Why is Christmas Eve not a federal holiday as well? Couldn't tell ya, and work is SLOW today. I wasn't planning on updating before the holidays, but I'm already done with the chapter, so why not? We'll count it as my gift to all of you. Merry Christmas!
Calypso: That cliffhanger was so much fun to write! As far as the length of this one, there's no particular reason that I'm trying to keep it under 50 chapters other than wanting to move to the next book and this one getting longer than I expected it to. Also, I don't read fanfiction anymore so I don't really have any recent recommendations. Justcourbeau used to be my favorite author when I did read them though if you haven't read any of her stuff. She was a beauty. Thanks for reviewing! Happy Holidays!
Bookcozy: Hahaha, that cliffhanger though…might have been my favorite to write. I wasn't sure if I was going to include Vanessa within that part of the story but then it happened and it was too good to pass up leaving it there. I liked the last chapter simply for the sake of having a break from the angst. It's all coming up so fast for them all, I can't! It hurts me to think about. Merry Christmas!
Aurorab33: I'm so sorry, but the cliffhanger was too good to pass up! Merry all the holidays to you!
Gi-L-Ha: Hiya! I'm also ready for OOTP. We're so close already. The last few chapters are all book heavy after we get to the task. Next one will be a rough ride. Ginny will come back soon, promise! Nessa just has a lot going on at the moment. Happy Holidays!
Chapter Forty Two
She had no idea what was happening when she opened her eyes next. The darkness around her was pressing in, the air was cold, and her heart was pounding painfully in her chest.
Her head ached.
"Nessa?" Harry said, leaning over her in concern. "Are you alright? What happened?"
As good a question as any because she certainly had no clue. All she remembered was racing out here to help Crouch, and then Krum had fainted. Next thing she knew she was waking up on the grounds of the forest.
No, that wasn't right. There had been someone else here — she could have sworn that she'd seen —
She gasped loudly as a searing pain made its way across her head, making it feel like her brain was on fire. The pain of it was blinding, the sudden onset of it so startling that she sat up rapidly before Harry could stop her.
She was used to migraines — she got them quite often because she was such a mess all the time, the constant stress causing more of them than she'd have liked — but this was something altogether different. It hurt ten times worse and the moment she dropped her line of thought, it went away, causing her to sway in relief.
What the hell?
"Miss Potter?" Dumbledore inquired, kneeling beside her.
She startled at the sight of him, dressed in robes of a deep blue. He was eyeing her in concern, dragging his gaze over her as if he were checking for injuries.
She shook her head slowly, rubbing at her temples.
"I don't — I don't know what happened," she said quietly, answering his silent question. "Crouch was — he was talking nonsense. He kept thinking that Percy Weasley was here. He was talking about his wife and son." Dumbledore frowned. "He said something about Harry," she said, breathing deeply through a careful, warning throb in the back of her head. "I couldn't — I tried getting him to tell me more, but he just said Harry's name and that Voldemort was getting stronger. I don't think — I don't think he was totally in his right mind."
Of that, she was entirely certain. The way his eyes had bulged and rolled in the sockets was clear enough. Even without the muttering about his dead wife and son, and the fact that he'd thought Percy was somewhere near.
"How did you end up on the ground?" Harry asked. "Did he attack you?"
Nessa considered the question, hissing loudly when the pain came back immediately, shooting behind her eyes. She dropped the thought immediately.
"I don't remember," she gritted out against the pain. "He must have. Krum had fainted or something and I went to check on him, but it — I don't remember much else. He must have attacked me when my back was turned."
Not that she really wanted to think of much else when her head felt like it was splitting open. Dumbledore tilted her head to the side gently.
"You hit your head," he said. "You'll need to see Madame Pomfrey before bed."
Nessa reached up with her fingers, hissing when her fingers came into contact with a lump, pain spearing through her head again.
That explained the headache then.
"Shit," she hissed before freezing entirely. "I mean, crap. I mean — I'm sorry," she said apologetically to Dumbledore.
His beard twitched as if he found her amusing, but he looked deathly serious otherwise. He stood, moving toward Krum, who was lying on the forest floor a few feet away from her.
Odd. If she'd been checking on him when Crouch had attacked her then how had she ended up so far from where he'd fallen?
The pain was immediate. Right then. No questions at all until she saw Pomfrey.
"God, my head," she groaned, covering her eyes as if that would stave off the throbbing.
"Maybe you should go to the hospital wing now," Harry said worriedly as Dumbledore sent a silver wisp of smoke off in the direction of Hagrid's hut. She waved him off.
"No, I'm fine," she said, choosing to focus on what Dumbledore was doing instead. "It's probably just a concussion. She'll just give me a potion."
Harry looked like he might argue, but Dumbledore was reviving Viktor, and it distracted him near instantly, though his grip on her shoulder did not loosen. Krum looked dazed momentarily before he attempted to sit up. Dumbledore pushed him back down by his shoulder.
"He attacked me!" Krum said, putting a hand up to his head. "The old man attacked me! I vos looking around to see vare Potter had gone and he attacked me from behind!"
Dumbledore looked to Nessa.
"That's not possible," she said, shaking her head. "I was looking right at Crouch. He didn't even have his wand out."
This appeared to confuse more than just Krum. She'd been sure that he'd merely fainted, but he looked quite adamant that he'd been attacked. But she'd have seen that, wouldn't she have? And she definitely didn't remember seeing or hearing anything before he'd hit the ground.
The sound of thunderous footfalls reached them, and Hagrid came panting into sight with Fang at his heels. He was carrying his crossbow.
