Okay, we are on a roll, you guys! This one has a lot going on, and I don't know how satisfied I am with the end result, but we're trying to put a wrench in some plans here. I have to keep the excitement up between tasks!
Also, the next chapter will likely come sooner than next Friday. I am going camping Thursday, so I'll try to update Wednesday night or Thursday morning. It's going to be a very cute one, I can't lie. George is just sweet as sugar sometimes.
Chapter Twenty Five
The start of December brought wind and sleet to Hogwarts. Winter was among the most loathsome seasons that Nessa had ever experienced within the walls of the castle. Fall was chilly, but winter was worse — the walls of the castle had very little protection against the outside chill, and, while she was grateful for the fires and whatever insulation the thick walls provided, she couldn't sit around the fire all day. She was behind on her O.W.L.s from worrying incessantly about Harry for the last two months, and she had a lot of catching up to do now, spending the majority of her time in the library pouring over a million different texts, every word blurring in her mind's eye. Her brain was full to bursting with information, not all of which she was certain she would need. Cedric had taken to sitting with her in silence, working on whatever assignments he had, and trying to keep her from ripping her hair out in frustration from the amount of work she'd put off.
As far as classes went, things weren't much better. Hagrid was teaching them about Porlocks in Care of Magical Creatures. They were very odd looking creatures, standing at about two feet tall and covered head to toe in shaggy brown fur. They had short arms with stubby fingers and walked on hooved feet. They'd been brought in to protect Madame Maxime's horses — from what, Nessa had no idea — as this was what they were bred for, and spent the majority of time hiding in the hay within the stables that Dumbledore had set up for them. They might have been cute in another life, but they were skittish of humans, and hid in piles of hay at their approach. The majority of the class was spent digging around in hay — and other things she pretended she didn't see — trying to find one, and then trying to coax them out to be cared for. Not to mention the fact that Madame Maxime's horses only drank single malt whiskey, and the fumes from the trough they used was enough to make them all lightheaded.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was among one of her least favorite classes — Moody was as crazy now as he'd always been, and that was clear from the fact that he'd released a swarm of vampire bats on them all in an attempt to give them practice in fending them off. They were like mosquitos except worse because they were a hundred times as large. Nessa was not fond of bats to begin with, but she certainly wasn't fond of one that kept taking a dive at her neck every time she moved. Tori had forgone her wand altogether in this lesson and had started swinging her heavy textbook at them to bat them away. Nessa had had to convince her to come to class the next week because she was certain Moody was one step away from bringing in a real vampire and she wanted no part in it.
So far the only classes she could stand at the moment were Charms, Herbology, and Potions, and she was simply waiting for the other shoe to drop in those — there was no way that it was going to stay that way.
Transfiguration was as much a disaster now as it had always been, but she almost felt like she might be getting worse. They were working on the Inanimatus Conjurus Spell, which required enough concentration to change the design of an entire room. So far, she'd only managed to make the room smaller, nearly crushing the life out of herself and her peers. McGonagall had not been pleased, although Nessa wasn't sure what she was so upset about — she'd fixed the room in two seconds flat, and she didn't have to take her O.W.L.s this year.
By the time Wednesday morning had rolled around, she had no desire at all to focus on Transfiguration again. She was sure that McGonagall had noticed because she hadn't called on her once to demonstrate the spell again — either that or she had no desire to have a repeat of the prior day's lesson when she'd shattered a window trying to move one of the desks underneath it. When the bell finally rang, Nessa sighed in relief, shoving her books back in her bag and ready to make a beeline for the door for lunch before she had to do more revision work in the library.
"I'd appreciate it if you all didn't rush out of my classroom the moment it ended," McGonagall said loudly, giving Nessa a particularly pointed look, and forcing her to sit back down. Tori sniggered beside her. "I have something to say to you all. The Yule Ball is approaching — a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above — although you may invite a younger student if you wish —"
There was an eruption of giggles from some of the Slytherin girls across from her, as if the idea of inviting a younger student was a sheer embarrassment.
"You know, for once, I think I might actually agree with them," Tori muttered to her as McGonagall gave the girls a sharp look. "Imagine snogging a third year —"
"I'd rather not, thanks," Nessa said bluntly.
"Dress robes will be worn," McGonagall continued. "And the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then —" she stared deliberately around at the class before giving a particularly hard look to her and Tori. "The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to — er — let our hair down," she said, in a disapproving voice. This time, Nessa and Tori were the ones trying not to laugh, looking away from each other hastily and pressing their hands against their mouths; the idea of McGonagall, who had always worn her hair in a tight bun, putting her hair down in regard was downright laughable. "But that does not mean that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarasses the school in any way."
Nessa bristled when her disapproving gaze landed on her and Tori, although Tori merely smirked back at her.
"Okay, you I get," Nessa griped as they were dismissed and making their way to the Great Hall for lunch. "But what is she looking at me for? I'm a prefect, you'd think that would give me some advantage in her eyes."
Tori snorted and gave her an amused look.
"Maybe because she caught said prefect snogging George Weasley in an empty classroom last week during Harry's celebration party."
Nessa grimaced, her face flushing red. It had been an experience she'd wished could have just been a nightmare. Or something she could forget altogether because, though George had not looked at all bothered, she had wanted to crawl under a desk and die.
"That was one time —"
"Yes, well, she's dealt with George for the last five years, I'm sure that's not the only time she's caught him doing that," Tori said with a snort. "I think she actually caught him shagging Sinclair once, which I'm sure was more mortifying but — Merlin's beard, what was that?"
The words had sent Nessa stumbling, the shock of the pronouncement causing her brain to short circuit and lose entire control of her limbs. Tripping over air was something horribly embarrassing, but she didn't even have the time to think about it because she was staring at Tori in surprise.
