A/N: You really don't know how eager I have been to write some action, not this piddly little fight stuff, so I'm getting ready for some action. ;-) Thanks to xXChlerekXx and kewlbanana for reviewing, and yes, Cynthia's life can get more miserable. And it will.
I don't own anything you recognize, but Jo Rowling did give us Pottermore, that I'm getting to beta-test! Woot!
As she walked up to the owlery, all the snow melted off the ground, she watched her feet, her blue, denim high tops scraping the ground precariously. She hadn't felt normal for three days, she always felt awkward, but nothing compared to this. The sad part was in the one year that she was finally growing into herself and feeling comfortable with herself, this happened. From inside the owlery, she heard yelling, and stopped in her tracks.
"You can't do this! You've got to get better marks then he does!" A scottish girl's voice rang out.
"He helped me with the dragons! It's only fair," That was Cedric Diggory for sure, so that would make the girl Cho Chang.
"But you've got to beat him, he's fourteen, and he's Harry Potter," Cho said again, and Cynthia began walking forward towards the owlery.
"He deserves a fair chance!" As Cynthia walked into the stone tower, they both fell silent and turned to look at her.
"Hello Cedric," Cyn said rather quietly, and then nodded at Cho.
"You alright, Cyn?" He asked politely.
"Erm, yeah, never been better," She said, tying the piece of parchment to her owl Holmdel, and then petting his feathers slightly.
"I'm sorry about your father," Cho offered, half-smiling.
"Thanks," she muttered as she left the owlery, walking quicker than she had before.
"So have you decided then?" George asked as she sat daintily on the couch, squeezing herself into the corner with her legs closed tightly.
"Decided what?" She asked feebly.
"Are you going to come spend the summer with us?" He asked impatiently.
"Yeah, I just sent an owl to your mum," she'd not made eye contact with anyone since her father's body had been found, and still found it hard to even look at people's faces.
"Great! thanks!" he said, and she nodded, looking at the floor, faking interest with it. "Cyn?" She looked up abruptly then winced.
"Mmhm?"
"Are you okay?" He asked, his voice lower now, more caring, and less attention grabbing.
"I will be," she said, standing up and retreating to her dorm room.
The excitement for the second task filled the air thickly as everyone trudged out to the shore of the Black Lake. In the middle, standing sixty feet out of the water, was a large platform, that looked a lot like a deep sea oil drilling rig. The three flags of the schools represented hung on the platform, like awnings covering a building being renovated. As Cynthia silently clambered aboard one of the boats that would take students out to the platform, she flicked her wand absent-mindedly, accidentally setting fire to one of the oars. After quickly putting it out, George caught her eye and smiled, but then just looked down at her knees sheepishly.
As soon as they reached the platform, the twins started yelling at people to get bets, and Cynthia slowly climbed the stairs to the top of the platform, where she pushed to the front of the crowd and leaned over the bars, getting a good view of the murky water, which had been temporarily cleared, below them. She was clad in her special-order red and yellow high tops, black jeans and red and orange Gryffindor sweatshirt with the name 'POTTER' scribbled across the front, as she assumed all Gryffindors would be dressed. She was quickly proven wrong though, as Mathilda came up wearing a yellow sweatshirt with the name DIGGORY, written neatly across the front and back in black lettering. She also had yellow and black streaks in her hair.
Five minutes passed and soon it was time for the champions to stand at the edge of the platform. Fred and George finally came up to the top of platform, holding a tin that made more noise that the screaming girls, as it was so full of gold. Soon, the champions were diving in to the roar of the crowd.
"YEAH HARRY!" George screamed loudly from right behind Cynthia, he had both of his hands on the back of her waist.
Thirty minutes into the task, Danny tapped George on the shoulder, and he stood back from Cyn. "You ready, Cyn?" He asked, and she looked up at him, tears glistening in her eyes, and nodded.
"Where're you going?" George asked turning away from the water, and Fred followed his twin.
"M-memorial," Cynthia said, as quietly as she could over the deafening crowd. George nodded, and pulled her into a hug, his lips brushing against the top of her head, and Danny looked away, crossing his arms. Fred smiled and nodded at Cynthia, and she pull him in for a tight hug too, catching him off guard.
"I'll be back by Monday, if.. if it all goes well, I suppose," she said, and then ducked into the crowd, following her brother.
"So what's this I hear about you and Megen Jones?" Cynthia asked. Even if she wasn't cheerful, she didn't enjoy the silence that had fallen between her and her brother.
"Nothing, nothing at all, how-how do you know about that?" He asked, the color draining from his face.
