Gred and Forge

The following day I went to the library as I originally intended. Fred decided to go with me since he was almost as curious as I was and having extra help is never a bad thing. We both woke up around nine the next morning, giving us a late start.

I have to admit, it was really awkward waking up next to him, not at all romantic and fluffy like they show in the films. I awoke before he did and didn’t know what to do; I had never fallen asleep next to a boy before. It was even stranger to wake up on a bed too! Shortly after I closed my eyes Fred had transfigured the couch into a bed large enough to fit the two of us. Of course I am thankful that he did, my body would have been entirely sore if he hadn’t and I could only imagine what his would feel like, since after all I had been using him as a cushion.

So shortly after the awkward wake up, we both headed to breakfast where both Rue and Vanessa doused me with a million questions about last night.

“Please tell me you didn’t do anything I wouldn’t have. You’ve been dating for barely a week.” Vanessa scolded, but I could see the curiosity in her eyes.

Shaking my head I told them why I didn’t come back to the common room the previous night. I said exactly what happened and how it happened, or at least a synopsis of it. I decided to leave out the whole scrapbook part of it since that really wasn’t anything they didn’t already know.

After a few good hours of searching in the massive Hogwarts library for some kind of hint, Fred and I had called it a day. We barely found anything; the closest we came to actually getting something wasn’t even about my parents. It was an article about a house fire on that happened the same night of my mum and dads deaths. It read:

‘Farrar Fire Leaves Muggle Police Confused.’

Just by looking at the title of it I knew it had nothing to do with them and kept looking.

This cycle repeated throughout the whole week. I was convinced that there had to be something about my parents there and I wasn’t going to stop looking until I found it. Fred, George, Emily, and Luna helped me look, Rue and Vanessa too. Even Lee had stopped by once or twice, but I wouldn’t really say he was much help. All he did was blabber on and on about how he doesn’t have a date to the ball yet and how McGonagall won’t let him do commentary for the First Task. Finally I told him to shut up and find someone who cares.

On Saturday we all decided to take the day off from searching, it was the day of the First Task after all and no one wanted to miss that. After lunch that afternoon, Rue, Vanessa and I made our way down to the arena where the event was being held and where we would meet the rest of our group. The weather was similar to how it was last weekend, when we went to Hogsmeade, except today wasn’t as windy.

As we passed Hagrid’s Hut and turned around the corner, the arena came into full view. Standing tall and strong, the stadium was built with stone and much larger than our quidditch pitch. A furious roar bellowed from somewhere nearby and I began to wonder what the Task really was. Fred had told me it involved dragons. He knew since his older brother Charlie was a dragon tamer and was one of the wizards bringing them in all the way from Romania. Other than that he hasn’t told me much though, saying that it was supposed to be a surprise.

Walking up to the queue outside the entrance we looked around to see if we could find any of our friends. I told the Durmstrang boys to meet me down at the arena and the twins told us to meet them down here, leaving us with a large amount of people to find in a short amount of time.

“Bets, place your bets here!”

“Fleur may be pretty, but is she worth you’re biding?”

“And is the Durmstrang Champion really where it’s happenin’?”

“But Cedric Diggory is much hotter,”

“And there’s no one better than Harry Potter!”

Coming into the clearing I smiled, spotting the Weasley twins facing the arena and shouting their chant at passing spectators. George had a wooden case in front of his that had a decent amount of coins inside and a picture of each of the champions on the lid of it.

Smiling and sneaking up behind them I abruptly placed my gloved hands on top of Fred’s shoulders and whispered into his ear, “You aren’t going gay on me are you?”

“Of course not!” He replied in a flamboyant voice as he turned around and smiled at me, “Oh my gosh where did you get that jacket, its fabulous!”

Laughing I slapped his chest, “Stop being so stereotypical.”

“Hey Rue, Oliver is in there going mad looking for you. You might want to find him before he goes mental,” George commented as he took money from a young Slytherin boy.

“Where!?” Vanessa answered excitedly, “We are finding this boy!”

“I think he was going to sit by the judge’s tent but I’m not sure.”

With that little bit of information Vanessa grabbed a very nervous looking Rue by the wrist and dragged her into the arena.

“Bets, place your bets here!” Fred called out once again, trying to get the attention of passing students.

“The prize is this pretty girl!” George called out pointing a finger at me, “And yes, she is housebroken!”

Rolling my eye’s I smiled as Fred placed a protective arm around me and pulled into his side. “Trying to sell my girl mate?”

“I’m just trying to appeal to the customers,” He lazily gestured to the sea of people still streaming by. “I think this would work a bit better if you took your shirt off. Just a suggestion though.”

Both Fred and I looked over at George with incredulous looks upon our faces, “No!”

He chuckled, shaking his head, “I was only joking, you two need to calm down.”

“So,” I said, breaking the now tense air between the two brothers, “Who should I bet on? I think Krum has a good shot on winning today.”

“Wait,” The twins said in unison, “You want to bet?”

Shrugging I pulled my wallet out of my coat pocket. I had left it there since the Hogsmeade trip. “Yeah, why not? It seems harmless to me. What’s the minimum amount?”