"He — what — he was with Sinclair?" she said, something horribly ugly and vile unfurling in her chest. "When was that?"
Tori stared at her for a moment before grimacing.
"Did I say Sinclair?" she said. "I meant Spinnet —"
"Tori!"
Tori groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"He's going to kill me," she muttered before pulling Nessa into an empty classroom and turning to face her. "Look, if he didn't tell you about that then maybe we don't even have to mention it —"
"You can't be serious!" Nessa said indignantly.
Tori blew out a breath and then gave her a pointed look.
"You can't seriously believe that he's a virgin, Nessa," she said gently. "I mean, the man's spent the last two — no, probably three — three years snogging girls in broom cupboards and empty classrooms and —"
Nessa waved her arms in the air frantically to get Tori to stop talking about it. She hadn't thought him a virgin at all, but it didn't mean she particularly enjoyed thinking about his previous escapades with women, particularly when she had no experience with the opposite sex other than him and Cedric. It was irrational of her, she was sure, to be so bothered about the fact that he'd been with other women before her — and while not totally surprising, it still made anger bubble up in her stomach and jealousy stir in her chest.
"I know he's not a — I could have guessed that he wasn't —"
"Virgin isn't a dirty word, Vanessa," Tori said dryly, a hint of amusement in her tone. "I've heard you say far worse things than that."
Nessa gave her a hard look.
"The point is I didn't realize he'd been with…more than just Alicia," she said uncomfortably. "How many girls —"
"Oh no," Tori said, laughing in a way that sounded distinctly horrified. "I am not going there. I've already dug myself into a hole here, and I'm probably going to have to check my food for Canary Creams for the rest of the year when he finds out I told you. Besides, I don't have a head count — I don't just go about talking to George about his sex life. I'd rather be sick at the thought actually. I only remember Sinclair because he got detention for two months straight."
"Tori —"
"No," she said, pointing at her seriously. "You can take this up with George, alright? For all he knows, I didn't say a single thing about anything. Especially not before the ball because I'd rather not show up growing hair out of my ears — no one will snog me then —"
"You haven't been snogging anyone anyway —"
Tori snorted, grimacing slightly, her gaze shifting away from her and turning to open the door out of the classroom quickly. Nessa stared after in surprise for a moment before she took off after her. She was walking far faster than she normally did in an attempt to reach the Great Hall before Nessa could catch up with her.
"What was that?"
"What was what?"
"Don't play dumb with me, Victoria —"
"Call me that again, and I will —"
"You'll do nothing," Nessa said with an eye roll, pulling her to a stop in the entrance hall. "Who have you been snogging?"
"No one," she said sharply. "Would you mind your own business?"
"No," she snorted. "You never keep your nose out of mine —"
"That is not true!" Tori said indignantly.
Nessa raised an eyebrow at her.
"What about that time that you told Fred and George about me kissing Cedric on the Quidditch pitch? Or over Easter holidays? Or that time you told Cedric to ask me for tutoring in Potions —"
"That was only to get you to stop moping about George!" Tori said. "I'd call that a favor."
"Or that time that you told Snape about Murton and her friends —"
"I wouldn't have had to do that if you would have!" Tori said hotly. "And we agreed to disagree on that anyway, you can't just bring it up —"
"I can to!" Nessa said angrily. "I'm the one that had to deal with it afterward, I can bring it up as many times as I'd bloody well like! Who have you been snogging?" Tori didn't say anything, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring at her angrily. Nessa was not stupid — Tori had at no point been this reluctant to tell her who she'd been with before, and there was only one reason she would start doing so now. "It's Fred, isn't it?"
Tori shushed her, looking around the Entrance Hall anxiously.
"Keep your voice down —"
"No one is in here," Nessa said, rolling her eyes. "I knew the two of you were doing something stupid —"
"You're the one who encouraged the whole thing!"
"I most certainly did not," Nessa scoffed. "I told you to pull your head out of your arse, not shove it further in —"
"That's disgusting."
Nessa gave her a serious look.
"Tori, what the hell are you doing?" she said quietly. "He's your best friend. Are you even entertaining the idea of the two of you or are you just leading him on? Because if you are then that's —"
"I am not —" Tori paused in her angry retort, taking a breath in through her lungs. "It's not like that. It's just all…very complicated, okay? I'm — coming to terms with the fact that I see Fred as more than just my idiotic best friend. That's hard enough to do without thinking about how everyone else is going to react. It's hard enough kissing him and not telling George about the entire thing — I feel like I'm lying to him somehow by not saying anything, and he definitely knows something is up between us. He keeps asking incessantly, and I keep saying it's nothing and that's definitely a lie. Then there's Molly, who is simply going to just — she couldn't even handle the fact that they got three O.W.L.s for Merlin's sake and now we're supposed to just be…a couple? And I've never even dated anyone before anyway, so there's a good chance that it won't even work out between us anyway —"
"So, what are you saying?" Nessa said hotly, frustrated with the idea that Fred could be under the impression that he had a chance with her when he was no closer than he had been before. "You can snog him in secret, but you're ashamed to be with him in public?"
"It is not shame —"
"What would you call it then?"
"Can you quit pretending like you have any idea what this feels like, Vanessa!" Tori exclaimed. "I don't need your judgment, alright?"
Nessa took a step back from her, giving her a hurt look. At no point in their entire friendship had Tori ever accused her of being judgmental toward her, and it didn't sit well with her that she was starting to do so now.
"Think whatever you want, Victoria, but I am not judging you. Nor am I at all trying to imply that I know what this must be like for you," she snapped. "But don't expect me to sit idly by while you string him along because you can't stop being a coward for long enough to make a decision —"
Tori growled at her, taking a step toward her. Nessa thought it looked distinctly like she wanted to hit her, but she didn't bother taking a step back. Tori was much taller than her, and Nessa had no doubt that if it did become physical that Tori would wipe the floor with her, but they'd never even raised their wands at each other, and she didn't see that starting now.
