This is really mostly a filler chapter after everything. I haven't the energy to do more and I've been writing nonstop this week so I'm taking it easy, but the plot furthers toward the end.

Again, for those who are reading M-related oneshots for this story, Method to the Madness takes place directly before the first third of this chapter. I'll be posting another smutty one shot for the second third of this chapter on my profile and I'll be updating M related content on that story instead of here since we're keeping this Teen friendly.

Enjoy!

Bookcozy: Hi! I totally get it, believe me. The holidays are insanity. I appreciate you taking time to leave a review despite all of that though! It brings me so much happiness to get reactions to the chapters. Also, you just get Nessa so well. I so agree that she wouldn't be able to face confrontation given the way she grew up. I will never not hate the Dursleys down to my core. I haven't played the Hogwarts Legacy game so I'm not totally sure if the spell would relate to that but I'll have to look into it! The idea came to me suddenly and I decided to incorporate it. It's hard for me to think of spells for her to practice but that one just seemed fun.

Gi-L-Ha: Hi! There will be more than three chapters to this one. I think we're about 75% through the book, but I'm trying to keep this below fifty chapters so hopefully we'll get there soon. Sorry if I confused you on that! I'm both excited and dreading the move to the next book. It'll be a crazy one, but could be a lot of fun to write.

Chapter Forty One

As far as things went in her life, this was likely the best she was going to get. Harry still had the third task — and no idea what it was yet — but she and George were at least back to normal which soothed some of her anxiety. They'd returned to their bubble, just as George had promised that they would — they were joined at the hip, and she felt like she'd been ridiculous to even think that things wouldn't have been okay between them if she'd told him about the books.

Perhaps she was overthinking the entire thing or just hadn't remembered what it had felt like to have him so close to her, but it almost felt like they'd gotten closer somehow. And that was before things had…heated up between them. Now it felt like she couldn't stop thinking about the man at all, and he was horribly distracting to be around. She wasn't even sure she'd really listened to anything he'd said to her over the last week, getting distracted by the sheer presence of him. Nevermind the fact that he found this very amusing, grinning at her smugly every time he caught her, and sending her into an episode of blushing and knocking things over.

She was starting to feel a bit like Ginny any time she came near Harry. If she weren't so happy that they'd worked things out, she'd have thrown a fit about this fact. Or maybe started hiding from George again.

Except at the moment, her awkwardness aside, he was the only thing going right for her. She and Cedric were avoiding each other like the plague. Though, to be fair, being seen together at this point might have made the whispers much worse so it was probably fine. And though George had insisted that he didn't care if she spoke to Cedric — sounding like he did care, but clearly trying to be the bigger man — she was perfectly content remaining wrapped up in him rather than trying to work things out with Cedric.

In other news, Ron had taken the bullet and written to Percy as Sirius had requested; they figured Percy might respond better to his questioning than either of the twins, who had made his life particularly difficult on more than one occasion and were likely to draw suspicion if they expressed interest in Crouch. Tori had been grouped in with the twins in Percy's mind since the day she'd shown up at the Weasley's door, so she was next to useless as well.

Nessa had outright refused to do it — she did not want Percy Weasley thinking that she had any interest in a personal conversation with him. Not unless his time at the Ministry had recently caused him to loosen up, and she distinctly doubted that.

And she'd written back to Remus, so other than studying for O.W.L.s, she really had not much else to do at the moment and she'd returned to normal as March continued to drag on, the weather continuing to get warmer and wetter by the day.

Well, as normal as it could be when Ron was refusing to leave their sides, a permanent scowl on his face as they went about their day.

Tori huffed at him when he sat down next to them at lunch for the fifth day that week, tossing her and Fred a suspicious glance.

"Go sit somewhere else," she said in annoyance.

"Why?" Ron said defensively. "This spot is open."

"Because I'm sick of looking at you," Tori said, pointing a piece of bacon at him warningly. "Your attitude is harshing my mellow."

George snorted.

"You've never been mellow," he sniped, catching the piece of bacon she threw at him in response and crunching on it immediately, his grin wide. "Thanks!"

Tori rolled her eyes at him, elbowing Fred in the side when he tried to cover his grin behind his glass of pumpkin juice.

"We're family," Ron said pointedly. "You should be happy to see me. Nessa never complains about Harry —"

"Not to you," Fred snorted, swearing under his breath when Nessa kicked him in the shin in retaliation.

