Alya sat at the kitchen table next to Mr. Weasley while Mrs. Weasley stirred porridge in a large pot.
"Alya? I thought you couldn't come to the World Cup?" Fred asked, looking at the girl sitting at the table with sleepy eyes.
"How are you awake so early?" George asked, slumping in to a chair next to her with a yawn.
"I'm not, Freddie. It's easy to get up if you go to bed at a decent hour." She replied, giggling at the sight of the sleepy twins. She didn't feel like bothering them with the nightmare she had that caused her to wake up so early.
"Where're Bill and Charlie and Per-Per-Percy?" George asked, failing to finish his sentence without yawning.
"Well, they're Apparating aren't they?" Mrs. Weasley started serving the porridge. "So they can have a bit of a lie-in."
"I shouted at you before you left!" Mrs. Weasley had started to sob. "It's all I've been thinking about! What if You-Know-Who had got you, and the last thing I ever said to you was that you didn't get enough OWLs? Oh Fred… George…"
Alya stood in the door, watching Mrs. Weasley hug the twins, wanting nothing more than to run over and hug them herself. It wasn't until Mr. Weasley finally pulled the woman off the twins that Alya managed to move at all. Until that moment, she and Mrs. Weasley were convinced that they had been killed. As Mrs. Weasley was lead back toward the kitchen, the small blonde girl ran forward and hugged the twins, forcing herself not to cry, with much difficulty.
"Have you been crying?" George asked when she finally let go and they started back to the house. The twins had never seen her cry and forgot that she could.
"I thought you were dead…" She muttered in response.
"They can't do that!" George said, standing up to glare at Dumbledore. "We're seventeen in April, why can't we have a shot?"
"George…" Alya muttered, trying to pull George away from the table.
"They're not stopping me entering," Fred was also scowling at the table where Dumbledore was. "The champions'll get to do all sorts of stuff you'd never be allowed to do normally. And a thousand Gallions prize money!"
Alya just looked over at him and rolled his eyes, knowing that trying to talk them out of wanting to enter was absolutely pointless.
"Yeah," Ron said, looking completely zoned out, "Yeah, a thousand Gallions."
"Oh dear, you too?" Alya muttered, starting to walk to out of the Great Hall, wondering if the twins would follow.
"Honestly, boys, this is silly." Alya sighed, watching George enter the circle after Fred. She wasn't surprised as they got thrown out of the circle by some invisible force and sprouted identical white beards. She joined in the laughter before she walked over to the twins to accompany them to the hospital wing.
"Dumbledore is smarter than you give him credit for." She said after Fred and George were beardless again. She was still giggling, visualizing the twins' beards in her mind.
"Oh shut up, Aly." Fred muttered as they walked out of the hospital wing.
"Good job, Harry!" Alya said, walking up to where Ron, Hermione and Harry were sitting. "Everyone's really proud of you!"
"Oh, thank you Alya." Harry replied before Lee Jordan picked up the golden egg. She walked away, feeling rather lost with so many people around. She heard several people tell Harry to open the egg and within a minute the room was filled with a terrible noise that made Alya clamp her hands over her ears.
"Shut it!"
"You both are terrible." Alya muttered as Fred and George teased Hermione about her wanting better conditions for House-elves. "Hermione, I think what you're doing is fantastic!"
"Thank you, Alya. It's just not fair; they have feelings as much as we do!" Hermione replied, looking over at the blonde girl now. The two girls ignored Neville turning into a bird.
"Ignore Fred and George, they can be gits sometimes."
"Oi! Angelina!" Fred called across the common room. Angelina looked over at him, "What?"
"Want to come to the ball with me?"
"All right, then," She replied with an appraising sort of look. She turned back to Alicia and they continued their conversation.
"There you go," Fred said to Harry and Ron. "piece of cake." He yawned and got to his feet, "We'd better use a school owl then, George, come on…"
"So who are you going with, Alya?" Ron asked after Hermione had left, looking over at the girl who stuck around after Fred and George left.
"Huh? Oh, uhm…" She looked over at Ron and smiled a bit, her cheeks going slightly pink. "George."
"Fred and I were right! You do fancy him!" Ron exclaimed suddenly, grinning at Harry who looked slightly lost.
"You prats." She muttered, standing up with a sigh. "By the way, I think you should ask Hermione to the dance." She said before she went off to go to bed.
"You look beautiful." George said as Alya walked down the stair case, the bottom of her pale blue and white dress dragging slightly behind her.
"Thanks, Georgie." The girl replied, her cheeks slowly getting redder. They were waiting for the doors to the Great Hall to open. Just as the two had found Fred and Angelina, the doors opened to let the students in.
"So, Aly." George said, looking over at the girl next to him. He was still amazed at how fantastic she looked. "Fred told me that you fancy me."
Alya's face turned pink. "That prat…" She mumbled, looking down. She was shocked to hear George laugh. She looked up, "What?"
"That was adorable." George replied simply, smiling, "Before you go to murder Fred, I should say he didn't actually tell me. You did."
"You're dead, Weasley, I swear to Merlin." The blonde mumbled, glaring at the boy from under the hair that had fallen over her face. "I'm going to kill you, I really am."
"Oi, you didn't even hear everything I had to say!" The red haired boy protested, putting his hands up. "I like you too, Alya."
"W-what?" Her head shot up, looking him in the eyes to try and decipher if it was some sort of prank. "George Weasley... If this is some sort of prank, I swear.."
"No prank, promise." He looked at her earnestly before grabbing her hand and pulling her gently to her feet. "Let's get out of here."
"Uhm, excuse me." Alya piped up when the trio left the owlery, "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you talking about Fred and George..."
"You must know what they're doing!" Ron said as soon as she finished talking, looking at her hopefully.
"That's just it. Usually they would tell me, even if it were against the rules or the law…" She replied, looking somewhat upset.
"I'm sure they'll tell you eventually, Alya!" Hermione said, noticing the expression she wore. Alya smiled and looked up.
"Well, I'll be sure to tell you if it's anything bad. If they tell me, that is."
"I'm sorry about him." Alya said softly, standing outside of the compartment watching as Ron, Harry and George moved the three Slytherin boys out of the way.
"It's not your fault he's an annoying git." Harry said as Alya made her way in to the compartment, sitting next to George.
"Nah," George replied goomily, "Nothing like that. Stupid git. He wouldn't have the brains."
"Well, what, then?" Ron asked.
"You remember that bet we had with him at the Quidditch World Cup? About how Ireland would win, but Krum would get the snitch?" Fred said.
"Yeah."
"Well, the git paid us in leprechaun gold he'd caught from the Irish mascots."
"So?"
"So it vanished, didn't it? By next morning it had gone!"
"You…" Alya muttered, glaring at the twins, seeming at a loss for good enough insults. "I was worried you two were doing something terrible! That's all it was about? All the secrecy was about some gold you didn't get?"
"Sorry, Alya. Next time we won't leave you so out of the loop." George said, looking at the girl somewhat fearful.
"Lucky I don't tell your mother…" She mumbled, leaning back against the seat and listening as Fred and George explained the rest.