"Don't call me a coward, Vanessa —"
"Don't act like one then," Nessa snarled back. "You don't get to have it both ways! You either want to be friends or you want to be more, and he deserves far better than to have to sneak around with you when he's made it very clear that he's not ashamed of what he feels for you. So if you want to pretend like you're the victim here then be my guest, but don't pretend like you don't know exactly what you're doing to him."
There was a flicker of pain in Tori's eyes at the prospect, but she was clearly too angry to do anything more than glare at her and stand her ground. Tori was almost impossible to reason with, and she had very little patience for that at the moment. She didn't know the extent of Fred's feelings, but Nessa did, and she did not want to see this all blow up in his face. He'd taken a leap, and she would kill Tori if she treated it like it was something small.
"Hey, are you guys — er, what's going on?"
Fred and George had appeared from the dungeons — Nessa had no idea what they even did down there, considering they didn't even take Potions anymore — and were looking between the two girls cautiously. It might have been amusing that they were afraid to step closer to them as if they were afraid they might turn on the two of them instead.
"Is everything…okay?"
"It's fine," Tori snapped at the two of them, clearly also not very amused by their cautious approach to the two of them. "What are the two of you even doing down in the dungeons anyway?"
Fred and George shared a long look before they looked at them again and raised an eyebrow.
"We were nicking ingredients from Snape —"
Nessa whirled on them indignantly.
"Can you pretend like you were — were helping a first-year Slytherin find their common room or something —"
Fred gave her an incredulous look.
"I'd not be caught dead helping a Slytherin doing anything."
"Just give us detention and be done with it," George said, waving the argument away absently. "What are the two of you glaring at each other for?"
"Nothing, we were just talking about the Yule Ball."
"The what?"
Tori rolled her eyes, and turned on her heel to make her way to the Great Hall for lunch. She took a seat, and refused to look at Nessa entirely. She didn't care much — she wasn't particularly in the mood to look at her either. Her gaze had instead locked on Sinclair at the Ravenclaw table, and she was tuning Tori out as she explained what McGonagall had said. Sinclair was very pretty, but it wasn't that that made her feel sick to her stomach. It was the fact that George clearly had a type, and Nessa did not fit it. Sinclair was tall, her hair long, blonde, and wavy, and she was surrounded by a great number of people, clearly very comfortable around other people. She reminded her of Alicia, though there were obvious differences in their appearance.
In comparison, Nessa was more like a toothless ogre. Which was dramatic — she wasn't unattractive, so that was definitely not exactly the truth, but it didn't help her anxiety about the situation that she wasn't at all similar to the other women he had interest in.
She was being ridiculous. What difference did it make? She was the one dating him now, wasn't she? Assuming he'd dated Sinclair at all because she'd never heard anything about her, so he probably hadn't. She couldn't tell if that was worse or not somehow.
She needed to focus on something else —
"Why are you staring at the Ravenclaw table?"
Nessa jumped at Fred's inquiry, turning to stare at him. Tori was grimacing at her, looking guilty again that she'd told her something George had not spoken with her about first.
"I — well, I —"
She didn't want to have this conversation with Fred — or anyone, really. Particularly not until she could get a handle on her ridiculous emotions. Or insecurities. Or…whatever the hell they were. And Fred would likely just make the entire thing worse anyway because she was sure that if Tori knew that Fred definitely knew. She appeared to be the only one of them who didn't and wasn't that just annoying as hell —
"Love?" George said from beside her.
She couldn't look at him. She couldn't decide if she wanted to cry or yell, and looking at him would just make the entire thing worse. She needed to control herself for long enough to work through whatever weird swirling, bitter feeling was churning in her gut. She could tell why George didn't like Cedric much now because she certainly didn't much like Sinclair at the moment even though she'd never spoken to her. And she definitely didn't like Alicia, but she'd sort of assumed that that was for more than just the fact that she'd slept with George because she had plenty of other reasons to dislike her.
Clearly not the case.
"I — no, it's nothing, sorry," she muttered, avoiding George's curious gaze. "I just thought that I saw a first year being bullied. What are we talking about?"
George narrowed his gaze on her because she was fidgeting next to him, and she was a horrible liar, particularly to him. She didn't like lying about it either, but she was trying to rationalize the feelings in her head, and blurting it out now would just make that so much harder to do.
And Tori was probably right that it should be a conversation between her and George anyway. Whenever it was that she could figure out how to bring that up and not sound like an insecure child anyway.
The man really couldn't catch a break — between her anxiety about Harry for the last two months and now this, he was going to make a run for it.
"Just that the dress robes make sense. Do you think McGonagall would lose her head if I didn't wear them?" Fred queried, clearly showing her pity enough to change the subject.
She could have kissed him.
"If you have to ask, I think the answer to that question is already clear to you," Nessa said with a snort. "What's wrong with dress robes anyway? They're nice, aren't they?"
Fred gave her an exasperated look.
"Easy for you to say," he grumbled. "You get to wear a dress. Dress robes are bloody uncomfortable —"
"Clearly you've never worn a dress and heels," Tori said with an eye roll.
"Tell you what, I'll wear the dress and heels, and you can wear the dress robes."
"I'd rather not know what you look like in a dress, Fred," Tori snorted. "And your big troll feet would just stretch out my shoes —"
"Yeah, well your big head would stretch out my robes, so it's —"
Nessa jumped when Cedric took a seat next to her unceremoniously. She heard George huff from beside her, but she was just happy that she had a distraction from the next round of bickering. And George's clear attempts to try and stare her into admitting why she was being so odd. He'd brushed his hand against hers to get her attention when Tori and Fred had started bickering, clearly intending to use their distraction to his advantage, but she'd moved it away under the guise of taking a sip of apple juice and remained focused on her two friends in front of her.