"What have you been complaining about?" Harry said indignantly.

"He's joking," Nessa said dismissively. "I thought Ron and Hermione were bickering still."

At least they had been yesterday. Harry had avoided them both at all costs after a trip to the kitchens had left Hermione disgruntled about house-elf rights. Winky had apparently been offered a position within the school, but she'd spent all of it getting wasted on butterbeer, which was much stronger for elves than it was for humans.

Other than her clear misery, Hermione had apparently been very upset that Winky didn't realize that she was a free elf and treated with respect, leading to Winky (and every other elf in the kitchen, sans Dobby) to get angry with them and kick them out of the kitchen. This was apparently of a great disservice to Ron, who had become worried that the elves would starve them of good food.

Their bickering had nearly caused Harry to dive off of the Owlery tower and he'd avoided them for the whole of yesterday.

At the reminder, Harry narrowed his eyes at her.

"Why would you bring that up?" He muttered, shooting Hermione and Ron a hesitant glance. "They've just started talking again —"

"Have you admitted your love for each other yet then?" Tori said with a smirk.

Hermione went red, and Ron spluttered.

"Quit it, Tori," Nessa said, laughing at their refusal to meet each other's eye. "You're going to give them a complex."

Tori opened her mouth to respond, but she was cut off by Murton's snide voice from behind her.

"Splitting your time between Diggory and Weasley, Potter?" she sneered loudly, drawing the heads of several people nearest her. She went rigid next to George, and Tori whipped around to glare at her. The week had been horrible to her, the article appearing to have caused all of the miserable people to come out of the woodwork to hurl insults at her at random. Murton was the worst of them. "And here I thought that Hastings was the slut."

"Watch your fucking mouth, Murton," Fred growled, whirling around with his goblet as if he might throw it in her direction.

"Is Hastings sleeping with you too, Weasley?" Murton said. "Seems like borderline incest if you ask me, but perhaps that's how your family does things. Not sure how you could be pure-bloods otherwise, seeing as no other family could stand touching you."

"Funny, that's what Daniels said to me after he got done snogging you," Tori said, smirking widely when Murton's face shifted into a snarl. "Course, that could just be because you're a frigid bitch —"

"Perhaps the four of them are sleeping together?" said one of her friends — the big one that had held her into that fucking trunk the hardest. Nessa couldn't tell which of them she hated more, but she refused to make eye contact with either of them. "They do seem awfully close, don't they?"

Murton smirked, looking between the twins, Tori, and Nessa in amusement.

"Potter won't be satisfied unless she's gotten half of the school in her bed, I expect," she sneered. "Personally, I don't see the appeal, but I suppose most men wouldn't care if she's offering herself so willingly."

"If you believe anything that Rita Skeeter writes then you're stupider than you look," Hermione snapped.

"She was right about your pal Hagrid, wasn't she?"

Hermione's hand tightened on her fork until her knuckles went white, but George answered her before Hermione could fly off the handle.

"Ignore her," he said with an eye roll. "Nessa could hurl her across the room if she wanted. And there's no use arguing with stupid."

Nessa pretended she hadn't heard him because she was too busy peeling the crusts off her sandwich, setting them on George's plate without really thinking about it.

His sentiment was nice, but seeing as she'd avoided eye contact during the altercation, she had severe doubts that she could hurl Murton across the room. Truthfully, she felt more like she deserved to be ridiculed if she couldn't even find the nerve to speak up for herself.

Tori gave her a hard look, turning away from Murton with a vulgar gesture in the Slytherin's direction.

"You're letting her get to you," she said disapprovingly. "She's not even worth the air she breathes."

"Easy for you to say," Nessa muttered. "You aren't the one being painted to be a slut —"

Tori gave her an exasperated look.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said immediately. "They've always painted me out to be a slut. Only men are allowed to enjoy sex, Vanessa, and it's apparently very offensive that I —"

"Please don't finish that sentence," Ron said, looking green. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Tori rolled her eyes, pointing her fork at him.

"That right there," she said, waving it at him lazily. "That's why you won't be snogging anyone any time soon. Grow up, Ronnie."

Ron's ears went red. Harry changed the subject altogether, appearing as though he didn't want to be having this conversation either.

"It'll die down," he said to his sister comfortingly. "If you just ignore it…people got bored with that stuff she wrote about me last time —"

Of all of the people who would know, it would be him, and she tried to take comfort from the words even though she didn't believe it.

