Happy Friday, lovelies! My favorite day of the week. For anyone who's interested, I have posted another story - George/Hermione - so take a look if you're into it. I appreciate all of you!
redangel2463: Thank you for letting me know what you prefer! I was thinking of doing both but then I was second-guessing myself LOL. But both, it will be!
Bookcozy: Thank you! The Yule Ball was so much fun to write, and I debated so much who would say they loved the other first, but since Nessa tends to be more closed off than he is, I decided it would be her. They're perfect, I can't. And I think most people agreed with you to do both versions of the chapter, so I will do that then! Likely next chapters in both this and CR once I convert everything over to George's POV.
Chapter Thirty Three
They had been out on the lake for far longer than the hour George had coerced her into, and the pub was crowded as ever by the time they had trekked back to the village. The warmth that engulfed her the moment she stepped inside made every muscle in her body relax and she sighed in relief. Her body ached from the number of times she'd fallen on the ice, but at least she was warm again.
With a hand on the small of her back, George led her toward the bar where Rosmerta was making drinks.
"'Lo, Rosmerta!" he said in greeting, grinning widely.
Madam Rosmerta looked up from the drinks she was making to eye him with fond exasperation. She was a curvy sort of woman with a very pretty face and long, wavy blonde hair.
"You aren't up here trying to order firewhiskey again, are you?" she called over, throwing a towel over her shoulder and waving her wand so that a group of drinks went hovering toward the back of the pub. "Because the other one already tried that —"
"The other one," Nessa sniggered.
George pinched her in the side, and lifted her without warning to sit on the bar stool in front of him, placing his hands on either side of her to rest on the bar.
"Hush, you," he said in her ear before grinning widely at the bar maid. "Well, if you won't sell us firewhiskey then I suppose I can live with a Dragon Barrel Brandy."
"Nice try, George," she said with a fond eye roll. "Professor McGonagall came in here this year to tell me your birthday isn't until April. You can talk to me about it then."
"I'm Fred," George said automatically, as if he couldn't quite stop himself.
Rosmerta gave Nessa a very pointed look.
"I hardly think you'd share her, even with that ridiculous brother of yours," she said.
"Too right," George snorted.
"What'll it be then, you two?"
Nessa answered before George could attempt to get the older woman to sell him alcohol when he was still underage.
"A hot chocolate and a butterbeer, please," she said, elbowing George in the stomach pointedly and handing over five Galleons.
"Nessa, you don't have to —" George said, tensing immediately.
She sighed, spinning in the chair to face him, and sliding her hands inside his jacket.
"It's fine, George," she said sincerely. "I don't mind —"
"I know you don't, but I can pay for it —"
She sighed heavily, and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down for a firm kiss. She'd known paying would bother him, but he and Fred were already having a hard enough time getting the money they needed for the shop when so much of what they made went into the supplies they needed for their products.
As far as she was concerned every little amount they had was worth more than the cost of his butterbeer, and she hated the idea of them having to wait any longer for their dream than they had to.
"Let me," she pleaded, pulling back a little. He opened his mouth again, but she spoke again. "You're saving for the shop, and I don't mind. It's one drink."
"It's a date," he said pointedly, clearly unhappy with the conversation.
"And you planned all of it," she said, brushing a thumb across his cheek. "I hardly did anything. Besides, with all of those bruises I gave you, the butterbeer is the least I can do." He snorted, though he didn't look at all pleased. She kissed the frown he wore away, and smiled at him. "I promise you it's fine. When you're rich from the shop, you can buy me the entire stock of hot chocolate."
He raised an eyebrow, but sighed and kissed her on the forehead.
"Don't tempt me, love," he said seriously. "I'm not happy about this."
"I know you aren't," she said gently, kissing him on the cheek. "But I'd rather you spend your money on your dream than me. You work so hard for it, George, and you deserve it. Things like this add up, and you know it. Please just let me — you'll have dozens of other opportunities to buy me a drink."
He looked at her for a long moment, and she thought he might say no anyway, but he ended up sighing heavily, and curling a finger under her chin, tilting her face up to look at him and resting his forehead against hers.
"Have I told you today," he said quietly, "how much I love you?"
She smiled up at him, her cheeks and nose still pink, and it made him want to kiss the breath right out of her.
"You may have mentioned it once or twice," she said coyly, letting him place a lingering kiss on her lips.
"I'm going to buy you more than the entire stock of hot chocolate, you know," he said, nodding his thanks to Rosmerta when she levitated their drinks over to them.
She snorted.
"I believe you," she said, accepting her cup and kissing him on the cheek again. He helped her down from the stool he'd set her on and looked around for a table. "But you can't buy me anything ridiculously expensive —"
"We'll just see about that," he said, grinning at her and tensing when he looked across the room.
Nessa's brow furrowed at the odd behavior, his mood seeming to take another turn within a very short period of time for no apparent reason.
"What?" she said, turning to look at what had caught his eye and frowning. "What's he doing here with a bunch of goblins?"
George didn't answer, his gaze narrowing on Ludo Bagman sitting in a shadowy corner of the bar. There were goblins all around him and he was speaking very fast in a low voice, but whatever he was saying was clearly not what they wanted to hear because all of the goblins had their arms crossed and were looking rather menacing.