She did not need to look at him to know that he had been bewildered by this response.
"We have a problem," Cedric said seriously, looking at her grimly.
"Hello to you too, Diggory," George griped from next to her. She placed a placating hand on his leg, and he relaxed a little though he was still scowling.
"What's wrong?" Nessa said.
Cedric reached behind him and pulled out a rolled up copy of Witch Weekly, its putrid pink cover very obvious. Fred snorted.
"I knew there was a reason I didn't like you, Diggory," he said with a raised brow. "What are you reading that rubbish for?"
"Sweet as that is, Weasley," Cedric said sharply. "It's not mine. I got it from Cho Chang when she asked me — maybe you should read it, actually. Page ten."
Nessa had absolutely no idea under what circumstances Cedric would think she had any interest in Witch Weekly, but he was looking at her with the sort of expression that didn't exactly invite room for argument. So she just sighed and took the magazine, grimacing as she flipped through it.
It was a ridiculous publication with annoying quizzes about celebrities like Gwenog Jones and The Weird Sisters interspersed with cleaning tips and random gossip. The only thing that even particularly interested her within the entire thing was a handful of cooking recipes. She had no idea why Tori would be caught dead reading this thing and —
Her entire body froze in surprise as she came to the tenth page. She choked, bringing the magazine closer to her face as if maybe she was too blind to see it properly.
Oh, God…
"What?" Tori said with mild concern, sitting up straighter and looking between her and Cedric. "What is it?"
George leaned over to look, and he tensed immediately, his jaw clenching hard.
Nessa didn't even have the presence of mind to say anything that would have been at all comforting because she was too busy staring at the article in front of her. There was a large set of three photos at the top, each separated by large, red slashes. The photos were all of her, all moving, and all with different men. The first was of her and George, and it became clear how Rita Skeeter had known about him because it was a snapshot of him stepping closer to her and pulling her up to meet his lips for a very thorough kiss after the first task had ended. The next was a photo of her and Fred. It took her a long moment to understand what she was looking at because she couldn't quite remember what they had been discussing. He was holding both of her hands in his grasp, very gently, and looking at them carefully before he looked up to grin at her. The last was of her and Cedric — this was the one that made her the most uncomfortable. They were standing very close together, and her hand lifted to his cheek — to check on his burn, but certainly didn't look that way — and Cedric was smiling down at her gently, his hands on either side of her waist. It was very…intimate-looking, and it was the way he was looking at her that gave her pause.
She couldn't quite place the emotion, but she'd seen that sort of gentle, deep expression from somewhere before although she couldn't for the life of her remember where or from who.
The title made it very clear where the article was going to end up going.
Vanessa Potter: Sincere Friend or Salacious Manipulator?
By Rita Skeeter
We have all been watching the Triwizard Tournament with bated breath, wondering how our youngest champion, Harry Potter, may fare in the grueling tasks that are to come. Last month, I had the privilege of speaking with young Harry about his feelings about the tournament and his tragic past. He explained to me in great detail the sort of respect and pride he had for his older sister, who has supported him throughout the process. He spoke very highly of the young woman with whom he cherishes most. It is, of course, my duty to search out the truth of these words, and I have spent the last few weeks getting information on Harry's beloved sister for all of my lovely readers.
Vanessa Potter was not particularly forthcoming with information on her life, as her sweet brother had been, but it appears there may be good reason for wanting to keep her motives a secret.
"She's got a horrible temper," Draco Malfoy said of the older Gryffindor. "She cursed me once because my father got the Slytherin team a generous gift of Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones and she was angry that I would be able to beat her brother to the Snitch."
Another student, wishing to remain anonymous for fear of Vanessa's retaliation, described how the entire school had turned on her, believing her to be the culprit of the Chamber of Secrets being opened two years ago.
"We all thought it was her, you know? She's got that look about her. No one ever told us who opened it. I wouldn't be surprised if it had been her."
I took this information with a grain of salt, of course. Vanessa Potter is, in fact, a prefect and is obviously held in high regard by her Headmaster and professors. And though Albus Dumbledore has made highly questionable decisions in his time at Hogwarts, his preference for her does not appear to be out of place among her other teachers.
"Professor Snape loves her," a disgruntled Hufflepuff student advised. "He hates the rest of us, including Harry Potter, but you'd think she'd saved him from poisoning, the way he talks about her."
Vanessa's charm goes beyond the reach of her teachers and her brother, however. She is a quite beautiful girl, and has attracted the attention of not just one suitor, but three, including the other Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory. Cedric is a year older than Vanessa and has, according to his friends, been enamored with her for the past year.
"I caught them kissing on the Quidditch Pitch once," said Adelaide Murton, a very beautiful Slytherin girl. "And in the library. But she started dating George Weasley not long after. If you ask me, there may have been some overlap there."
Indeed, it appears that it is not just Cedric who should be concerned about her guileless facade. She was seen kissing George Weasley just after the first task, but twenty minutes later was wrapped in the arms of Cedric Diggory under the guise of being concerned for his injuries. Of course, if her relationship with George Weasley is to be believed, it is more than just Cedric he should be concerned about.
George Weasley, a Gryffindor the same year as Cedric, and the son of Ministry official Arthur Weasley, seems to be quite enamored with her himself. There is some speculation among other Gryffindors that Vanessa may have convinced him to leave his previous girlfriend, Alicia Spinnet, for her. Though Alicia did not wish to comment (and who can blame her?), she didn't appear fond of the younger girl under discussion.
"He and Alicia used to fight about Vanessa a lot," one of her friends said. "George always told her that there was nothing going on between them, but…well, they're dating now, aren't they? She spends all of her time with him and Fred Weasley."