"Aria," she said as if it was an obvious answer to a dumb question.
"Oh, well, there was something, or at least, I assumed there was something, but apparently Cedric Diggory is more important," He said scowling.
"Oh, is that why you're wearing a Potter sweatshirt?"
"Yeah, please don't tell me you actually think I was doing it because I supported Harry? He's a nice guy and all, but Hufflepuff needs this, we've not have any glory in centuries!"
"So you're wearing a Potter sweatshirt because you're jealous of Cedric because Eloise is more interested in him than you?"
"No, well yes, yes, I'm jealous of Ced, but I'm wearing the Potter sweatshirt because I want Eloise to realize I'm independent from her."
"What? I'm confused!"
"Okay, Eloise and I were dating, but then she got interested in Cedric because he's the Hogwarts champion, and I got really jealous because it seemed like she wanted Cedric to ask her to the dance, and we got in a fight in the common room and broke up, and I've been trying to get her back for a while now, but it's not working," She recognized this story, and for the first time in a while, she laughed. She burst out laughing and laughed until tears were falling down her cheeks.
"Are you seriously laughing at me?" He asked.
"No, no, no, absolutely not! It's just that, oh God, are all guys this clueless?" She asked.
"I'm sorry?" He asked.
"No, no never mind, you just, no, you don't need to know, oh, that's rich, oh, where's mum meeting us?"
"Entrance hall, she says you can apparate on your own if you'd like,"
The familiar tightening sensation of apparition encompassed Cynthia, and as soon as it disappeared and she opened her eyes she recognized her house, but it was covered in an awning and with black lace surrounding it. Her heart sank and she was hugged tightly by her sister.
Sitting in her and her sister's old room was a comfort to Cynthia. She pulled a pillow into her lap and her sister asked, levitating a charm from her charm bracelet idly, "So how's George?"
"He's fine, he and Fred have been making good money off of bets for the Triwizard tournament,"
"Oh that's nice, has he been treating you okay?"
"Well, besides being a giant git over the whole Yule Ball thing, yeah, he's been really supportive, even though I've been really cold towards him lately,"
"Oh, right, and he's not pressuring you into anything, is he?" Patti asked, eyeing her younger sister. For a girl of only 25, Patti did seem infinitely more mature.
"What do you mean?"
"You know, into that, you know?" She said, dodging the word.
"Oh, no! No! No! You know Fred has, with his on/off girlfriend Angelina, and I can just tell George is really jealous, but no, he's not really said anything about that,"
"That's really sweet of him, Zak used to tell me how hard it is for guys, being pressured into that sort of stuff," she made the charm jump, and then twirled it gently, "Do you think you two will ever get married?" She asked in a daydreamy sort of voice.
"I don't think I'll ever get to my NEWTs, thanks."
"Oh but seriously, Cyn, you've been dating for what, a year and a half now?"
"Two years on December tenth," she muttered.
"Alright then, do you think?"
"I don't know! I'm only seventeen! And besides, his birthday isn't for another month and six days!"
"So? Zak and I knew in year 5, and look at us now!" Cynthia sighed, she wasn't going to win this, "I don't even know if I want a wedding, after seeing how much mum freaked out over the price of yours and everything about it, I don't think I want to get married, I'm terrified of what she'll do!"
"Oh come now, she wasn't that bad at my wedding, sure she overreacted to a few things, but she wasn't terrible."
"She set your dress on fire because she didn't like the design of the beads," Cynthia said, raising her eyebrow.
"Well, that was unavoidable really."
"She tossed the cake out the window."
"Oh I forgot about that,'' Patti said, looking up at the ceiling.
"And she called Zak's mum an ignorant whore because she wanted the bridesmaids dresses to be slightly shorter."
"She did?"
"Yeah, I thought you knew."
"No, I didn't." She said through gritted teeth.
Dressed in a black pencil skirt, black button up and black blazer, complete with a black pill-box hat, Cynthia stood in front of the full length mirror in her room, pulling on black suede high heels over her tights. She had not cried yet, and she wasn't planning on it. As soon as the service was over, she was going to change, apparate into Hogsmeade and then make her way back up to the castle. Danny would come with their mother on Monday, Cyn felt no need to stay here, she always hated her house anyways, never really calling it home.
The memorial was sad, but not once did she cry. Relatives came to her and told her how grown up she was, and several of the older and more persnickety ones told her it was a shame she never turned out as pretty as her older sister. The more down-to-earth older ones said that that was unfair to say, as Patti had really only become beautiful as a young adult, and Cynthia was perfectly beautiful now. Either way, she didn't care, she wanted to get out. Her father wasn't even there anyways, her mother had already buried him two days perviously, and this was just a memorial.