"Professor Dumbledore!" he said, his eyes widening. "Harry — Nessa — what the —?"
"Hagrid, I need you to fetch Professor Karkaroff," said Dumbledore. "His student had been attacked. When you've done that, kindly alert Professor Moody —"
"No need, Dumbledore," said a wheezy growl. "I'm here."
Moody was limping toward them, leaning on his staff, wand lit. Nessa had no idea why but her entire body tensed, her heart pounding in her chest again as if she were preparing for a fight. Adrenaline pumped through her at the sight of him, but Moody barely spared her a glance.
"Damn leg," he said furiously. "Would've been here quicker…what's happened? Snape said something about Crouch —"
"Crouch?" said Hagrid blankly.
"Karkaroff please, Hagrid!" Dumbledore said sharply.
"Oh yeah…right y'are, Professor…" said Hagrid, and he turned and disappeared into the dark trees, Fang trotting after him.
"I don't know where Barty Crouch is," Dumbledore told Moody, "but it is essential that we find him."
"I'm onto it," Moody growled, and he raised his wand and limped off into the forest.
Dumbledore turned to look at her immediately.
"You didn't see anyone attack Mr. Krum?" he said sharply.
"No," she said immediately. "I didn't even see a spell, and it's pretty dark out here. I was pretty focused on what Crouch was saying about Harry and Voldemort, but I thought he'd just fainted —"
"I did not faint," Krum grumbled indignantly.
"Relax," she snapped at him. "People faint. And in case you hadn't noticed, I was attacked as well."
Dumbledore held up a hand to stop their squabbling, eyeing her in concern.
"If you're up to it, I'd like you to stay," he said firmly. "No one walks back to the castle alone."
She nodded — fine by her. As far as she was concerned, she wasn't going to move at all. Her head ached horribly and she didn't want to make it worse.
None of them spoke until they heard the telltale sounds of Hagrid and Fang returning. Karkaroff was hurrying along behind them. He was wearing his sleek silver furs, and looked pale and agitated.
"What is this?" he cried when he saw Krum on the ground and Dumbledore crouched beside him. "What's going on?"
"I vos attacked!" said Krum, sitting up now and rubbing his head. "Mr. Crouch or votever his name —"
"Crouch attacked you? Crouch attacked you? The Triwizard judge?"
Nessa rolled her eyes, swearing under her breath at the pain it caused, before using Harry to pull herself slowly to her feet, swaying dangerously. She could already tell where this was going, and she wanted to be on her feet for it.
Dumbledore appeared to suspect what was going to happen as well.
"Igor," he began, but Karkaroff had drawn himself up, clutching his furs around him, looking livid.
"Treachery!" he bellowed, pointing at Dumbledore. "It is a plot! You and your Ministry of Magic have lured me here under false pretenses, Dumbledore! This is not an equal competition! First, you sneak Potter into the tournament, though he is underage! Now one of your Ministry friends attempts to put my champion out of action! I smell double-dealing and corruption in this whole affair, and you, Dumbledore, you, with your talk of closer international Wizarding links, of rebuilding old ties, of forgetting old differences — here's what I think of you!"
Karkaroff spat on the ground at Dumbledore's feet. Nessa and Harry gaped at him. In one swift movement, Hagrid seized the front of Karkaroff's furs, lifted him into the air, and slammed him against a nearby tree.
"Apologize!" Hagrid snarled as Karkaroff gasped for breath, Hagrid's massive fist at his throat, his feet dangling in midair.
"Hagrid, no!" Dumbledore shouted, his eyes flashing.
Hagrid removed the hand pinning Karkaroff to the tree, and Karkaroff slid all the way down the trunk and slumped in a puddle at its roots; a few twigs and leaves showered down upon his head.
"Kindly escort Harry and Vanessa back up to the castle, Hagrid," said Dumbledore sharply.
Breathing heavily, Hagrid gave Karkaroff a glowering look.
"Maybe I'd better stay here, Headmaster…"
"You will take Harry and Vanessa back to school, Hagrid," Dumbledore repeated firmly. "Take Vanessa straight to Madame Pomfrey and Harry back to Gryffindor Tower. And I want the two of you to stay there. Anything you might want to do — any letters you might want to send — they can wait until morning, you understand me?"
Harry and Nessa murmured their agreement immediately. Nessa had no interest in arguing with him when he looked so angry as it was, and Remus would forgive her for waiting. Sirius would want Harry to be safe more than anything, so waiting a few hours wasn't a huge sacrifice.
Hagrid left Fang with Dumbledore, glowering at the Durmstrang headmaster one final time before they marched their way back to the school.
Hagrid was livid, ranting and raving about how Karkaroff could treat Dumbledore with such disrespect, scolding the two of them for being alone with Krum to begin with, ranting about the absurdity that Dumbledore would put anyone in danger and how worried he'd been of late. More time ranting about how the foreigners couldn't be trusted and the audacity of Maxime to try and get in his good graces in an attempt to figure out what the third task was.
She was bursting at the seams to ask her brother what the task was, considering she hadn't gotten to ask at all yet, but Hagrid was in such a horrible mood that she didn't even bother opening her mouth. Instead, she waved them off when she reached the hospital wing and made a beeline for Pomfrey.
"You're out past —" Pomfrey stood hastily when she noticed that Nessa was using the wall to hold herself steady, bustling over to her with a scowl. "What trouble did you get into now?"
