I Can't Stop Digging the Way You Make Me Feel

The next month seemed to fly by as the excitement for the second task grew inside of people. After about two months of being together, Emilie and George had never been happier, despite Marcus Flint continually irritating Emilie. The weather had become unusually warm for February. By the day of the second task, almost all of the snow had completely melted. It was actually warm enough that instead of her heavy wool peacoat, Emilie was able to wear the light terry jacket she wore for the first task. She headed down to the Great Hall with Katie and Alyssa for breakfast.

"Are you, Fred, and George taking bets again today?" Katie asked

"Yeah, why? You want in?" Emilie smirked

"After the first task, you bet! I'm betting on Harry this time."

"But this time, you have no idea what the task is, so you can't speculate how he might be able to handle it." Alyssa said

Katie scoffed. "Well, look who's being logical today."

"I'm just saying, you could very well be losing money today while Emilie, Fred, and George are profiting off of it."

"Don't tell her that! The money that we make goes towards the supply we need for inventing pranks and such. Don't talk Katie out of giving us said money!" Emilie exclaimed

Fred and George suddenly arrived at the table with their faces bright pink.

"Em, you ready?" Fred asked

"As I'll ever be. Let's go. By the way, get Katie's bet before Alyssa tries to talk her out of it again."

Fred and George's jaws dropped and they looked at Alyssa in disbelief.

"How dare you!" They said in unison

Alyssa laughed and rolled her eyes. Emilie finished her glass of pumpkin juice and then stood up, finally taking notice of how pink the twins' faces were.

"Cold outside?" She asked

"Just a bit, see?"

Fred and George both hugged Emilie and, because they had been outside for almost an hour, their jackets were freezing.

"Get off, get off, get off!" Emilie exclaimed as she tried to free herself. After another minute of her complaining, they finally let her go.

"Jerks." She muttered as she headed out of the Great Hall with Fred and George following her. They walked outside and Fred and George led her down to the lake.

"Where are we going exactly?" Emilie asked

"The task is out in the middle of the lake. You see the large posts out there? That's where we're standing." Fred explained

Emilie took notice of three tall posts in the middle of the lake as she got in the small boat that would take them out there. When they got there, Fred and George took grabbed their boxes and they started taking bets right away.

"Bets! Place your bets! Step up, don't be shy!" They all shouted as they walked onto the platforms

"Three lads---"

"One lady---"

"Four go down---"

"But will four come up?"

"Don't be so mean." Ginny said in disgust as Emilie, Fred, and George passed her and her friends. They merely looked at each other, shrugged, and continued taking bets. When the time came for the second task to start, promptly at 11:00a.m, they stopped taking bets and Dumbledore began to speak.

"Welcome to the second task! Last night, something was stolen from each of our champions, a treasure of sorts. These four treasures, one from each champion, now lie at the bottom of the Black Lake."

"Ha, I called it!" Emilie exclaimed

"In order to win, each champion need only to find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough, except for this they will only have one hour to do so, and one hour only. After that, they'll be on their own. No magic will save them. Champions, you may begin at the sound of the cannon!"

The cannon went off straight away and the four champions dived into the water. Well, technically Harry was pushed by Moody. Everybody cheered as they went under, but a couple of Harry's friends were at the edge of the platform where he went in, looking around worriedly. All of a sudden, Harry broke through the surface and went high into the air, complete with gills and webbed fingers and toes, before he went back under.

"Alright, Gillyweed! I've always wanted to try that stuff!" Alyssa said, suddenly appearing to Emilie's right.

"I think I was right in placing my bet on Harry." Katie said

Emilie smiled and looked back out over the lake, looking for any sign of the champions but at the same time slightly distracted. She suddenly felt George nudge her elbow.

"You alright?" He asked

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired is all."

George nodded and went back to counting money with Fred. Emilie looked back out at the lake, far from being tired. Earlier that day, she had heard a couple of people talking about her father in the most cruelest words, but she couldn't say anything without giving anything away. About thirty minutes later, she heard a group of the Beauxbaton girls yelling in French. Fleur Delacour was back on the platform, a towel being wrapped around her shoulders covering up massive scratches.