It was a bit odd to her that he would be in Hogsmeade when there was no task for him to be judging, and he looked very strained.
"Let's find Fred," George said eventually, grabbing her free hand and starting to pull her toward his twin, Tori, and Lee.
Nessa halted, pulling him back to a stop.
"George, what's going on?" she said sternly. "What are the two of you nagging Bagman about? I know you aren't gambling again, so don't even try it."
George gave her a pained look, looking back toward Fred again.
"Look, love, I promise I'll tell you, just not right now," he said imploringly. It was a surprise to neither of them that she didn't accept this answer and opened her mouth to argue, but he squeezed her hand and said, "Please, Vanessa. Trust me."
She sighed heavily.
"That's not fair," she said quietly. "You know I trust you. I'm just — you're worrying me."
He smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead, pulling her toward his twin again.
"I know, sweetheart, and I'm sorry," he said truthfully. "I promise you don't need to be. We're just trying to figure things out first, and then I'll tell you everything."
She didn't like it, not one bit, but she chose to bite her tongue and let him handle whatever situation he felt needed handled before he talked to her about it. She had a very bad feeling about the entire thing, particularly as he'd never been reluctant to tell her anything before.
When they arrived at the table, he pulled out a chair next to Tori and ushered her into it distractedly before he took a seat next to his twin.
"Did you see —"
"Yeah," Fred said, frowning in Bagman's direction. "What d'you reckon he's doing with all those goblins?"
"Can't be anything good," George said. "Goblins are fickle, aren't they? They don't look too pleased to see him."
"Probably about his gambling," Lee said dismissively. "He's got a big gambling problem. My dad bet against him once and he swindled him out of a good bit of money."
Fred and George's heads snapped toward their friend and they stared at him for a long moment.
"What?" they said in unison.
Lee raised his eyebrows.
"He's got a gambling addiction," he repeated. "My guess is he's borrowed money from the goblins and they're looking for him to pay up. Goblins don't exactly mess about with money."
Nessa found it curious that Fred and George shared a half-glance with each other at these words before they looked back around at Bagman. He wasn't sitting with the goblins anymore, however.
He'd caught sight of Harry waiting for a drink at the bar with Ron and Hermione and had gotten up to go and speak with him, his boyish grin firmly in place once again. Nessa straightened, her hot chocolate long forgotten.
"What's he want with Harry?" she said sharply.
"Relax, Ness," Tori said, placing a hand on her arm. "He's basically harmless. Maybe he just wants to talk about how well he flew in the first task. He used to play Quidditch, didn't he?"
She supposed, but she didn't like it. Particularly when Ron and Hermione were excused from whatever conversation he was having with her brother.
"Why wouldn't he be able to talk about that with Ron and Hermione?" Nessa said pointedly, waving down Ron and Hermione. The two younger Gryffindors pulled up seats at their table. "What's he want with Harry?"
"No idea," said Ron with a shrug. "Just asked if he could have a word. Why are you looking like that for?"
Tori sighed.
"Because she's about to go mama bear in about six seconds," she said with an eye roll. "She gets feelings about people. She doesn't like Bagman."
"Feelings about people?" Ron said, raising his eyebrows. "What's that mean?"
"Means I'm perceptive, is what it means, and it's odd that he's in Hogsmeade instead of the office when there's no tasks happening," said Nessa.
"With a load of goblins in tow too," Hermione agreed. "I don't think he's dangerous though…just a bit shady."
Bagman gave a booming laugh that they could hear even from their position, and the goblins were not the only ones that were watching him closely. The twins were eyeing him as if they were wondering the best way to trap him in a room with them.
The two of them waited several more minutes before making eye contact with each other and getting up from the table without a word to any of them.
"What the bloody hell was that about?" Ron said, bewildered.
"No idea," Tori and Nessa said, narrowing their eyes as the twins made their way over to Bagman, said something brightly, and then looked immediately disappointed.
Oddly, Bagman looked as disappointed as they did, eyeing Harry as if he'd let him down badly before he hurried out of the pub. The goblins all slid out of their seats and followed after him. Harry Immediately made his way over to them and pulled up a chair next to them all, as Fred and George remained up at the bar, having a heated conversation about something.
"What'd he want?" Ron said the moment Harry sat down.
"He offered to help me with the golden egg," said Harry.
"What?" they all said, turning to face him in surprise as Fred and George made their way back over and took their seats without a word of explanation for their behavior.
It irritated Nessa a great deal, but she chose to put that on the back burner at the moment. Both to focus on what Harry was saying and also because this was the closest to normal the twins had been in weeks.
"He shouldn't be doing that!" Hermione said, looking very shocked. "He's one of the judges — and anyway you've already worked it out — haven't you?"
"Er…nearly," said Harry.
"Don't lie to her," Nessa snorted. Harry glared at her. "You haven't solved it at all. I asked you last week."
"I could have worked it out in a week!"
"Well, have you?"
Harry stared at her for a long minute, and seemed to decide that he wasn't going to win this battle of wills.
"I've got five weeks, I don't need the two of you nagging at me," he said shortly. Hermione bristled.