As the sun slowly started falling in the sky, Cyn ran to her old bedroom, changed into her jeans and sweatshirt, and disapparted, not bothering to say good-bye to her mother. Her walk up to the school from Hogsmeade was quiet and calming, and once she reached the gates, she needed only to wait for five minutes for Professor McGonagall to fetch her. McGonagall said very few words to her, only did her usual half smile, said good evening to her, and allowed her in, her sweeping cloak nearly tripping Cynthia up as they silently walked into the castle.
Up in the Gryffindor common room, the noise level was louder than it'd be in a while, and she was embraced by Mathilda, who pulled her into a seat by the fireplace. "Did you read the Prophet this morning?" She asked, a very urgent tone in her voice.
"No, I was slightly pre-occupied, uh, do you mind if I go say hi to George and Fred?"
"Rudolphus Lestrange broke out of Azkaban, and the ministry thinks him and Sirius Black are in league now. Moody and Dumbledore were fighting about it this morning at breakfast, it got pretty intense, Moody wants to train all of us better curses, and focus more on the Dark Arts, but Dumbledore wants him to focus on defensive magic. It got pretty heated but McGonagall calmed them both down. It was insane, the angriest I've ever seen Dumbledore."
"Great, tell me more in a second." She stood up and made her way towards George and Fred, who were talking to Ron, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. "You're not still taking the mick out of him for that whole dancing thing, are you?" She said loudly as she stood behind Fred, who jumped, "Well you're easy to scare." She deadpanned.
"Bye Ronniekins," they both said in unison, as George practically tackle-hugged her.
"I'm not doing that to you, don't expect it," Fred said after George had let her go, upon hearing her threaten to hex him if she fainted.
"No problems there." She said snarkily.
"Well you're in a much better mood," George said, scrutinizing her face.
"Yeah, I realized that spending less than a day with my family is a lot worse than being here."
"And why's that?" Fred asked.
"They can't possibly be worse than us." George said, an evil grin on his face.
"Because if I have to hear myself compared to Patti one more time, I'm going to scream," she said angrily, "Oh you know by the time Patti was your age she was already engaged! Oh gosh, Patti was so beautiful when she was seventeen, but I'm sure you'll come along, dear. It's amazing that Patti was able to plan a wedding and still get top-marks on her NEWTs, but I'm sure you'll do okay on your NEWTs. Oh you know Patti's just gotten invited to have dinner with this exclusive society? You'll get there one day, Cynthia.
Oh Cynthia, you remember how sweet Zak was when he was your age, remember how they got engaged then? Oh and how's your boyfriend doing?" She said, imitating various family members' voices, "Ugh! I absolutely can't stand it! I'm sorry I'm not pretty-little angel Mrs. Patricia Linda Harrison, I'm sorry I forget it was completely normal to get married while you're still at school!" She threw herself dramatically down onto the sofa.
"Patti got married while she was at school? I don't remember that." Fred said seeming pretty interested, what a change.
"Yeah, but I didn't know you then, actually I didn't know anyone then, I was still terrified of talking to any of you," she said running her hands through her hair.
"Oh right, oh, I remember how much Fred, Lee and I used to make fun of you in class," George said.
"Thanks, that's really uplifting that is."
"Well at least I'm not lying and sugarcoating it!" He said defensively.
"True, but not great timing on your part. So I take it, judging by the lack of Hufflepuff hatred in this room, Harry won the last challenge?"
"Nah, Ced won, but Harry got awarded second for moral fiber." George said.
"And who did they all have to bring up?"
"Well, Fleur Delacouer was supposed to bring up her sister Gabrielle or Grace or something, Harry brought up Ron. Cedric brought up Cho, and Krum brought up Hermione,"Fred answered.
"Hermione Granger?" Cynthia asked, very shocked.
"The very same,"
"No kidding, they went to the Yule Ball together, didn't they?" Both twins nodded, and Cynthia sat back on the couch stretching her arms out above her.
"You're still single, are you not?" Zacharias Smith, the Hufflepuff chaser, asked Cynthia at breakfast. "What difference does it make?" She asked loosening her tie. "Well you're not with that Weasley, are you?"
"As a matter of fact, I am, and anyways, you're a bit young for me," she said, turning back to her cereal, as Fred laughed and hit his brother.
"Were you really going to ask her out?" George asked, looking genuinely concerned.
"No, absolutely not, no, no, um, no, her brother told me to ask for him, besides, she's scottish, not of the Scots are good looking here, it's all about the irish." He stormed away, and Cyn choked on her cereal as George said to his twin, "Methinks he doth protest too much,".