"Except I think I've pissed her off enough that she might just find something else to write about," Nessa said, rubbing the bridge of her nose in exhaustion. At the time, it hadn't felt like such a big deal, but she couldn't stand the whispering. The sniggering was worse. George appeared to simply ignore it, but being talked about behind her back gave her a great deal of anxiety, made her second guess herself left and right. It was a product of having been bullied in primary school, and she was convinced at this point that it would never go away, no matter how old she got. "I've no idea how she's finding this stuff out either. She's probably clinging to the ceiling like a gecko —"

Hermione straightened at these words, seeming immediately agitated, but looking ready to go to battle somehow.

"How did Skeeter hear what Nessa said at the lake though?" she said thoughtfully, frowning in her direction. "I mean if you didn't tell her, how could she have known that you'd told Cedric that people would suspect there was something going on between you when Harry came back up with Cho?"

Harry flushed red at the reminder, busying himself with the butter. Nessa smirked because he had nothing on his plate that even required butter, but she chose not to say anything, even when her brother's gaze lifted to glance at Cho in what he clearly thought was surreptitious.

"She could have heard it from someone else," Nessa said dismissively.

It wasn't as though it would be impossible to guess what Nessa had been so upset about, particularly seeing as she had a boyfriend already.

"But who?" Hermione pressed, looking agitated. "Viktor, Fleur, and I were the only ones near you. And the words in the article were verbatim to what you said." Nessa raised an eyebrow at her, and Hermione flushed. "Not that I was paying attention to your conversation or anything."

Tori snorted, shaking her head.

"Pathetic," she said with a laugh. "You've got to work on the lying, Hermione."

Hermione huffed, waving her words away.

"Forget that," she said, her agitation growing. "The point is that she couldn't have known that's what you'd said unless she'd been there. Except she isn't allowed on the grounds anymore, so someone would have noticed her. The same thing with that stuff about Hagrid. Harry said no one else was around, and yet she heard that too. And she's getting interviews with the Slytherins somehow!"

"Don't worry about it, Hermione —"

"No, it's not fair!" Hermione responded heatedly. "First Harry then Hagrid now you! Someone should do something about her! I'll get her back for this if it's the very last thing I do!"

Ron gave her a hesitating look, sharing a look with Harry that clearly conveyed his nervousness.

"Don't go upsetting Skeeter, Hermione," he said firmly despite his caution. "She'll write about you next —"

"I don't care if she writes about me! My parents don't read the Daily Prophet so she doesn't scare me!" Hermione said savagely. "And I've had it with her writing about my friends. I'll ask Moody about an Invisibility Cloak later — perhaps he saw her with his eye."

The sentiment warmed her a little, beating back some of the shame she felt at not defending herself to Murton earlier. She and Hermione weren't particularly close, so the fact that she cared so much about her enough to be so angry on her behalf was touching. Even if she wasn't only upset about her, but also about Hagrid and Harry.

Tori gave Nessa a look conveying her concern for Hermione's sanity before she stood.

"Right, well, heartwarming as it is that you're so upset about Nessa, we have O.W.L.s to worry about and Fred and George are stuck helping us so —"

They all stared at Ron when he shot to his feet to follow them, despite the fact that he had absolutely no reason to be following them anywhere. For one thing, he had class in ten minutes. For another, his lunch was still unfinished.

Tori scowled at him.

"Would you quit following us around?" She snapped. "You're driving me half-mad. What's the matter with you?"

Ron's ears turned red as he shuffled awkwardly.

"Nothing," he said, giving Harry and Hermione harsh looks when they snickered at him. "I just realized lately that we don't have enough family time. We should spend more time together. You know, as a family. It's very important, family."

Nessa hid her amusement at these words in George's shoulder. Given the glances that Ron had been giving Fred and Tori — and the fact that he sat in between them at every opportunity — Nessa had suspected the reason that he was spending so much time with them, but she'd refrained from pointing it out.

Fred and Tori mostly ignored it, and even if seeing Ron so often grated on her nerves, it was hardly her business how they handled his increased scrutiny. Not to mention that Ron was the least intimidating person she'd ever met, so his disapproval was entirely useless.

Based on his smug superiority, however, he clearly thought that his presence alone was enough to keep Fred and Tori apart.

