he weekend before the first task was a Hogsmeade weekend, and the first time I could legally visit the village. I'd been looking forward to this one for months, as it would be the first proper date Harry and I would go on. Demelza would be bringing Stefan along to make it a double date. The previous plan had obviously been to include Amy and Andrew too, but as I still wasn't talking to Amy, that was out of the question. Harry told me that Hagrid had owled him asking him to be at his cabin at midnight with the invisibility cloak. He wouldn't say why, although I was pretty sure it was to show Harry the first task ahead of time. I hoped he wouldn't keep Harry long enough that he would miss Sirius.
There was one thing that was making it unpleasant though, and that was the latest Slytherin-generated anti Harry trend going around. Almost everywhere you looked, people were wearing badges which read "Support Cedric Diggory". That by itself wouldn't have been a huge problem, but when you pressed down on the badges, they read "Potter Stinks". Every time Harry would pass someone, they would change their badges to this, and as we crossed the entrance hall to head out to Hogsmeade, we encountered Lillian Avery, who instead of her usual cohorts Mulciber and Yaxley, was instead accompanied by a boy I didn't recognise.
Both of them flashed Potter Stinks towards us as we passed. I gripped my hand very tightly around my wand, and had opened my mouth to aggressively ask the boy why he was dating an attempted murderer, when Demelza nudged me and shook her head very slowly. Avery seemed to take this lack of a response as me not knowing what to say.
"Lost for words aren't you Weasley? Yes, I have a boyfriend, and unlike yours, he isn't absolute scum!" she said
"Ignore her" Demelza muttered, pulling me along so we could get out faster.
"I pity you really" Avery continued as we neared the doors. "I have Andreas Selwyn here with me, a nice, respectable pure blood, whereas you have the boy who lies with you. He'll be dead by this time next week anyway, which I'm sure we can all agree would be such a tragedy". She put emphatic slow sarcasm on the last three words.
There was a sudden movement, but not from me. Harry had ripped his right hand out of my grasp and fired a spell at Avery, but before it landed, Selwyn shot a Shield Charm to deflect it away, and moved in front of her, and suddenly they were engaged in a full on duel, with spells of all colours flying everywhere. Just as it looked like some of us would have to get involved, a voice yelled "Finite!"
Everything stopped, and we all turned around to see Snape striding towards us.
"So, I think, after that display, we have another one of the Potter gang to serve detention. Miss Bagman will at least have some company in the dungeons tonight. Potter, my office, now. I need to make sure you don't attend Hogsmeade today either"
"What about him!" said Harry loudly, pointing at Selwyn.
"He acted in defence only. 20 points from Gryffindor too, and you will all move on this instant if you don't want it to be more!"
Harry gave me an apologetic glance before following Snape away, but I couldn't blame him. It was Avery being provocative that had trigged the duel, and I would have gotten involved too had it not been for Demelza. It was Avery's fault that our date was ruined. I was fuming, with her being the one my anger was directed towards. I could only hope that Harry's detention would end early enough for him to still meet Hagrid, and Sirius afterwards.
"Fuck that cunt, fuck that cunt, seriously fuck her!" I yelled once we were apart from other people
"Ginny-" Demelza began
"No, don't "Ginny" me" I cut her off "she's tried to kill me, she's ruined what would have been my first proper date, she's just-she's just a scourge on my existence, I don't need one of your emotional pep talks right now Demelza, I just want to find her and rip her fucking head off!"
I slammed my fist into my palm as I said each of the last 6 words.
"That isn't going to be of benefit to anybody" said Demelza, remarkably calmly. I don't know how she keeps her head in these situations even today, let alone at 13!
"Yes, your day has been ruined, it's shit, Avery's a bitch, I get that, but I still want to enjoy my day out and I'm sure Stefan does too!" she continued
This made me feel rather awkward. In the heat of the moment, I'd completely forgotten that Stefan was there.
