PART 5-FEVER

Brooke had gotten lost, in all her years at Hogwarts, including first year, she had never gotten lost but somehow she had. The last thing she remembered was going towards Transfiguration, and then looking down to try and find where she'd stowed her wand in her bag. When she had looked up she was in a corridor she didn't recognize in the slightest. While trying to find her way out of the corridor she was sure she had gotten herself even more lost; she was now walking down a very cold corridor that seemed to run deep into the castle. She wrapped her arms around herself and continued down the corridor which was growing steadily darker since it obviously wasn't bad enough already.

Not knowing what else to do Brooke turned around and hoped retracing her steps would lead her out of the dank, dark, corridor. She fixed the straps on her backpack better, as it was slipping down her back, and when she looked up she screamed when she noticed someone in front of her. Once her eyes adjusted she noticed it was George and breathed a sigh of relief.

"George!" Brooke said, throwing her arms around him. "You have no idea how good it is to see you." she unwound herself from him and saw he was grinning. "What?"
"You got lost," he said smugly, and Brooke folded her arms.

"There's a first for everything."

"I have a perfect sense of direction," George began mocking Brooke. "I've never gotten lost in my life and I doubt I could."

"Shut up, George," Brooke said, punching him in the arm playfully. "How did you find me anyway?"

"Do you remember the Marauder's Map?"

"Of course, you gave it to Harry."

"Well, I asked Harry to let me use it since I was somewhat worried about your lack of attending class."

"Awe, you were worried about me, how sweet."

"Would you like me to lead you out of here?"

"Please, and do you happen to know where 'here' is?"

"Well it's near where the Slytherin common room is that much I know."

Brooke shivered still cold from the corridor's freezing temperature, George looked down at her, seeing as he was quite a few inches taller than her, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She felt herself warm up almost instantly and for some reason she had the feeling it wasn't just because of George's body heat, and even more strangely she felt herself blush at that thought. When George turned to look at her she quickly turned away hoping he hadn't seen her flushed cheeks, she couldn't understand what was wrong with her. George was one of her best friends, why was she acting like she liked him? He was almost like a brother, they'd grow up together all their lives and here she was blushing because he wrapped an arm around her. When Brooke looked back up again she saw that they were in the entrance hall and George unwound his arm from around her.

"I've never been happier to be standing in the entrance hall," Brooke said, her thoughts back to normal now that George wasn't touching her.

"Glad to be of service," George said, bowing and Brooke giggled.

"How many classes have I missed?"

"Just first hour and right now second hour is halfway through."

"I'm curious about something, if you came to find me why didn't Fred?"

George opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again; Brooke looked at him oddly as he never had problems answering a simple question. He scratched the back of his head then went to speak again but before he could a cold voice ripped through the silence.

"Ditching class are we?" came Filch's voice, and Brooke groaned.

"I got lost," said Brooke, turning around to face Filch. "And, George, here came to find me so I wouldn't miss anymore classes."

"You expect me to believe that, ha!" Filch hobbled forward and looked between the two. "Whose class should you be in now?"

"Snape's," George said, and Filch chuckled.

"Well, we'll take you to his class then and let him give you the proper punishment, follow me, the both of you."

Brooke sighed and George fell into step beside her as they followed Filch down into the basement and into potions. When he opened the door the entire class, including Snape, turned to look at the three of them.

"I found these two wandering the halls, they said they were lost," Filch said grinning widely, Snape folded his arms.

"I allowed Mr. Weasley to go and find Ms. Cole," Snape said. "It seems Ms. Cole got lost on her way to class today and Mr. Weasley had finished his potion."

Filch's grin turned into a scowl and he turned around and walked away saying something unintelligible under his breath.

"Have a seat the both of you, Ms. Cole, I'll need to see you after class," Snape said, then turned to the board and Brooke took the empty seat by Angelina and George joined Fred. As there wasn't much of the class left, the rest went by quickly and while everyone was packing up to leave, Brooke threw her stuff in her bag and waited till they had all gone. She then approached Snape's, desk not exactly sure what he was going to do about her missing most of his class.

"It is hard for me to believe, Ms. Cole, that you got lost seeing as you have never been late once to my class," Snape said, staring hard at her.

"Shouldn't that mean it's more believable, I've never been late but because I got lost I was late this time?" Brooke asked.

"Considering you have never once missed my class and that you are maintaining a higher grade than most I will not give you a detention. However, I will allow you to come in later tonight and make up the potion you didn't do if you wish to complete it."

"Yes, I'll be back tonight, I'd really prefer my grade remain high in this class."