"You lied to me? Harry, five weeks is not that long and you need to —"
"I know what I need to do, Hermione," Harry said hotly. "I'm working on it, alright? Talk about something else, will you?"
Lee snorted and pulled himself to a stand, bouncing with barely restrained excitement.
"Well, as interested as I am in this very riveting argument, I've got to meet Angelina —"
"What's going on with you two anyway?" Tori said with a pointed look.
Lee grinned at her, walking backward toward the exit with a wave in their direction.
"It's not polite to kiss and tell, Victoria," he called amusedly.
"Watch your bloody mouth, Lee Jordan!" Tori yelled back.
He laughed uproariously as he made his way out the door, but Hermione picked up the conversation as if there had been no interruptions.
"Well, I don't think Dumbledore would like it if he knew Bagman was trying to persuade you to cheat!" said Hermione, still looking very disapproving. It was hard to tell if this was because Harry had lied to her about his progress with the egg or with Bagman, but Nessa suspected a bit of both. "I hope he's trying to help Cedric as much!"
Fred and George snorted, but kept quiet at the look of reproach Nessa gave them.
"He's not, I asked," said Harry.
"Who cares if Diggory's getting help?" said Ron. Both Harry and the twins looked smug at these words, but Nessa rolled her eyes.
"Because it's odd that he's only offering to help one champion and not the other," she said as if she were explaining to them what their fingers were for. "If he wanted a Hogwarts win, he'd help either of them, both of them. Why's he fixating on Harry specifically?"
"Says he's taken a liking to me since the first task," Harry said.
Tori snorted.
"That's ridiculous," she said. "I can see him talking to you about your flying skills, but offering to help you with your egg? Seems a bit odd to me."
"You've been hanging around Nessa too long," Ron said. "Her paranoia is rubbing off on you."
"Anyone who has a sudden interest in Harry is worth being paranoid about," Nessa said. "Someone put his name in that goblet, and until we know who or why, I'll be suspicious."
"Those goblins didn't look very friendly either," said Hermione, sipping her butterbeer. "What were they doing here?"
"Looking for Crouch, according to Bagman," said Harry. "He's still ill. Hasn't been into work."
"Maybe Percy's poisoning him," said Ron, causing the twins and Tori to laugh and Hermione to give him a don't-joke-about-that look. "Probably thinks if Crouch snuffs it he'll be made Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."
"Good one, Ronnie," Fred complimented, causing Ron's ears to go red.
"But what do the goblins need with Crouch anyway?" Tori said suspiciously. "They'd normally deal with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."
"An interpreter, maybe," Harry said. "He speaks loads of different languages, doesn't he? Anyway, Bagman finally sent some people out looking for Bertha Jorkins."
Nessa sat up and eyed him carefully.
"Well, did they find her?" she said hopefully. Harry shook his head immediately.
"No, he can't make heads or tails of where she's at," he said. "He said she met her cousin in Albania, but then disappeared when she went south to visit an aunt. Doesn't look like she ever made it at all."
Nessa did not like that, not at all. She chewed her lip anxiously, trying to think of all of the reasons a person might go missing in Albania. There were hundreds — people went missing every day. It was an unfortunate fact of life. It didn't mean that they'd been taken by Voldemort. Albania was a large country and the odds of Bertha Jorkins running into a near dead murderous sociopath?
Very slim.
She was being paranoid this time. She had to be.
"Uh oh," said Ron, staring at the door and pulling Nessa out of her anxious thoughts.
Nessa tensed. Rita Skeeter had just entered. She was wearing banana yellow robes today; her long nails were painted a shocking pink, and she was accompanied by her paunchy photographer. She bought drinks, and she and the photographer made their way to a table nearby, all of them glaring at her as she approached. She was talking fast and looking satisfied about something.
"…didn't seem very keen to talk to us, did he, Bozo? Now, why would that be, do you think? And what's he doing with a pack of goblins in tow, anyway? Showing them the sights…what nonsense…he was always a bad liar. Reckon something's up? Think we should do a bit of digging? 'Disgraced Ex-Head of Magical Games and Sports, Ludo Bagman…' Snappy start to a sentence, Bozo — we just need to find a story to fit it —"
Nessa groaned when Harry decided to interrupt her.
"Trying to ruin someone else's life?" he said loudly.
A few people looked around. Rita Skeeter's eyes widened behind her jeweled spectacles as she saw who had spoken.
"Harry!" she said, beaming. "How lovely! Why don't you come and join —?"
Nessa opened her mouth angrily but Tori stomped on her foot under the table.
"I wouldn't come near you with a ten-foot broomstick," Harry said angrily. "What did you do that to Hagrid for, eh?"
Rita Skeeter raised her heavily penciled eyebrows.
"Our readers have a right to the truth, Harry. I am merely doing my —"
"Who cares if he's half-giant?" Harry shouted. "There's nothing wrong with him!"
The whole pub had gone silent. Madam Rosmerta was staring over from behind the bar, apparently oblivious to the fact that the flagon she was filling with mead was overflowing.
Rita Skeeter's smile flickered very slightly, but she hitched it back almost at once; she snapped open her crocodile-skin handbag, pulled out her Quick-Quotes Quill and said, "How about giving me an interview about the Hagrid you know, Harry? The man behind the muscles? Your unlikely friendship and the reasons behind it. Would you call him a father substitute?"
