It was the day before the final task.
Classes were wrapping up, and nerves were running high for the final means to achieve eternal glory. Emeline could hardly contain her readiness to watch Harry succeed as the champion and looking forward to a summer holiday ahead filled with family, friends and perhaps, some more peace than had touched their lives in some time.
She was walking to Transfiguration, in a happy bubble, when George jumped in front of her and she let out a squeal of surprise.
"What are you doing!" She hit his chest playfully. He grinned and slung an arm around her as they continued walking.
"Just wanted to pop in and give you a thought: you, me, butterbeer. Tonight. Meet me in the common room again; 8 pm?"
"Is that an invitation or command?"
"Which one will work?" He quipped back.
"Invitation." She responded happily, holding her head high in playful banter.
"Alright then, M'lady. Care to join me at 8 pm?"
"It's a date."
George hesitated a moment, excitement twinkling in his eyes.
"Well, yes. A date. A second date."
"How many dates does one have before it's just a thing?" Emeline asked curiously, a smiling tugging at her lips.
"I guess you'll find out tonight." He replied, dropping her at McGonagall's class door.
She all but floated into class, a dreamy gaze in her eyes and excitement overflowing.
•
When evening rolled around, Emeline slipped into a comfortable pair of jeans and a slightly cropped sweatshirt. It was a deep purple that just met her waistline with long, cinched sleeves. She had her hair pulled back in a loose ponytail and her wand in her back pocket.
The way George talked sounded fairly lowkey, so she hoped she looked alright for his plans by the fire. Her stomach was a tangled mess of butterflies and anxiety.
Remus wasted no time with pulling her chain at the feeling of faded butterflies; she felt his laugh in her spirit.
Date, pup?
She rolled her eyes and he felt her playful annoyance.
Not now, doomsday
Whatever outside emotion of his joking she had felt was gone and she had a pang of guilt for being so abrupt with him.
She wanted to say sorry, but she felt a warm smile.
I know.
She headed to the Gryffindor common room then, trying to keep her breathing even. Her palms were clammy but her excitement was mostly joyful. George was waiting outside and pushed open the door for her as they walked to their favorite spot on the love seat by the fire. George had a small tray there with two butterbeers, chocolates and a small bouquet of fresh picked flowers - his signature.
She smiled warmly and hugged him. Breathing in her scent, he rested his chin atop her head.
"You look lovely, E."
"Thank you." She whispered, looking up at him as he bent down to kiss her.
"I wanted you to have one more night just the two of us before break, when family will be pestering us and summer will be blazing. I love these moments - just us."
"You're getting deeply poetic." She chuckled, moving to take her seat on the couch. He sat beside her and handed her a butterbeer.
"Just what you do to me, I guess." He grinned.
"Thank you for thinking of this; it's very sweet. I like our time together, just the two of us, too."
"Yeah, Freddie is a little jealous."
"I wondered when that may pop up." She laughed, grabbing one of the chocolate bon bons.
"These are great, where'd you get them?" She asked, reaching for another in a different color.
"Well, we made them."
Emeline snorted. "Who made them?"
"Freddie and me." He responded, rubbing the back of his head with a shy smile. George never seemed this nervous, she was taken aback by it.
"No way. They're amazing. Why are you, or rather when are you making chocolates?!"
"Well, see, we really want to focus on specialty gag items; exploding bon bons, love potions… I brought you the edible batch. Just some new flavors. You won't set fire or anything with these."
She nodded slowly. "Right… I'm still not following why or how this is a thing."
"Well," he stood to his feet, pacing a few times before standing in front of her and taking a deep breath. "When we're finished with Hogwarts we want to open a joke shop immediately and an edible line of prank related foods is a large part of it. We are in the marketing stage and hoping to sell them to students soon." He clasped his hands together and waited anxiously for a response.
Emeline took a moment to process this information. George had actually never told her what he hoped to do with his life. She can't say she wasn't curious, but she also couldn't say the question kept her up at night. He knew about her, though. He was, in fact, the only one who knew.
She desperately wanted to be a Healer one day, but feared her marks would never be high enough.
"George, that's amazing. You'd both do so well with that."
He looked so relieved it drove her mad (in the most positive way). He really cared what she thought that much?
"I'm so glad you think so. I was worried you'd find it silly."
She shook her head seriously. "No never! That's a wonderful idea. You have my total support, for whatever it's worth."
He sat next to her again quickly.
"It's worth a great deal to me." His eyes poured over with care for her. Her studied her features as he raised his hand to run the back of his fingers across her cheek. "Aside from Fred, you're my best friend Emeline. And I've loved this taking a turn to something more. I didn't want you to be blindsided or think that future was a silly thought if we think we'd like to stick together, you know? With you wanting to be a big shot at St. Mungos and all." He ended jokingly.
Emeline laughed and took his free hand.
"I'd love to stick together, if that's what we're calling this. And my marks will never allow for St. Mungos, it's a futile hope."
"Not for you. You're persistent. I know you could do it, you just don't believe you could."
"Perhaps."
He inched closer to her face, eyes staring into each other's for a moment before he pulled her in for another kiss.
"Perhaps." She agreed quietly, eyes still closed.
"I guess Fred and Angelina aren't the only official pair anymore, eh?" He grinned.
"I guess not." Came her response before closing the gap between them once more.
•
The evening passed peacefully once they'd made their way to their appropriate dorms. Emeline thought back to last year and holding the Marauder's Map, which she made a mental note to ask her father about when she saw him. It was rightfully his, but he had never mentioned it again since the night she handed it over. She smiled at the thought of him and Sirius opening it and keeping an eye on her through the term. Perhaps he had not used it much due to their connection being a solid communication of danger, but she still found the map intriguing.
