PART 4-EVERYBODY'S FOOL
"Ugh, look at this!" Brooke said, shoving the schedule at George's face. "We're lucky enough to have our first day back at school with the Slytherins."
"That's one way to smother any joy of coming back to school," George said, pushing the schedule away.
"Are you saying you were looking forward to another year, George?"
"Not me personally but I know Fred couldn't stop talking about it."
"Couldn't stop talking about what?" Fred asked suspiciously, as he walked into the common room.
"About how much you enjoy school of course," George answered.
"Don't believe these horrific lies, Brooke!"
Brooke giggled at Fred, and George pulled his brother towards him.
"Come on, Fred you, know you couldn't wait for Binns class."
"And you couldn't wait for McGonagall's, the whole school knows you have a crush on her."
"How'd they find out?" George asked, with a fake worried look on his face.
"Come on you two we really should be getting to class," Brooke said, shoving her schedule into her backpack.
"Why do you keep reminding us?" Fred and George asked in unison.
Brooke rolled her eyes at the twins then left the common room taking the memorized route down to Herbology. She was one of the first to arrive and Professor Sprout welcomed her back and Brooke returned the welcome.
"Brooke!" a voice called out from Brooke's left, she turned and saw Angelina Johnson making her way towards Brooke.
"Angelina! How are you?" Brooke asked when Angelina was standing beside her.
"Great, I've been made the new Gryffindor captain!"
"Wow, Ange, that's brilliant!"
"I can't wait to tell the twins, have you seen those two trouble makers about yet this morning?"
"Actually I have, in the common room this morning they should be getting here at any moment."
"Well, while I have you here how was your summer?"
"Great, me and my family went up to see my dad's parents for the first time, they weren't as terrible as I was expecting them to be."
Angelina was just about to ask a question but the twins filed into the greenhouse along with a group of other Gryffindor students and Angelina said goodbye and walked over to them. Brooke turned around and looked back at Professor Sprout who was reading over papers, then the worse part of the morning came when the Slytherins walked inside pushing Gryffindors aside as they did. After rolling her eyes Brooke leaned back against one of the long stone planters and did her best to ignore the Slytherins. One of the Slytherin girls however didn't know how to leave well enough alone and walked over to Brooke with a smug look on her face.
"You're that little girl I knocked over at Hogsmeade station," she said, smirking.
"That was you? Here I was thinking it was some massive pig," Brooke said, smiling sweetly, the Slytherin girl scrunched her nose and made to make a move closer to Brooke but the twins interceded taking a place on each side of Brooke and stared down the Slytherin. No longer wanting to mess with Brooke now that she had backup the girl turned around with a "humph" sound and walked over to the Slytherin group.
"What was her problem?" Fred asked.
"She's a Slytherin, I think that about covers it," answered Brooke. "Thanks for coming to my rescue even though I was nowhere near being a damsel in distress."
"We never consider you to be anything close to that, Brooke, but three sets of fists are always better than one," George said, winking.
"I'll agree with you there," said Brooke, and then Professor Sprout told the class to quiet down as class had begun.
"What do you guys know about this Tree-Wizard Tourasomething thing?" Brooke asked out the side of her mouth, as she uprooted some type of yellow spiked cone looking plant which she then tickled over a bowl which caused the plant to ooze a pink goo out of its pores which dripped into the bowl. She then began to replant the pink goo plant into another pot as she waited for either of the twins answers.
"The Tri-Wizard Tournament, Brooke, it's basically this competition that took place many years ago and it's always done with three different schools. No one knows what the competitions are but we know there are three and only one person from each school can partake and they have to be 17 or older," answered George, saying the last part bitterly.
"But me and George are working on finding a way around that, aren't we, George?" Fred asked.
"That's correct, Fred, we'll find a way."
"I won't doubt you, after all I know what you're capable of," Brooke said, grinning, she turned back to her plants and began to uproot them hoping not to get any of the pink goo on her robes. She went through the whole rest of the day happy it was the first day of school as teachers didn't give homework on the first day, homework started on day two. She had been unlucky enough to get a glob of pink goo on her robes and everyone kept asking if it was gum everywhere she went. When class ended in Binns with the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws all groggy and half asleep as they left, Brooke really felt like Hogwarts had begun. She walked back up to the common room where she dropped her bags off in her room then sat in front of the fire watching as the other Gryffindors came and went, she tried to figure out why she hadn't seen Fred or George yet but didn't worry about it.
When dinner rolled around Brooke stood up and walked down into the dining room, Fred and George were already present sitting at the table and holding a place for her. She walked over to them and sat down.
"Come with us after dinner, we're putting out name into the Goblet," Fred said.
"What Goblet, Fred?" Brooke asked, piling food onto her plate.