Tori seemed to notice this too, pausing for a long moment, looking at Fred hesitantly as if she were heavily debating something. When she looked back at Ron, who was waiting to follow them, her spine straightened.

"Fine," she snapped. "Since you think your opinion matters so much."

She grabbed Fred by the lapels of his uniform shirt, tugging him toward her so hard that he stumbled, barely catching himself in time before she sealed her lips to his.

Right in the middle of the Great Hall. In front of the entire school.

Fred's surprise was clear in the set of his shoulders, but he appeared to recover quite quickly, wrapping a hand around Tori's waist and pulling her closer, looking for all the world like he could care less who was watching them.

The entire hall had gone silent for a long moment before the buzzing sound started as people started whispering about the new development, but Tori pulled away before it could become too obnoxious. There was a beat of silence between her and Fred as they looked at each other before Tori appeared to realize where they were, and took a minute step back, though she remained relatively close to Fred, who was beaming at her as if she were quite possibly his only reason for breathing.

Nessa gaped at the two of them and George rolled his eyes with a snort. Ron looked like someone had run him over with a steam roller.

"Is that clear enough for you?" Tori said to Ron sharply, ignoring the murmuring around them. "Or would you like us to demonstrate again how little your opinion matters to us?"

Ron shook his head, sitting down between Harry and Hermione again, a horrified look plastered on his face.

"I'm going to have nightmares about that," he said aloud to himself.

Tori rolled her eyes, spinning on her heel and stomping out of the Great Hall, her head held high despite the whispers. Fred practically skipped after her. George shook his head, lacing his fingers with Nessa's and walked casually after them.

"I know I should find that display alarming, considering the details," he said to her with a grin. "But it's a bit difficult when he's skipping about like that."

"He looks happy," she agreed, shocked at Tori's decision to make their relationship so public in a split second decision. "I expected Tori to hide it from the rest of the school for another six months."

George made a noise of agreement.

"Bit relieved they didn't," he said. "Listening to Fred whine about it being a secret was sure to send me over the edge. He overshares." Nessa snorted, not at all doubting that this was true. George nudged her with his shoulder lightly. "And at least now the whole bloody school has something else to gossip about, yeah?"

Sweet as the thought had been, it hadn't exactly worked out the way George had suspected.

More people had suspected there was something going on with Tori and Fred than any of them had really expected, and they'd moved on from such things within a week. Nessa had yet to speak to Tori about her decision to tell the entire school about her relationship, but the fact that no one made a huge deal about the entire thing seemed to relax her some.

Tori was quite good at pretending not to be bothered by her peers' judgment, but her relationship with Fred was something she judged herself enough about as it was, and Nessa didn't think she could have handled increased scrutiny at the moment.

Although, Nessa selfishly wished that the school would have more interest in the topic. Aside from the Slytherins, who, of course, were making comments about the fact that Fred and Tori lived together, the majority of the school seemed unconcerned. Which meant they went straight back to talking about her, George, and Cedric as if they were the only three people inside the school.

She attempted to ignore it as best she could, writing to Remus about her O.W.L.s and trying not to think about how close the third task was getting. They hadn't yet discovered what the task would be, even when the Easter holidays had passed and the twins' birthday had dawned bright and early, and she'd spent the majority of the day hiding in her dorm to avoid the entire ordeal.

The twins, surprisingly, had allowed her her space despite the fact that it was their birthday, and she tried not to feel guilty about the fact that she was spiraling on a day that she should have been thinking about them. She didn't know why she was spiraling either — it was an odd mixture of dread and desperation; desperation for the task to pass as quickly as possible because she was so sick of feeling like this, and dread because…well, because it was the only response she had to the tasks anymore.

And though nothing exciting had happened in the last several weeks, and she had nothing concerning to tell Remus or Sirius, she couldn't shake the anger and impatience she felt during the entire day.

She'd spent all day in her dorm alone, studying for O.W.L.s, until George had barged in with demands that she pay attention to him. She'd been a bit testy about it at first, but she'd warmed up. Rather quickly, in fact.

Her face heated at the thought, her eyes tracking George across the room where he was setting off a great deal of fireworks with Fred in celebration.

He was hard not to watch these days, particularly because they'd been a bit…

She didn't know the word for it. Ever since they'd made up about the article and Cedric, they'd been all over each other. He'd convinced her twice last week to skip classes in order to sneak off somewhere in the castle, she'd had far too many inappropriate dreams of late, and he was always touching her. Why was he always touching her? It was horribly distracting. A brush of his fingers against hers, and she was aflutter.