Fred Weasley is the twin brother of George Weasley and seems quite fond of Vanessa himself if the photos I took of the two of them are any indication. They were seen getting cozy in an empty classroom after George had gone up to bed. Vanessa appeared to be quite short with George that evening, but she was quite fond of Fred. They could be seen holding hands and talking to each other quite intimately. In fact, Fred seemed to admit that he knew she had feelings for him as well.
"Don't worry, munchkin," he said, a nickname he had fondly coined for her years prior according to his best friend, Lee Jordan. "We all know you're just using George to get close to me. I'm available, but only for you, of course."
It was quite surprising to hear him speak so casually about her interest in him when she is dating his twin, but it certainly goes to show the power that she holds over the men around her. Of course, triads used to be quite common in the Wizarding World, particularly among magical twins, so there is room for some speculation that we are simply about to see yet another emergence of one, though they have become increasingly uncommon.
But it is certainly questionable considering her behavior around Cedric Diggory and should certainly raise eyebrows about whether or not this is the case for his twin brother as well. As far as I could gather, George Weasley was not at all under the impression that she was sneaking around behind his back, but the rest of the students didn't find it surprising in the slightest.
"I've always wondered what he sees in her, you know?" said Rachel Sinclair. "Don't get me wrong, she's always been very nice, but they're just — well, they're quite different, aren't they? Fred and George are very popular, very funny, always in trouble. She's…well, she's a prefect and she's always kept to herself a bit. I'd have expected her to be with someone more like Cedric Diggory."
An interesting take indeed, and one that seemed to be shared among several of the females within the castle.
When asked if she thought she was attractive, Sinclair merely shrugged, "I suppose so. I haven't given it much thought, but she's not his usual type either. I always thought he had a preference for blondes, but maybe she's changed his mind. They seem quite happy together."
George Weasley himself appears to be quite popular among his female counterparts, who appear to be waiting for his relationship to fail in order to take him for themselves. Perhaps it is this information that has Vanessa Potter looking elsewhere for attention, but it certainly seems that she's not as innocent as she appears to be.
Only time will tell what will happen among this love quadrangle, but we must hope that these three boys are able to open their eyes to the manipulation before them.
Nessa gaped at the article in front of her as if she had no understanding of the English language. Tori had lost patience with waiting for an answer, and had grabbed the copy of the magazine she'd gotten that morning but hadn't had the time to read. Her jaw dropped when she reached page ten and her eyes scanned the page frantically. Fred leaned over her shoulder and grimaced immediately.
"I told you that you shouldn't have pissed her off," Cedric said in frustration.
Tori and Fred's heads shot up to look at her and George raised an eyebrow. Nessa tore her gaze away from the ridiculous article to glare at her friend.
"I don't need a reminder, Cedric," she snapped. "We were both there. And you said you didn't care if she wrote about you —"
"I don't, but that's hardly the point," he said, waving away the comment. "I already told Cho that there wasn't anything going on between us when she asked, but I don't need Weasley hexing me when we're supposed to be practicing spells in class —"
"I can hear you, you fucking —"
"George!" Nessa scolded, turning to glare at him.
It didn't matter anyway. He and Cedric were glaring at each other over her head, and she rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Tori and Fred started sniggering when Nessa lost patience with the two of them and clapped her hands together loudly to get them to focus on her again.
"Hello?" she said loudly. "Can the two of you quit with the pissing contest and focus for ten seconds? I've just been made to look like a harlot —"
"Bit worse than a harlot, honestly," Fred said conversationally. "At least they get paid, don't they?"
Nessa chucked the magazine at his head and it hit him directly in the face because he'd been too busy taking a bite of his apple to catch it in time.
"I don't know what you think is so funny," she hissed at him. "She thinks we're having some sordid affair behind George's back —"
"We could be," Fred said, winking at her in an exaggerated fashion. George snorted next to her and rolled his eyes.
"Your mother would be so proud," Nessa said dryly.
"Speaking of, you'll have to tell Molly none of this is true unless you want her to send Nessa a Howler," Tori said to George pointedly.
"What?" Nessa said weakly, turning to look at George in a panic. He grimaced back at her. "She — she reads this?"
"For the recipes, mostly," he said, rubbing her back gently when she made a strangled noise in the back of her throat and hid her face in her hands. "Don't worry, love, I can handle Mum. What did you say to Skeeter anyway?"
Cedric rolled his eyes and swore viciously when Nessa stomped on his foot in retaliation.
"She called her dimwitted, vapid, disgusting, and vile," he said.
"I didn't say vile!" Nessa said hotly. "And she was asking about my parents' deaths again and talking about Harry, what was I supposed to do?"
"Walk away?" Cedric said sarcastically.
"Very Hufflepuff of you, Diggory," Tori said with an eye roll. "It's really not that bad —" She grimaced when Nessa gave her an incredulous look. "Okay, well, it's — I mean, Alicia didn't say anything bad. It could have been worse, you know. I'm sure she really does think that you and George were shagging behind her back —"
"Thank you, Tori, that's very helpful," she said abruptly in an attempt to get her to stop talking.
She had no idea how to handle this sort of thing. She'd never been newsworthy before, though her brother had been several times. She was usually only mentioned in passing in any articles about him, and no one took much interest in her. She wasn't familiar with this level of scrutiny, and it wasn't exactly what was usually written about Harry either, so she wasn't sure that he'd be able to help her with this particular situation.
There were too many words going through her head at the moment, none of them too kind. The fact that Sinclair had made a statement in the article seemed like a cruel irony in her opinion. And it didn't make her feel any better that she'd pointed out the fact that George was interested in blondes before now, though maybe it made her feel a little less stupid and insecure. And Alicia might not have said anything, but she didn't need a magazine article to tell her how she felt about her and George. She glared at her any time she saw them together, and Nessa didn't particularly like her, but she didn't blame her for that either. Sometimes she even felt a little guilty — she and George hadn't been doing anything untoward when they'd been dating, but it wasn't as if they could deny that there had been something between them that they'd been ignoring.
