Whenever Skye knew she was in trouble, she skulked up to the library attic. It wasn't a huge space, but it was just big enough to be comfortable in, the two of them. Jemma had charmed it during third year to only let the two of them up. This was their hiding place, and that's what Skye was doing now. Hiding…or rather, lying in wait and hoping Jemma would find her. She held an ice pack against her bruised cheek and a shredded copy of the day's paper next to her. Her knees were pulled all the way up to her chest and she was hiding under a blanket, not that anything could save her now, especially a silly blanket.

Finally, after hours of waiting, the door in the floor cracked open and Jemma climbed up, carrying another copy of the awful paper in her hands. She wasn't here to comfort Skye, though, she was too peeved. She was angry. Angrier than she'd ever been at her girlfriend.

She would usually never yell in a library, not even in the attic of one, because it was a sacred place, but today was an exception.

"What the bloody hell is this?!"
"…the Daily Prophet," Skye mumbled, hiding her face in the blanket, not wanting to look Jemma in the eye. She felt a sharp pain hit her in the top of the head before she swiftly moved back to the attic wall.

"Hey, ow!" Skye saw the rolled up paper in Jemma's hand. She had actually hit her. To be fair it was just newspaper and it hadn't hurt that badly, but still!

"You're an idiot!" Jemma yelled, throwing the paper at the floor and pacing a few steps. "You're such an idiot…" She mumbled again, quieter this time. This didn't mean she was through, though.

"You were never even mad about the time turner, were you?!" Jemma started. She had a lot she needed to yell at Skye about before she could even think about forgiving her. "You were just going to let me think I'd done something wrong, when really, you were being stupid and jealous! Again! Did you not learn anything from what happened with Fitz?!"

This is the part Skye had wanted to avoid. The big bang that inevitably came whenever she was jealous. She hadn't spoken to Jemma for two weeks when she had first started seeing Fitz more, but the brunette didn't think that would even to compare to what she was about to listen to.

"You attacked someone, Skye!" Jemma continued, snatching up the paper from the ground again and shoving it in Skye's face. Plastered on the front was a never ending moving picture of the punch Skye had thrown at Bobbi's face underneath the headline "Triwizard Triangle".

"First you were jealous again for absolutely no reason, and then you lied to my face about it!"

"Only because you were going to yell and call me an idiot, like you're doing right now!"

"Stop it, Skye! Stop making dumb excuses!" Jemma actually threw the paper at her this time, and Skye moved to the side just enough for it to barely clip her shoulder before smacking into the wall behind her.

"You put your name into the Goblet of Fire! You signed your own death certificate and you didn't even bother to tell me!" Something in Jemma broke. She'd been furious, she wanted to take her anger out on Skye, but she just couldn't. She was mad, but she was also terrified and worried as hell.

"You idiot…" Jemma cried. Her voice cracked and she turned away so Skye wouldn't see her pathetic tears. She needed to stop crying. It was basically her response to everything, and it never accomplished anything.

"I hate you so much," Jemma sobbed, finally letting the dam break loose. She tackled Skye, wrapping her arms around the other girl's neck and refusing to let go.
Skye had been preparing for something very different, and when Jemma tackled her back it only took a second for her arms to wrap tightly around the smaller girl. Her features softened. She wasn't out of the woods, but the fireballs had stopped raining down and the trees weren't on fire anymore.
"Jems…I know I'm an idiot, I'm sorry," Skye breathed and kissed the side of the girl's face. "Trip and I dared each other…it-it was a stupid prank…I wasn't…" She sighed and held the sobbing girl. She wanted to cry herself. What had she gotten herself into? A trio of dangerous tasks where young witches and wizards had been notoriously known to be injured and even killed. Even the headmasters were at risk sometimes. Jemma was right. She was an idiot. She had signed her own death certificate.

"I love you, Jemma…I'm so sorry."

"Idiot…" Jemma mumbled again, not being able to come up with anything else to say. She clutched the material of the back of Skye's shirt tightly in her balled up fists and let her tears stain her shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, I got that," Skye grinned halfheartedly and just let Jemma hold her. If this was going to get all of the girl's frustration out, then she was going to let her do it. Seeing her face when Jemma had run out of the dining hall after the announcement had hurt more than anything in the tasks could. Skye sighed and kissed the side of Jemma's face again, rubbing her hands up and down her back to try and calm her down.

When Jemma finally gained control of her emotions, the crying died down to an occasional sniffle. There was nothing they could do about it now, Skye had to compete, whether they liked it or not. She pulled away from Skye just enough to give herself room to wipe away the last few tear streaks on her face with the back of her wrist.

"The first task is on Halloween. We better start getting you ready." She said emotionlessly. She felt a little hollow inside, and she didn't know what to think about it.