She drifted off to sleep to those thoughts, looking forward to being a spectator tomorrow beside her father who'd promised to return, and Mr. Weasley and Diggory.
•
It was early evening, when classes were through, that the students were summoned to the grounds for the final task. Emeline followed the other students, in single filed lines, as they swarmed the spectators' spots. She felt a hand graze her own and smiled to see George walking as close to her as possible from his own line, Fred right behind him with an eye roll.
"Ready?"
"So ready!" She grinned, nervous excitement filling the air.
As she searched for a place to sit, George still trailing behind her, she sensed him before she spotted him.
"Hello, darling."
"Dad, hi!" She turned on her heel and hugged him quickly. He smiled down at her and moved to shake George's hand.
"Hi, Remus. Have a spot in mind?" George asked, surveying the arena of onlookers.
"Yes, follow me." They fell in line behind him, movingly quickly through the crowd, before George ran into someone, eyes fixated on the maze down below.
"Bloody hell, I'm so sorry!"
Emeline turned quickly as did Remus, who immediately moved to grab the book the student had dropped. As he straightened up, he met eyes with Calliope, her mother and father looking at them with disdain. Her father snatched the book from Remus' hands and Calliope offered Emeline a sad glance.
"I thought the only danger in this arena was the task at hand," her father said coolly. "Turns out, it's in the stands with us, Calliope. Come."
She stood frozen to her spot for a moment, and her father looked at her angrily.
Remus could feel the anger raging inside of his daughter. He felt nauseous and could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears, all responses that were long gone for him after years of enduring the same prejudice. He was worried he may need to reel her in once again, before his daughter locked eyes with Calliope's father and… smiled?
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Mr. Luft. It's a pity, really." She grabbed her dad's cloak and pulled him gently to follow her, George eyeing the family angrily as they passed by. Remus beamed with pride as he squeezed her arm.
Not far ahead, they found Arthur and Amos, waving them down as the canon went off prematurely. They all caught Harry's attention with encouraging smiles and cheers and sat next to the rest of the trio and adults. Fred was already seated with an open spot for George and two popcorns, offering Emeline one.
"How thoughtful." She laughed, grabbing the bag.
"I just thought I'd extend a kind gesture, you know, you two being an item and all."
Emeline's face flushed and she looked up at her dad sheepishly, knowing full well Fred's intention to embarrass considering both of their father's were on either side of her. George elbowed him in the side.
"What Fred means to say," George hurried with a laugh as he leaned over his dad and Emeline to Remus. "Is that I would like to ask permission to date your daughter."
"It seems you're already doing that, George." Remus laughed, patting Emeline's knee. She threw her face into her hands and Arthur grinned.
"Okay, then permission to announce it."
Everyone hushed him from the stands as his whisper was animated and fairly loud.
"Granted." Remus replied, straightening out again as Arthur and him shared a knowing look. George sat back in his seat and Emeline shook her head as she raised it out of her hands, moving on to silently eating her popcorn and not catching her father's eyes.
•
There wasn't much to see from the outside of the task until things started toward the end. Occasionally, they saw a spark or heard a reasonable spell shouted, but other than that, they were back to wondering what they wondered in the second task: how was Harry?
Amos was bubbling over with pride, chatting on and on about Cedric in there and the success he was hopefully having (all in good fun), he'd add.
They waited for quite awhile as they looked on.
Night was falling quickly.
Emeline shivered slightly, the air cold for some reason, and Remus rested his arm around her shoulders, which forced her to look at him for the first time during the entire task. She looked sad?
Remus focused on her, and she heard him silently.
Not upset.
This seemed to suffice for her and she nodded, turning back to the quiet scenery of the maze before them.
Deep in its depths, Peter Pettigrew was spilling blood and following Voldemort's chilling instructions.
Cedric was already dead.
•
"How much longer do you reckon?" Fred asked.
"Oh, I'm not sure." Emeline shot back. "Probably an embarrassingly long time."
"Oh, play along." Fred rolled his eyes. "You're just sore because I stole your thunder." She grinned and threw a handful of popcorn at him, which he tossed back before Arthur put up his hands.
"Alright, kids, we don't need a display." He laughed.
"Exactly," Amos grinned. "My boy should be out and champion any minute now."
For some reason, Emeline's heart sunk.
Wrong.
She glanced over at Mad Eye who locked eyes with her.
Wrong.
Remus felt her frantic anxiety spilling over and squeezed down on her shoulder with the hand he had over her.
What's wrong?
Something. Don't trust.
Remus followed her gaze to Alastor, feeling a quiet pang deep in his soul as well.
How could she be more in tune than him?
She instinctively moved slightly closer to him, not breaking her gaze on Mad Eye until she was broken from her reverie by a loud thud and the crowd erupted in shouts of glee.
Harry and Cedric were on the ground, but she could smell it immediately. Remus' instincts seemed to flare the second they hit the ground, too. They both looked at one another with pale faces and Emeline nodded.
Death.
Fleur Delacour's scream pierced the air.
Amos leapt to his feet as Arthur followed.
Her mind was swimming as she took in all of the screams and crying, Amos' wailing, the sounds and smells and the air of death.
Overwhelming death.
She'd never been this overloaded before.
"He's back!" Harry screamed, sobbing. Emeline's heart broke for him. "Voldemort's back!"
Emeline's panic mounted, but she had no time to allow it to take over. George and Remus moved in closer to her, protectively, as they stared on in shock.
"Dad, what's he doing?" She broke her silence.
She could feel a growl of fear in her spirit as Remus' eyes changed watching Mad Eye grab Harry and pull him away from the scene.
You're right.
Wrong. Very wrong.
They both stood quickly and Emeline grabbed Remus to steady him out of habit as they set off for where Harry had disappeared to.