Alicia had gotten the short end of the stick in that case.
And regardless it was bad enough to have people talking about the fact that she was toying with three men without adding her being a potential homewrecker with an attitude problem into the mix. If she'd known she would have said something so off-putting, she'd have hexed Skeeter instead. At least then she'd have had something warm to remember the horrible woman by.
"How did she even know that you'd said that to me anyway?" she said to Fred, who was staring at her like she might start screaming and he was thinking of a way to get himself out of the situation. "There was no one else in that classroom with us —"
"Well, I didn't tell her!" Fred said, straightening indignantly at the accusation in her tone. "And she had to have gotten that picture from somewhere!"
Another thing that didn't make any sense. They'd have noticed the flash of a camera, wouldn't they? It had been utterly silent in that classroom, and it was not lost on her that her scathing retort to Fred's flirting had not been included within the article.
God, if Molly Weasley got hold of this and thought she was stringing along both of her sons, she was certain she'd get far more than a Howler. She'd have to spend the rest of the month hiding out in the library when the rest of the school found out, and she didn't even want to know what sorts of snide remarks she'd be getting from them now.
And to think, only ten minutes before, she'd been worried about Tori and Fred snogging in secret.
Maybe she'd get lucky somehow and the rest of the school would decide that they didn't care about her love life at all.
A week later, it became very apparent that the school did, in fact, care about her love life. They apparently cared about all of their love lives — and far too much as far as she was concerned. With the Yule Ball upcoming, and so many people looking for dates, it felt so much worse than it might normally have been.
She'd lost count of the number of times she'd been called a scarlet woman, a homewrecker, a slut. It had been hurtful at first, but it was getting on her nerves now. Particularly because her peers had taken to asking her if the reason Snape liked her so much was because she was sleeping with him too. She was certain this rumor had been started by Adelaide and her friends as they all looked far too smug any time someone made the disturbing observation. Others found this idea as equally disturbing and ridiculous as she did but only because she had so many other men to satisfy her that Snape could not be among them. This was not at all comforting to her, and only seemed to be a step up from sleeping with one of her professors for an O.W.L.
Her only saving grace so far had been the fact that George had gotten to Mrs. Weasley before she'd chosen to send her a Howler. She had sneaking suspicions that Mrs. Weasley may have suspected the article to be somewhat true based on the fact that she apologized so profusely in the letter she'd sent back to George, but she'd been irate at the article regardless, and that was the most Nessa could really ask for. She didn't need to add Molly Weasley's wrath to her list of problems.
Fred, George, and Cedric seemed to get the easier end of the bargain — girls flung themselves at them, flirting with them incessantly, and making horribly inappropriate innuendos that were entirely unappreciated. Cedric's increasing popularity could, of course, be attributed to the fact that he was a champion, and Nessa told herself that that was the reason he was getting so much female attention, but that excuse could not be used for Fred and George. Blondes, in particular, seemed to flock to George in droves which Nessa told herself was not at all annoying, but she'd lost her temper with one of them and Tori had had to hold her back from hexing her outright. Thankfully, George had not been looking because she was sure her show of jealousy would have gone straight to his head.
She'd pretended she didn't notice when Sinclair made excuses to speak with him either — she still hadn't found a way to bring up George's previous — er — relationships. She'd been forcing herself to act as normal as possible so that he didn't think she was losing her head again, but she wasn't entirely sure that it was working.
And the drama didn't particularly stop there either. There was something going on between Tori and Fred too because they were both looking miserable and mopey, and barely speaking to each other at all. When Nessa had asked, Tori had told her to mind her own business — she was still cross with her for her opinion on her and Fred's relationship — and Fred had not wanted to talk about it. She hadn't the heart to push him when he looked like he might take a dive into the freezing lake. George had had no luck in getting any answers either, and she could tell that the secrets the two of them were keeping from him were weighing on his own emotional state.
As far as things went in her life, the prospect of the Yule Ball should have been exciting and a nice distraction, a return to something more normal, but the four of them were so busy trying to figure out their own issues that none of them seemed at all preoccupied with the ball at all. She'd seen those stupid dramas on the telly a few times — her aunt had a particular desire to judge other people and she was sure that these dramas appealed to this desire when she could no longer judge the neighbors — and there were a great number of times when school dances had turned into large, drawn-out and dramatic affairs. She'd thought this something ridiculous, but it was starting to make sense to her now. She had no desire at all to be one of those girls who ended up sobbing the loo while the rest of the school had a good time, but it sincerely felt like that's where she might be headed.
The rest of the school, however, seemed to be so excited that they had become obsessed with the ball. She had never known so many people to put their names down to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. She and Harry typically did because the alternative had been going back to Privet Drive, but they typically had the castle all to themselves. This year, however, everyone in the fourth year and above seemed to be saying, and all of the girls were obsessed with its approach. Girls giggling and whispering in the corridors, or shrieking with laughter as boys passed them in the corridors, girls excitedly comparing notes on what they were going to wear on Christmas night.
She couldn't go anywhere without some reminder of Christmas night. Under other circumstances, she was sure that she and Tori would be just as bad, but seeing as they weren't on the best of terms at the moment, and Nessa wasn't all too keen to have the entire school in the same place with her — whispering and pointing and gossiping — she tried not to think about it altogether.
