In the days leading up to the thirtieth all anyone at Hogwarts could talk about was the Triwizard Tournament. Evie didn't find the topic nearly as interesting as her peers though, and the only topic surrounding the Tournament she would even bother to comment on was how the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang might differ from the students of Hogwarts.

She found that topic to be particularly interesting. She knew a few things about each school, less about Durmstrang than Beauxbatons since they preferred to shroud themselves in secrecy. They were known for being very wary of the outside world and emphasizing the student's Dark Arts studies. The very idea of that made Evie a little nervous to see what they students might be like.

In preparation for the other schools, the castle itself also underwent some changes. It began looking tidier with each passing day, and each day the castle got cleaner Filch got angrier. He even managed to reduce a few first year girls to tears one day as they walked in from their morning lessons.

Filch wasn't the only staff member to become tense with as the week leading up to the arrival of the other schools came to a close. McGonagall lost her cool on Neville when he accidentally placed his ear on a cactus he was supposed to be performing a Switching Spell on. After that lesson Evie and Hermione promised to help Neville practice.

Finally the morning of the thirtieth arrived. Evie awoke earlier than usual. By the time she finished her shower Lavender and Parvati were up and in the bathroom as well.

Evie usually liked to be one in the bathroom before they woke up because if she and Hermione weren't they would not be able to use the mirror. Evie huffed a bit at finding the two had also woken up earlier than they usually did because she really needed to brush out her hair but the counter in front of the mirror no longer held her brush, it held the usual array of makeup supplies Lavender and Parvati brought to school for special occasions. Not that it mattered because they both were also scrunching themselves into the mirror in order to do their makeup together.

Sighing in frustration Evie walked into the room the four shared and found Hermione waiting for her. "Why are they up so early?" She grumbled instead of her usual 'good morning'.

"They said today was special and they wanted to look good. I think Parvati said, 'Beauty takes time'." Hermione rolled her eyes. Then looking over her friend she asked, "What are you going to do with your hair?"

"I'll just toss it up." Evie looked down at her wrist and realized her elastic had also been on the counter in the bathroom. "Never mind, I took off my elastic when I showered. It's probably wherever they tossed my brush."

"But you've got your locket on; didn't you take that off when you showered?"

"No, I never take this off." Evie's hand went protectively to the locket her mother had left for her.

"Not ever?" Hermione asked in shock.

"No." Evie shrugged. "Dad told me to keep it safe and never take it off, so I haven't."

Hermione looked as though she was about to say something, and then thought better of it. "We should hurry. Want me to dry your hair at least?" She offered, keenly aware that the morning's events had set Evie in a bad mood.

"Yeah, thanks." Evie sighed. Hermione flicked her wand, drying Evie's hair for her and then the two finished dressing quickly and rushed down to the common room. For once Harry and Ron were waiting for them.

"Your hair is down." Harry said in shock instead of his usual morning greeting.

"Yes, it is. Lavender and Parvati took over the bloody bathroom and I lost my elastic." Evie snapped.

"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Ron mumbled. Evie shot him a look that dared him to say something else. Ron was smart enough not to though.

"Let's just get down to breakfast." Hermione smiled warily. Harry and Ron nodded as they eyed Evie with hesitation.

Evie noticed these looks, and though she also recognized that she was taking out her frustration on her friends she was still too irritated to apologize. Instead she huffed and led the group down to the Great Hall. When they got there, however, Evie was too surprised by the new look to remember just how upset she was.

Overnight the Great Hall had finally received its makeover. Silk banners representing the four houses hung from the walls leading up to the professor's table where the largest banner of all hung. It was purple with the Hogwarts coat of arms on it.

The quartet walked over to the Gryffindor table where they happened upon Fred and George. The twins were whispering quietly about trying to get a hold of someone who seemed to be avoiding them. However, when Ron started asking questions they both blew him off, refusing to answer anything.

Sensing that that particular conversation would go nowhere Harry changed the subject. "You two got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet? Thought anymore about trying to enter?"

George started answering Harry but Evie was hardly listening. She had grown tired of the Triwizard fever that had swept through her school. She had also shot Harry a death glare for encouraging the twins to continue to try to enter the tournament even though they weren't of age.

"Who are the judges?" Harry was asking when Evie tuned back in to the conversation.

"Well, the Heads of the participating schools are always on the panel." Hermione was explaining. Evie found she was even more annoying to hear that her best friend had also joined the conversation. For once she was actually happy when Hermione quickly turned the conversation back to elf rights.