Hermione stood up very abruptly, her butterbeer clutched in her hand as though it were a grenade. Nessa was on her feet in the next second, speaking over Hermione before she could end up saying something that would piss off the amoral reporter.
"Leave, all three of you," she said sharply, glaring at Rita Skeeter.
"Nessa, she —"
"It wasn't a request, Hermione," Nessa said with a hard look. "Go. Go visit Hagrid."
She'd be damned if she let the younger Gryffindor end up in the same position she'd been in several weeks before. Hermione was angry, and she'd get her revenge, of that Nessa was entirely certain. She wasn't the type to allow this sort of behavior toward one of her friends, and Hagrid had been in hiding since the letter came out. Hermione wouldn't let that go.
But she didn't need to piss Skeeter off in the process of doing so. Having her life splashed across a newspaper was not what Hermione needed at the moment, and Nessa had no doubt that Harry would end up being pulled in as a pawn as well if Hermione was.
She had no interest in that at all.
"Fine," Harry said, grabbing Hermione by the arm and pulling her out. "We'll go see Hagrid."
Many people were staring at them as they left, and some of them appeared to look back at Skeeter and Nessa as if waiting for another fight to break out. They weren't far off in this expectation. Though both women appeared to be quite in control of their emotions, there was a coldness in their gazes that appeared to be spreading out around them as if the hatred they felt for each other was tangible.
"Did I not make myself clear about you writing about my brother?" Nessa said calmly.
"It's my job, you silly little girl —"
"Your job is to write the truth," Nessa said with a raised eyebrow. "Your job is to inform the public on things that actually matter. It is not to manipulate the tragedies of school children as if they're nothing but soap operas. You tried to ruin a man's life — you think that's your job?"
"Most people would back off after what I've done to you —"
Nessa laughed coldly, some of the chill in the room intensifying.
"What? You mean painting me as a whore?" she sneered. "That was weak and pathetic even for you. If you expect me to let you interview my brother simply because I'm too afraid that people will believe some ridiculous false story you've written about me, you've got another thing coming. I'm telling you for the last time — leave my brother alone."
Tori stepped forward and grabbed her by the arm when Skeeter stood up from her table and stood over her with a sneer. If she'd intended the move to be intimidating, she was sorely mistaken because Nessa had gotten far used to people being much bigger than she was. It stopped her in no way from glaring right back.
"I could ruin you, Vanessa Potter," Skeeter said coldly. "You underestimate me."
Nessa ripped her arm from Tori's grasp and pointed at the older woman.
"A lot of people have said that to me, believe it or not," she snapped. "The only one who's being underestimated here is me. Write all the articles about me that you want, but stay away from Harry."
"We're leaving," Tori said firmly before Skeeter could reply, pushing Nessa toward Fred firmly. Fred spared Skeeter a disgusted look, but moved Nessa forcibly to the door without a word to her. Tori smiled widely at the reporter and said in a very sugary, clearly insulting voice, "I just love your bag by the way. It really fits your personality."
"And who are you, dear?" she said, eyeing Tori up and down with interest.
"No one," George said harshly before Tori could say something stupid. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the pub as forcibly as Fred had Nessa. "Enjoy your drinks."
Nessa removed her arm from Fred's grasp angrily and poked him in the chest.
"Don't manhandle me, Fred Weasley," she said. "Unless you want to be hanging from your dorm by your ears —"
Fred snorted.
"I'm dating Tori, munchkin, you're going to have to be a lot more scary than that," he said dryly. "Far as I'm concerned, I've got women trying to hex me from all directions."
Tori rolled her eyes to the sky and gave him a pointed expression.
"If you weren't such a pain in our arse then that probably wouldn't be true, now would it? You don't see us threatening George, do you?"
"That's hardly true," Fred said with a snort. "Nessa told George just last week that she'd hex his bollocks off if he didn't stop scaring those first year Slytherins —"
"Extenuating circumstances," Tori waved away and Fred scoffed. Tori ignored him and turned on Nessa instead. "You've got to stop antagonizing that woman. She's well off her rocker, and she's going to write another article about you now —"
"Better me than Hermione," Nessa grumbled darkly, looking back through the windows of the pub. Skeeter's Quick-Quotes Quill was out, zooming back and forth over a piece of parchment on the table. "Besides, what's she going to say about me now? That I've snagged a fourth man into my web of lies? She hasn't got much else to write about me. If she'd written about Hermione, it would have been more of the same, and Harry would have been a star of the show, you know it."
George put his hands on her shoulders and turned her, leading her back toward the castle again. Fred and Tori followed without pause.
"Hermione can take care of herself —" he said firmly. Her scoff cut him off.
"You think I don't know that?" she said smugly. "Did you see the way she was looking at Skeeter back there? I haven't got to do anything to her if she writes about Harry again. Hermione isn't going to rest until that woman gets exactly what she deserves and we all know it. Least I can do is take the brunt of the blow and try to keep Harry out of her sight. If I piss her off enough, she won't even see Hermione coming."
Tori shared a look with the twins.