“20 sickles,” They answered together.

Digging through the change pouch I managed to pull out a galleon. “Well here’s a galleon, who should I put it on Fred?”

“Hmmm,” He crossed his arms and stared at the faces of the contestants that were plastered in the case George still was holding. “I reckon Fleur would be too terrified of the dragon to do much and Krum is a bit of an idiot when it comes to anything other than being a keeper. Plus it’s always a good idea to root for the home team, so either Diggory or Potter is left. Since Harry is the underdog in this situation, and I happen to support most underdogs, I think you should put it on him.”

Nodding I handed over my coin to George, “Ella and Fred bet one galleon for Harry Potter Georgie.”

Taking it from me he shook his head in a slight disbelief, “I wish my girlfriend was as cool as you.”

“Let me guess,” I rolled my eyes, “She doesn’t know about this?”

“Not yet anyway.”

“Oh no, don’t tell me you left her all alone,” I groaned. We all know it’s not a good idea to leave Emily unattended in public places; she’s forgetful and tends to wonder off, a lot.

“No she’s fine, last time I checked she was talking to this Sean guy from herbology.” There was a slight edge when George said Sean’s name but I passed it off since Fred uses the same tone whenever he talks about me and another guy. Their protectiveness must be a Weasley thing.

“Well George,” Fred clapped his hands and rubbed them together, “Let’s see if we can get anymore bets made inside, it looks like almost everyone is here.”

We walked into the arena, a thunder of noise traveling down the hall that led to the stands. The excitement started to build up inside me and I grabbed Fred’s hand as we neared the stairs at the end of the hall that will lead us to the inside of the arena. We passed the toilets where few students were chatting loudly and anxiously in anticipation for the First Task.

Soon we reached the stairs and started to climb them, taking two stairs with each step, practically running to the top. A bright light contrasted immensely with the now forgotten dark tunnel as the inside of the arena came into full view. It was a large oval, the seats on the outer edges surrounded it completely, almost every single one was filled with spectators holding signs and sporting colors that supported a Champions school or House. The middle was lowered a great deal, about 50 feet, and was decorated with many large rocks and boulders creating almost a mountainous terrain.

“Bloody hell,” The twins said in unison, awe filling their voices. It was a moment you could never forget, all the people, the noise. For a second it seemed we all forgot how dangerous this tournament was and that there was the risk that a Champion could get hurt or even die. That’s not what came to mind as we looked at the crowd. What we felt was indescribable.

We could have stared all day, lost in the moment, but suddenly I came back to reality. “Let’s find some place to watch the Task.”

We took a right, now being led by George through the sea of people. It felt like an eternity until I found some familiar faces.

“Eric!” I yelled as we made our way into the stands, working our way to the top. He was standing at the end of the second to last row with Cyrus, Mila, Markus, and too my surprise Luna and Lee.

After fighting through the crowd I finally managed to make my way over to them.

“There you are! Ve veren’t sure if you vere going to find us!” Eric exclaimed. He and Markus were holding up a sign that read: ‘He’s Krumbelievable!’ written on it with Victors face plastered underneath.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t track you down any earlier, I’m surprised we even managed to find you now,” I replied, now realizing the odds of actually being able to find them. There must be close to two thousand people here.

Suddenly I heard the twin’s voice behind me haggling some people to bet and remembered that they were still behind me. Turning back towards Fred I grabbed his arm and pulled him next to me. I hadn’t noticed but by now Lee has joined in on the gambling.

“Everyone this is my boyfriend Fred and behind him is his twin George. Fred this is Eric, Markus, Mila, Cyrus, and you already know Luna.” I went down the row, pointing to each individual. They were all matching wearing their thick Durmstrang coats.

Fred curtly nodded a slight look of flatness on his face, “Nice to meet all of you.” Judging from his reaction I knew that this might not end well so quickly I excused ourselves and pulled Fred to the side.

“What’s wrong?”

Fred narrowed his eyes, getting defensive. “Nothing is wrong Ella; I just didn’t know we would be sitting with them.”

“And is there something wrong with that?” I asked getting frustrated. This shouldn’t be a problem between us anymore. “They’re nice people you know.”

“There’s a bunch of nice people in the world darling but that doesn’t mean that I have to be friends with them.”

“Lee seemed to like them.”

“Yeah, well, Lee likes everyone.”

“You are being such a stubborn-“

Just then George interrupted us, “Oi Fred, are we going to walk around or not?”

We both looked back at him for a moment and Fred let out a sigh, “Yeah I’ll be there in a second, hold on.”

Raising my eyebrows impatiently I didn’t wait for his response. “So what, now you aren’t going to watch the Task with me at all?”

He rolled his eyes, throwing his head back dramatically, “I never said that love. I’m just going to walk around with my mates for a bit and when it starts I will come back.”

Letting out a sigh I looked back at him, “Okay.” A smile appeared on his face and I couldn’t help but return it. No matter what he does, there is no way I can resist his smile.

“Now, let’s go back to your friends, kiss, act like the happy couple we are and carry on with our lives alright?” He offered, our faces close and his hands now grabbing both of mine.