If You've Got the Nerve

The aftermath of the second task left Harry on everyone’s good side again. Every student wanted to hear about what had happened in the lake, about how terrifying it must have been, and about what great battle he must have had to wage in order to free himself and his friends. They were especially keen to hear how he had managed to rescue two hostages, something the other champions had failed at. No one seemed to want to bother with the fact that he was still underage, a fact that they had been keen to emphasize even after the first task.

Harry was taking the attention with modest stride, while Ron, who was also being begged for heroic tales, had everyone convinced he had helped Harry to fight off an entire underwater kingdom of merpeople.

“I’m glad your brother isn’t letting this get to his head,” I commented dryly one night while I was sitting with Fred and George in the common room. I was watching Ron retell another outrageous tale to Lavender Brown and a few other Gryffindor girls, all of which seemed completely convinced that Ron was Merlin himself. When there was no smart response from either of the twins, I turned my head to see what they were doing.

Once again, they were absorbed in a discussion that no doubt was centered on their business. There were papers spread out on the table in front of them that were curiously hard to read. They were no doubt charmed in case any teachers or wandering eyes found them. I frowned at the pair.

“You two aren’t skiving off exams to work on that stuff, are you?” George looked up with an expression reflecting one of sudden thought. Whether on purpose or by complete coincidence, his hand shifted to cover up a paper to his left that still only read jumbled words and symbols no matter how many times I glanced at it. I wondered suddenly if the parchment really was charmed or if they had resorted to Muggle codes. That would certainly be one step closer to paranoid.

“Fred, I reckon she knows too much,” George nudged his brother, who was focusing on writing out a particularly long letter, with his elbow. The usual joking look had returned to his face which caused my lips to twitch slightly. Fred looked up with the same expression his brother had worn moments ago. He smirked when his eyes landed on me.

“We can deal with her next,” I raised my eyebrows at the impish glint in his eyes.

“Fine, fine. Go back to your child’s play,” I waved my hand dismissively and turned back to watch Ron act out an epic battle scene that never took place. Surprisingly, they didn’t act on my words. When I glanced back again, they were once again submerged in their piles of documents.



The next morning was just the same.

It was a Hogsmeade weekend which meant I had a whole day of worry free relaxation ahead of me. Like every other visit, I would spend the day with Fred, George, and Lee, if he chose to come this time. Since this was the last visit of the year, we would spend most of the money we had earned since our last spree on goods that we really weren’t in dire need of, the twins would buy me some new, teeth-rotting sweet that had just been set on the market, and I would treat us all to a few Butterbeers at the Three Broomsticks. So with a light skip in my step, I set off to find my three friends.

The common room was already empty with no signs of them, so I made my way down the winding stairs to the Great Hall. After a quick scan of the room, I spotted two familiar people sitting far off from the few Gryffindors that were finishing their breakfast.

Fred and George were huddled together in a seemingly heated conversation. I could see George’s face clearly from where I stood. He looked frustrated, the closest to angry I’d seen him in a while. He turned away abruptly from his twin, rubbing his temples as if a pounding headache had suddenly taken over. Fred ignored his brother and wrote furiously on a piece of parchment that looked to be already half full of words.

It took me less than a minute to cross the Hall and stand behind them. I tapped Fred on the shoulder. He jolted and whipped around, a heated look in his dark eyes. I backed up a few inches.

“Woah, sorry to interrupt…” I glanced at George who was watching his brother with an almost victorious look, “Uh…whatever I was interrupting…” I finished, suddenly unsure if I should have approached them. Their argument seemed to have been a lot more severe than I had anticipated. Fred’s anger seemed to fall away, his muscles relaxing. He rolled his shoulders and rubbed his neck as if a great load had just been lifted.

“No, you’re fine. What did you want?”

“Um…” I felt suddenly self-conscious under his questioning gaze. They did know what today was, didn’t they? Or had I gotten it wrong? I glanced around the Hall. No; students were still filing outside, making their way to the village. When I looked back, comprehension was dawning on George’s face.