Her hormones had completely taken over her ability to think entirely.

Had he always been that attractive? She couldn't even remember. She could hear him laughing from her spot across the common room, the deep sound of it sending her stomach flipping. Every time he talked to her, she was reminded of how easily he'd let go of the fact that she'd done something so unbelievably stupid by hiding things from him, all for the sake of keeping them inside their bubble. The man had simply come out the other side of their argument ready to place her smack dab in the middle of that bubble again without even a second thought. It gave her butterflies to look at him. It made her want to squirm, made her want to kiss the breath right out of him —

She jumped when Tori appeared in front of her with two bottles of butterbeer.

"Happy as I am that you and George are back to being disgusting, you're going to strain your eyes looking at him like that," she joked, taking a seat beside her. "And there's children in here. You two shouldn't be looking at each other like that in the presence of children."

Nessa blushed scarlet, deliberately looking anywhere but at George. She and Tori had thrown the twins a party for their birthday, sneaking large quantities of butterbeer — and firewhiskey, though if anyone asked her about it, she'd have handed out detentions — candy, pastries, fireworks (far, far too many fireworks), screaming Yo-Yos, and food from the kitchens.

The entire common room was packed to bursting, music playing loudly throughout the common room, games of Truth or Dare and Spin the Bottle being played outside the eye of the younger students. She'd had to look the other way when several people started playing a game of Quidditch with a Quaffle that Angelina Johnson had brought down from her dorm. They were knocking over a great deal of objects, causing things to shatter, but she merely waved her wand to fix it with a heavy sigh and moved on. Some battles were not quite worth the effort, and the twins loved the chaos.

She could ignore it for one day if it meant seeing the two of them enjoying their birthday.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said to her best friend, pretending to be interested in a game of monkey in the middle that was being played in the middle of the makeshift dance floor.

Tori snorted.

"Then why is there a hickey on your neck?"

It was sheer panic that had her lifting her hand to her neck though she couldn't see it at all.

"Are you kidding?" she exclaimed, wincing when the people nearest her turned to look at her. She lowered her voice hastily. "Tori, tell me you're joking."

"I'm not," she said, grinning widely and eyeing a spot on the right side of her neck. She flushed to the roots of her hair — she was going to kill George. "I thought you knew."

"Why would I want — people can see it!" she said desperately, pulling up her sweater to her chin. "What if Harry saw it?"

Tori rolled her eyes, reaching forward to tug the sweater down and placing the tip of her wand at her throat. She muttered something under her breath and sat back in her seat.

"There, prude, it's gone," she said, looking highly amused when Nessa sagged in relief. "And I don't think that Harry saw it, but if he had, I'm sure he'd have thought that he needed to knock before going into the sixth year boys' dorm so he didn't see you and George shagging —"

"We aren't — there's no shagging!" Nessa said, mortified again. She was really going to kill him for getting her into this conversation. She'd no idea why she'd been swooning over him just a second ago. He was totally useless. "It — we just — I mean, there was something, but there wasn't —" she huffed in irritation. "Why are we talking about this?"

Tori laughed, tossing her head back from the force of it. Nessa smirked when the sound immediately drew Fred's attention.

"Because you've been waltzing around with a hickey for the last hour, George is looking very relaxed, and I've nothing better to do," Tori answered smugly. "I don't know what you're so awkward about it for. You already told me about your dream a few weeks ago," she said, wiggling her eyebrows exaggeratedly. Nessa chucked a pillow at her head. "Besides, everyone does it —"

"Is that what you and Fred were off doing then?"

The entire reason George had accosted her upstairs earlier had been because Fred and Tori had disappeared without him and he refused to be alone on his birthday.

Tori gave her a look full of irritation, her gaze drifting to Fred across the room. She rolled her eyes, her lips twitching, when she spotted him already looking at her. He merely winked at her and turned back to the fireworks they were trying to light off of Lee's head.

"No, we weren't," she said, sighing heavily. "I mean, there was snogging, but we weren't fooling around like you and George —"

"Can we just agree to stop talking about me and George?"

"No," Tori laughed. "Not until you loosen up about it."

Nessa rolled her eyes, choosing to press Tori if she wasn't going to grant her a reprieve from the teasing.

"Why do you look so disappointed that you were just snogging?"

Tori chewed her lip anxiously.

