Oh hai Reader, welcome to the next chapter of Cruel Angel Thesis. I hope you enjoy it as much as I had writing it and now on to the review.
girani4: It's Alex. If he says stuff like that, you should take it with a grain of salt.
Now story time.
On Sunday morning Charles, Snape and Flitwick were walking to the Great Hall for breakfast.
"Shall we tell him?" Flitwick asked Charles, looking up at the taller professor.
"I think it's time we told him." he said with a nod, "Do you want to do the honors?"
"Tell me what?" Snape said, looking at the two, "What are you two dunderheads talking about?"
"We knew you since you where a student here, we have watched you grow up." Flitwick said, "We're your daddies now, Severus. We decided."
"Are we the fathers you always wanted?" Charles said with a laugh, wrapping a arm around Snape's shoulder.
"My terrible childhood isn't something to joke about lightly." the potion master told them seriously, "And neither of you are the fathers I always wanted. And I look after you idiots at least as much as you look after me."
"He's so grown up, isn't he?" Charles said.
"I'm proud as a peacock." Flitwick said, puffing out his chest.
They passed a door leading to an empty classroom, meaning it should be silent but voices could be heard coming from it.
"Now remember Harry, the incantation is Accio, followed by what ever it is your hears desire." the voice of Claire explained.
The three professors sneaked closer to the door, peeking through the crack to see Harry stand in the middle of the room, with Claire, Alex and Hermione to the side of the room.
"And don't forget to raise your wand like this, Accio.", Alex said raising his wand. For some reason Hermione was dragged towards him, much to Harry's and Claire's amusement, and Alex's embarrassment.
"So I just have to say Accio Bum, right?" Harry said laughing, the same thing happening Claire.
"They remind me of another group of students a few years ago." Charles said, as the professor's stepped away from the door, leaving the students to it and continued their way.
Only in the last hour had Harry really got the hang of the Summoning Charm.
"That's better, Harry, that's loads better." Alex said, looking exhausted but very pleased.
"Well, now we know what to do next time I have trouble with a spell." Harry said, throwing a rune dictionary back to Hermione, so he could try again, "Threaten me with a dragon. Right..." He raised his wand once more. "Accio Dictionary!"
The heavy book soared out of Hermione's hand, flew across the room, and Harry caught it.
"Harry, I really think you've got it!" said Hermione delightedly.
"Just as long as it works tomorrow." Harry said, "The Firebolt's going to be much farther away than the stuff in here, it's going to be in the castle, and I'm going to be out there on the grounds..."
"That doesn't matter." Claire said, "Just as long as you're concentrating on it, your broom will come. Harry, you'd better get some sleep... you're going to need it."
Claire and Hermione where sitting in the library. After her talk with Fleur this morning, her suspicion was confirmed that Cedric would be the only champion who didn't know about the dragons.
"There he is. Cedric!" Claire called, waving the Hufflepuff towards them. She waited until Cedric had walked up to their table and sat down.
"Claire, I got your message." Cedric said once he sat down, "What do you want to talk about?"
"I found out what the first task is about. It's dragons." Claire said, much to Cedric's surprise, "They've got seven, one for each of us, and we've got to get past them."
Cedric stared at her, Claire saw some of the panic she had been seeing in Harry's eyes since Saturday night flickering in Cedric's gray eyes.
"Are you sure?" Cedric asked in a hushed voice.
"I've seen them, and I am sure they are dragons." Claire said, "And unless you know any other oversized lizards that can breath fire."
Cedric gave a nod, seeing the truth in her eyes, "Alright, thanks Clark.", he said, before giving a grateful nod.
"Oh no, he's back again." Hermione said suddenly with irritation, "Why can't he read on his stupid ship?"
Claire and Cedric looked around to see Viktor Krum slouched in, cast a surly look over at them, and settled himself in a distant corner with a pile of books.
"Wonder what he is doing?" Cedric said.
"Looking up information on dragons I suppose." Claire noted.
"I'll go back to the common room... His fan club'll be here in a moment, twittering away..." Hermione said, closing her book and standing up, "Your coming?", pulling her bag over her shoulder.