Her saving grace at the moment at least was that the Hufflepuffs were not among those gossiping about her, and she suspected that this was due to Cedric telling them that there was nothing between them. They were also wearing the ridiculous Cedric Diggory badges less, and she supposed that was in deference to Harry for warning him about the dragons before the task. Another moment of good news was that Rita Skeeter had been banned from the grounds by Dumbledore. McGonagall had pulled her aside to advise her that Snape had made it known about the article that was circulating in Witch Weekly and Dumbledore did not believe that children should be subjected to the torrid gossip that Skeeter was known for.
She'd have kissed Dumbledore too if not for the fact that she was already being accused of being a tramp, and she didn't think that would help.
By the time the last week of term arrived, the castle became increasingly boisterous as it progressed. Rumors about the Yule Ball were flying everywhere, though she didn't believe one of them. It seemed a bit far fetched that Dumbledore had bought eight hundred barrels of mulled mead from Madam Rosmerta, given the fact that they were all a bunch of students. Some of the teachers, like Professor Flitwick, had given up trying to teach them when their minds were so clearly elsewhere, though other teachers were not as generous with their time — Snape would not have been caught dead giving any of them a break, and Moody and McGonagall didn't seem at all inclined to discuss the Yule Ball at all, much less give them a break from their studies. Professor Binns continued to drone on in History of Magic as well, though Nessa was certain this was because he hadn't any idea about the ball to begin with. She wasn't sure he noticed much of anything, even when he'd been alive.
By the time she and Tori had come back to the common room on the last evening of term, Nessa was sincerely considering spending Christmas in Hogsmeade and pretending she had gone back to Little Whinging instead. Tori tossed her bag onto one of the armchairs and sank into the other, refusing to look Nessa in the eye.
Nessa rolled her eyes — this entire fight between her and Tori was simply ridiculous at this point. About as ridiculous as Ron and Harry's had been, but Tori did not seem at all inclined to work things out, no matter how often Fred, George, and Lee asked what was wrong with the two of them. Opening her mouth to at least attempt to smooth over the awkwardness between them, she was interrupted by Ron, Harry, and Hermione making their way over to them.
"Do you and Tori go to the loo together?" Harry said abruptly, looking at them morosely.
Nessa and Tori shared a look before looking back at him with raised eyebrows.
"Beg your pardon?" Tori said at the same time that Nessa said, "I'm sorry, what?"
"Do you," Harry said, enunciating each word slowly, "go to the bathroom together?"
Hermione was giggling, and Tori still looked like she had no idea what he was trying to get at.
"We don't share a toilet if that's what you're asking," she said baldly. Nessa snorted.
"Who's sharing a toilet?"
Harry rolled his eyes when Fred and George appeared. Ron, who had seemed interested in the conversation up to this point, went red and hid behind his stack of Exploding Snap cards. George kissed Nessa on the cheek in greeting and nudged her aside on the armchair to fit next to her.
"That's not what I meant," Harry said in exasperation. "I just mean that — well, why do girls do everything together? You can't go to the loo by yourselves? I've never gone to the loo with Ron. Do you two go to the loo together?"
Fred and George snorted.
"Not since Georgie asked if we could see who could pee the furthest last year," Fred said casually.
Nessa covered her laugh with a hand at the odd look Harry gave them. Ron looked up from his Exploding Snap cards to look between his brothers with a disturbed expression. Hermione giggled from her Potions textbook, but Tori just shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"He's just sore that I won," George added nonchalantly.
Harry was gaping at them, clearly unsure if he was supposed to be laughing or not.
"You're joking, right?" he said eventually.
"You really shouldn't ask the two of them questions that you aren't sure you want the answers to, Harry," Tori said dryly.
Nessa tried to keep her face straight as her brother gave her an alarmed look. She was entirely sure that the twins were joking because the question was such an odd one to ask anyone, but Tori's advice was sound anyway.
"Right, well," he said, clearing his throat. "All I'm saying is that if I wanted to — say, ask one of them to the ball — I mean, how do you do that when they go everywhere together? I can't just follow them into the bloody loo, can I?"
"Why can't you just walk up to one of them and ask to speak to them privately?" Nessa said, bewildered.
"Well because they'll talk about it, won't they?" Harry said as if she were stupid. George coughed next to her. "They'll know what I'm asking for."
"They're going to talk about it anyway," Tori said with an eye roll. "The moment you've walked off, they're going to go over every word you said —"
"How you looked when you asked it —" Nessa added.
" — the tone you used —"
" — if you seemed excited after they said yes —"
" — or disappointed if you said no."
"You're really only limited by your imagination here, Harry," Tori said.
Harry did not look at all relieved about this new information. He looked like he might be sick at the prospect. Ron had paled, as if he had not quite considered the lengths to which girls would speak about them if they asked.
"W-wh-what?" Ron stuttered, looking at the two of them in a panic. "Why? Why would they do that?"
"You can always go alone, you know," Nessa said. "No one said you had to ask anyone."
Ron gaped at her.
"We can't go alone," he said as if this were entirely offensive to him. "Maybe girls can, but it's — well, it's embarrassing if we do it, isn't it?"
"Says who?" she said, bewildered.
"Says these two," Ron said, pointing between Fred and George. Nessa gave the two of them an exasperated look., but they didn't look at all ashamed of themselves. "They'll make fun of us if we don't have dates."
"Too true," George said with a grin, catching his girlfriend's hand before she could smack him on the chest and brushing a kiss against her fingers.
"Well, if you're waiting for the day Fred and George stop making fun of you to ask a girl to the ball, you'll be dead," Tori deadpanned.
"I can't go alone anyway," Harry said morosely. "The champions have to open the ball with their dates."
"Well then grow a pair and ask one of them," Fred said with an eye roll. "George and I making fun of you can't be any more embarrassing than having to open the ball by dancing with Ron, can it?"
"Well, who are you going with then?" Ron demanded.