"Sometimes I forget you're just a little crazy because you look so sweet and innocent." Tori said with a raised eyebrow. "I hope for your sake that Hermione gets her back before she writes about you again because I've no interest in knowing what she'll say this time."
By the time Friday rolled around, she'd heard nothing from Rita Skeeter, though she knew this did not mean that she was in the clear. She refused to think about whatever the woman could have been cooking up in her silence — whatever it was, she was sure that it was nothing she was going to like, no matter what she told her friends. Whatever it was, it wasn't worth worrying about — Hermione's residual anger from being kicked out of the pub and not being able to give her two cents to Rita Skeeter had sent her straight to Hagrid's door, banging on the door and telling him under no uncertain terms that he was behaving ridiculously.
He'd returned to teaching on Monday, upon Dumbledore's insistence, and he'd told Harry that what would really cheer him up would be to see Harry win the tournament and show them all that it had nothing to do with blood status at all. It had lit a fire under Harry, which was of great relief to Vanessa, who had gotten tired of nagging at him. He'd promised to take Cedric's hint the evening before, and she was simply waiting on him to finish classes for the evening before she asked him if he'd worked out the clue. She needed to know what she was up against here — if she'd have to watch him battle a Banshee or be swallowed alive by the Giant Squid. Either option was unappealing, but February was arriving closer than she'd have liked at this point, and she wasn't made of answers. They'd likely have to spend weeks in the library in order to figure out what his best option would be.
Then she'd have to work on her anxiety enough that she didn't end up dry heaving on the grounds again. They had a lot of things to do and far less time to do it then she'd have liked. And the longer he put it off, the more her control issues reared their ugly head and made her want to force Harry to do exactly what she said, how she said it.
God, maybe she was a little crazy.
By the time the evening had ended, she'd had no patience left, her leg bouncing through all of dinner and her gaze locked on her brother, who refused to say anything to her with so many people around. She had no idea what difference that made — not seeing as they'd spoken about the tournament in front of people before. But he kept looking at Lee pointedly every time she asked, and she had no idea what he thought Lee was going to do. She'd been forced to drop the subject, but she only managed to do so until they'd made it up to the seventh floor of the castle, at which point, she'd grabbed her brother by the back of his robes and dragged him off toward the Astronomy Tower.
"Good luck, Harry!" Fred called cheerfully, waving after him with a grin.
"Cowards, the whole lot of them," Harry grumbled as she pulled him up to the tower before she turned to look at him.
"Well?" she demanded, hands on her hips. "Tell me you figured it out."
Harry was grateful at least that she'd dragged him to a spot that tended to relax her, seeing as he had quite a bit to tell her and he was sure that there was not a bit of it that she'd like hearing. He walked toward the end of the tower and looked down at the grounds below.
"I figured it out," he mumbled. "I have to figure out how to breathe underwater for an hour."
She waited for more information, but he was silent still. She huffed, trying to remain patient with him, knowing that he was as stressed out as she was. It only barely worked though, seeing as he'd been the one to procrastinate despite her constant nagging. She was trying to follow the advice of Remus and her friends, and give him the opportunity to prove to her that he could handle himself, but he made that difficult for her when he was stupidly nonchalant about what he was facing and the disadvantage he was in compared to everyone else.
"Okay, for what?" she said impatiently. "Because you've got to fight the Giant Squid or find a turtle at the bottom of the lake? You're just showing off your breaststroke? There's a hundred reasons you could need that."
Harry snorted, and looked at her over his glasses as if he couldn't quite believe that she was being so absurd.
"No, far as I can tell, I have to get something back from the mer-people down there. 'We've taken what you'll sorely miss, An hour long you'll have to look…Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.'"
A bit ominous, but whatever they took she was sure they could replace at least. She wasn't familiar with merpeople, so she'd have to ask Tori, but if he didn't need to fight anything, it was better than she could have hoped.
"Okay, well that's — that's not as bad as I was thinking," she said, some relief hitting her.
Harry clearly did not agree with this assessment, and gave her an irritated glance.
"Easy for you to say," he said. "You don't have to figure out how to breathe underwater for an hour. Drowning doesn't exactly seem like the best way to go."
"Don't joke about that," she snapped, the image quite difficult to shake away. "We can manage to figure out how to breathe underwater. We've still got a month. Far as I'm concerned, this is better than facing a dragon." Harry looked reluctant to agree, but it did appear to calm him slightly. "Did they say what they would take?"
"No," he said, running a hand over his face. "I hope it's not my Firebolt."
Nessa could not stop herself from rolling her eyes so hard that it made her head pound in warning.
"We can replace a broom, Harry," she said in exasperated amusement. "We have enough money to replace anything they take from you, and it's not like you'll be needing it again any time soon. You can't play Quidditch until next year."
"Sirius got me that!" Harry said indignantly, as if the thought of replacing it were incredibly unappealing.
"Well, then we'll just ask him to get you another if that's a deciding factor here," she rolled her eyes impatiently. "Either way, we're in a better position this time around. And I don't understand why you couldn't tell me this at dinner…the twins could probably help with this. They're good at Charms." Harry gave her a hesitant look, and her heart rate picked up immediately, her gaze turning wary. "What?"
