Chapter 8 – Alchemy
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"Hi." I smiled as I leaned my head against Cedric's shoulder, stifling a yawn.
"Hey." He chuckled. "Are you holding up okay?"
"Yeah, but I think I'll need to turn in early tonight."
"Winnie." Cedric's voice so serious I took my head from his shoulder and glanced up at him. "I know you have trouble sleeping since the Cup. I felt you twisting and turning all night. Want to tell me about it?"
"I don't want to talk about it here." I said as I casted my eyes down. Cedric cupped my cheek lightly.
"Come on." He pulled me up by my hands.
"What? Where are we going?" I asked as he pulled me back out of the great hall. Cedric ignored the question and took me down the steps. He stopped before the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room.
"Go up to my room, I'll be there in a minute."
"Alright." I said slowly, taking him in. He gave me a wink before he headed towards the painting of the kitchens.
I walked in the empty common room and went straight to Cedric's room. I kicked off my shoes and said cross legged on his bed. I took Orion from my shoulder and put him on my knee. I tapped my wand against my lips thinking about what to make for him. In the corner of my eye, I saw a lost shoelace. I summoned it to me and transformed it into a large branch, placing the Moke on it before I put the branch on the floor next to me, giving it an invisible barrier around it. Just as I placed the little Moke on the floor, Cedric walked in, carrying food and drinks for the both of us. He hopped on the bed next to me and laid out the spread he brought on the bed.
"So, do you want to tell me?" He asked as he unwrapped a sandwich.
"Have I ever told you what happened to my grandparents?" I asked not taking my eyes away from my own sandwich.
"They died, didn't they?"
"Hmm, they were murdered. In their house by death eaters, by men or women in the same black hoods as at the Cup."
"I'm so sorry." He wrapped his arm around me, pulling me close.
"The thing is... me and my brother were there when it happened. My grandparents had put security charms around the house and when the alarm went off, they hid us bellow the staircase. But there was a crack in the wooden panels, I could see everything. I saw how they blasted out the front door, how my grandfather tried to protect my grandmother. The flash of green blinded my eyes and my brother tried to hold me back, but it was too late, I saw them die in front of me. I saw the hooded figures laughing as they stood over their bodies." The tears started to flow freely, and Cedric pulled me down, so I could rest my head on his chest as he slowly traced circles on my back, whispering reassuring things in my hair.
When the tears stopped, I hugged him tight. "Thank you for listening."
"Anytime, love." He kissed the top of my head. I looked up at him and our eyes locked, one hand cupped my cheek.
"Wasn't there something you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Not important now, love. Later." He said as he caressed my cheek. I pushed myself up and placed a kiss on the corner of his mouth.
Cedric's eyes widened, he could barely restrain himself from kissing her properly, but he knew it wasn't the time for it.
I lowered my head again and rested it back on his chest, my grip on him tight. "You can always come to me if you can't sleep."
"I know." My voice soft as I started drifting off to sleep.
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"Winnie." Cedric's voice woke me up. "We have potions, we don't want to make Snape mad at us on the first day."
I groaned in his chest. If it was any other class, he would've stayed in bed with her, relishing the feel of her on his chest, but Snape would have their heads if they didn't show up.
"Okay, I'm up." I said, my eyes still closed, not making any move to get up.
"Guinevere."
"Diggory." I prolonged his name, but I looked up grinning at him.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thanks." I sat up straight in bed and smiled, Cedric reluctantly followed my movement. "I'll just go put Newt in my room, then we can get going."
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I was sitting in the great hall the next day, enjoying my lunch with Cedric, Odin and Lyra when two hands landed on her shoulders. George leaned down next to my ear and whispered.
"Ready to go?"
I looked up at him in surprise, before a smile appeared on my lips.
"Go where?" Lyra asked as Cedric glared at George.
"We have Alchemy together." I said standing up, putting my bag over my shoulder.
"They actually let the class happen?"
"Well, there are enough students, so why not." I shrugged. I picked the last piece of bacon from Cedric's plate, giving him a wink when he tried to poke me with his fork. "I'll see you guys later."
I turned and followed George out of the great hall. Four sets of eyes on us, three at the Hufflepuff table and one at the Gryffindor table.
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"And that's why you need to tell her." Odin said breaking Cedric's gaze from the doorway.
"Tell her what?" Lyra asked looking between them. "Oh, that he's madly in love with her." She grinned at Cedric.
"What!? Odin-"
"I didn't tell her anything." Odin held out his hands defensively.
"It's pretty obvious." She shrugged as she scooped up some oatmeal. "But Odin's right, it looks like both Weasleys have a thing for her."
"Yeah, I know. They don't really try to hide it either." Cedric mumbled as he stabbed the eggs on his plate.
"No offence Cedric, but should they try to hide it? Gwen is single. I'm surprised neither of them asked her out already."
Cedric didn't answer, his eyes fell back on the doors where Gwen disappeared through.
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George and I were walking on the third floor as we made our way to the very first lesson of Alchemy of the year. We stopped at a previous empty classroom, the door was still closed, and no other students had arrived.
"Who's going to teach us?" George asked, trying to open the door.
"Don't know, it didn't say on the timetable." I took it out of my bag to check it.
"Then we'll just have to wait and see." He turned and leaned against the door, looking at me. I hummed and leaned next to him against the door. "So..."
"So..." I smiled back up at him.
"Tell me something about yourself."
I looked at him surprised. "Alright." I chuckled. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything obviously." He grinned. "But let's start easy. Do you have any siblings?"
