potter, just these three."
I looked back to see Harry's frown worsen. I was worried about him since the second task was tomorrow and no doubt that's what he was anxious about. Both he and Cedric also hadn't told me what this task was going to be, so I had hoped that it would be more straight forward than fighting a dragon.
McGonagall led us to the headmaster's office. We all remained silent, picking up on McGonagall's impatient mood. Once we got to the staircase she gave the password, which was cauldron cakes, and allowed the three of us to go up. Hermione knocked on the door before we heard Dumbledore's voice call for us to enter.
"Isn't that Fleur's younger sister?" Ron asked to Hermione who nodded in confirmation.
"Good evening everyone. I know that you are all aware that the second task is tomorrow and I am regretful to say that this task entails each of the champions to venture into the Black Lake and retrieve something that has been taken from them to which they hold dear," Dumbledore explained with a similar expression to McGonagall when she had collected us.
I surveyed the four of us in the room and gasped when I came to my own conclusion. It was obvious with Fleur's sister being here that she would be the lost item for Fleur to retrieve. This most likely meant that I would be used for Cedric, Ron would be for Harry and Hermione for Viktor.
"I'm afraid Miss O'Hara has deduced the situation gauging from her reaction. Each of you will be put under a protective sleeping enchantment that will only be broken once the champions successfully rescue each of you and bring you to the surface of the Black Lake," Dumbledore continued.
We all stood there dumbfounded, knowing we couldn't argue against it.
"Without further adieu, if you would Miss O'Hara?" Dumbledore asked, extending his arm for me to approach where he was now standing.
The last thing I remember was Dumbledore extending his wand up towards me before everything went dark.
"Accio Marnie!" Fred commanded fervently in a hushed voice since he still wanted to keep up appearances that he was still upset with Marnie.
That was true right now, but for a completely different reason. Where the bloody hell was she?!
"That spell doesn't work on people, mate," George put his hand consolingly on his twin's shoulder.
However, George also felt in need of his own comfort. He didn't have a clue as to where their best friend had run off to. Plus, her brother and boyfriend were champions in this thing, surely she wouldn't miss it.
"Where do you think she could be?" Angelina asked in her own worried tone.
George looked over at her and inadvertently smiled before showing his concern. After the Yule Ball, nothing else became of her and Fred, much to George's own selfish approval.
"Are you sure she didn't come back at all to the dorm last night?" Fred asked for the dozenth time.
"Yes Fred!" Katie huffed in irritation.
"Maybe she stayed at Cedric's again?" Alicia posed the most logical explanation, despite her own fears.
Marnie had disappeared before and it usually meant Flint had done something to her. But the Slytherin bully hadn't really threatened Marnie lately, especially after Cedric apparently told him off.
"Hey guys," the group heard a familiar voice come up from behind them.
They were all assembled at the Gryffindor table as they ate their breakfasts before heading out to watch the second task.
"Cedric?" Angelina asked, never knowing Cedric to really come up to them without Marnie.
"Have you guys seen Marnie? I was supposed to meet up with her last night after my prefect rounds and I never found her," Cedric stated, feeling unsettled by being stood up by his girlfriend.
"You mean she didn't spend the night with you?" Angelina countered, feeling her fear sink deeper.
"Erm—no," Cedric replied, feeling embarrassed by the insinuation since he supposed it was a fair question.
"We haven't seen her since dinner!" Fred exclaimed, much to everyone's surprise.
Most of them now had figured Fred was just being stubborn over his whole argument with Marnie, but this was the first time he had mentioned anything about her in the last six months. Also, it was apparent how worried he felt.
"Really?" Cedric asked frowning in concern.
"Wait, Marnie is missing too?" they all turned to see Harry join them.
"What do you mean too?" Angelina asked curiously.
"Well, I haven't seen either Hermione or Ron since last night at the library when McGonagall asked them and Marnie to go to see the headmaster," Harry explained a little anxiously.
"Hmm, maybe Dumbledore has them doing something. I'm sure we'll see them all at the task," Cedric said a little more optimistically than he felt. "We better get out there."
Cedric looked at Harry who nodded before both of the concerned champions headed out towards the Black Lake for the second task.
Fred and the rest of Marnie's friends soon followed and tried to stave off their nerves. The twins had created a betting station which they carried around to entice the assembling students to gamble their pocket money. Once everyone was finished and waiting for the task to start from the overviewing stands, Fred and the others started to panic again.
"How are they not here yet?" Angelina asked, not seeing Ron or Hermione show up either.
"Find anything?" George asked as Neville made his way over to them.
Once he had figured out that Marnie and the other two were missing he had gone off searching for them as well.
"No sign," Neville said defeatedly.
"Maybe we should check the hospital wing?" Lee suggested which put the others on edge.
"We'll wait until after the task. They might still be somewhere in this crowd," Alicia reasoned to which the others agreed.
"They're all here!" Harry thought to himself with relief.
He had been swimming in the Black Lake for 40 minutes now and had finally found what he was supposed to retrieve. In front of him, tied to the depths of the lake were his sister and two best friends, along with another young girl.
No sooner had Harry come across the underwater clearing that he felt someone come up behind him. He looked over to see Cedric with his own determined look. Cedric met Harry's gaze and motioned to the watch on his wrist that time was running out.
Harry nodded before Cedric take a knife from his pocket and freed his sister. Harry let himself feel relieved that Marnie would be safe despite not saving her himself.
"Wait, do you see something?" George asked as the smooth surface of the lake started to ripple again.
"Oh Merlin, it's Marnie!" Fred shouted despite everyone giving him knowing looks.
"Wait, they put her under water?" Angelina asked, feeling miffed over the treatment of her friend.