"What did he say about Scots not being good looking?" Outraged, she sent the Hufflepuff table an angry glare.
"It's bullshit, everyone thinks Oliver Wood is good looking, don't they?" George deadpanned.
"Thanks, what am I doing to get all this kindness lately?" She said sarcastically.
"What? I thought you were english!" George deadpanned yet again.
"You're lucky you never met my dad, he'd've skinned you alive for that comment, and you're very lucky I'm not!"
"Brother, I think you've just been threatened by a girl half your size," Fred said, his eyes still on Cynthia.
"Indeed I have, think she'll keep her word on it?"
"I don't think she will, George."
"Right, bugger off you too, now if you'll excuse me, we have an exam in transfiguration we have to study for, and I'd rather like to pass it."
Sitting at as desk in the library, Cynthia groaned as a girl of Beauxbaton girls giggled and swarmed around some Hufflepuff boys, she couldn't tell who they were, with the girls constantly in her field of view. Several times Madam Pince hushed them, but moments later they were back to their same volume. Unable to concentrate, Cynthia shut her book and stormed up to the common room. What a waste of her free period.
She grabbed her bag from her bed and started heading down towards Transfiguration, calming herself for the test. Slowly reviewing everything she needed to know in her head, she slipped into the classroom, several minutes early, and sat at her desk, pulling out her textbook and reviewing more.
The exam was surprisingly easy, as were most exams for Cynthia, so it shouldn't really have been surprising. But the look of anger on Mathilda's face as she walked out of class nearly made Cyn cry of laughing. "That hard?" She asked as they walked through the transfiguration courtyard.
"Oh please tell me you at least struggled." She waited a moment to reply and then said, bursting into a grin, "Terribly hard, couldn't understand two words of it."
"You're horrible," Mathilda said, shoving her hard.
The days until June twenty-fourth, the day of the final task, slowly ticked away, and April came and passed, with a small birthday party for the twins in the common room. The day of the final task was a bittersweet one, as it was the last day of school, and everyone was excited for the task, but sad to leave their friends.
Dressing in red and gold, and painting red and gold streaks on her face, Cynthia sighed and looked at the dorm room around her. Everyone had packed up their stuff, and nothing was on the walls.
But it wasn't until she was walking out to the quidditch pitch hand-in-hand with George that she felt truly sad. "Last year is our last year, isn't it?" She asked rhetorically, admiring the grounds like she hadn't since her first year.
"Yeah, no real loss though, is it?" He said, and his twin nodded in agreement.
"How can you not feel sad at all? We've spent nearly seven years here!"
"Oh don't you get all sappy on me! It's just school!"
"Well that's easier for you to say, you actually liked your home!" She said defensively.
"What d'you mean?"
"Oh I hate my house! With my mum skulking about back there. Silly old bat," she said shaking her head angrily as they climbed up the newly-added bleachers on the quidditch pitch. Both Fred and George looked equally shocked and angry when they saw the twenty foot high hedges that were all across the pitch.
The Hogwarts band started playing, and the champions ran out onto the field. Roars came from the Gryffindors as Harry ran out onto the field, and George and Fred tossed red sparklers into the air.
Dumbledore made the usual speech about what the task was, how Cedric and Harry would be going first, and that eternal glory awaited them at the end. Rolling her eyes as the twins yelled loudly after Harry who was walking slowly into the maze, she pulled out a book. "Are you really bloody reading?" George asked, sitting down after Harry's form disappeared in the hedges. "Look, we're going to be here for hours, might as well do something useful."
"You're insane, you know that? Insane."
"Thanks," She said sharply, redirecting her attention to the book.
The sun rose in the sky and ran it's course, and soon the sun was setting over Hogwarts. after around four-thirty, Fleur Delacouer was brought out of the maze, to the disappointment, and in some cases, horror, of the Beauxbatons students. As five o'clock drew nearer, several bangs were heard from over in the castle, but for the most part they were ignored, with people just assuming they were coming from Hogsmeade, or reporters coming to get the story.
When the clock struck five-thirty, there were louder bangs, and they lasted longer. Much longer, some of them lasting several minutes. All eyes were on Dumbledore and McGonagall, who were talking hurriedly behind the Gryffindor side of the bleachers. This action was enough to force Cynthia to put away her book, which was actually her second of the day. Craning her neck to see, like the rest of the house, she tried to understand what the two teachers were saying, but was at a complete loss.
It wasn't until Madame Maxime started gathering all her students together, and taking them to their carriage, that the Hogwarts students started worrying.
