Stars in Her Eyes {Wolfstar's Daughter}

Chapter 40: Victory

"Go on! Open it!"

The Gryffindor common room was packed with students of all years, jumbled in a crowd of red and gold as Harry and Nell were raised far above their heads, the heart of the celebration. Harry was heaved up between Fred and George's shoulders whilst Nell sat atop Ron's, both at the centre of the room.

A chorus of claps, shouts and laughter washed over the teenagers like a flood until the entire common room was transformed into a festival of honour for their Gryffindor champions.

The crowd was circled out around them, pushed up against each other as some students took to piling up on the tables and sofas, shouting and cheering in praise, urging them to open their eggs.

"Open it!" several voices shouted from amongst the chaos as Fred and George looked up to Harry and Nell, who was raised up beside them, with boyish grins.

"Knew you two wouldn't die!" The twins started as a pair.

"Lose an arm-"

"Or a leg-"

"Pack it in all together?"

"Never!" They sang out together.

Harry looked over to see Nell in fits of laughter on Ron's shoulders, her freckled nose scrunched up in amusement as the corners of her eyes crinkled over perfectly. He felt a grin stretch over his own face as the twins continued to heave him up and down in the air.

Seeing her happy, seeing all of the stress that the competition had brought her melt away, was worth facing a dragon a hundred times to the boy.

Nell felt her heart swell as the people who just a few weeks ago, were whispering and sneering behind her back, now wore faces filled with joy and pride. The entire room was looking up at her and Harry, all eyes on the two young champions, showering them with praise and celebration. But Harry couldn't seem to take his eyes off the girl right up there beside him.

"Hey! Go on Harry, Nell, open them!" At Seamus' command the entire room fell silent, watching expectingly between the two raised teenagers as they held their eggs firmly in their arms.

Harry and Nell looked over to each other with big grins before Harry turned back to the rest of the room.

"Who wants us to open them?"

The crowd erupted into cheers once more, urging them to reveal the clue.

At once the two opened their eggs, the golden shell falling open to reveal a milky white interior, glowing across the room. Waiting in anticipation, the Gryffindors expected to hear some form of message from within but instead were met with an ear splitting screech, doubled in concentration by the two eggs.

At the sound several people collapsed to the floor, their hands clasped tightly over their ears as others jolted back in shock, begging for someone to close the sources of the sound.

Harry was quickly dropped the ground by a panicked Fred and George, who's hands were now reaching for their ears but Ron managed to keep Nell up as she fumbled to close her egg.

Despite managing to close her egg quite quickly, the noise weakened considerably but ceased to stop as Harry remained crawling on the ground, desperately trying to shut his own egg.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron yelled, bringing Nell down as Harry finally managed to close his egg.

"Godric knows, thought it was supposed to be a clue." Harry said, taking Ron's hand to pull himself up as the other students began to compose themselves. It wasn't long before the room broke off into their own separate conversations about what clue the egg could possibly be telling them.

"Maybe the second task is some sort of screaming contest or something?" Ron shrugged.

"Don't be silly Ron, there's obviously something more to it. Maybe it's something to do with these markings, we should go to library and see if we can find a book" Hermione interjected, furrowing her brows as she ran her fingers along the etchings of Nell's egg.

"Maybe tomorrow Mione, the task isn't for months and honestly, I'm exhausted." Nell breathed, plopping down onto the sofa they found themselves moving over to.

"Okay, tomorrow. For now we relax."

As the night progressed, the party atmosphere soon returned as someone set off the enchanted record player in the corner of the room and somewhere along the way the lights found themselves dimmed down to a gentle glow. It wasn't long before the older students took the opportunity to open up some stashed fire whiskey and everyone found themselves swaying along to the music, immersed in light hearted conversations.

Nell lay slumped over against Hermione's shoulder, not moving from her place on the sofa over the course of the entire night, as Harry and Ron had settled into a game of wizards chess on the floor beside them.

"Harry you're never going to win, you know he's unbeatable." Hermione remarked, watching the two boys immersed in the match, Harry's brows furrowed in concentration as Ron wore a smug smirk without even realising.

"Thanks for the support Hermione" Harry mumbled, not tearing his eyes away from the board as Ron sniggered across from him.

"She's only telling the truth Har, you can't win" Ron said, shaking his head with a grin as he moved his next piece, completely confident in his approaching victory.

"Mhm" From the sofa, Nell hummed drowsily in agreement, her staying eyes closed as she drifted in and out of consciousness, catching occasional snippets of the conversation around her.

"Really Nells? You too?" Harry groaned, falling back onto his arms as he hopelessly assessed the board.

"Hmm"

"Ha! Checkmate! Told you." As grumbles of defeat came from Harry, Ron made his final move across the board, winning by a landslide with a shit eating grin plastered across his face.

"Whatever" The board flicked shut with a tap of Harry's wand, the crumbled pieces reassembling themselves and stacking up beside it. Around them, most people had headed up to bed by now, seeing as there was a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow and carriages tended to leave quiet early. Only a few older students remained, dotted across the room in small huddles.

"So we staying here tomorrow? With the moon in a few days?" Ron said casually, turning round to the girls as Nell peeked an eye open.

"You guys can go, I'll be fine" she assured them to which they all shook their heads in disagreement, something she missed as her eyes fluttered back closed.

"Nah, we'll hang out here, I think it's gonna rain anyway." Harry added on with a quick lie, knowing Nell wouldn't be happy with letting them stay behind for her. Although she was hardly in a state to protest.

"Yeah, plus we'll have the place to ourselves mostly, we can sneak down to the kitchens too" Ron continued but Nell was barely hearing them by this point. She wanted to argue, to tell them to go out without her, but she was just too exhausted to open her eyes, let alone construct a basic sentence.

"And we need to figure out the egg anyway" Hermione joined in, despite feeling the girls breathing slow and knowing she wouldn't be hearing any of this.

"Okay, time for bed"