That particular campaign had picked itself back up with a vehement new wind of vigor from Hermione's end. While Evie continued limited her own involvement to making scarves and such other things for the elves, Harry and Ron had done little else besides paying their two Sickles in order to receive their S.P.E.W badges. Evie honestly believed they had only done so to get Hermione off their backs. She, too, had paid her fee and received her badge. Despite all of their seeming lack of enthusiasm for the cause, Hermione was still excited that they were "members" and had gone to work accosting other students in the Gryffindor commons to try to recruit more members.

After Evie, Harry and Ron had received their badges Hermione badgered them to wear said badges, and once they had given in on that front, she proceeded to badger them to persuade others to join the cause. That seemed to be where all three drew the line. Evie was pardoned after she reminded Hermione that she was busy making things to free the elves, but Harry and Ron still got angry looks for not participating more.

Evie did have to give it to Hermione that she had managed to get so many students to actually pay for a badge. Though some of them, like Neville, had only done so to get her stop glaring at them, a few seemed to actually be interested in her cause. Most, however, thought the whole thing was a joke and simply laughed it off. Fred and Gorge had not been bullied into paying up for a badge and they didn't seem to care one way or another if Hermione glared daggers at them as they passed by.

"Listen, have you ever been down to the kitchens, Hermione?" George leaned into Hermione to ask. He had been the only boy to not pretend to be completely taken with his food or the fixtures.

"No, of course not," Hermione answered indignantly. "I hardly think students are supposed –"

"We have." George cut her off as he indicated to Fred and himself. "We've met them, and they're happy. They think they've got the best jobs in the world."

Evie gawked at George, wondering why he would start such an argument with Hermione when he, like all members of their current party, had been subjected to her fervent lectures at Percy over the last two weeks of summer.

They were lucky that Hermione never got to finish the lecture she was just starting because the owls came. Bernard dropped her usual weekly letter from her dad. He asked for an update on classes and told her to be sure she was on her best behavior when the other two schools showed up. Then he told her to try and be supportive of Cedric and that if he was selected as Hogwarts Champion he would be coming up when he could for the tasks. He ended the letter in his usual way, sending his love and when Evie looked up from it she realized Harry had also received a letter.

She caught enough of the conversation to understand that Sirius was back and he wanted Harry to stop sending Hedwig every time he wrote. After the letters arrived breakfast ended. By that point Evie wasn't nearly as frustrated as she had been when it began. Unfortunately her mood did nothing but worsen as they day dragged on.

In History, Binns was being especially boring, and for the first time ever Evie fell asleep in class. Of course, she was the only student Binns caught sleeping and he reprimanded her in front of the rest of the class. Her reprimanding woke Harry and Ron and they were saved the same scolding.

Then, in Charms, they were learning Banishing charms which are the exact opposite of Summoning Charms. Unfortunately, Neville had terrible aim and accidentally banished a cushion into Lavender, who in turn knocked into Evie which caused her to miss aim and banish a lit candle into one of the stacks of cushions. They caught fire almost instantly and Professor Flitwick had to rush to put them out.

By lunch Evie's mood was foul indeed. She walked down to the Great hall with her friends and silently seethed the whole way there. As she walked some people teased her for setting the cushions on fire and she could hear the story picking up speed as it swept through the student body. All of that did not improve her mood in the slightest. By the time she got to the table her appetite was lost and her mood was at an all time low, reminiscent of the time in first year when they had lost all those house points and pretty much secured Gryffindor's place at the bottom of the running for the House Cup.

It was because of all of this that, when Fred and George came and sat on either side of her and asked if she had really set something on fire, Evie snapped. She slammed her cutlery onto her still empty plate and stood up. "I'm going for a walk." She growled and stomped out of the Great Hall. Hermione called after her, but did not follow and Evie was grateful for that.

Heading outside the cold air instantly pulled the wind from her furious sails. Pulling her cloak tighter around her and ducking her head down, Evie trudged through the grass towards the tree by the lake that she, Harry, Ron and Hermione often sat under when the weather was warmer.