"Yes, I have an older brother. Does this mean I get to ask you a question too?"
"Shoot! I'm an open book."
"Okay, so I know all of your siblings. So, my question is... Are you really trying to enter the Tournament?"
"Well, yeah. The prize money could help us with our dream."
"And that is?"
"Open our own joke shop." The ever so confident Weasley twin, looked down at his feet. Afraid of what her reaction might be, if she was like his mum and thought it was stupid.
"That's brilliant, George! It's actually perfect for you two." I smiled proudly at him. "The things you invented are truly amazing."
"You haven't seen the half of it." His confidence present again and gave me a cocky grin.
"Well, maybe you have to show me one day." I locked my eyes with him. George got a bit flustered, the tips of his ears running red. He rubbed his neck as he looked at me, clearing his throat.
"I can do that. Now I can ask you two questions." He grinned.
"Lay them on me, Weasley."
"Alright." He rubbed his hands, making me feel nervous but that wasn't the case. "How come you have so many nicknames?"
"My brother started with Gwen. Then Lee called me Jenny, I don't know why, you should ask him that. And Cedric came up with Winnie. He's actually the only person, besides his mum that calls me that."
"Why Winnie?"
"It's from a muggle Cartoon named Winnie the Pooh. I had a teddy bear of him when I started Hogwarts, just a way to comfort me. And that's when he started calling me Winnie."
"That's cute. I can already see it, you cuddled in bed with a teddy bear."
"Hey!" I slapped his arm. "No teasing."
"I'm not teasing!" He grinned teasingly. "I'm going to dream about that, not when you were eleven but now, cuddled up in your bed with Winnie the Po.
"Pooh." I corrected him and needed to cover up a blush.
"Pooh, sorry. Winnie the Pooh." He pushed himself of the door as he saw an unknown man walk up. He was really young, mid-twenties maybe, his green eyes stood out on his dark skin.
"Good afternoon, mister Weasley, miss Northon." He smiled as he opened the door with a wave of his wand. The two of them followed him in the dark lit classroom. The professor opened the curtains as he walked to his desk. George and I shared a glance, seeing no one followed us in.
"Uhm, professor? Where are the other students?"
"The others?" He asked turning around, leaning against his desk. "Oh, yeah. It was supposed to be a group of seven, but I looked into everyone who applied and you two were the only ones that seemed suitable for the subject."
"Is the class being dropped?" George asked, putting his bag on the desk on his left.
"No, Professor Dumbledore already hired me for the upcoming year, so it will just be the three of us, every Monday and Friday afternoon for three hours. Please sit down." He gestured to the desk in front of him. George and I sat down next to each other and looked up at the new professor.
"Let me introduce myself first. I'm Professor Nakate, Abbo Nakate. You can just call me Abbo. I went to school in Uganda, to Uagadou. There is where I studied Alchemy before I did an apprenticeship under Natukuna Apio, the most known Alchemist in Africa. I'm 26 years old and I moved to England last fall. Now you two tell me three things about you. George?"
"Oh, right. I'm George Weasley, twin of Frederick Weasley." I snorted at that. "I play beater in the Gryffindor quidditch team, I'm an inventor and are planning to open my own shop, with my twin."
The Professor hummed as he quickly jotted some things down on a piece of parchment, before he looked over to me.
"Well, I'm Guinevere Northon, you can call me Gwen. I'm a metamorphagus, I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do when I graduate, and I met Nicholas Flamel when I was about five years old."
"You met Flamel?" George gasped.
"Yeah, my mum had to bring me to work, and it was just on the day she had to visit the Flamels. That's when my interest grew in the subject." I shrugged.
"Great, now... what do you know about Alchemy?"
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The three hours went by quickly and George and I were reminiscing the class already the moment we walked out. We decided we would go to the great hall already because it wouldn't be long before dinner started. The doors were still closed when we arrived. George pushed the doors open and walked in, I hesitated at the door.
"Come on." He grabbed my hand.
"Are we allowed?"
"The doors were unlocked." He shrugged, dragging me with him to the Gryffindor table. I sat down next to him, and we both turned in our seats, straddling the bench so we faced each other. "So, my next question-"
"Nope, my turn. You asked two remember." I elaborated when George looked confused. "You first asked why I had some many nicknames, then you asked why Winnie." I grinned.
"But that was part two of question one." He whined.
"It doesn't work that way." I laughed, my voice echoed through the great hall.
"Fine." He pouted. "Your turn then."
We were still firing questions at each other as the great hall started to fill up. The Gryffindors looked confused at the Hufflepuff at their table, but no one said anything. I was laughing so hard I had to hold my side when Fred and Lee walked in. They both looked surprised at the laughing duo at the long table. Cedric wanted to walk past them but stopped when he saw what they were looking at. I felt eyes on me, looked up and saw the three of them looking at us. I smiled broadly and gestured them over. Cedric hesitated before following Fred and Lee to the table. The two Gryffindors plopped down in front of us while Cedric stood behind them nervously.
"Hey Ced, come sit."
"I - We should sit at our table." He pointed to the table covered in yellow.
"It doesn't matter, we sat at the Ravenclaw table more than once last year."
"Yeah, sit down, mate. We'll tell you all about our Alchemy class."
Lee looked behind him and pulled Cedric down between him and Fred just as the food appeared on the table. George and I dived into the story about the Professor, that they were the only two in the class and everything Abbo had showed us. I pointed him out when he arrived at the teachers table in front of the great hall, making the girls in the great hall swoon over him.