“It’s the last visit to Hogsmeade,” he stated out loud. I nodded my head slowly. Fred, who had been watching me with an expectant look, glanced at his brother then looked back at me, guilt slowly bubbling to the surface.

“Oh, Nox, sorry. We’re just working on something really important – ” George snorted, his opinion obviously differing “ – and we just can’t go.” I frowned at the two, then glanced at the paper behind Fred, trying to see who he was writing too, because it was obviously a letter. His hand was already covering the words protectively.

“We always go to Hogsmeade on the last weekend,” I reminded him.

“I know we do, but maybe Lee is still free.” I stared at him for a long time, both of our gazes never wavering. Something in the way he looked at me told me that he knew Lee was not still free.

“Yeah, maybe he is.” I answered tersely, then, turning on my heel, walked straight from the hall and towards the staircase I had just come down. I was stopped halfway up the steps by a familiar person that I hadn’t spoke to in a long time.

“Anima!” I looked up from my glaring match with the steps, straight into a pair of green eyes. “Are you going to Hogsmeade?” Vinny asked, a touch of hopefulness leaking into his voice. I stared at him for a long time.

No, I wasn’t going to Hogsmeade. That’s why I was walking away from the entrance to the castle. Then the hopeful look in his eyes registered fully in my mind. I smiled.

“Yeah, do you want to go together?” Vinny grinned, his handsome features shining through in an instant.

“Of course!” I kept my smile firmly in place and followed him back down the steps.

Hogsmeade was filled with students. Most of them had crowded into the Three Broomsticks to discuss who they thought was going to win the tournament. From what I gathered, most people were rooting for Cedric or Krum. No one seemed to think Fleur could do it after what had happened in the second task. Harry’s name was also heard quite a lot. People were either praising him or insulting him over the stunt he had pulled in the lake. A lot of the foreign students seemed convinced that he had done it to grab more attention.

I convinced Vinny to steer clear of the Three Broomsticks and, for the first time in my life, insisted we avoid Honeydukes. Instead, we spent most of our time wandering the less explored shops of the wizarding village and daring each other to go near the Shrieking Shack. We were scoping out a shop that specialized in odd trinkets when Vinny said that he had to run out or a minute and that he’d be back soon so don’t go anywhere.

I occupied my time walking up and down the aisles multiple times, poking at the knickknacks that stacked the shelves.

“There you are!” I jumped at the sound of the voice directly behind me, almost knocking over a glass dragon that held wand light in its open maw. I spun around as fast as I could in the tight space that was allowed between the two shelves on either side of me. Fred was standing at the end of the aisle, looking extremely out of breath. When he had finally filled his lungs with enough oxygen, he straightened up and looked at me. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you,”

“Did you check Honeydukes?” I asked casually, trying to make it seem like my normal spots hadn’t been effected by him and George not coming along.

“Yes,” he answered, a strange look on his face, “Dulcis said you hadn’t been by all day and that he figured you had gotten ill and stayed back today. He was making you a box of sweets to make you feel better – ” He caught himself before he started to ramble.

“What did you want?” I asked, giving him the same expectant look he had fixed me with in the Great Hall. He shifted in his spot. I ignored the squirming feeling in my stomach.

Of course he would have checked Honeydukes and of course Dulcis, a worker at the shop who always treated us whenever he could, would inform him of my absence.

“Well, I finished up early with everything, so I just wanted to find you and apologize about earlier. If you’re here with Lee, we could go by Honeydukes. They’ve got this new lollipop that Dulcis was just getting ready to set out when I went by. He said he’d save us some. It changes flavor every – ” he stopped talking, his eyes fixed somewhere behind me. I dropped my cool demeanor – which was already beginning to melt at the mention of the new candy – and looked over my shoulder. Vinny was making his way down the aisle, a new shop bag in hand.

“You’re not here with Lee,” Fred stated blankly just before Vinny made it into earshot. I turned to look at him with a scowl.

“I’ll see you later, Fred,” I turned to meet Vinny near the end of the aisle. He glanced over my shoulder.

“Who’s that?” I just shook my head and continued towards the shop exit.

“So, you wanted to hang out next weekend?” Vinny, who had forgotten about Fred in a second, grinned.