"Yeah sure." Claire said, standing up as well, "See you later Cedric."
"Hopefully not much later." he said with a smile, before the two girls left he library.
And sure enough, as they left the library, a gang of girls tiptoed past them, one of them wearing a Bulgaria scarf tied around her waist.
The following morning, the atmosphere in the school was one of great tension and excitement. Lessons were to stop at midday, giving all the students time to get down to the dragons' enclosure, though of course, they didn't yet know what they would find there.
Time was behaving in a more peculiar fashion than ever, rushing past in great dollops, before they knew it, they had to leave lunch, following Professor McGonagall out of the Great Hall. She didn't seem herself; in fact, she looked nearly as anxious as Hermione.
As she walked him down the stone steps and out into the cold November afternoon, she put her hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Now, don't panic." she said, "Just keep a cool head... We've got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand... The main thing is just to do your best, and nobody will think any the worse of you... Are you all right, Kent?"
"Never been better." Claire said.
She was leading him toward the place where the dragons were, around the edge of the forest, but when they approached the clump of trees behind which the enclosure would be clearly visible. A tent had been erected, its entrance facing them, screening the dragons from view.
"You two are to go in here with the other champions." Professor McGonagall said, in a rather shaky sort of voice, "And wait for your turn. Mr. Bagman is in there... he'll be telling you the... the procedure... Good luck."
"Thanks, but I won't need luck." Claire said.
She left them at the entrance of the tent. Harry and Claire went inside.
Fleur was sitting in a corner on a how wooden stool, she didn't look nearly as composed as usual, but rather pale and clammy. Krum looked even surlier than usual, which Clark supposed was his way of showing nerves. Romanova was standing in a corner, playing with her wand. Both Cedric and LeBlanc was pacing up and down. When Harry and Clark entered, Cedric gave them a small smile, which the duo returned.
"Harry! Claire! Good-o!" Bagman said happily, looking around at him, "Come in, come in, make yourself at home!"
Bagman looked somehow like a slightly overblown cartoon figure, standing amid all the pale-faced champions. He was wearing his old Wasp robes again.
"Well, now we're all here, time to fill you in! When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different... er, varieties, you see." Bagman said brightly, he held up a small sack of purple silk and shook it at them, "And I have to tell you something else too... Ah, yes... your task is to collect the golden egg!"
And in no time at all, hundreds upon hundreds of pairs of feet could be heard passing the tent, their owners talking excitedly, laughing, joking. Bagman was opening the neck of the purple silk sack.
"Ladies first." he said, offering it to Claire, Fleur, and Romanova. Fleur went first putting a shaking hand inside the bag and drew out a tiny, perfect model of a Welsh Green. It had the number two around its neck. By Romanova's lack of surprise, but rather a determined resignation, that Claire had been right: Karakoff had told her what was coming as she pulled out the metallic grey Ukrainian Ironbelly with a number five around its neck.
Knowing which once were left, Claire reached in, but unfortunately, she pulled out the pearly scaled Antipodean Opaleye, with the number six.
Krum pulled out the scarlet Chinese Fireball, it had a number three around its neck. He didn't even blink, just sat back down and stared at the ground. Cedric put his hand into the bag, and out came the blueish-gray Swedish Short-Snout, the number one tied around its neck. LeBlanc reached inside, pulling out a copper-colored Peruvian Vipertooth with the number four.
Harry put his hand into the silk bag and pulled out the Hungarian Horntail, and the number seven. It stretched its wings as he looked down at it, and bared its minuscule fangs.
"Well, there you are!" Bagman said, "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons, do you see? Now, I'm going to have to leave you in a moment, because I'm commentating. Mr. Diggory, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, all right? Now... Harry... could I have a quick word? Outside?"
"Er... yes." Harry said blankly, and he got up and went out of the tent with Bagman.
Claire watched her friend exit the tent before walking towards Fleur, "Hey you okay?", she asked.
"I should be the one asking you that." she said with a weak smile.
"Just stay calm and focused, were going to clean up at the first task." Claire said confidently, to the girl who has been treating her like a sister these pas few weeks.