It was a true testament to how used to that look she was that she immediately knew whatever he was going to say would be something she didn't want to hear. The question had come out more as a sharp statement than an inquiry, and he grimaced, looking away from her again to look down at the grounds.
"I got caught by Moody last night on my way back," he said. "He has the Marauder's Map —"
"For Merlin's sake, Harry, I'm going to make Fred and George take that back," she said with an irritated huff. "I don't understand how you keep getting caught with it when they never did."
Harry rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, well, I saw something…strange on it before he took it," he said. "That's how I got caught — I was going to check it out and I got stuck in that trick step on the second floor —"
"Second floor?" she said, bewildered. "What were you doing on the second floor?"
"I was heading to Snape's classroom," he said, eyeing her cautiously. She was very weird when it came to Snape, and he was never quite sure if she was going to be angry when he mentioned that he intended to snoop in there. "It said that Barty Crouch was in there."
She stared at him for a long moment as if she didn't quite understand what he'd said.
"Crouch?" she said, bewildered. "What would he be doing in there?"
Harry spoke in a rush, explaining how Filch had come when his egg had cracked open and started screaming, how he'd assumed it was Peeves that had stolen a Champion egg. How Snape had come looking for Filch because someone had broken into his potions stores and left a door ajar, and Harry had known that it was Barty Crouch because he'd seen him on the map and had been going down there to check what he was up to when he was supposed to be ill. How Moody had shown up at the ruckus and Snape had immediately clammed up, not wanting to tell him at all that someone had broken into his office, and that Moody had searched it at the beginning of the year quite thoroughly, making some comment about Dumbledore being a trusting man and believing that everyone deserved a "second chance," but Moody didn't trust him at all as there were some things that no one could come back from.
Though Moody could see Harry through his Invisibility Cloak, he'd assumed the map had been Snape's and had tried to give it back to him before he'd caught Harry's eye and he'd told him not to let Snape have it. Nessa found it incredibly lucky that Moody had lied on his behalf and said the map was his instead, but Snape had immediately known he was lying, assuming that Harry was hiding under his Invisibility Cloak somewhere. He'd nearly caught him when Moody had made the suggestion that Snape had a curious hatred for the younger Gryffindor and that that behavior might make him a suspect in Harry's name coming out of the goblet.
Snape had been quick to make excuses at that point before he'd run off, and Harry had let Moody keep the map when he'd asked, too grateful that he wasn't being punished (and that Moody had saved him from Snape) to deny him.
Nessa stared at him when he stopped talking. There were a load of questions running through her head at this point, all of them just as confusing as the last. Why would Barty Crouch be too ill to go into the office, but not ill enough to get inside the castle? And why would he have been in Snape's stores? There were a number of Apothecaries that he could have gone to for ingredients that wouldn't have required him to step on Hogwarts grounds. It made no sense that he'd have come to the castle.
Harry, of course, was more focused on Snape.
"Why would Moody be searching Snape's office unless he suspected that he'd put my name in the Goblet of Fire?"
Nessa gave him an impatient look.
"Harry, he's clearly paranoid," she said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he searched McGonagall's office as well. I'm sure he searched them all, especially if he's doing so against Dumbledore's orders."
"Well, what does it mean that he's on his second chance? What happened to the first one?"
Nessa couldn't stand his hatred for the Potions master, just as much as she couldn't stand the Potions master's hatred of him. It was like Harry had simply been born to carry on their father's own hatred for him, and Snape was too blinded by his own distaste to break the cycle. It was maddening, particularly because she didn't have any issues with him herself. He clearly wasn't all bad, but she had no desire to explain that to her brother.
"We're not doing this again, Harry —" she said impatiently.
"He does hate me — it could be him —!"
She groaned loudly and ran a hand through her hair in frustration.
"Harry, this is ridiculous. Dumbledore trusts him, and both you and Snape are not rational enough about the other to be making that call. Just because he doesn't like you doesn't mean he wants you dead! There's a big difference there. He hates Tori just as much as he hates you, and I don't see her competing in the tournament, do you?" she said pointedly. Harry rolled his eyes. "We've done this before. You thought he was trying to kill you in your first year, and it turned out he was trying to save your life. I'm not interested in having this conversation again."
"Moody might be paranoid, but he's free of bias, you know," Harry said pointedly. "Something neither one of us can say —"
"I don't know what you're implying, Harry, but if you think for one second that I would not kill Snape myself if I had any doubt that he'd put your name in that goblet, you're very wrong," she snapped dangerously. "Dumbeldore is a hard man to fool, and Snape has been working here for a very long time. If he trusts him then so do I, and we're not going to waste our time focusing on him just because Moody searched his office and doesn't like him. No one likes him — he has a very off-putting personality for a lot of people, doesn't he?" Harry sniggered, but chose not to answer. "The real question is…what was Crouch doing in Snape's office when he can't even show up to work? And what the hell was he looking for?"
Harry looked like he might want to argue some more, but whatever he saw on her face must have convinced him not to press because he answered her with a heavy sigh.
"Well, I was sort of hoping you could figure out," he said carefully, knowing how vehemently she'd rejected this idea when he'd suggested she snoop on Snape. "You do inventory for him sometimes, don't you? Does he keep the records of everything he stores in there?"