"What happened to her?" Emilie asked no one in particular, just looking for an answer

"She was attacked by Grindylows."

Emilie turned and saw Alex Harrison coming up behind them and standing next to Alyssa.

"Poor girl." Emilie said without a trace of sympathy in her voice

They looked back out at the lake and saw a shark head coming out of the water, except the shark head disappeared and turned back to Viktor Krum's head. He was carrying Hermione Granger with him.

"Two to go." Katie said

With ten minutes left of the hour, Cedric finally appeared out of the water, carrying Cho with him. Emilie and Katie cheered loudly, getting surprised looks from Fred and George.

"I thought you were supporting Harry." George said

"I am, but come on, he's fourteen. There will be some things he won't be able to do. And besides, it doesn't matter if he or Cedric wins. They're both from Hogwarts so it'll be our school that wins it all, no matter who it is that does it." Emilie replied

It was now five minutes to noon and there was still no sign of Harry. People were whispering, thinking he had drowned. Right at noon, Ron and a little blonde girl appeared out of the water, but no Harry. Harry suddenly shot out of the water and landed on the platform with a loud THUD. Cheers erupted through the air. After making sure Harry was alright, Dumbledore put his wand up to his throat and silenced the crowd.

"Attention! The winner is Mr. Diggory, who showed innate command of the Bubble-Head charm. However, seeing as Mr. Potter would have finished first, had it not been for his determination to rescue not only Mr. Weasley but the others as well, we've agreed to award him second place for outstanding moral fiber!"

Emilie laughed as she followed the crowd down to the boats. She got in one rather quickly with Ron, Harry, Hermione, Katie, Fred, and George. They sailed back to the mainland, listening to what Harry had to say about what was in the Black Lake.

"So merpeople exist, then?" Katie asked

"Yeah. Don't ever try to see one." Harry said

Emilie smirked at Katie. They arrived back on the shore and George helped Emilie out before she turned to help Harry out.

"So, all that moral fiber, eh?" Fred asked

"Moral fiber? Blimey, even when you go wrong it turns out right." Ron laughed

"Yeah, well done, Moral Fiber." George smirked. Emilie laughed as they all walked back up to the castle to warm up.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Did you hear that Barty Crouch disappeared?" Seamus Finnigan, a Gryffindor fourth year, asked at dinner later that night

"Yeah, they found his body in the Forbidden Forest right after the second task ended today. Nobody knows what happened to him." Dean Thomas, another Gryffindor fourth year, said back

"I'd bet my entire Gringotts vault it was Sirius Black."

The mention of Emilie's father made her stop chewing her food for a split second and start listening intently.

"There's Ministry officials everywhere; how would Black get in?" Dean asked

"Probably the same way he got past the dementors last year. It was Barty Crouch that sentenced him to life in Azkaban, so why wouldn't he want to kill him? And what better way then to kill him in a place he already knows how to get to?"

Emilie's grip tightened on her fork and she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from saying something. Dean said something else, but Emilie missed it. The next thing she heard, however, was the last straw.

"Now that he's got Crouch out of the way, he's probably going to make his way through the Ministry until he's taken care of Fudge and then that stupid, raving, murderous lunatic will have You-Know-Who in control of the wizarding world."

"Alright, that's it!"

Emilie slammed her fork down and looked over at Seamus and Dean.

"Will you two shut your mouths? You have no idea what you're talking about so stop speculating about what you don't know!" Emilie exclaimed

The two fourth years looked at her weirdly and turned back to their dinner. Emilie sighed heavily and pushed her plate back.

"I'll see you lot back in the common room."

Emilie stormed off, leaving a very confused Fred, George, Katie, and Alyssa behind.

"What in the bloody hell has gotten into her?" Fred said

"I have no idea. Has she said anything to you, George?" Katie asked

George asked and looked at the doors that Emilie had just stormed through, now feeling concerned.

"Katie and I will go talk to her. It might be a girl thing, if you get my drift." Alyssa said, pushing her plate aside as well and standing up. Katie followed suit and the two girls walked out of the Great Hall. They walked up towards Gryffindor Tower and when they got there, they went up to their dormitory and found Emilie sitting on her bed, staring at her piece of parchment.