"Your bedside manner could really use some work," Nessa muttered, letting the older woman lead her over to a bed without complaint. Her vision was swimming and every step was like a hammer to the head. Pomfrey stared at her, hands on her hips, totally unphased by her dry remark. Nessa was quite certain that Pomfrey might be her favorite person in this whole school as far as faculty went; so long as she complied easily and did good work, the woman could care less if she cracked the occasional sarcastic joke. The hard look on the woman's face now told her she wasn't going to be so forgiving this time around unless she explained herself immediately. "Someone attacked me from behind," She was pretty sure, although she kept wanting to convince herself that something else had happened instead. Might have thought harder if her head wasn't spearing her with unmanageable pain. "It's probably just a concussion —"
"You let me decide that," Pomfrey tsked impatiently, moving to look at her head. "You know as well as I do that you shouldn't diagnose yourself or treat anyone that you know personally —"
"I don't think that you should be doing this then — ow! What the hell was that for?"
"Watch your mouth, Potter," Pomfrey scolded, despite the fact that she'd poked her in the head with her wand. Nessa rolled her eyes, not entirely convinced that the action hadn't been deliberate. "It's a concussion —"
"Yeah, I told you that," Nessa muttered in annoyance, rubbing at her head. The lump had disappeared, but the pain was ever present.
Pomfrey ignored her entirely, moving to her cabinet of potions and rifling through them. She pulled out a clear vial and handed it to her without preamble.
"Drink this," she said. "It will help with the pain and dizziness. You'll be staying overnight so get comfortable."
She really didn't think that that was necessary but she didn't bother saying anything.
"How did you get these cuts on your arm?" Pomfrey asked, rotating her arms to look at them with a frown. Nessa opened her mouth to say something, but then frowned at them in confusion.
How had she gotten those? Maybe when she'd fallen to the forest floor, she'd scratched her arms on trees or twigs?
Nevermind that that didn't make much sense to her.
Pomfrey wasn't waiting for an answer anyway, tsking impatiently and healing each cut individually as the silence dragged on. So caught up in her own confusion, Nessa startled when the door opened, and the distinctive thunk of Moody's wooden leg across the floor reached her ears.
"I'd like a word with Miss Potter, Poppy," he growled at the matron.
"I suppose that it wouldn't matter at all if I said that she needed rest," Pomfrey snapped in irritation, huffing when Moody didn't respond, instead staring at Nessa harshly. "I'll be in my office."
Nessa didn't know why but she wanted to beg the woman to stay. There was something going totally haywire in her body at the moment. She felt like she needed to run or take out her wand or —
"I found this in the forest," Moody growled, holding up her wand as if he'd known what she was thinking about. "It's yours, I believe?"
She nodded, swallowing hard and rubbing at her chest where her heart was pounding behind her rib cage.
How in the hell?
Why would he have found her wand in the woods? Had she taken it out at all? Hadn't it been right next to her when she had woken up?
Nothing about this entire thing was making any sense to her anymore. Her memories of the entire ordeal didn't even feel real to her, but thinking about it too much made her want to shove her head into a door repeatedly.
"It was quite a ways away from where you'd been found," he said, eyeing her more closely than she'd have liked, as if he were trying to read her mind. She wanted to squirm, but she dug her nails into her palm instead in an attempt to stop herself. "Dumbledore says you didn't see who attacked you?"
"No, I didn't," she said, not sure why this still felt like a lie but she didn't want to think too hard until the potion kicked in. Moody appeared to relax some, nodding thoughtfully.
"Good thing, I suspect," he said. At her furrowed brow, he continued, "Crouch is nowhere to be found. There's no telling where he's gone. If he didn't attack you then that means someone else did. The only reason you're alive is because they managed to keep you in the dark about their identity."
She blinked at him, totally at a loss for what she was supposed to say to that. And totally confused why he was telling her this, why it sounded more like a threat than a warning.
Or why her body was sending off alarms to make a run for it as soon as possible. She'd always been a bit leery of Moody before, and she certainly didn't like him but this response was wildly outside her usual.
"Can I have my wand?" she said for lack of something else to say. She didn't like being alone with him at all.
He seemed to hesitate, as if he were afraid of what she might do with her wand in hand, and she tightened her hold on the sheets beneath her. The doors to the Hospital Wing banged open, sending her nearly out of her skin and breaking the odd stare off she was having with her professor.
"What in heaven's — do not run in the hospital wing!" Madame Pomfrey called, rushing out of her office to glare at the twins and Tori as they rushed into the room.
Nessa had never been so relieved to see them in her entire life.
They ignored Pomfrey completely, rushing to circle Nessa's bed immediately, looking frantic and concerned.
"What the hell happened?" Tori said immediately upon reaching her side, shoving her aside to sit on the bed next to her. "Harry came back and said something about you being attacked in the forest —"
Moody appeared to have lost interest in her at this point, stepping forward to hand her her wand.
"Let me know if you remember anything, Potter," he growled, turning and walking away without further comment.
She sagged in relief at his disappearance.
"It is well past curfew and the three of you should not be causing her any distress!" Pomfrey said immediately to the twins and Tori, who had gotten comfortable around her. "Back to your common rooms. She'll be released tomorrow morning."
Tori scowled at her.
"You can't seriously expect us to leave her here —"
"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of her, Miss Hastings," Pomfrey said with an eye roll. "And that's made much easier without you three hooligans around to distract my patients."
Tori growled at her, but Nessa put her hand on her arm and gave Pomfrey a pleading look.
"Ten minutes," she said.