"I don't know, it's weird," she said eventually. "We agreed to take things slow, you know. Which is all well and good, except I don't know how to do that. But taking things further feels like we're complicating things and if we do that and it's awkward or something then what the hell do I do with that?"

Nessa raised an eyebrow.

"Is snogging him awkward?"

"No," Tori said, rolling her eyes. "But this is a bit different —"

"Sounds to me like you're the one making it difficult," Nessa snorted. "I mean, you shouldn't do anything that makes you uncomfortable, but I don't think you should be overthinking it."

"Overthinking it the way you did when you were diving into bathrooms two weeks ago because you didn't want to tell George you'd had a dirty dream about him?"

Nessa flushed scarlet again. She couldn't tell Tori anything.

"I don't know why I bother with you," she muttered, looking away from Tori again to look at Fred and George. Fred had been so happy of late that it was nearly blinding to look at him, and his grin was near constant. Looking back at her best friend, she changed the subject entirely. "You told the school about you two."

Tori didn't say anything for a moment, swirling her butterbeer around in its bottle lazily, thinking hard about how to respond to that.

"Yeah, I — well, I don't know what I was thinking," she said with a laugh. "Ron was acting like we were something disgusting and I wanted to prove a point, but also — I mean, I'm looking at him, debating on kissing him in front of everyone because people will know. But then I'm thinking why the hell should I care? You and George are more important than the rest of them and neither of you cares. And he — well, he told me once that he thought that I was ashamed to be with him." She looked down hastily and Nessa could have sworn the words had made her eyes water. "So I'm staring at him, and worrying about people finding out and it just — it felt so stupid. I mean, don't get me wrong, the thought of telling Molly and Arthur makes me want to be sick still, but…how can I let a man like Fred Weasley feel like he has something to be ashamed of? He's supposed to be one of my best friends and I made him feel that way. So, I don't know, I just did it before I could convince myself otherwise. It's easier for me that way. If I do something impulsive then I can't overthink it."

Nessa nodded, reaching over to lace their fingers together and squeezing tightly.

"I'm glad you did," she said quietly. "You both seem much happier not having to pretend to be something you aren't."

"Not much is really different," Tori admitted. "He's as annoying as always, but now I don't have to listen to Ron say that we're family and freak me out. If it gets him to stop following us around on top of it all then that's just the icing on top."

Nessa laughed — Ron hadn't just stopped following them all around; he'd stopped coming near them entirely as if he were afraid Tori might make a habit of kissing Fred right in front of him.

"Ron is barely able to look at you two," she said with an eye roll. "It's very dramatic."

Tori snorted.

"He's always been dramatic," she said. "He'll get over it. He just thinks he's right about everything. It's a wonder Hermione hasn't killed him by now if you ask me."

Nessa tried not to say that she didn't understand how someone who was quite often wrong could think he was right so often. It hardly mattered, and Tori seemed okay with the fact that Ron didn't like the thought of her and Fred together.

"You're taking his distaste rather well," she pointed out. Tori shrugged.

"Nothing I can do, is there?" she said, "And I knew he'd be ridiculous about the whole thing. He's a bit dense, but he'll come around. He's loyal to a fault — otherwise I think Harry might be dead by now."

"That's a very comforting thought, Tori, thank you," she snorted, falling into silence.

It had been far too long since she and Tori had spent any time together like this. She felt a bit badly for having been so absent most of the year, but Tori didn't appear at all bothered. It was like they picked up immediately where they'd left off and there was nothing else that she had to be worried about.

"Do you want to bet how long it'll take before Ron and Hermione admit they fancy each other?" Tori inquired suddenly. Nessa blinked at her before she burst into laughter.

"You're never going to let it go, are you?"

"They're very annoying," she said, shrugging. "It's very obvious. Also, I found a Krum action figure under Ron's bed the other day. It was missing its head and an arm."

"You're joking," Nessa laughed.

"Course not," Tori said, grinning. "I put it back together and set it on his pillow just to piss him off. That's how I found that letter from Percy since the stupid prat wasn't going to bother to tell us anything."

Nessa rolled her eyes, her annoyance at the reminder bubbling in her stomach.

It was stupid, really, because the response to their letter had been entirely useless. He'd gotten offended by the fact that people kept asking him about Crouch as if he couldn't tell the difference between his boss' handwriting, and had told them not to waste his time again.