"Let's go down!" George suggested, leading his friends down the stairs of the stands towards the lower platform.
By the time George and Angelina made it beside Marnie she was wrapped in a large towel but was still shivering.
"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Lee asked, feeling both relieved and perplexed by the situation.
"We were the lost items the champions had to collect," Marnie explained, allowing Cedric to drape another towel over her.
"Aren't you going to come and see if Marnie's ok?" Alicia asked Fred who was standing at the back of their group.
"He's got it," Fred replied, watching Cedric fret over Marnie.
Alicia sighed but dropped the subject. Instead she went over to Marnie and gave her a hug despite her being all wet. The other two champions came up shortly after, Harry only surfacing in the nick of time. He had apparently waited to make sure everyone came and saved both Ron and the young girl Gabrielle since Fleur had gotten herself disqualified early on.
Fred continued to watch as Marnie and the rest of his friends cheered over the fact that Harry was now tied for first place with Cedric. He also watched as Marnie threw her arms over Cedric and enveloped him in a celebratory hug. Fred turned his head before he could watch much more, but had to admit that he really missed Marnie despite Cedric still being in the picture.
"Ready to go Marnie?" I heard Alicia ask from the dorm.
I stepped out of the lavatory after putting up my hair and followed them out. It was another Hogsmeade weekend and we were all planning to go down as a group to get some butterbeers at The Three Broomsticks. Cedric was hanging out with Liam and Natalie who were all going to stop by and join us later on.
"So, I think Fred's going to be joining us," Alicia said as they all headed out of the common room to meet the guys in Hogsmeade.
They had apparently gone off earlier to check out Zonko's before meeting us all at the pub.
"Yea, why wouldn't he be there?" I asked, not at all surprised.
Despite that he hadn't said a word to me since late September, Fred was always nearby. He still went everywhere with George and Lee and was friendly enough with the other girls. It was almost like everything was back to normal except for the fact that he still wouldn't apologise. I saw as Katie rolled her eyes, but no one said anything else. All three of them knew my stance, I wasn't really mad anymore, but I also felt I had nothing to apologise for. I was still hurt by Fred and didn't want to give him a clean slate if he thought he didn't do anything wrong. Then what was to stop him from going off on me again in the future? And it wasn't like I was planning on Cedric going anywhere which I felt is what Fred ideally wanted.
Our get together at The Three Broomsticks went as expected. We all chatted and laughed while Fred ignored me. Cedric and his friends did eventually join us which thankfully went better than I expected. My friends all accepted the three Hufflepuffs into our conversation and I saw them visibly relax as the afternoon wore on. Sometimes I forgot that Gryffindor was not known as being the nice and friendly house, especially when conversing with other houses. As the overly competitive group of Gryffindor quidditch players, I admitted that they must be a bit intimidating.
Once we noticed the sun starting to make its way down the horizon we stood up and paid our separate bills. We then paired off and slowly made our way back to the school. Cedric had his hand in mine as we enjoyed each other's silence. That's when I saw them- Harry, Ron and Hermione walking into town with a big, black dog at their side.
"Sirius?" I asked out loud, feeling an array of emotions swell up.
Fred and George also stopped from their position ahead of me. They knew they were the only ones I had ever confided in about Sirius Black not being an escaped murderer but a close family friend who had been wrongfully convicted.
"Sirius?" Cedric asked confused, not understanding what that name had to do with this situation.
George doubled back for some damage control.
"I am offended that you could ever think I could serious about anything Marnie," George thought quickly on his feet and knew it wasn't his best work.
But he grinned at the confused expression on Cedric's face which is all he had been going for. He knew Marnie wouldn't want to have to explain the very complex situation about the dog Harry was walking with and that it was actually Harry's godfather.
"Marnie, is that the dog we saw last year?" Cedric asked again, noticing that Harry, Hermione and Ron were all frozen at being spotted by this particular group.
Sirius growled, not liking that Marnie was still hanging out with this particular boy.
"Right," I said, taking George's weak excuse and turning to Cedric. "Yea, maybe. I don't really know what's going on, but can I meet up with you later?"
I turned to Cedric who looked concerned but nodded. He kissed my cheek, to which I heard another growl from the animagus, before Cedric jogged to catch up to Liam and Natalie.
"Come on guys, I'm starving, and I want to make sure we get something good to eat," Fred added lamely but everyone else agreed with the added nudge from George.
This left Marnie standing with the black dog and three fourth years.
"You didn't tell me?" I asked, looking angrily at Harry.
"I didn't want Cedric or the others to get suspicious by your absence," Harry voiced his reasoning but felt more unsure of it now than when he had initially explained himself to Ron and Hermione.
"He's my family too!" I shouted, feeling tears stinging my eyes before I ran back towards the school.
I knew I was bringing too much attention to our group which was already suspicious looking with the return of the Grimm looking dog in Hogsmeade.
Sirius watched as Lena's daughter ran away from the group and started to whine. He hadn't initially asked Harry why Marnie hadn't joined the others but had self-doubted himself that maybe she hadn't wanted to see him. But it turned out Harry hadn't invited her at all. Sirius continued to whine and nipped at Harry's fingers in retribution.
Harry brought his bitten hand up in the air and shook it.
"Yea, yea. I'll go talk to her," Harry sulked, feeling guilty in his overall decision.
He would at least tell Marnie all about Barty Crouch and Sirius' suspicions of his largely absent behaviour from the Triwizard tournament. All he could do was hope she forgave him for his huge oversight. He should have known she would react this way, Sirius was as much her family as he was Harry's. Looking over, Hermione gave him an I-told-you-so sort of look while Ron looked after Marnie with a sad sort of expression. Harry sighed, not looking back at how disappointed Sirius was before running after Marnie to go apologise.