Pomfrey threw her hands up in exasperation, but turned to make her way back to her office, muttering, "I don't know why I bother with these children," as she went.
The moment she was gone, George leaned forward, eyeing her in concern.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she said, leaning back against the pillows. "It's just a concussion."
"What happened?" Fred said immediately. "Harry said Crouch was there?"
She eyed Pomfrey's office warily before recounting the entire thing to them as well as she could remember. When she was finished, they gaped at her.
"He — he really said that Voldemort was getting stronger?" Tori whispered, sounding horrified.
Nessa sighed heavily, understanding the feeling entirely. The words had been hard to forget even when she was more concerned about why her head hurt so horribly. She'd had concussions before and it certainly didn't feel like this, but it felt like a measly thing to complain about when they were talking about the most evil wizard this country had ever known.
"He did, but he didn't say why he thought that," she said, rubbing her forehead. "He kept saying it was his fault, but I have no idea how."
Fred frowned.
"Doesn't sound like he was in his right mind though, does it?" he posed. "He may have just been raving…"
Nessa shook her head, thinking back to the way he'd looked when he'd been talking.
"I don't think so," she said. "He was sanest when he was trying to talk about Voldemort. It was the only time he seemed to know where he actually was or what he wanted to do. He just wanted to see Dumbledore."
"Well then where in the hell did Crouch go?" Tori said desperately. "He's the one with the answers. Did he just take off?"
The question caused a searing pain in her forehead that she worked desperately to ignore.
"I don't think he could have," she hissed through her teeth. "He was really weak. I only left him to check on Krum and then I was waking up in the forest."
George frowned thoughtfully.
"And you don't think it was Crouch that attacked you?" he said curiously.
"I don't see how it could have been," she said. "I don't even think he had his wand, although I suppose he could have been hiding it. And it doesn't explain who attacked Krum. He swears he didn't faint and there's no way Crouch could have done it without me seeing. Someone else had to have been there."
"Alright, well what would be the point be of attacking all of you? And where did Crouch end up if Moody didn't find him?"
Nessa really didn't know. She didn't like the only thought that came to her head in response to that question either.
If someone had attacked Crouch, then he'd clearly had something to say that someone didn't want them to know about.
Tori came to the hospital wing at daybreak to see her out, waving at Madam Pomfrey as if they were the best of friends despite the woman's irritation at seeing her the evening before. The older woman rolled her eyes before turning back to her desk as if she had better things to be doing.
Tori chuckled, linking her arm with Nessa's.
"The Owlery then?" she said without preamble. When Nessa gave her a surprised look, she snorted. "I assume you want to send a letter to Remus. Harry and the others went up to send one to Sir — Snuffles."
She did want to send a letter to Remus. There hadn't been much to do in the hospital wing other than work on writing him a letter detailing the events of the evening before.
"It freaks me out when you know me better than I do," she grumbled to Tori, letting her walk her toward the Owlery.
Tori snorted.
"Yeah, well same to you," she said. "How's your head?"
"Fine," she said, mostly honest. The lump had gone and the dizziness had abated, but she kept getting horrible headaches every time that she thought too hard about the night before. She hoped it would go away within a few days but she could at least function. "It wasn't that bad to begin with, but telling Pomfrey I wanted to sleep in my own bed is a death sentence."
Tori furrowed her brow as they made their way up the Owlery steps.
"Do you think she'd slip someone a Draught of Living Death if they pissed her off?"
"What?" Nessa spluttered. "Of course not! She's not crazy —!"
"You say that about everyone," Tori said with an eye roll. "Sometimes people are crazy. And I saw the way she was looking at us last night. She looked like she wanted to slip Fred something —"
"Yeah, I don't think she's the only one," Nessa snorted.
"Be a real shame too," Tori said thoughtfully. "He's annoying, but he's a good kisser. Imagine having to find someone else to snog —"
Nessa laughed, pushing Tori into the Owlery with a playful eye roll.
"Imagine that that's the only reason you care that he's poisoned."
"It's not the only reason!" Tori said indignantly. "It's just high up there, you know? I never quite realized how much I was settling in the men department. I snogged Daniels once."
It was said in the sort of way that was intended to convey the horror of that, but Nessa just gave her a bland look.
"You snogged Bletchley, Tori —"
Tori whirled to a stop, pointing at her warningly.
"Don't say that out loud," she snapped. "That was a lapse in judgment. It doesn't even count."
"I think it counts."
"Yeah, well what do you know?" Tori snorted, continuing their trek up the stairs and through the doorway. "You've only snogged two people — although, granted, they're both very hot —"
"You think George is hot?"
Nessa was being petulant — if Tori thought Fred attractive then there was simply no way she could think that George wasn't — but there was something very amusing about the whole thing. Based on Tori's pointed exasperation, she knew this, but there was a disgusted noise from the other side of the room that distracted them both.
"You fancy George too? Are you just going to snog us all then?"
The question had been posed by Ron, who was standing in between Harry and Hermione near the window of the tower that looked out to the grounds below. It was misty outside, and all three younger Gryffindors looked puffy-eyed and pale, which Nessa assumed was from staying up into the night for the same reason that she had.
"It's rude to eavesdrop," Nessa said at the same time that Tori gave Ron a condescending look and said, "Course not. Wouldn't snog you if Hagrid said he'd feed me to a hippogriff."
Ron's ears turned red at the words, and Hermione gave Tori a look of disapproval.
"You don't have to be rude, Tori," Hermione said primly. Tori snorted.