"Em, are you okay?" Katie asked

"Yeah, I've never seen you get so upset like that." Alyssa said

"It's nothing, okay? I'm just sick of people talking about all of this Sirius Black business."

"Why? He's done a lot of things, so of course people are going to talk about it." Katie pointed out

"That's just it! He hasn't done anything!" Emilie said as she stood up and walked towards the window, her voice increasingly raising

"How do you know?" Alyssa said, her voice still calm

Emilie looked down at her feet and sighed heavily, knowing she couldn't lie her way out of this. She turned to look at her friends, tears threatening to sting her eyes.

"Because Sirius Black is my father."

Katie and Alyssa's jaws dropped and they glanced at each other quickly before looking back at Emilie.

"But your father's---" Katie started

"Not non-existent. I spent the first two years of my life with him before he was wrongfully hauled off to Azkaban and I met him again summer before last. Before he went to Azkaban, he told my mum to change her last name back to her maiden name to protect the both of us. Do you have any idea what society would do to us if we had continued living as the Blacks? After he escaped, the Ministry would've gone straight to my mum and demanded to know where he was and if she didn't give up that information, she would probably had gone to Azkaban too. So I'm sorry I didn't tell you." Emilie confessed, the tears now falling down her cheeks

Katie walked over to her friend and pulled her into a hug.

"I can't even imagine how hard it must be for you to hear the things people say about him." Katie said, comfortingly rubbing Emilie's back as Emilie cried into her shoulder. Emilie pulled away and sat back down on her bed, Alyssa and Katie moving closer to her.

"I wasn't going to keep this a secret forever. I was going to tell you all when you knew he was innocent." Emilie said, wiping the tears out from under her eyes

"Emilie, you're our best friend. You could've told us and, sure we would've been shocked at first, but we wouldn't have cared that who he was." Alyssa said

"Unless he was You-Know-Who. Then we might've had a problem." Katie said

Emilie laughed, finally all calmed down, and pulled a picture out from under her pillow.

"Here, living proof that I'm not making this up."

The picture that Emilie gave to Alyssa was a picture that was taken the previous summer before Emilie went to the Weasley's for the World Cup.

"Aw, look how much you two look alike." Katie mocked in a baby voice, nudging Emilie in the ribs. Emilie slapped her hand away and took the picture back.

"So, he's really innocent?" Alyssa asked in a sincerity

Emilie nodded. "Yeah, he is. He even drank some Veritaserum to prove it to me."

"Did he tell you how he got out of Azkaban? I mean, that's the big question, innit?" Katie said

"Yeah, he told me, but I can't tell you."

"You know what you have to do next, don't you? You have to tell Fred and George." Alyssa said

"Well, at least George."

"I can't do that. They've grown up thinking my father was a murderer. Granted, they're nice enough not to slander him like everybody else, but I just can't yet. Not until their parents know the truth."

"Well then you better come up with a damn good excuse to what happened at dinner. The both of them looked really concerned."

"Alright, I'll go see them."

Emilie stood up and walked out of the girls' dormitory. She walked over to the boys' dormitory and knocked on the door. Fred opened it, but Emilie didn't see George in the room.

"Fred, have you seen George?" Emilie asked

"He's down in the common room debating when to come find you. Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just frustrated and sleep-deprived."

"Well, Seamus and Dean were getting pretty annoying. They're not very bright. If it wasn't you, it would've been someone else."

"Thanks, Fred." Emilie smiled. Fred smiled back and Emilie turned to go downstairs. She saw George sitting on the couch, flipping through one of his textbooks.

"Funny, I didn't think you were one for reading." Emilie said as she approached the couch. George smirked and shut the book, throwing it down on the ground. He then patted the seat next to him and Emilie sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry about what happened at dinner. I'm just really, really exhausted and stressed and those two were just pissing me off."

"You don't have anything to be sorry about, but I was worried about you."

"There's nothing to worry about. I'm fine."

George looked Emilie right in the eye and Emilie felt something she had never really felt before.

"Promise?" He asked

Emilie put her forehead against his and smiled.

"Promise."

George smiled and Emilie put her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and they sat there in silence, for nothing was needed to be said. The moment was inexplicably right.