Snape nodded and Brooke turned around and left, having to run to make sure she'd make it to her next class. Fred and George were in almost all of her classes and they were in this one, which was Divination. She plopped down between then tossing her bag beside her as she did.

"He didn't give me detention," she said breathlessly.

"How did you manage that?" Fred asked.

"He let me off considering I've never been late and I have one of the highest grades."

"Way too much work for me," George said, and Brooke rolled her eyes.

"I can't believe he let you come find me, why do you think he believed your story at all?"

"I think he believed more that you wouldn't miss his class," said Fred.

"I will be going back later tonight to make up for missing the potion."

"You're very strange, Brooke, you actually want to do more school work."

"I want to keep my grades up unlike the two of you," Brooke chastised.

"We love school!" Fred and George said in unison, Brooke merely rolled her eyes again then turned her attention to the teacher. The rest of the day went by rather quickly and Brooke stopped off at the common room to drop her bags in her dormitory. First she went to Defense Against the Dark Arts to explain her missing the class earlier. Then she headed back to the dungeons and walked into Snape's classroom. He was sitting at his desk and Brooke walked over to him, he gave her the instructions for the potion before she went to a cauldron. She began cutting up different ingredients and hummed a song quietly as she began to make the potion. It took her a half hour but finally the potion was finished and she saw that she had done a fairly good job. She poured some into a vial and then cleaned up the potion; she walked back over to Snape and handed him the vial.

"Goodnight," Brooke said, to him and he inclined his head in return. She left the Potion's room after that and found Fred outside waiting for her.

"Fred, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I wanted to let you know why I didn't come find you earlier," said Fred.

"Well lets walk and talk then, it's almost time for dinner."

"Alright," said Fred, and they began to walk but rather slowly from the Potion's class. "It was nothing that big really, me and George did rock, paper, scissors and he won because he was rock and I was scissors."

"That's it?" asked Brooke.

"Yeah."

"Well, if that was it, why did George find it so hard to tell me?"

"I don't know, you'll have to ask him."

Brooke looked up at Fred and saw he was refusing to look at her, as she was looking up at him she didn't realize she was getting closer to him. His finger grazed her hand and she felt a warm shiver run up her spine and immediately blushed. She couldn't believe this was happening again, twice in one day and with two different people. What was wrong with her? She couldn't understand what she was feeling and she hated that whenever this happened she couldn't think straight. Her mind got all jumbled and she lost any train of thought she had been trying to muster.

"Are you okay?" Fred asked. Brooke nodded and was relieved to see the great hall in front of her. Once she stepped inside with all the other people her mind cleared and she could think straight again.

"There's George!" Brooke said, and walked over to him with Fred behind her, she sat down between them as usual.

"How was potions?" George asked.

"Just lovely, I think I did a rather good job," said Brooke, and she saw him and Fred look at each other, what was going on with them lately? "Oh look, Dumbledore's about talk."

Brooke turned and looked up at Dumbledore, he began a long speech about the tournament then turned to the Goblet of Fire which spit out a piece of paper. Dumbledore grasped it in his hand, then shouted.

"Hogwarts' champion is……Cedric Diggory!"

"That pretty boy?" George said. "The Goblet must want Hogwarts to lose."

"Be nice," Brooke said elbowing George. Then another paper shot out and landed in Dumbledore's hand.

"Beaxbaton's champion……Fleur Delacour!" shouted Dumbledore.

"Brilliant! Now we'll be able to stare at her more," said Fred.

"Nice thinking, Fred," George said.

"You two are ridiculous," said Brooke. The last piece of paper shot out of the Goblet and landed in Dumbledore's hand once more.

"Lastly, Durmstrang's champion……Viktor Krum!" Dumbledore shouted.

"Seems a bit unfair for a big lug like that to be against pretty boy and mademoiselle Delacour," George said.

"I think we know who the champion is going to be," said Fred.

"You guys really need to get a life," Brooke said, rolling her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time that day. Just then another piece of paper shot out of the Goblet and Dumbledore took it, he read it twice.

"Harry Potter," he said and everyone's eyes shifted to Harry as he tried to hide behind Ron. "Harry Potter!"

Ron finally pushed Harry up and everyone followed him as he walked up to Dumbledore then went off the stage following the other champions.

"Maybe the Goblet's not out to get us after all," Fred said.

"Yeah, two champions are definitely better than one," said George.

"It's an unfair advantage you two," Brooke said.

"You are very correct but at least now we have a chance of winning," Fred said.

"I swear, one day you two are going to realize how difficult you are."

"One day, Brooke, but it's not going to be today," said George.

"Obviously."

"A dagger right in the heart, Brooke," Fred said grasping his chest, and once more that day Brooke rolled her eyes.