Skye sighed and crossed her arms. Jemma was trying to separate herself from the situation already, now that she had calmed down and could think without throwing something at her. Skye did not like this version of Jemma, although she knew it was her own fault.

"I don't have to get ready now," she countered quietly and gently grabbed for one of Jemma's hands. "I'll be fine. I get through quidditch okay, and you patch me up nice. You're the smartest witch at this school, Jemma. I'll be able to tackle anything." Skye knew that outside help wasn't allowed for the champions, but she also knew that they always received it anyway. Figuring things out and playing the game was part of the tournament now, as much as the task itself. What went on outside of it was just as important.

Normally, Jemma would squeeze Skye's hand right back, but at the moment, her touch just felt overwhelming. She pulled away gently and looked down at the wooden floor.

"I'll- I'll go find some spellbooks for you to start with. You don't pay attention in class, so you probably don't know enough." Jemma swallowed and headed straight for the exit. The door creaked again as she opened it, and she stared at it like it was the most interesting thing in the world. She just didn't want to look at Skye's face, because she knew her walls would crumble.

Skye watched her go before her gaze fell to her hand. It was empty of course, Jemma had just left. She didn't want spell books…she wanted Jemma's time turner to go back and fix what she had messed up. But she didn't think that's how it worked. Jemma was right, she didn't know enough. She was an idiot, and so she brought her knees back up to her chest and sat under her blanket in the attic of the library by herself.

October snuck up on Jemma and Skye faster than either of them were expecting or prepared for. It was beginning to get cold out, and Jemma missed when she and Skye actually enjoyed their time together. Almost every minute they spent in the same room was dedicated to making sure Skye learned as many helpful spells as possible. They still hadn't addressed the growing issue of the limbo their relationship was stuck in. They were together, but they weren't.

"You should go over these again," Jemma sighed. She flipped open an old book to a page of particularly challenging spells and placed it in front of Skye on the library table. They hadn't even been using the attic recently, it was further away from the books and therefore less convenient, no matter how much comfort it had given them before.

"Jemma, I'm tired. If I cast any more spells my wand is going to snap in half out of defiance," Skye groaned when she looked down at the book. The words looked complicated and she didn't want to read them. She put a hand on the book and shoved it away. "At least let me eat something. All my spare time doesn't have to be preparation for Halloween. I don't even know what it's going to be, so how can I even prepare? I can't…just leave it alone," the brunette grumbled and held her chin in her hands as she looked over the library. There weren't many students in yet, of course it wasn't finals season so there wouldn't be. Skye wanted to focus on other things, like trying to get her and Jemma back to normal. It was awful, this in between shit that was going on, but every time she brought it up Jemma just shoved another book in her face.

"Of course, we can take a break for a few hours." Jemma gave in. She was exhausted. Her schoolwork alone left her tired, but now she spent even more of her time searching for spells that might help Skye in any way. She shouldn't have expected Skye to be able to study for so many hours straight, she just didn't have that kind of focus.

She reached for the book in front of Skye, slipped a ribbon inside to mark the page, and tried to find a place in her bag where it would fit. She was pulling out different books, trying to figure out if there was any way she could make them all fit. In her frustration, she let one of them fall to the floor, and it fell open, scattering papers everywhere.

Jemma groaned and quickly tried to gather up the papers. She'd stuffed them in the book because she didn't want to see them again; they had horrible grades scrawled on the top by her professors and sometimes notes to see them after class.

"Finally…" Skye sighed in relief and pushed her chair back from the table. She let Jemma take the book away from her and watched her try to put it into her bag. It made Skye smile because it wouldn't fit. She simply had too many books. She always had too many books, but that was Jemma. Even over the summer she had a stack of them from floor to ceiling that she had to read before classes began again, and she would always finish them. Skye thought it was adorable.

Her light mood didn't last long when the papers spilled and she caught sight of the grades scattered across the floor.
"Jemma…" Skye leaned over and grabbed some, looking at them for a quick second before she handed them back to the Ravenclaw. She was overworking herself. Between already having too many classes and now having to help Skye try to not get killed, she was slipping behind. It was Skye's fault she was falling behind. If she hadn't put her name in that stupid cup then everything would be fine. It was her fault.

"Jemma, you can't keep helping me like this," Skye said, firmly this time, trying to get the point through her girlfriend's suddenly thick skull. "You're not even doing well in potions. Jemma, you love potions. Helping me is too much. You can't do it, I won't let you. You need to focus on your classes…"

"Don't be silly." Jemma interrupted her. She was embarrassed that Skye had to see those grades. The brunette was probably already stressed out enough with the whole having to compete in a deadly competition thing, she didn't need to know about this. "Trying to save your life comes before classes." She mumbled, not entirely sure Skye could even hear all of it.