It certainly didn't make her like the older Weasley anymore than she had before.

"Did you tell Snuffles about it?" She said, rather than airing her distaste for Percy Weasley.

Tori avoided eye contact, but nodded.

"I did," she said. "Harry got to him first, but there's not much to say about it. He gave us next to nothing to go on." Tori sighed heavily, standing up and holding out a hand. "This is starting to feel less like a party than it was when I was making fun of you for fooling around with George. Let's dance."

Nessa knew she was merely changing the subject away from Sirius, but she allowed it. A few more hours of not thinking about the stresses of her life seemed like a relief at this point.

So instead of asking her best friend more probing questions about her father, she let her pull her onto the dance floor without a word.

She shouldn't have expected things to remain calm. The twins' party had gone smoothly, and she'd woken in Tori's bed the next morning with a horrible hangover and very little idea of what had transpired the evening before.

The only thing she had known was that she'd clearly had far too much fun. But it was certainly the last fun thing she'd experienced since.

Prefect duties were ridiculous, O.W.L.s were pressing closer, and people still wouldn't shut up about her relationship with Cedric. Madame Pomfrey had been running her to the bone, insisting that she become more familiar with healing spells before the third task as she had every intention of having her help with the champions.

April had turned to May, and that Wednesday of the very last week of the month, Harry had finally been told that he would be finding out the details of the third task. She merely had to get through her stint with Pomfrey and then she'd told Harry that she would meet him in the Entrance Hall on his way back in from the Quidditch Pitch.

When 9:30 rolled around, she was already waiting for her brother rather impatiently. She'd seen Cedric come in already, smiling at her awkwardly before disappearing down to his common room, and Fleur and Bagman had not been far behind. Fleur had stopped momentarily to speak with her, but she'd disappeared quickly in search of her sister. Bagman had looked like he'd been going to ask her something before he thought better of it and had made his way upstairs.

As the minutes ticked by and she didn't see Harry, she started to feel a bit anxious. Fleur had told her that Krum had wanted a word with him, but it felt like far longer than was necessary, and she had enough anxiety to start wondering if she'd been wrong about Krum, wondering distinctly if he might have been the one to put Harry's name in the goblet.

She had only just begun a downward spiral when Harry came rushing through the doors. She sagged in relief, but it was very short lived.

"Harry, what —"He looked frantic, nearly plowing into her in his haste to get into the castle. She stopped him, looking at him in concern. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Crouch," he gasped, sounding winded. "Crouch is here. He wants Dumbledore."

"Crouch is here? Where is he? Why isn't he with you?"

"Something wrong…with him," Harry said, fighting to free himself. "Go…Help him. He's down by…the forest with…Krum. I've got to get Dumbledore."

Nessa released him, sprinting toward the door out to the grounds as Harry took off up the stairs.

She hadn't a clue what the hell she was supposed to do to help, but she couldn't exactly leave the man out here if Harry thought there was something wrong with him. Getting Dumbledore seemed unimportant if there was something wrong — Pomfrey made the most sense but if Harry insisted on Dumbledore, she could at least make sure that Crouch wasn't in any immediate harm.

It was dark already and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but she didn't wait, trying to use her other senses to keep her upright until her eyes managed to do their job again. It was cloudy, all of the stars and the moon completely covered, making it seem much darker than it should. She was racing so fast, her heart pounding so rapidly, that she couldn't even feel the chill against her body.

She raced toward the forest, praying that Krum was somewhere she could see him, and she found him some ways past the Beauxbatons horse paddock. Crouch was on his knees on the ground next to a large oak tree, Krum leaning over him with a scowl, clearly out of place.

He looked up sharply when she came up to them, not looking at all relieved to see her.

"What happened?" she gasped, moving toward Crouch.

She paused in surprise at the sight of him. He didn't look at all like himself.

He looked as though he'd been traveling for days. The knees of his robes were ripped and bloody, his face scratched; he was unshaven and gray with exhaustion. His neat hair and mustache were both in need of a wash and a trim. But it was the way that he was behaving that concerned her most: he was muttering and gesticulating, talking to someone that only he alone could see.

"…and when you're done with that, Weatherby, send an owl to Bagman confirming that the goblet will be ready by Halloween…and then send an owl to Dumbledore to confirm the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang delegations. They've just sent word of the numbers…"

There was a moment with which Nessa was so surprised by this behavior that she hesitated, but she shot forward immediately. If he thought he was talking to Percy then perhaps it was a charm that was impacting his memory.