Fleur gave him a nod, along with a small smile, "Where did you get your confidence?" she asked.
"It's easy when your me." she admitted, "But if your not... Just take a page out of Alex's playbook."
A whistle had blown somewhere, Harry walked back to the tent just as Cedric emerging from it, greener than ever. Harry tried to wish him luck as he walked past, but all that came out of his mouth was a sort of hoarse grunt.
Seconds later, they heard the roar of the crowd, with Bagman announcing "And there is the first champion, 'The Hufflepuff Prodigy' Cedric Diggory!"
The crowd screamed... yelled... gasped like a single many-headed entity, as Cedric did whatever he was doing to get past the Swedish Short-Snout. Krum was still staring at the ground. Romanova had now taken to retracing Cedric's steps, around and around the tent, LeBlanc was standing in a corner, while Harry was sitting between Claire and Fleur, holding the hand of his friend.
And Bagman's commentary made everything much, much worse... Horrible pictures formed in Harry's mind as he heard: "Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow"... "He's taking risks, this one!"... "Clever move! Pity it didn't work!"
And then, after about fifteen minutes, Claire heard the deafening roar that could mean only one thing: Cedric had gotten past his dragon and captured the golden egg.
"Very good indeed!" Bagman was shouting. "And now the marks from the judges!",
But he didn't shout out the marks, Claire supposed the judges were holding them up and showing them to the crowd.
"One down, six to go!" Bagman yelled as the whistle blew again. "Miss Delacour, if you please!"
Fleur was trembling from head to foot, Claire whispered her good luck as she left the tent with her head held high and her hand clutching her wand.
"Our seconds champion, 'The Flower of Beauxbatons', Fleur Delacour!" Bagman announced once again.
"Wait a minute..." Claire thought upon hearing those titles.
The same process started again. "Oh I'm not sure that was wise!" they could hear Bagman shouting gleefully. "Oh... nearly! Careful now... good lord, I thought she'd had it then!"
Ten minutes later, Claire heard the crowd erupt into applause once more... Fleur must have been successful too. A pause, while Fleur's marks were being shown... more clapping... then, for the third time, the whistle.
This happened two more times, until it was Claire's turn. Feeling the rush of adrenaline, Claire let go of Harry's hand, thanking her friend for wishing her good luck.
And then she heard the whistle blow. She walked out through the entrance of the tent. And now she was walking past the trees, through a gap in the enclosure fence.
She saw everything in front of her as though it was a very highly colored dream. There were hundreds and hundreds of faces staring down at her from stands that had been magicked there since she'd last stood on this spot. And there was the Antipodean Opaleye, at the other end of the enclosure, crouched low over her clutch of eggs.
The crowd was making a great deal of noise, but whether friendly or not, Claire didn't know or care. It was time to do what she had to do... to focus her mind, entirely and absolutely.
"And there is our next champion Claire Kent! 'The Girl of Steel'!" Bagman announced.
"Goddamn it, Alex..." she mumbled.
Without hesitation the dragons spear-like tail come up from behind her and lunges at Claire. She duck and dodge out of the way and her tail sticks into the ground. The dragon gets up and strikes again with her tail, Claire dodging once again, and the dragon lets out a roar and a torrent of flames followed.
Claire decide to take the offensive and the tip of her wand started to emit sparks. She fires several lighting like spears into the dragons eyes, blinding it for the next few minutes.
The dragon lets out a fierce cry and spins her beautiful head covering the area in a wave of flames, Claire barely manage to dodge.
Transforming a nearby rock into a large dog, Claire send it to distract the dragon. It worked, the dragon took the bait, turning it's blinded head towards the dog as Claire looked down at the clutch of eggs and spotted the gold one, gleaming against its cement-colored fellows, residing safely between the dragon's front legs.
She was speeding forward as fast as she could go, toward the eggs now unprotected by her clawed front legs, before she knew it, Claire had seized the golden egg.
And with a huge spurt of speed, she was off, running back, the heavy egg safely under her arm, and it was as though somebody had just turned the volume back up. For the first time, she became properly aware of the noise of the crowd, which was screaming and applauding as loudly as the Irish supporters at the World Cup.