"If you want to snog him, that's your business, Granger," she said with a smirk. "Might want to use a Shrinking Charm on his nose though or it might be a bit uncomfortable —"
Nessa shoved Tori toward the owls with a hard look.
"That's enough," she said with an eye roll. "You're going to ruin his self-esteem —"
"What self-esteem?"
"You could have just said you don't fancy George —"
"Well, that seems a bit obvious, doesn't it?" Tori said in exasperaion. "Why would you be so okay with it if I did?"
"You said he was hot," Ron said accusingly.
Tori smirked at him.
"He's identical to Fred," she said as if explaining something to a toddler. "And I think Fred is hot —"
Ron turned green, holding up both hands to ward off the words.
"Stop before I'm sick," he said. "I shouldn't have said anything."
"Don't be a child, Ronald," Hermione said in annoyance. "I think they're very cute together. Don't you, Harry?"
Harry gaped at her as if he couldn't quite believe that Hermione was asking him to get in the middle of such a conversation. After a moment, he turned hastily to his sister instead.
"Are you feeling okay?" he said without preamble. Nessa hid her laugh by tying her letter to one of the school owls and carrying it to the window. "I was going to come down to the Hospital Wing after we sent a letter to Snuffles. I didn't think you'd be up so early."
"Hard to sleep in a bed that isn't mine," she said by way of explanation. "I'm fine —"
"You really didn't see anyone out there?" Ron said eagerly.
"No, Ron," she said dully, rubbing at her suddenly searing temples. "The last thing I remember was Krum fainting and then Harry was waking me up."
"If Snape hadn't held me up," Harry said in frustration. "We might've got there in time —"
"Snape held you up?" Nessa said in confusion.
"Oh, right," Harry said. "I didn't get to tell you that. He was outside Dumbledore's office. 'The headmaster is busy, Potter…what is this rubbish, Potter?' Why couldn't he have just gotten out of the way?"
Before Nessa or Tori could respond to that, Ron was answering.
"Maybe he didn't want you to get there!" he said quickly. At Hermione's annoyance and Nessa's huff, he continued. "Maybe — hang on — how fast d'you reckon he could've gotten down to the forest? D'you reckon he could've beaten you and Dumbledore there?"
Nessa rolled her eyes — she had never known a group of people who wanted Snape to be the villain so badly.
"Not unless he can turn himself into a bat or something," said Harry.
"I thought he'd already done that," Tori quipped. Harry grinned at her.
"We need to see Professor Moody," Hermione said. "We need to find out whether he found Crouch —"
"He didn't," Tori said immediately before Nessa could say the words herself. "He already told Nessa he hadn't last night when he returned her wand."
"What?" Harry said, flabbergasted. "How? He had the Marauder's Map! It should've been easy."
"Unless Crouch had already been outside of the grounds," Ron reminded. "It only shows up to the boundaries so —"
"Shh!" Hermione said suddenly.
They all fell silent immediately. Someone was climbing up the steps to the Owlery, two voices arguing as they came closer and closer. Tori and Nessa exchanged a look, recognizing them immediately.
" — that's blackmail, that is, we could get into a lot of trouble for that —"
Nessa looked at Tori with wide eyes. She was glad to see Tori looking as alarmed by this as she felt. It was often difficult to tell if Tori would encourage the twins' more severe behavior or if she'd side with her, but her best friend seemed to draw the line at breaking the law.
"— we've tried being polite; it's time to play dirty, like him. He wouldn't like the Ministry of Magic knowing what he did —"
"I'm telling you, if you put that in writing, it's blackmail!"
"Yeah, and you won't be complaining if we get a nice fat payoff, will you?"
Before Nessa could even wrap her head around what the twins were saying, the door banged open and they were striding through it. They both froze at the sight of all of them.
"What're you doing here?" said Ron and Fred at the same time.
"Sending a letter," said Harry and George in unison.
"What, at this time?" said Hermione and Fred.
Fred grinned.
"Fine — we won't ask you what you're doing, if you don't ask us," he said.
He was holding a sealed envelope, but he moved his hand to cover the recipient whenever he noticed Nessa, Tori, and Harry looking. Tori narrowed her eyes at him, biting her tongue to keep herself from demanding what he was doing.
Nessa didn't have such qualms, opening her mouth to demand what they were doing, but Tori wrapped her fingers around her wrist to stop her.
"Well, don't let us hold you up," Fred said, making a mock bow and pointing at the door.
None of them moved.
"Who're you blackmailing?" Ron said.
The grin vanished from Fred's face. Nessa watched George give Fred a half glance before he smiled at Ron.
"Don't be stupid, I was only joking," he said easily.
Nessa's entire body went rigid with the effort it took to keep her mouth closed.
"Didn't sound like that," said Ron.
Fred and George looked at each other. Then Fred said abruptly, "I've told you before, Ron, keep your nose out if you like the shape it is. Can't see why you would, but —"
Tori's lips twitched despite herself.
"It's my business if you're blackmailing someone," said Ron. "George is right, you could end up in a lot of trouble for that."
"Told you, I was joking," said George. He walked over to Fred, pulled the letter out of his hands, and began attaching it to the nearest barn owl. He was proving a point, Nessa knew. She didn't like it one bit because she was entirely certain that he hadn't been joking, but the twins trusted their siblings about as far as they could throw them. Risking their mother finding out about the shop again was simply too much for them. "You're starting to sound like our dear old brother, you are, Ron. Carry on like this and you'll be made a prefect."
"No, I won't!" said Ron hotly.
George carried the barn owl over to the window and it took off. He turned around and grinned at Ron.