She nodded, considering, walking up to stand next to him, and looking out at the grounds.
"Course he does," she said dismissively. "He's very anal retentive about his ingredients. Students try to steal from him all the time. I can try and check this weekend — he might let me do inventory for him, but I can't make any promises, especially if he suspects it was you. He's not stupid — he knows I'd help you if I had to."
Harry grinned, hitting his shoulder against hers playfully.
"I love you too," he said casually, looking out at the grounds.
They were silent for a long moment, the sound of the wind the only noise around them, the cold January chill stinging their faces. The sky was cloudy so she couldn't see very many stars, but this particular place was comforting to her even despite the chill. Because she so despised it, however, she cast a warming charm over them both anyway.
"I wrote Sirius about everything," he said eventually. "I figure he'd want to know. Maybe he'll have some insight on everything. Have you heard from Remus?"
She shook her head with a frown.
"Not since after the first task," she said worriedly. "He won't say as much, but I don't think he has the money to send an owl unless I send one and make the Hogwarts owl wait for a reply. And you know how much they hate doing that —"
"Use Hedwig," Harry offered. "I can't send her to Sirius anyway since she's so noticeable. She's a bit put off with me at the moment — she'd probably be relieved for something to do."
She smiled at him in thanks and rested her head on his shoulder, her hair blowing out around them from the wind. He was taller than her now, and it was simply so much easier for her to rest her head on his shoulder than it was for him. A ridiculous thought to have at the moment, but it made her chest ache a little. He was her little brother, but he felt less and less little every day. She despised it.
"I can't wait for this year to be over," she said honestly. He laughed in agreement. "It feels like we've been living the same year for at least five years."
"We've got to catch a break at some point, right?" he said, only half-joking.
"Harry, I've been saying that for the last two years," she snorted. "At this point, it's starting to feel like a sick joke."
"Speaking of jokes," Harry said, looking down at her. "What's going on with Fred and George? Are they fighting or something?"
She sighed heavily, lifting her head from her shoulders and massaging her temples. Their moment of truce last week had not lasted very long, and had appeared to be only for her benefit and whatever benefit the twins had in ganging up on Bagman. They'd been in far fouler moods this week after they'd been shut down in speaking with him, and neither one of them had admitted to their girlfriend's what the problem with Bagman even was. Tori's frustration at not being on good terms with George had mixed with her frustration at the twins for keeping their own secrets, and she'd been attempting to spring the question about Bagman on them as much as possible, as if they might answer if she took them by surprise.
Fred's frustration seemed to be a mixture of Bagman's reluctance to speak with them and the fact that George had still been refusing to speak with him unless it had something to do with the shop. At this point, Nessa had no idea how to help any of them. The fact that George not speaking to his own twin appeared to be as devastating for him as it was for Fred did not appear to make him any more likely to speak to him, but he'd told her that evening that he was just trying to work himself up to the conversation.
She'd never seen him so nervous to speak with anyone before, but she supposed he'd never once been this disappointed with his other half. She didn't imagine he had much experience conveying that to Fred — she'd seen them angry and annoyed and excited, but she'd never seen them disappointed in the other. It was painful to watch, but she didn't attempt to force George to come to terms with anything before he wanted to, particularly because he wasn't giving them the silent treatment — he was just merely keeping his distance from them. Considering it had only been two weeks since he'd found out, and Tori and Fred had been keeping their feelings from him for months, she figured he was handling things pretty well overall.
"Well, they — it's complicated," she said with a heavy sigh.
Harry stared at her for a long moment and raised a pompous brow.
"You know, why is it that I'm always telling you all about my life and you're never telling me about yours?" he said pointedly.
She rolled her eyes.
"Don't look at me like that! I tell you things —"
"No, you don't," he snorted. "You didn't tell me about Murton last year, you didn't tell me about George upsetting you last year, you didn't tell me about Cedric, you didn't tell me about —"
"Alright, alright, I get it," she said with a grimace. "I just — you've got a lot to deal with, Harry, and all of my problems are…childish in the grander scheme."
Harry gave her a look that clearly conveyed that she was saying something he found absurd.
"Nessa, I worry about you whether you want me to or not," he said. "And I don't appreciate being cut out any more than you do. Besides, the rate my life is going, childish sounds like something I could use at the moment."
She didn't like the way he was looking at her. He'd always had such an ability to be strong in the face of most things, but he did look particularly hurt by being the last to know everything. And while a part of her thought that it was nice of him to get a taste of his own medicine, another part of her understood why he'd want to be kept in the loop.
This year in particular she'd done so much worrying about him that she'd placed all of her own issues to the back burner — she avoided Murton and her friends out of sheer principle, she avoided that stupid corridor as much as she had last year though her nightmares were less frequent, she avoided her O.W.L.s in favor of wondering about Harry. She still hadn't told George about Cedric's Christmas present, and the longer she waited the more upset he was sure to be. She'd avoided practicing more of her magic since Fred had come to take her out of that empty classroom.
Really, she avoided everything except what was happening directly in front of her and her near constant anxiety about her brother, who was, truly, the only reason she still managed to get herself out of bed in the morning.