"Enjoy your break." She said sadly, stuffing the old assignments into her bag. She had a paper to write, and the library just didn't feel like a good place to do it anymore. She'd been hiding out in the Ravenclaw common room to do her homework when Skye wasn't studying and she wasn't helping Bobbi. She wasn't sure what the hell was going on between them, but Bobbi was her friend too, and she couldn't let either of them get killed when there was something she could do to help.

"Fat chance of that…" Skye grumbled and got up from the table to pick up her bag, which was full of other books Jemma had given her to study, and slung it over her shoulder. She didn't feel much like being in the library either at this point, and she didn't dare try to go to the attic. All she would do up there was wallow in her own guilt. She would drown in it. She would grab a sweet roll from the dining hall, or two, and go find Trip. If she couldn't talk to Jemma then he was the one to go to. She needed to clear her head. Maybe they could go flying. She hadn't been on a broom since the practice before her name had been called. She missed quidditch, and the bumps and bruises it brought, even if it made Jemma worry, because at the end, Jemma would always be there, patching her up and kissing all her bruises. At this point, if she even made it through the first task, she doubted Jemma would even go get bandages for her if someone asked. She deserved it though.

"We'll meet back here in two hours?" Jemma suggested. She blinked a few times, trying to fend off sleep. It had been clawing at her for days, trying to drag her down. Now was not the time, she had a lot to do today. She was going to utilize the two hours she'd just gained to work on her paper. She had a study session set up with Bobbi later that evening as well.

"Yeah," Skye nodded, fiddling awkwardly with her bag. Jemma looked exhausted. Really they both did, but Skye wasn't the one using a time turner to make it to all of her classes. The least she could do was use it to grab some sleep for a couple hours, but Skye figured that fell under the abusive privileges area, and Jemma didn't break rules.

She left then, not wanting to keep up with their strange idle chatter. It wasn't them. Once, they had been able to sit in silence and be completely fine, albeit the silence did not last long because Skye's attention span was much too short to focus on anything for more than a couple hours at a time. Maybe that's why she found studying these spells so hard.

Skye stopped by the dining hall as she had planned and grabbed two sweet rolls and a container of pumpkin juice. Trip would probably appreciate a snack as well. Jemma hadn't been the only person helping Skye out. Thanks to trip, they had found a secret room to practice all the spells that not even the other Champions could get into. That was because they wouldn't be able to find the door. It was a good way to keep them from spying on her tactics, and from other people constantly asking her how she felt being the Champion, or other stupid questions Skye didn't want to answer.

He called it the Room of Requirement, and apparently it turned into whatever sort of room the person before the door needed it to be. He had been walking by the wall, trying to think of how to help Skye, and the door had just appeared to him. When he entered, it was a vast open room, full of nothing. Perfect for spell casting. Nothing to break, but plenty of room to test. She didn't tell Jemma about it because it was the one place she could go to now and just…release all of her stress. She could caststupefy all she wanted till her arm and wrist were sore and talk to Trip about everything. He tried very hard to be helpful. He hated seeing her and Jemma apart in such an awkward place just as much as she did.

When Skye made it to the hall, she quickly checked to make sure that no one was watching, and she willed the door to come forward. When it did, she slipped inside quickly, and the door vanished on the outside wall. Trip was waiting for her on a large couch. It was the only other object in the room. After weeks of having nowhere to sit, he had willed it into existence the next time they opened the door.

"I have good news for you," Trip said, a wide grin on his face. His hands were behind his back, hiding something from her view.

Skye's solum face cheered up for a moment, wondering what he could have brought her to study this time.

"I took a stroll past the restricted section in the library, and spied this. I thought it could help you," He held out a thin, old worn black book to her. The title had long since been rubbed away and the pages looked frail.

"You're going to get in trouble for that," Skye warned, taking the book eagerly and flipped through the pages. She stopped on a random one, looking at the thin paper and the worn words on it.

"Sectumsempra…these sound intense, Trip. Thanks," Skye smiled and sat down on the couch with him, shutting the book and setting it aside. "These might just give me the edge I need. Jemma is bringing me a lot of spellbooks, but a lot of them are defense based. I think I know at least five different spells to summon a shield of something. Most of it is studying. Anything and everything. Not even spells sometimes. Here, learn this plant, it could poison you, here look at this creature, they could use it." Skye sighed, "These will be a nice change."

"You won't be afraid to use them? I looked through the book and some of them are pretty dark. No unforgivables, but still, they're not good," Trip commented as Skye passed him a sweet roll and the container of pumpkin juice.

"I need every advantage I can get. If I have to use rough offensive spells to complete the task then I will. I'm not scared of my father's blood. I can handle it," Skye assured him, eating her own sweet roll now.

"Yeah girl, but can you handle the press when they see you using them? They're going to make the connection at some point, you need to be ready," The Gryffindor boy warned one last time.

"It'll be fine. Only Jemma knows, and she won't tell anyone. I can control myself around dark spells. I won't slip."