"Well, stop telling people what to do then. See you later."
He and Fred left the Owlery. There was a moment where they all just stared after him before Tori, appearing quite calm about the events that had just transpired, released Nessa's wrist and made her way toward the door. Nessa followed blankly.
"Well, we'll be off too then. Let us know what Snuffles says."
They left before Hermione or Ron could demand to know if they knew what the twins had been talking about. There was a beat outside the door where she and Tori stared at each other in silent communication before they both took off down the stairs simultaneously, reaching the hall below in the span of several seconds.
They could see Fred and George running at the end of the corridor.
"Are they running from us?" Tori snarled in irritation.
She took off at a sprint after them, forcing Nessa to do the same rather reluctantly. She'd become quite good at running, but Tori's legs were far longer than hers and she had to take two steps to Tori's one. They rounded the corner just as the twins were rounding another.
"Are you planning on running from us for the rest of your lives then?" Tori yelled indignantly after them.
Nessa didn't think the twins actually had plans at all, other than to avoid being yelled at by their girlfriends at all costs. Because they were together near constantly — there was no way they'd avoid them forever so running seemed a bit ridiculous.
The only response they got in return was Fred's maniacal laughter. They managed to gain some ground on them before they turned the next corner and Nessa, who was becoming very annoyed at this game of chase, and had lost patience entirely, raised her arm and made a tugging motion with her hand.
"Lapsum!"
Tori laughed when their ankles were pulled out from under them, resulting in them falling face forward. They had only enough time to stop their fall with their hands as Tori and Nessa skidded to a halt.
"You'll have to teach me that one," Tori panted, grinning down at a scowling Fred and George.
"That was cheating," Fred said in irritation.
"You didn't tell us the rules," Tori said, crossing her arms. "So as far as I can tell, we get to make our own when you're both running away from us like children."
Fred pulled himself to a stand, brushing his hands on his pants. He pulled George up from the floor without preamble.
"We're merely trying to start your day off with a little excitement," he said easily. "Some thanks we get —"
"No, you're trying to avoid telling us who you're blackmailing —"
"I was joking about that, I already said," George said immediately.
Nessa stepped forward to poke him in the chest. He took a step backward.
"Look me in my face and tell me that," she snapped.
George stared at her without a word, looking torn. When no one said anything, Tori huffed.
"What the hell are you two doing? Blackmail? That's illegal!"
"It's not a big deal," Fred said with an eye roll. "We break rules all the time —"
Tori glared at him.
"This is entirely different and you know it," she snapped at him. "If you want to slip Montague a Canary Cream, fine, I'll help you. But going to Azkaban is not —"
"They don't send you to Azkaban for blackmail," Fred scoffed.
"How would you know?" Tori said angrily. "You make it a habit to blackmail people, do you?"
"Sunshine, this isn't —"
"Do you really think I don't know that you call me that when you're trying to soften me up?"
Fred grinned at her lopsidedly.
"You think I don't know that you want to snog me right now?"
Tori snorted, rolling her eyes. George pinched the bridge of his nose like he couldn't believe his own misfortune in knowing them both.
"I don't kiss criminals," Tori said. "Who are you blackmailing?"
"No one —"
Nessa had lost patience entirely. She hadn't stopped looking at George the entire time, and she could tell that he was deliberately avoiding eye contact with her. He didn't like lying to her.
"George," she said quietly.
He met her gaze for a long moment before he sighed heavily.
"Bagman," he said.
"George!" Fred said, whirling on him in irritation. "We agreed not to tell them —"
"You want me to lie to her?" he said in irritation, glaring at his twin. "They aren't going to tell anyone —!"
"They're complicit now," Fred said in irritation, tugging at his hair.
"Oh, so you were protecting us then, were you?" Tori said indignantly. Fred looked up to the ceiling as if praying for patience.
"Most women might find that information flattering —"
"Perhaps you ought to be dating one of those women then," Tori snapped. Fred grinned at her widely, as he did every time she said they were dating. "Don't smile at me like that! Why are you blackmailing Bagman?"
Fred and George shared a look before Fred sighed in resignation.
"That bet we made with him at the World Cup," he said. "He paid us in leprechaun gold."
Which meant it had disappeared.
Nessa felt her stomach plummet to her feet. She'd known they shouldn't have gambled their savings. It had been horribly rash, and now look what had happened.
Tori looked between the two of them as if she were hoping one of them was joking.
"Well, surely it was a mistake —" Nessa said, but George shook his head.
"Yeah, we thought so too," he said, sounding frustrated. "So we wrote him a letter explaining everything. Figured that he'd realize his mistake and cough up. But nothing. He ignored our letter. We keep trying to talk to him while he's here, but he keeps making some excuse to get away from us."
"That stupid son of a bitch!" Tori snarled. "Tell me you made that letter as nasty as possible."
"Tori!" Nessa said in exasperation. "Do not encourage this behavior! It's illegal!"
"So's theft!" Tori said angrily. "Which as far as I'm concerned, this is. What did you say in the letter?"
"That if he didn't cough up, we'd tell the Ministry that he's been gambling with minors. He's got a bit of a gambling addiction. Apparently he owes Lee's dad money too. Something about being in deep shite with goblins from his gambling problem. And if he doesn't want to give us our payoff then he can give us our money back."
"What are you going to do if he refuses?" Tori said, looking seriously pissed off. Fred scrubbed a hand down his face.