"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that! Our second youngest champion is quickest to get her egg! Well, this is going to turn the odds in 'The Girl of Steel' favor!"
Claire saw the dragon keepers rushing forward to subdue the Antipodean Opaleye, and, over at the entrance to the enclosure, Professor Jeager, Professor McGonagall, Professor Moody, and Hagrid hurrying to meet her, all of them waving her toward them, their smiles evident even from this distance.
She ran to them, the noise of the crowd pounding her eardrums.
"That was excellent, Claire!" Jeager shouted, as she arrived at them, "Nine out of ten!"
"You'll need to see Madam Pomfrey before the judges give out your score..." McGonagall said, "Over there, she's had to mop up Diggory already..."
"Ya did it, Claire!", Hagrid said hoarsely.
"Thanks, everyone.", Claire said loudly.
Professor Moody looked very pleased too; his magical eye was dancing in its socket. "Nice and easy does the trick, Kent." he growled.
"Right then, Kent, the first aid tent, please...", Professor McGonagall said. Claire walked out of the enclosure, still panting, and saw Madam Pomfrey standing at the mouth of a second tent, looking worried.
"Dragons!" she said, in a disgusted tone, pulling Claire inside. The tent was divided into cubicles, she could make out Cedric's shadow through the canvas, but Cedric didn't seem to be badly injured, he was sitting up, at least.
Madam Pomfrey examined Claire, talking furiously all the while. "Last year dementors, this year dragons, what are they going to bring into this school next? You're very lucky..."
"No, I make my own luck." Claire said with a cocky grin.
"You sound just like your mother." Madam Pomfrey said.
She had only received some of burns on her cloak from when she blinded the dragon. "Now, just sit quietly for a minute! And then you can go and get your score." she bustled out of the tent and he heard her go next door and say, "How does it feel now, Diggory?"
Claire didn't want to sit still, she was too full of adrenaline. She got to his feet, wanting to see what was going on outside, but before she'd reached the mouth of the tent, two people had come darting inside, Alex and Tracy.
"Claire, you were brilliant!" Tracy said, there were fingernail marks on her face where she had been clutching it in fear.
"You were amazing! You really were! Unless Harry does some sick shit on his broom, you were the best of them all. Cedric did this weird thing where he Transfigured a rock on the ground... turned it into a dog..." Alex began.
"Yeah, I want to know about something else." Claire interrupted her cousin, "What's with those titles Bagman was announcing?"
"I thought it would be cool if the champions had titles." he explained, "I wrote them down and then gave them to Bagman."
"But seriously, 'Girl of Steel'?" she asked.
"I wanted to go with 'The Girl on Fire', but that could have become a very dark form of irony with the dragons" Alex explained, "... And I think I might have been sued if I did, not sure why."
"Well 'Girl of Steel' is pretty cool." Tracy said as they went out of the tent and to the edge of the enclosure.
Now that the dragon had been taken away, Claire could see where the five judges were sitting, right at the other end, in raised seats draped in gold.
"It's marks out of ten from each one." Tracy said.
The first judge, Madame Maxime raise her wand in the air. What hooked like a long silver ribbon shot out of it, which twisted itself into a large figure nine. "Not bad!" Alex said as the crowd applauded, "I suppose she took marks off for your burns."
Mr. Crouch came next. He shot a number nine into the air. "Looking good, Claire." Alex yelled, thumping his cousin on the back.
Next, Dumbledore. He too put up a nine. The crowd was cheering harder than ever. Ludo Bagman - eight. And now Karkaroff raised his wand. He paused for a moment, and then a number shot out of his wand too - four.
"What?" Alex and Tracy shouted furiously.
"Four? You biased arsehole! He gave Krum ten!" Tracy said, only calming down when she felt Alex's hand in her own.
"Not sure if I am liking that..." Claire though, noticing what her cousin was doing.
Joining her friends in the stance, Claire watched Harry's amazing flying skills, the only person cheering him on more than Alex was Claire. Harry even managed to get his egg even faster than Claire, only receiving a small cut on his arm.
Claire joined Harry into the injury tent, she was treating Harry's wound.
"So... 'Girl of Stee'l?" Harry said with a slight smile, grimacing when Claire put a little extra pressure on his wound, "You don't like it?"
"I do... But don't tell Alex that." she admitted, "But he was a bit lazy with your title. Your just 'The Boy Who Lived'."
"My lips are sealed." he said, "And I think they work pretty well together, 'The Boy Who Lived' and the 'Girl of Steel'..."
"Yeah... I think so too." she said, looking into his emerald green eyes with her cloudy grey's. A faint heat came up on her face.
Until Alex, Ron, Neville and Hermione entered. Ron, who was very white and staring at Harry as though he were a ghost, the red head gave Alex a look, and started to speak when he gave him an encouraging nod.
"Harry." Ron said, very seriously, "Whoever put your name in that goblet... I-I reckon they're trying to do you in!"
It was as though the last few weeks had never happened as though Harry were meeting Ron for the first time, right after he'd been made champion.
"Caught on, have you?" Harry said coldly, "Took you long enough."
Hermione at the side nervously watching them, looking from one to the other. Ron opened his mouth uncertainly. Harry knew Ron was about to apologize and suddenly he found he didn't need to hear it.
"It's okay." Harry said, before Ron could get the words out, "Forget it."
"No." Ron said, "I shouldn't have..."
"Forget it." Harry said. Ron grinned nervously at him, and Harry grinned back.
Claire, Alex and Neville couldn't contain their smile, as suddenly Hermione burst into tears. "There's nothing to cry about!" Alex told her, bewildered.
"You two are so stupid!" she shouted, stamping her foot on the ground, tears splashing down her front.
Then, before any of them could stop her, she had dashed away, now positively howling.
"She's not wrong, you know?" Claire noted.
"I am going after her." Alex said, rushing to the entrance of the tent before turning to them, "Party in the Gryffindor Common room, students from Beauxbatons, Tracy and Daphne are coming as well."
And he was gone.
"Barking mad." Ron said, shaking his head.
"Hermione, Alex or both?" Neville asked.
"Yes." Ron simply said.
As they too exited the tent, but they were met up with Charlie, hurrying to meet them.
"You're tied in second place, Harry! You and Krum!" Charlie said, "Right behind Claire. Listen, I've got to run, I've got to go and send Mum an owl, I swore I'd tell her what happened, but that was unbelievable! Oh yeah and they told me to tell you you've got to hang around for a few more minutes... Bagman wants a word, back in the champions' tent."
Ron and Neville said they would wait, so Harry and Claire reentered the tent. Fleur, Cedric, LeBlanc, Krum and Romanova all came in together. One side of Cedric's face was covered in a thick orange paste, which was presumably mending his burn.
He grinned at Harry and Claire when he saw them, both grinning back.
"Well done, all of you!" Bagman said, bouncing into the tent and looking as pleased as though he personally had just got past a dragon, "Now, just a quick few words. You've got a nice long break before the second task, which will take place at half past nine on the morning of February the twenty-fourth, but we're giving you something to think about in the meantime! If you look down at those golden eggs you're all holding, you will see that they open... see the hinges there? You need to solve the clue inside the egg, because it will tell you what the second task is, and enable you to prepare for it! All clear? Sure? Well, off you go, then!"
Harry, Claire and Fleur left the tent, rejoined Ron, Neville, Adri and Amelia, and they started to walk back around the edge of the forest, talking hard; Harry, Claire and Fleur wanted to hear what the other champions had done in more detail.
Then, as they rounded the clump of trees behind which the duo had first heard the dragons roar, a witch leap out from behind them.
It was Rita Skeeter. She was wearing acid-green robes today; the Quick-Quotes Quill in her hand blended perfectly against them.
"Congratulations, Harry!" she said, beaming at him, "I wonder if you could give me a quick word? How you felt facing that dragon? How you feel now, about the fairness of the scoring?"
"Yeah, you can have a word." Harry said savagely, "Good-bye." And they set off back to the castle with the group.
"In my humble opinion, that was a sick burn!" Adri said walking backwards, "Hogwarts style!"
The Gryffindor Common room exploded with cheers and yells as the champions entered. There were mountains of cakes and flagons of soda, iced tea, butterbeer on every surface.
Lee had let off some Filibuster's Fireworks, so that the air was thick with stars and sparks, as loud music played. The common room seemed more crowed than usual, despise only having little more than the half of the Beauxbatons students plus Daphne and Tracy.
Harry helped himself to food; he had almost forgotten what it was like to feel properly hungry, before sitting down with his friends.
"Blimey, this is heavy." Lee said, picking up one of the golden eggs, which they had left on a table, and weighing it in his hands, "Open it, go on guys! Let's just see what's inside it!"
"They are supposed to work out the clue on his own, it's in the tournament rules..." Hermione said swiftly, sitting next to Alex.
"They were supposed to work out how to get past the dragon on their own too." Alex whispered, so only Hermione could hear him, and she grinned rather guiltily.
"Yeah, go on, open it!" several people echoed.
Taking their eggs, giving each other a nod, Harry, Claire and Fleur began to dug their fingernails into the groove that ran all the way around it and pried it open.
It was hollow and completely empty, but the moment the eggs opened, the most horrible noise, a loud and screechy wailing, filled the room.
"Great Scott!" Alex shouted, covering his ears, "Shut it!"
"What was that?" Amelia asked, staring at the slammed shut eggs.
"Sounded like a banshee..." Tracy mumbled, "Maybe you've got to get past one of those next."
"It was someone being tortured!" Neville said, who had gone very white and spilled sausage rolls all over the floor, "You're going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!"
"That's illegal." Daphne pointed out.
"Over my dead body that they are going to torture Harry or Claire!" Alex said, "Having to live with me is the only torture I allow on them!"
"They wouldn't use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions." George said, "I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing..."
"Maybe you've got to attack him while he's in the shower." Fred added.
"That would be too easy." Claire said, "Just a simple invisibility charm."
As the night went on, the content of the eggs were soon put out of their minds for now as they busy themselves doing typical party things dancing to music, socializing with members of the opposite sex, and playing a game called butterbeer pong.
"Want to give it a go?" Alex asked Hermione, who had been talking with him and Tracy as they watched people dance.
She gave a nod and the two walked over to the pong table. Two students from Beauxbatons stand at the other end.
"All right Hermione, me and you versus them." Alex said with a big grin as they stared their opponents down, "We are gonna whup their arse's!" he picks up a ball, and tosses it right into one of their cups, making the other two look a little worried.
The game goes back and forth for a while, the two Beauxbatons are pretty good, but Hermione manages to hit their last cup before they get through theirs.
"Victory!" Alex and Hermione exclaimed, giving each other a high-five, before he in the spur of the moment, wrapped his arms around Hermione, slightly lifting her up.
"Oh, sorry!" he said quickly, his face a bit red when he realizing what he just did, "I kinda let it go to my head..."
"I-It's alright." she said, her cheeks a bit red, "Getting lost in the moment is just like you Lex..."
"Lex?" he said, a bit surprised.
"Oh, just a slip of the tong." she said, "You don't mind right?"
"If it's you... No, I don't mind." he laughed, "Mi." he added with a wink before walking to where Harry and Claire where standing.
"So Lex." Claire teased, "You and Hermione?"
"How did you hear that all the way over there?" he said, shaking his head, "And what do you mean with 'you and Hermione'?"
"Come on Alex, she fancies you." Harry said, "And obviously you do too. Even I can see it."
"Yeah... Noticing that isn't one of your strong points." Alex mumbled, his eyes going from Harry to Claire and back.
"What does that mean?" Harry and Claire said, both having noticed Alex's look, who was now smirking smugly, "Don't laugh like that."
"You both so easily let me press your buttons." he said amused, "It's delicious."
"Never mind that!" Claire said, "But if you like Hermione, you should be honest with Tracy."
Just than, she came walking up to them with Neville, who was holding a custard cream.