"Sorry" I told him, blushing.
"It's ok, don't worry about it" he replied
"Now" said Demelza,"you have a choice. Either continue to moan, find Avery, and get yourself into trouble, or stay with us and make the most of what you've got. What's it gonna be?"
She stopped and raised her eyebrows at me
"You sound like my mum" I told her
"And that's a bad thing?"
I resisted the urge to laugh at the irony of those words.
"No, of course not" I said, rolling my eyes "obviously I'll stay with you two"
"Good" said Demelza, nodding. "That's progress"
"Jesus Christ, are you middle aged and in Polyjuice Potion or something?" I said. Before we knew it, all 3 of us were laughing and joking like nothing had happened.
"Seriously though, how are you so calm and level headed?" I asked, as we entered Madam Puddifoots.
"I've been going through Muggle therapy courses for years. A therapist's job is to help people deal with severe emotional distress and other mental health problems. I figured that since I'm likely to go through a lot of trauma in my life, being able to clear my mind and think rationally about situations could be of great help. So far, I'd say it definitely has. You should give it a try. I'll tell Amy to as well, once we get her back on side" she said, as we sat down at a table.
"If we get her back on side" I replied
"Speak of the devil" said Stefan, nodding to something behind me. I turned around and saw Amy and Andrew enter the shop and sit down together as far away from us as possible. Andrew pointed at me with a confused look on his face, and Amy shrugged her shoulders, appearing to say "who cares" if I was reading her lips correctly.
"That's not getting her back on side any time soon" I said.
"Yeah... that's pretty rude. Still I'm confident she'll come around eventually" replied Demelza "Anyway, Stefan..."
They went off into an intimate discussion about their relationship, so I tuned out for a little bit, and looked around at the shop in more depth. Madam Pudifoots has been the traditional dating shop for Hogwarts students ever since the school was founded. Many generations of couples have come and gone here. There was a 5th year Hufflepuff boy with a 7th year Slytherin girl, and 2 4th year boys were kissing near Andrew and Amy.
At that point, Magda and Luna entered the shop and came to sit with us, to my great relief.
"Giving me a chance then are you?" I asked Magda
Magda looked at me quizzically
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you've spent almost all your time with Amy since we fell out"
"Yes, because I'm still her friend, and I'm still friends with you. My brother is your best friends boyfriend, so obviously I'm going to sit near him. Also, I'm not just taking Amy's story at face value either, I need to hear it from your point of view"
I told her what happened on the Durmstrang ship, then said
"What's her story then?"
"Well, she claims you're a liar, because apparently you'd once said you'd be her friend no matter what, so she feels betrayed"
"That's just a load of bullshit. Amy's the one who backstabbed me by saying acting like Demelza was a bad thing. Bet she conveniently left that part out though didn't she?"
"Uhh, yeah she did, funnily enough"
"She really thinks she's going to out Karkaroff as this dark wizard in disguise isn't she?"
"Yeah, in fact, she reckons that's who put Harry's name in the Goblet of Fire"
"What, Karkaroff? said Demelza "why would he do that? Why would he want to give Hogwarts an extra advantage by having 2 champions?"
"That's exactly what I said" Magda replied "but it just went in one ear and out the other"
"Don't worry guys, Amy is just suffering from Mate's madness" Luna said "it's a brain illness that Lumpsquires cause. She'll be back in no time"
We all sat in silence for a moment, then burst out laughing loudly, banging the tables with our fists.
"This is why you're our friend Luna" I said, fistbumping her and wiping a tear from my eye.
"Umm... thanks, but what was so funny?" she asked. "I wasn't making a joke"
"We... we know" choked Magda "that's why it's so funny, and why I love you so much" She gave her a kiss on the cheek which Luna reciprocated.
"Out!" said a voice
We looked up to see the shop manager staring at us.
"No one causes a racket like that and stays in my shop! Out, all of you, now!