"Not sure yet," he said. "We'll get there if we have to —"
"No, we'll think of something now!" she said, grabbing Fred by the wrist and pulling him away. Fred grinned at her. "That was all of your savings —"
"You're a little bit crazy, but I adore you, did you know that?" Fred said happily as she tugged him around the corner. Tori didn't respond to him.
"When you're done yelling at George, we'll be in the common room!" Tori yelled back to them.
"Don't make it too quick though, if you don't mind!" Fred said, laughing loudly at whatever Tori said or did in response.
Neither Nessa or George responded to them, still looking at each other waiting to see which of them would break the disappointed silence between them. It was George who spoke first.
"They're quite disgusting to be around," George said casually.
Nessa gave him a hard look.
"Is that really what you want to talk about, George?"
George sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"No, but I don't want to hear you say 'I told you so' either —"
Nessa growled under her breath. The entire thing was so stupid because she had told them not to do it, and they'd done it anyway, telling her that she worried too much and that they'd be fine if they lost the bet. Except as far as she could tell, they'd lost their money and had resulted to committing crimes instead, which was much worse than she'd have imagined.
"Well, I did tell you so, George!" she said in irritation. "And you told me not to worry about it! That it would be fine! It was your entire savings —!"
"Do you think I don't know that, Vanessa?" he said angrily. She glared at him harshly and he closed his eyes, taking in a slow breath to calm himself. "I'm sorry I — can we skip the part where you get upset with me about this? I know that it was stupid, and I know I might have just lost all of that money. I don't need you to tell me that."
"You're blackmailing him, George," she said, putting her head in her hands. "And you didn't want to do it to begin with, and you still sent the letter. All because you didn't want Ron to know your business? That's very serious!"
George sighed, stepping forward to pull her hands away from her face.
"I know, Nessa," he said calmly. "But we're running out of options here. And it's already done — I can't take it back now."
She scoffed at him, pulling her hands away from him.
"So I'm supposed to be okay with it because you can't take it back?" she said in irritation. "You shouldn't have sent it at all! What if he decides to stop playing this game with you and tells the Ministry that you're blackmailing him?"
George sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"He'd be admitting his own shortcomings if he did," he said. "Which I don't imagine he's keen on doing, not just because of his public reputation, but because he can't gamble if everyone knows he doesn't pay off. He's got a lot of debt to pay off if Lee is right."
She wanted to hit him. Or cry. Or both.
The twins had always been rash and perhaps she could look at this as a lesson in thinking before acting, but it simply pissed her off. She'd not liked the look of Bagman to begin with — not many adults she knew would have had no qualms with betting with minors, but he'd barely blinked — but now she wanted to hex him into next week in an attempt to get the money he'd stolen.
And she was not going to overlook the fact that she hated Bagman more now than she'd ever hated anyone. A grown man, stealing money from children was one thing. Stealing from Fred and George? A capital offense if she'd ever known one. They'd worked so hard to get where they were, shown a great amount of discipline to save that money…just to have some overgrown child come in and take advantage of them.
She'd sooner kill Bagman herself if she wasn't so worried about Fred and George getting into trouble for breaking the law.
And Bagman wasn't the only problem here, either.
She also wanted to hex George for being so unbelievably stupid. She wanted to hex Fred for always dragging George into something so utterly dangerous because she had not an ounce of doubt which one of them had pulled the strings on this one. She would have been able to guess it even if she hadn't overheard their stupid argument. But she also wanted to just bash their heads together because she knew without an ounce of doubt the at George was perfectly capable of reigning Fred in if he didn't really want to risk something, and she'd seen him do so a number of times. He hadn't this time — whether it had something to do with Ron finding out or not, she didn't care — and she wanted to kill him too.
"This is quite possibly the stupidest thing you've ever done, George," she said, resigned.
She could stand here and convey to him over and over again how she felt about this particular decision, and it would make no difference. Truth was, he'd already sent the letter and yelling herself hoarse about it would get her nowhere.
For another, her head hurt, and she still hadn't asked Harry what the third task would be, and if the twins wanted to be stupid, she couldn't stop them. If Tori was going to help them then she was in way over her head.
George sighed, reaching forward to tilt her face up to look at him.
"We'll be alright, love," he said gently, moving his hand to brush a strand of her hair away from her face. "Bagman has more to lose than we do. Truthfully, I doubt it will work —"
"Then why even do it?" she said, wanting to throttle him.
"Because we need the money," he said as if that were obvious. And it was — she was just so unbelievably tired of everyone at this point. Not a single person in her life knew how to keep their heads down and mind their own business. "And he's got a bit more to lose than we do. And I assure you it's not the stupidest thing we've ever done. Mum could probably name a dozen other things."
She snorted, rolling her eyes, and wincing when it sent a dull throb through her skull. She had no idea why this concussion seemed to be so sensitive to everything, although this throb felt nothing at all like the one she got when she thought too hard about what had happened after she'd gone to check on Krum.
That pain gave her anxiety to think about l, the severity of it so blinding that she was afraid to think of the previous evening at all.
Her wince was clearly noticed by George as he dropped his line of excuses immediately, frowning at her in concern.
"Nevermind about us," he said, grabbing her chin between his thumb and forefinger and twisting her head around. "How's your head? Are you sure you should be out already?"
She would have rolled her eyes again, but she was afraid that if she did, she might make the headache worse, so she refrained. Only barely.
"And I'm the worrywart," she snorted, removing his hand and turning back to look at him. "I'm fine. You've had plenty of concussions before, I doubt I have to explain them to you."