"The Goblet of Fire, people put their names into it and then the Goblet spits out of the names of the competitors for the tournament," George said.
"I thought no one under 17 could enter."
"We're not just anyone, Brooke."
"That you aren't."
They all ate their food quicker than was necessary but Brooke couldn't wait to see what happened when the twins put their name into the Goblet of Fire. She was finished first and the twins just stopped and stood up pulling Brooke with them as they walked into one of the previously empty rooms of Hogwarts but now it had benches and a big silver Goblet sitting on a stone pillar in the center. Brooke noticed Fred and George's brother, Ron, sitting on the bench next to Harry Potter and a girl the twins mentioned as Hermione who was friends with Ron and Harry. She walked over to the three and sat down next to them as Fred and George began on their plan.
"Hey, Ronnakins, how are you, handsome?" Brooke asked, kissing him on the cheek, she liked to tease him and call him cute names because it always made him blush and just as usual he blushed a bright pink.
"Good, just watching people put their names into the Goblet," answered Ron.
"Harry, Hermione, it's wonderful to see you two again, I expect you're keeping a keen eye on sweet Ronnakins here right?"
Harry and Hermione smiled and nodded; Brooke smiled back before standing up and walking back over to Fred and George as they were stalling. As she left she heard Hermione speaking to Ron.
"You turned very red there, Ron, do you like her?" Hermione asked.
"Of course not, Hermione," said Ron.
"Could have fooled me."
Brooke chuckled and continued to walk over to Fred and George, Ron was so adorable.
"What are you laughing at?" Fred asked.
"You of course, I'm trying to figure out what this stalling business is all about," said Brooke.
"We're not stalling; we just misplaced the vials in George's bag."
"Hand it over."
George put the bag into Brooke's hands; she dug around for a few minutes then pulled out two vials and handed them to the twins.
"There you are," she said.
"Much thanks, Brooke, now stand back while we work our magic," George said, and Brooke took a few steps back and watched as the twins turned to each other shouted "Bottoms up" twisted arms, drank the vials, then jumped inside the age line surrounding the Goblet. Nothing stopped them, they cheered, and Brooke clapped as they put their name into the Goblet, they began to dance around smugly again and then the fire turned bright red and spit out their papers before they began to grow long gray hair and beards. Brooke found herself laughing so hard she was bent over with tears in her eyes and trying hard to catch her breath. The boys began to tussle and she walked over them the best she could as she was still laughing and tried to pull them apart but they only pulled her to the ground and all three began to wrestle. Brooke finally pulled herself free and forced them both to stand and she was finally able to stop laughing.
"I like the new look, boys, you definitely look old enough to cross the age line now," Brooke said, chuckling a little.
"Ha, ha," Fred said sarcastically, and pulled at his beard.
"I doubt Madame Pomfrey would fix this seeing as it's self inflicted," said George.
"There's no harm in trying, come on then," Brooke said, walking them out of the room and up to the Hospital Wing. "Madame Pomfrey," Brooke called, and Madame Pomfrey walked out of her office. "Can you do anything for them?"
Madame Pomfrey looked at the boys then made a "tsk tsk" sound with her tongue before walking over to a cabinet and taking down a bottle of pink goo from her shelf.
"That isn't what I got from the cone looking plants this morning is it?" Brooke asked.
"Yes it is, Dumbledore had me have the school harvest it for this exact reason, he didn't know how many students would try this," answered Madame Pomfrey, she poured the pink goo into two cup and handed them to the boys. "Drink it all down then."
The boys looked into the goo suspiciously and Brooke made a drinking notion with her hand and they rolled their eyes, plugged their noses, then drank down the liquid. They coughed and made a sort of gagging sound but their beards and hair began to shrink until their hair was the right length and no hair from the beard was present.
"If either of you try that again I won't help you next time, now get off to your common rooms before it gets too late," Madame Pomfrey said, shooing them out. Brooke followed the boys out of the Hospital Wing, then up to Gryffindor house, and into the common room. They each took a seat on a piece of furniture and looked into the fire.
"I wished I'd gotten a picture," Brooke said, smiling. "Your mum would have loved that."
"Personally, I'm glad you didn't," Fred said.
"You would, now don't tell me you're going to try again?"
"Can't, not enough time to think up a new plan the winners are going to be chosen tomorrow night," said George.
"How terrible," Brooke said sarcastically, standing up and stretching. "Well you two I'm off to bed we're actually going to have homework tomorrow."
"Homework?" Fred asked. "What is this homework you speak of?"
"Yeah, I've never heard of it," George said.
"Ha, ha, goodnight, sweet dreams to the both of you."
"Only when you're in them, Brooke," they both said together, and Brooke stuck out her tongue at them as she walked up into the dormitories.