There was a crushing weight in her soul, even when she was with George, and it was one she couldn't shake no matter how much she tried to distract herself. Everything in the world felt off to her, something looming behind her like a kidnapper waiting to snatch her, except every time she turned around there was nothing but blackness and silence.
In the grand scheme of all of those things, it didn't feel like what she went through mattered all that much. There were bigger things to worry about, and none of those things were about Cedric's unwanted attention or the dynamics of the twins' and Tori's relationship or the fact that her heart raced every time Murton smirked at her.
All of those things were secondary to her because her primary focus was the boy in front of her. He knew that as well as she did.
"Look, you don't have to tell me, alright?" he said, though he looked disappointed in her for her hesitance. "I just — I want you to know that whatever you're going through is just as important as what I am, yeah? If it upsets you, it isn't childish. Just — just don't feel like you can't talk to me is all I'm saying —"
"No, Harry, I don't — that's not why I don't say anything — it's just —" She took in a shaky breath, her eyes watering a little. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to cut you out, I just don't want to distract you from the tournament. And the twins — well, they are arguing. Sort of. It's kind of complicated at the moment and I can't — well, I can't tell you why —"
His brow furrowed.
"I've never known the two of them to argue," he said, and she appreciated the concern in his voice despite the fact that he wasn't as close with them as he was with Ron and Hermione. "Why can't you tell me why? They don't want you to say anything?"
"Not exactly, it —" she paused. Truthfully, she didn't think they'd care if she told her brother anyway, seeing as it was Harry and they trusted him. It was really just the fact that she was worried he'd say something to Ron and Tori and Fred were having a difficult enough time without adding another angry Weasley to the mix. Particularly one who had zero tact and limited emotional range. "Well, honestly, it's because Ron can't find out yet and I don't want you to have to keep it a secret."
Harry eyed her a long moment, seemingly debating whether or not he wanted to push or not.
"If I knew…I mean, would he know that I knew?" he said. "This isn't something illegal is it?"
Nessa snorted.
"No, of course not," she said dismissively. "It — well, they're arguing because of Tori. She and Fred have been — well, they are dating and have been for awhile. But Fred lied to George when he asked and they — they've just been at odds since he found out."
There was a flicker of surprise across Harry's face for a moment, but he smoothed it out quickly.
"Oh, well that's — I mean, it's not entirely surprising," he said. "I always thought they would end up that way anyway. You know, like Ron and Hermione. What's the big deal if Ron finds out?"
She gave her brother a very exasperated look.
"C'mon, Harry, do you really expect Ron to take this well? He told Sirius last year that Fred and Tori were siblings, didn't he?"
Harry grimaced.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," he said. "Anyway, I won't say anything to him. Don't reckon he'd ask me anything like that anyway, do you?"
She laughed.
"Not particularly, no," she said. "I told you it really wasn't that exciting."
"Yeah, well, I appreciate you telling me anyway," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and dragging her back toward the door that led back inside the castle. "If it makes you feel better, I do have something childish I could tell you. Even the playing field a little."
"Yeah, what's that?" she said, laughing lightly.
"Myrtle apparently watches the prefects take baths sometimes," he said, laughing when she jolted away to gape at him in horror.
"What?" she said, looking horrified. "I use that bathroom!"
Harry laughed.
"Yeah, that's why I'm telling you," he said. "I don't think she's as interested in you as she is in the male prefects, to tell you the truth. She helped me with the egg because she was watching Cedric work through his, and she tried telling me all about how the bubbles had nearly gone by the time he'd left…"
"Oh, gross!" she said, shoving him away from her and laughing in horrified amusement. "That's — what is wrong with her?"
Harry snorted.
"A great number of things I imagine," he said honestly. "She said she covers her eyes until they all get in —"
"Oh, please," Nessa snorted. "If that were true, what's she doing watching us in secret to begin with? I'm never going to take a bath in there again."
"Yeah, well, I'm going to pretend she was telling the truth if you don't mind," Harry said with a shudder. "She was in there when I was in there —"
Nessa smirked widely at her brother as they made their way through the portrait hole.
"Don't worry, Harry," she said. "I promise not to tell Ginny about your secret love affair with Myrtle —"
She laughed loudly when her brother shoved her away from him with an eye roll.
"Laugh it up," he said, pointing at her smugly. "You're the one that has to take baths in there now."
She grimaced, ignoring his round of laughter.
She might have to take baths in there, but she was going to search that bathroom up and down before she got in the pool again.
The last thing she needed when she was trying to relax was to find a sobbing Myrtle watching her.
I proofread this kinda fast, so I apologize for any mistakes.
We've been missing some Nessa/Harry time, so we're getting that here. I also decided that there was a slim chance that Nessa would let Hermione say anything ro Rita Skeeter given the way I've written her so far, so Hermione's been spared some embarrassment at Nessa's expense.
The overall consensus leaned heavily toward posting a chapter in PS from George's POV AND one in CR from Tori and Fred's POV. So that's what we're going with. Thank you to everyone who let me know what you preferred, I so appreciate it.
That chapter will be next week once I can get everything converted over to George's POV.
See you then! Enjoy your weekends!