"You're very cheeky this morning," he quipped, smirking, pulling her up to her tiptoes to brush a kiss to her lips and resting his forehead against hers. "Stop worrying, love. Everything will be fine."
"You always say that," she grumbled. He grinned at her, flicking her on the nose affectionately.
"And it always is, now isn't it?"
She refused to agree to that, no matter how true the words might be. One of these days it was not going to be fine. A man had to run out of luck eventually, and she was convinced that George Weasley had been cutting it close for years now.
"Promise me that you'll drop the blackmail if he doesn't take the bait, George," she said instead.
She expected some pushback, but she underestimated him far too much for a person who spent so much time around him.
"I promise," he said easily, surprising her entirely. He snorted at the expression on her face. "He'll be on the grounds again soon anyway. He can't avoid us forever."
It was her own fault that she fell for his innocent act every time. It relaxed her anyway. She didn't care if they badgered Bagman until he wished he'd never met the Weasley twins a day in his life, so long as they weren't doing anything illegal. That's how most people felt about them anyway, she was half-sure.
"C'mon, you need to eat," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her off in the other direction. "Especially if your head still hurts. What did you hit it on anyway?"
She had no idea, and she didn't want to know either. Not if it kept that searing pain in the back of her mind instead of in the forefront.
The Hogwarts grounds had never looked so inviting to her. As the weather warmed, her mood remained low, stuck inside the castle to study for O.W.L.s and simultaneously help Harry find spells to practice for the third task.
A maze. Which seemed simple enough, but she did not have high hopes, particularly as Hagrid was providing the creatures to place inside it.
"I don't think I've ever spent so much time in this damned library as I have since we became friends," Fred said to Nessa in disgust, jotting something else onto the parchment beside him. "I'm starting to miss the days when you were afraid of us —"
"I was not afraid of you!" Nessa said with an eye roll, rubbing at her temples. George and Tori shared a look at her immediate irritation, but she couldn't help it — her head had been aching since she'd gotten out of the forest, a dull pounding in the background that she was entirely sure should have gone away by now. And the pounding was the easiest thing to go by because if she thought about that night still, the pain became much, much worse. She almost felt like she was losing her mind. "And I don't know what you're so upset about. Your reading comprehension is much higher than Goyle's now and Malfoy wasn't even sure he could read to begin with."
"I miss the days before I could read," Fred muttered to himself, causing George to chuckle under his breath, though he was careful to keep the sound from gaining attention from his girlfriend, who he was quite certain was seconds away from an emotional break. "I don't know what we're doing this for anyway. Harry's going to get eaten by Aragog with or without the shield charm."
Tori glared at him when Nessa let her head hit the table.
"Will you stop saying that?" Tori snapped. "He's not going to bring in Aragog —"
Fred gave his girlfriend a skeptical look.
"You're only saying that because you don't want Nessa to run screaming for the forest —"
"She isn't going into the forest, knowing what's in there," Tori said with an eye roll. "And besides, there's no way he can get a spider that large to fit inside the maze. Aragog takes up the entire Quidditch pitch —"
"Can't believe they used the Quidditch pitch," George muttered as if this were an igregious decision.
Nessa snarled, lifting her head to look at the three of them.
"If you're going to keep complaining about your stupid pitch, I'm going to make this headache look like child's play when I wring your necks together —"
None of her friends cared at all about this threat, instead all turning to eye her sharply.
"You're still having those headaches?" Tori demanded. "It's been a week. You said you'd see Pomfrey —"
"I don't have time," Nessa said with an eye roll. "Besides, it's probably just from Harry Stunning me so many times yesterday. I'm convinced he missed the pillows on purpose."
Fred snorted.
"Yeah, well, with you griping at him the whole time, I think we ought to be happy that he didn't just crack your head onto the floor with his bare hands. You've been a nightmare this week. Pity George can't snog away a headache —"
Nessa rolled her eyes.
"Snogging isn't the cure for everything —"
"Works for Tori just fine —"
"I did not need to know that," George said before Tori could join the fray as well, the mention of her name enough to have garnered her immediate attention. "Can we go back to silence before one of us kills each other? I don't see how that would help Harry at all."
Fred and Nessa glared at each other dangerously, pulling their gazes away from each other slowly to look back at the books in front of them.
She had been horribly irritable this week, and she felt badly about that, but apparently not enough to reign in the emotion.
She felt on the verge of insanity. Her headaches or migraines or the pain from hell we're not getting easier to deal with, and she still couldn't think about the night that she and Krum had been attacked without wanting to be sick from the pain that filled her head. It was unlike any concussion she'd ever had and the dull throbbing that took place in the back of her head for the rest of the day afterward was almost just as annoying.
She'd had a hard time sleeping of late, dreaming of being attacked in the forest by some unknown assailant, spells flying backwards and forwards, and her heart pounding loudly in her ears.
And she was getting paranoid — thinking that Moody was following her around the corridors just because she'd run into him once or twice when she'd been exiting the loo. Nevermind the fact that he'd been on his way to class both times.
She felt like she was losing her mind entirely and it was making her tetchy.
Her mood was not going to improve at all when she saw Ron come racing into the library toward her.
"Nessa," he gasped, bending over to put his hands on his knees. "Nessa…thank Merlin…Harry…collapsed…scar…hurting again…came as fast as I could…"
Her entire body went rigid at the words, as her friends swore under their breaths.
She didn't need to hear the rest at all. She simply stuffed her things in her backpack and took off at a sprint for Dumbledore's office.
Happy Holidays to all of you! Stay safe and I'll see you next week!