As she sat, close to the lake so as to not be under the shade of the tree, Evie looked out and emptied her mind. The lake was still and calm, nothing moved in the water and its surface only rippled from the wind sweeping over it. For a moment the day was silent, all students and teachers were inside eating, and no animals felt much like braving the weather for any reason. Evie's nose began to numb and she rubbed her hands together and then placed them on her cheeks to warm her face.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard, barely audible on the grass but loud because of the contrasting silence. Evie could tell it was multiple people, and they were heading towards her. Honestly, she had wondered how long it would take her friends to come for her, so she didn't bother to turn when they came up on either side of her. What did surprise her, however, was when she noticed the identical faces of two ginger sixth years in her peripherals.

Looking to her left and then right, Evie was greeted with identical apologetic grins. She waited for the twins to break the silence.

"So, we're sorry." George started.

"Yeah, Hermione told us you're having a crappy day." Fred continued.

"We didn't know. And we didn't mean to add to it."

"We were teasing, honestly."

"What can we do to make it up to you?"

"Nothing!" Evie looked between the two of them. "I don't want either of you doing anything against the rules and saying it was to make me feel better." She glowered at them both.

"We could do something not against the rules," Fred said.

"I doubt that." Evie's voice was humorless.

"Oh, come on, Evie."

"Yeah, we don't like this new temperament."

"Where's that sweet smile?"

"Gone. I lost it today and I don't think it's coming back for a while so you two might as well leave me be."

"Did that sound like a challenge to you, Fred?"

"You know, it did, Georgie." Then after receiving an approving nod, like they had just had one of their famous silent conversations, Fred whipped out his wand and said a spell Evie had never heard before. A single bubble appeared in front of her.

"Really? That's your brilliant cheer up move? It's a bubble," Evie stated deadpanned, though she was also a bit disappointed. Still holding on to her simmering frustrations Evie popped the bubble, only to have two more appear where the one had been. "Wha –" Evie looked incredulously at the twins, and then, as though trying to prove she could defeat the bubbles she popped the two floating lazily in front of her. The two bubbles instead became four.

As Evie stared at the four bubbles a conflict of feelings began brewing in her gut. She wanted the bubbles to die, but she also felt like laughing and screaming. She was mad at the twins and pleased with this endless bubble all at once. Not knowing which emotion to show Evie just kept popping the bubbles, sometimes angrier than others. She wanted to defeat the bubbles and she kept popping as Fred and George just sat quietly by and watched.

Finally, tired of trying to pop the bubbles, Evie stopped with a sigh. At some point she had stood up and she felt herself flop back down between the twins. At last taking in what she had done, Evie realized that they were surrounded by many bubbles. Looking at the sight before them, her face finally broke into a smile and then that deteriorated into a fit of giggles. She popped one last bubble and watched it turn into two, the smile growing wider on her face as it did.

Evie smiled at the two Weasleys. "Thanks, that was actually really helpful."

"Don't sound so surprised." George pretended to be insulted.

"Yeah, we can be helpful when we want," Fred added indignantly.

"Alright, alright sorry." Evie held up her hands in surrender. "So, how do you get rid of all the bubbles?"

George waved his wand and with a small counter spell all the bubbles were gone.

"Where did you two learn that anyway?"

"We invented it." Fred smiled proudly.

"Really?" Evie looked between the two in awe. "That's amazing. Really well done." Catching herself as she began to gush to the twins Evie cleared her throat. "I mean, it's alright," she shrugged and received knowing grins from the two boys. "So…" she said, changing the subject. "What are you two so bothered about lately?"

"What d'you mean?"

"I've seen you huddling in corners talking real quiet like. We overheard part of your conversation today as well. Who's been avoiding you?"

"Bagman," the twins grumbled in unison.

"Ludo Bagman?" They nodded. "Why, what's he done?"

"We bet our life-savings on the World Cup."

"I heard."

"We won. We guessed that Krum would get the Snitch but Ireland would win."

"Alright?"

"He didn't give us our winning!"

"What?" Evie felt her anger levels rising again. "How could he do that? It's completely unethical!

"Yeah, well, we've been trying to write to him and get our money, but he hasn't gotten back to us."

"That's alright though. He'll be here for the tournament. That means we can corner him if we've got to. He can't ignore us when we're right in front of his face."

"That's right, he can't!" Evie agreed. Then coming back to her senses she sighed. "I'm really sorry, and thanks for cheering me up." She smiled.

"Any time," they said in unison again. Then both twins placed a kiss on either side of her head and the bell rang to signify the end of lunch.

The trio stood and walked back to the castle where they met Hermione, Harry and Ron. Waving to Fred and George the quartet rushed off to the dungeons and Evie was glad the class would be half an hour shorter than usual.