"He keeps talking to someone," Krum said to her, taking a hasty step back, appearing relieved to step away from the man before him. "He keeps calling me Weatherby even though I told him that it is not my name."

"He isn't talking about you," she said dismissively, waving her wand over Crouch and wincing. His heart rate was frantic. "He thinks you're his employee."

"Vhy vould he —"

Nessa gasped sharply when Crouch seemed to recognize that they were in front of him, his hand reaching out to grip her wrist so tightly that she winced, feeling like the bones were going to break beneath his grasp. He was surprisingly strong for someone who looked so weak, and she tried not to panic at his sudden clarity.

"Dumbledore…" he said, staring at a spot over her head. It made her neck tingle uncomfortably and she had to fight the urge to look over her shoulder. "I need…see…Dumbledore…"

What he needed was a Healer but she didn't say so.

"Harry went to get him," she said, attempting to sound soothing despite her growing panic. She couldn't run any other diagnostic spells when he was holding her hard and tugging her closer as if she were his only lifeline.

"I've…done…something…terrible," Crouch said as if she hadn't said anything. He looked mad. His eyes were rolling and bulging, and a trickle of spittle was sliding down his chin. Every breath was sawing out of him, and she was wondering if he was having trouble breathing. What the hell kinds of symptoms were these? "I…escaped…must warn…must tell…my fault…Bertha…dead…my son…tell Dumbledore…Harry Potter…the Dark Lord…stronger…Harry Potter…"

Any concern she had for him evaporated on the wind as her blood went cold.

"What are you talking about?" She said sharply. "What about Harry?"

"Thank you, Weatherby, and when you have done that, I would like a cup of tea. My wife and son will be arriving shortly, we are attending a concert tonight with Mr. and Mrs. Fudge."

Her head was spinning. What the hell was happening? His wife and son were dead.

She shook him, hard.

"Harry Potter," she said loudly. "What about Harry Potter? Tell me."

His eyes rolled again, bulging out of their sockets, but there was a loud crash from behind her that cut him off before he could say anything else. She whirled with her wand out to see Viktor Krum face down on the ground.

"What the hell?" She said, rushing forward to look at him.

Had he fainted? She'd completely forgotten he was even there and —

There was a flash of blinding green light and she whirled with a scream. She'd recognize that light from anywhere, her entire body seizing as if it were completely giving over to the fear. She landed on her bottom with a thud that rattled her teeth, but she barely felt it at all.

Not when her eyes had come to rest on Crouch's, which were now staring unseeingly at her, all of the emotion and life having completely left them, taking the madness and all of his answers with him.

Someone had killed him. Someone had killed someone on the grounds of Hogwarts. She hadn't even seen it happen — he'd been there one minute, and completely gone the next. She hadn't even had the time to react.

Her breath left her in a desperate rush and she scrambled backwards when there was a rustle from the trees in front of her.

Shit, shit, shit.

She was going to die too, wasn't she? There was no way to block the Killing Curse, and she was too panicked to run. She couldn't even feel her limbs. She had neither fight nor flight in her arsenal — instead she froze completely as the person stepped out from the cover of the trees.

Her heart stuttered to a stop, her breath catching in her throat in shock.

A fucking teacher. It was a fucking teacher that was out to get Harry. And she should have known it was him. She should have trusted her for, damn what everyone else had said about him.

Because with that whirring eye and the clunk of his wooden leg, there was absolutely no mistaking who she was looking at.

"Professor Moody," she snarled, some of her fear evaporating, anger replacing it.

She'd kill him.

There was a snap as a tree branch cracked and fell to the ground, and she didn't jump this time. The anger was swelling in her chest, burning away her sanity.

She'd let everyone make excuses for his behavior. She'd let herself make excuses. She'd chosen to look the other way. Her brother would pay the price for that if she did nothing now.

She let that anger bubble up in her chest without a fight, magic shooting sparks out of her wand in warning.

Moody barely blinked and didn't appear at all alarmed by the tree that had broken behind him. He had a look of pure hatred twisting across his face, and his tongue darted out rapidly like the tongue of a snake.

"I knew you would be a nuisance, Miss Potter," he growled. "You really should learn to mind your own business."

Short, I know, but it's a filler chapter, and I like the thought of leaving you guys here because I'm evil LOL.

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa!