As the Sister of Harry Potter

“Impedimenta!”

“Protego!”

My curse bounced off Harry and hit Ron. We had been dueling for about half an hour straight.

Harry had gotten really good by now. He should have been, seeing as it was the week of exams, and the week of the Third Task. Term was almost over.

“Stupify!”

“Glacius!”

Our spells collided and ended up freezing a chair.

“Phillimungus!”

I deflected his spell with a silent Shield Charm, and thought, ‘Expelliarmus!’ My spell hit Harry and his wand landed in my outstretched hand.

“No fair!”

“All’s fair in love, war, and dueling, love,” I told him, winking and handing him his wand. “You did brilliant though.”

“Amazing,” Launa agreed. As exams got closer, Ron, Hermione, Launa, Hyden and I all took shifts teaching Harry so we could study. Sarlanda even came in occasionally to help.

“Thanks,” Harry said, and we undid the curse I had accidentally set on Ron.

“Geeze, Jennifer, watch your aim,” he grumbled.

“Hey, I’m not the one who deflected it!”

“Yeah, well I still think we should practice on Mrs. Norris…”

“I would if we could get away with it…” I said. Launa yawned, and I checked my watch. “Alright you lot, it’s ten, we should go to bed, we’ve got exams tomorrow.”

-

I met up with Colin and Ophilia during our free period before our Charms exam. I had grown to have fairly good friendships with Colin and Jared over the past few months.

“Well, we’re half way through at least,” Colin whispered as we went though our Charms notes. It was true. I had finished Potions, Arithmancy, History of Magic, and Transfiguration. Today I had Charms and Astronomy. Then all I had left was Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and DADA.

“How’s Harry doing?” Ophilia asked, concerned.

“Actually, he’s doing amazing. He’s bored, but at least the nerves haven’t caught up with him yet.”

“Lucky… I wish I didn’t have to take exams…” Colin grumbled, chewing his quill.

“I’d rather take exams than be chased around by a dragon,” Ophilia commented. I smiled.

-

Friday morning, Moody gave us our exam; a practical exam.

“Right, best for last… Miss Malfoy, and Miss Potter, you’re up,” Moody said in his grizzled voice, checking Lance and Jared’s names off the list. Jared had gotten creamed by Lance; the kid hadn’t even stood a chance.

Sarlanda and I climbed up onto the dueling platform that was set up in the Great Hall. Loads of people were watching, including the Champions and their families, some teachers, and any students who weren’t taking exams. The N.E.W.T. practicals were out in the Entrance Hall, so Moody took over the Great Hall for our exams, because it’s kind of hard to have epic dueling in the classroom. He wanted us to have as much room as possible.

Sarlanda and I bowed to each other.

“Good luck Sar,” I said, getting into stance.

“May the best witch win,” she agreed, taking hers.

“Alright, you know the drill… all out, but don’t kill each other,” Moody said.

We waited for his command.

“Start!”

“Glacius!”

“Incendio!” Our charms ricocheted, her’s incinerating a candle, and mine freezing the entire stage.

‘Tarantallegra!’ I thought, and luckily she didn’t have time to deflect it. Sarlanda began slipping all over the ice. A spell randomly came out of her wand and hit me.

I keeled over, laughing. “D-Densaugeo!”

“Eat Slugs! Wow!”

Sarlanda fell over, just missing my curse. I slid out of the way of hers, and skinned my knees, but with a thought of, ‘Finite!’ I stopped laughing. “Stupify!” Sar deflected my spell with a silent Shield Charm.

We both managed to stand up and moved at the same time.

“Expelliarmus!”

“Phillimungus!”

My hex plowed though her disarming spell, and I followed it up with one of my own.

I caught her wand, and it was over.

“Hm, quickest one. You both pass.”

I couldn’t believe it. I had beaten Sarlanda. It was the first time in years I had done so. I removed the fungus from Sarlanda’s sleeve and handed her her wand.

“You and your damn fungus curse…” she grumbled, but we grinned at each other.

I jumped off the platform and joined Harry. Mrs. Weasley and Bill were with him.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised.

“We came to watch Harry of course!” Mr. Weasley said, hugging me.

“Geeze, Jen, you psycho dueler…” Bill said, ruffling my hair.

“So Harry, you ready for tonight?” I asked. Harry nodded. He didn’t look sick at least. Not yet anyways.

“What was that last curse you used?” Bill inquired.

“One of my own. It’s a fungus curse.”

Bill shook his head. “Mad. Absolutely mad.” I grinned at him.

Looking around, a tall, brown haired person caught my eye, and I snuck over behind him. I crept up behind him and covered his eyes.

“Hello love,” I whispered in his ear. Cedric reached around and pulled me next to him, his arm around my waist, looking at his mum and dad. Amos Diggory looked about the same as he was at the Cup, perhaps a little less excitable. Mrs. Diggory was the shortest in our group, and her curly brown hair touched her shoulders. She had a calm air about her, and she was smiling gently at me.

Cedric was the first to speak, and he cleared his throat nervously before doing so.

“Er, well, you’ve met dad, so, mum, this is Jennifer…”

Mrs. Diggory beamed as we shook hands.

“Potter? Ah, so you’re the young lady our Cedric is seeing!”

I blushed like mad. This was incredibly awkward on my part. “Um, yeah…”

“Well, you’re just proved everything I’ve heard about you to be true.”

“Huh?” What was she going on about?

“Your display just now,” Mrs. Diggory said, nodding to the dueling platform.

“Oh, that,” I said, getting that she meant my exam. “Erm, thanks. I was actually really expecting to lose that duel, Sarlanda’s the best in the class and just about everything.”

Mr. Diggory now spoke, his voice full to the brim of enthusiasm.

“So Cedric, are you ready for tonight?”

Cedric shrugged his shoulders. “More or less. Harry?” he asked me.

I grinned wickedly. “He’s totally gonna kick your arse,” I teased, “No offense.”

Mr. Diggory puffed out his chest. “You’re not going to lose to him Cedric! Beat him once, you can do it again!” Cedric looked away uncomfortably. I raised my eyebrows at Mr. Diggory and laughed.

“I don’t think so, I trained Harry personally. So you’d better be up to a good challenge,” I added to Cedric. He nodded and smiled nervously.

“Well,” I said, deciding to break the awkward silence, “I’ve got some last minute training to attend to. Cheerio!” I pecked Cedric’s cheek and skipped to the Transfiguration room.

‘All this skipping and happiness… it’s wonderful,’ I thought to myself as I started up the stairs. I hadn’t had this walking-on-air feeling for any amount of time in a while.

“Alright, review time!” I announced as I walked into the Transfiguration room. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Launa, Hyden, Sarlanda were all there, along with out audience, Mrs. Weasley and Bill. I pulled the list of spells Harry had learned and looked down it.

“Alright, Harry, let’s just go down the list. So… Charms first.”

“Okay, Glacius!” Harry froze a chair over, “Incendio!” and melted it. “Point Me!” His wand pointed due north.

“Accio!” The chair flew towards him, “Protego!” and it bounced off his shield. “Rictusempra!” Ron buckled over in laughter.

“Wingardium Leviosa!” The chair levitated.

Impressive.

“Good, now spells.”

“Expelliarmus!” Hermione’s wand flew through the air.

“Stupify!” Launa fell over, and Hyden caught her.

“Alright, fighting stuff… curses, jinxes, hexes.”

“Impedimenta!” Sarlanda started moving in slow motion.

“Locomotor Mortis!” My legs got stuck together, then he hit me with Jelly-Legs.

“Wow!” I said as I fell over. In the mean time, Harry put the Fully-Body Bind curse on Ron and turned back to the chair.

“Reducto!” He reduced it to ashes. “Melefores!” Harry turned Hyden’s head into a pumpkin. “Phillimungus!” The floor was covered in multi-coloured fungus. I stood up after casting the proper counter-spells on everyone.

“Alright, now our favorite!”

“EXPECTO PATRONUM!” We both yelled, and with a roar, our glittery patronuses burst forth, a stag and a lion. Mrs. Weasley and Bill applauded and we bowed. I swished my wand and the mushrooms disappeared.

“You’re ready.”

-

By the time it was dinner, nerves had caught up with Harry. Everyone had changed from uniforms to comfortable clothing, and I was walking with him down to dinner. Cedric caught me as I walked into the Great Hall and dragged me to an anti-chamber.

“Hey,” I said, breathless. Wow, don’t I sound desperate?

“Hi. Sorry ‘bout my dad earlier, he’s just kinda like that.”

“Oh on, it’s fine.”

We stood in silence, hugging. Cedric pulled back a bit and tilted my face up so we locked eyes. I loved his eyes. They were like soft silver, and at the moment, looked a little nervous.

“What, you too?”

“Hmm?”

“Oh, Harry’s all jittery over the task.”

“Oh, no, it’s not that.”

“Well then, what is it?” He looked down, then back to my hazel eyes.

“I want to tell you something, but I’m not sure how you’ll take it.”

“Cedric, you know you can tell me anything.”

He laughed at that before continuing. “Yeah… um, well Jennifer, I love you.”

My mouth opened a little, rather shocked. “R-Really?”

“Yes,” he said, placing his forehead on mine.

“Cedric…I—I think I love you too…” I whispered, and I leaned up to kiss him.

But of course, we were interrupted.

“Cedric! Quit snogging! Let’s go to dinner!”

Cedric’s mates had found us, and before we could protest, Dom was dragging Cedric from me. I followed them, and caught up in the doorway to the Great Hall. I pushed Dom off him, grabbed Cedric’s shoulder, and pulled him into a forceful kiss. When we finally pulled apart, everyone around us was staring. No one had ever seen us kiss live and in person, mostly because I was prude like that.

“Cedric Diggory, I swear on my life if anything happens to you in there, I will personally kill you,” I threatened before going to the Gryffindor table.

When I sat down and started eating, I realized how nervous I was myself. My hands were shaking really bad, and I dropped a fork-full of mashed potatoes so many times I gave up. Sirius’s words were flashing through my mind.

“Look Jennifer, someone entered Harry in this contest for a reason. Two down, one to go. The final task is their last chance to do him any harm. Make sure he stays safe.”

Something was going to go down in the maze, and that something was going to be very, very bad. I just knew it. Call it the female intuition. And I wasn’t just going to sit by and watch my little brother be put in harms way again. No, I would be right there by him, keeping my promise to not only Sirius, but to my parents as well.

“Keep him safe.”

I fully intended to. I stood up, and Ophilia gave me an odd look.

“You okay, Jen?” she asked, her head tilted. Now the Twins and Harry were looking at me as well.

“I’m fine, I just need the bathroom,” I said, and left. Out in the Entrance Hall, I transformed into my cat. It burned because I was in a rush, but I was successful and I sprinted out to the grounds and the Quidditch Pitch. The hedges were really imposing, but I ran in through the gap to the first place where it split off. I found a shadow and settled myself down in it next to the hedge.

Now all there was to do was wait for Harry.