"Be honest with me with what?" she asked curiously.
"...How could you have heard that." Alex said, looking in the direction his friends had came from, "Anyway, have you been talking with my cousin about Hermione?"
"Oh, about how you have the hots for her? I already told him, he should just tell her." Tracy said, much to the surprise of the others, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"But I thought you two where..." Claire said, surprised look on her face. A light flash came as Colin took a photo with his camera.
"Thanks Colin! Be sure to give a copy of that to me." Alex said, slipping some money in Colin's hand, sending him on his way, "So what where we talking about?"
"About how your cousin thought we where a couple." Tracy pointed out.
"We? A couple?" Alex laughed, "Please, I am way out of your league!"
"You keep telling yourself that." Tracy said, "But anyway, Alex and I are just friends... Who occasionally shag with each other."
Suddenly Fred appeared next to Claire, holding a plate full of jam tarts, "Want a jam tart, Hermione?" he asked.
Hermione looked doubtfully at the plate he was offering her. Fred grinned, "It's all right, I haven't done anything to them. It's the custard creams you've got to watch..."
Neville, who had just bitten into his custard cream, choked and spat it out. Fred laughed, "Just my little joke, Neville..."
Hermione took a jam tart. Then she said, "Did you get all this from the kitchens, Fred?"
"Yep." Fred said, grinning at her, he put on a high-pitched squeak and imitated a house-elf, "'anything we can get you, sir, anything at all!' They're dead helpful... Get me a roast ox if I said I was peckish."
"No wonder the Hufflepuff common room is so close to the kitchen... Aside from that other reason." Alex said, "I know where it is because three weeks ago, Susan Bones and I where bone..."
Just then, Neville caused a slight diversion by turning into a large canary.
"Oh sorry, Neville!" Fred shouted over all the laughter, "I forgot, it was the custard creams we hexed."
Within a minute, however, Neville had molted, and once his feathers had fallen off, he reappeared looking entirely normal. He even joined in laughing.
"What kind of genius sorcery is that?" Adri laughed, walking over with Fleur and Amelia.
"Canary Creams!" Fred shouted to the excitable crowd, "George and I invented them, seven Sickles each, a bargain!"
It was nearly in the morning when the Beauxbatons students finally went out of the castle to the dormitory. Walking over the night covered grounds towards the carriage.
As she laughed with her friends, Fleur spotted the man of her desire sitting near the watery banks. "I'll catch up with you two later." she said to her two friends, before walking into his direction.
"Congratulations on passing that dragon." he said, not turning around.
"I... Thank you." she said, "What are you doing here?"
"I needed some fresh air to clear my head." he mumbled, "The usual thing weren't working."
"Do you want company?" she asked, and he gestured her to sit down. Doing so, she got a closer look at him, he seemed lonely for some reason in the moonlight.
"I heard you laughing when you came out of the castle." he said, not looking at her, "You look best when you laugh... So don't cry, got it?"
"What're you trying to say?" she asked.
"...Just what I said." he said, looking down, "I'm... selfish, aren't I?"
"That's not true." she quickly said, "You go out of your way to help your students. Harry and Claire told me that, nearly every student loves you."
This got him to smile a bit, "But I am selfish... There is something I need to do. But I am not sure if I have the strength to do it... I want it to be like this a little longer. I just want it to be... normal..."
Fleur doesn't really understand what Charles meant, though she feels like he told her something important. It was only after a few seconds that she realized that Charles was looking at her, a strange look of longing in his cloudy grey eyes.
"I know what you want, but I can't give it to you." he told her, sighting deeply, looking away from her, "You shouldn't waste your time on someone like me. You deserve someone younger, someone who isn't broken."
"What if I don't want someone else?" she whispered softly.
"You shouldn't." he said, finally standing up, and began to walk back to the castle, "I will only end up hurting you."
That's another chapter, hope you enjoyed it. Many thanks to everyone who read, review, favorite or follows this story.
For now I wish you all a fantastic day, if you enjoyed my work don't forget to leave a review and I hope to see you ladies and gents next time. Mischief Managed.