Nessa eyed him curiously because he shot a cool look toward Tori, who was pretending that she wasn't at all intrigued by the question. Nessa kept her face carefully blank when he answered though his response gave her a very, very bad feeling in her gut.
"Angelina," he said without a trace of embarrassment.
Tori's head snapped up from her copy of Witch Weekly to gape at him.
"Angelina?" she exclaimed. "Johnson?"
Fred raised an eyebrow at her, his expression blank, but Nessa could see the satisfaction brewing behind the blue of his eyes. She wanted to shove something down his throat before he made things worse because she had the distinct impression that he was trying to make Tori jealous, though she couldn't understand why when they'd been snogging in secret for God knew how long.
"Yes," Fred said casually.
"Absolutely not!" Tori said heatedly. "You can't go with her!"
Fred's answering smirk made Tori's hand clench around her magazine, causing the pages to crinkle loudly.
"Why do you care who he goes with?" Ron said, clearly confused.
Hermione was looking between the two of them with interest, her mouth forming a little 'O' as she came to a realization. She met Nessa's eye across the table and Nessa shook her head once. She'd have preferred to just have the entire thing out in the open for once, but she wasn't about to force Fred and Tori into admitting what was happening between them.
Though it may have been easier at this point, even if it meant Tori might kill her while she slept.
"I don't care," Tori snapped at him, her glare still locked on Fred. "It's just — well, Lee fancies her, doesn't he? You can't take someone that your best friend fancies. It's entirely inappropriate."
"I already asked Lee, and he said it was fine," Fred said, something pointed and cruel behind the words. Tori's glare deepened. "She's made it clear she isn't interested in him, and she's quite fit, isn't she?"
"Yeah, suppose she is," Ron said morosely, clearly not at all aware of the tension growing between his brother and Tori. "We should get a move on, you know…" he said to Harry. "We don't want to end up with a pair of trolls."
This distracted all of them from the awkward tension that was building, as Hermione, Nessa, and Tori all spluttered at him in indignation.
"This should be good," George said, grinning at Fred.
"A pair of…what, excuse me?" Hermione said.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Tori and Nessa said angrily.
"Well — you know," said Ron shrugging, clearly not at all reading his audience. "I'd rather go alone than with — with Eloise Midgen, say."
"What's wrong with Eloise Midgen?" Nessa said indignantly.
"Her acne's loads better lately — and she's really nice!" Hermione agreed.
"Her nose is off-center," said Ron.
Nessa had never in all her life wanted to hit someone upside the head with so much conviction.
"I think it's becoming quite clear why you haven't got a date to the ball, Ron," she snapped heatedly. "I can't imagine why any woman wouldn't want to go on a date with you."
"And I don't know what right you have to be judging other women's appearance for," Tori added spitefully. "Not seeing as you look like that."
"Look all I'm saying is —"
"What you're saying is you're going to take the best-looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible," Hermione said, bristling.
"Er — yeah, that sounds about right," said Ron.
The three girls glared at him ferociously before Hermione slammed her textbook closed and stood angrily.
"I'm going to bed," Hermione snapped, and she swept off toward the girls' staircase without another word.
Tori shoved her magazine in her bag, and with a particularly nasty look at both Ron and Fred, said, "I'll go with you. I'm feeling particularly disgusted with men at the moment."
Nessa might have followed, but she was too busy glaring at her brother.
"I sincerely hope that you don't agree with him," she said.
Harry raised his hands, and shook his head frantically.
"I didn't say anything, alright? Leave me out of it!"
"Very nice work, Ronnie," George said sarcastically, eyeing his younger brother in amused disbelief. "With skills like that, I don't know what you've got to be worried about. You'll have a date in no time."
Ron rolled his eyes and glared at him.
"Easy for you to say," he griped. "Nessa has to go with you —"
"Excuse me?"
George grinned again, leaning back with his hands resting behind his head, and watching his girlfriend sit up to glare at his younger brother.
"Ohhh, two shows for the price of one, Georgie," Fred said excitedly, matching his twin's posture from his position on the couch.
Harry groaned, but Ron didn't appear to understand what the issue was this time either, looking between George and Nessa in confusion.
"Er — the two of you are still dating, aren't you?" he said, looking at Harry for support. "I thought that Skeeter article was a lie —"
"It was a lie!" Nessa said hotly. "But that hasn't got anything to do with it! What, just because George is my boyfriend, he doesn't have to ask me to go to the ball?"
"Well, yeah, I mean — if you go with anyone else then it'll make it look like Skeeter was right. And it'd be cheating, wouldn't it? What's he got to ask for if you're going to say yes anyway?"
George was clearly trying not to laugh, his gaze lifting to the ceiling and he bit the inside of his cheek, as Nessa swelled indignantly.
"You are, by far, the most superficial, shallow, idiotic person I have ever had the displeasure of talking to," she snapped, standing angrily. "For your information, I don't have to go with George at all, and if he's such an arrogant ass that he thinks I do —"
"I don't," George said helpfully from behind her.
" — then he deserves to go by himself!"
She stormed off before Ron could have the chance to say anything else that might enrage her further, mumbling to herself about how she should have just gone up to bed with Tori and Hermione when she'd had the chance.
She'd only just reached the stairs when she heard Fred's voice drawl from behind her.
"Pissing off three women in three minutes. I've got to say, Ron, I think that might be a record."
Writing Ron in this context is so much fun for me. He's such an ass sometimes, but I just enjoy the drama LOL.
Also, I enjoy writing stories, but news articles? Not for me. It's so difficult to do, but you get the gist. It's very similar to Hermione's article, I know, but I am still debating whether or not I want to keep that within this story since Nessa is the more obvious choice to piss Rita Skeeter off given the way I've written her. I suppose we'll see when the time comes. I just sort of let the story take me where it wants sometimes.
Up next: we find out what's going on with Tori/Fred, and some romance.