The Chaser : A Fred Weasley Fan Fic

Twenty Five: Goblet

As we bustled through King's Cross, the events of the World Cup were almost forgotten. The Ministry has done an excellent job of clearing it up and nobody uttered a word about in the Prophet.

"Strange isn't it?" Hermione sighed, as we found a compartment that was big enough to fit all seven of us, "It was so eventful but nothing!"

She had the Daily Prophet clutched in her hand and waved it about in our faces. The twins made fake snoring noises and Hermione scowled at them across the bench seats.

"How are you two not terrified?" she snapped. She'd been up in arms since we'd returned to the Burrow and we hadn't heard the end of it. We were all scared but there seemed no point dwelling on it as we embarked back to the safety of Hogwarts.

"Bigger fish to fry" George shrugged.

"Really big" Fred grinned and he pulled out a messily painted box. Him and George poured over the contents, getting a sweet or a toy out every now and then to show it to everyone and explain what it did.

I loved hearing Fred speak passionately about their many inventions, but I'd heard it all over my two weeks at the Burrow and even helped them with a lot of it, so instead I stared out the window as the scenery whizzed past.

When he noticed my attention waning, Fred's hand slipped into mine and he gave it a gentle squeeze. I snapped back to reality and stared at him. There was a subtle smirk lifted on his lips, as he continued to talk, showing Ginny a small mechanical toy, that was a Boxing Telescope.

It had barely dawned on me that this was the year I had ahead of me. Everybody knew about Fred and I after the end of Quidditch season party, we wouldn't need to hide it. We could hold hands in public or be seen together wherever we wanted without fear of suspicion.

After a while, the twins quietened down and there was a lull in conversation. Everybody had work to catch up on, or busied themselves reading, or in Ron's case, slept noisily with their mouth wide open. Ginny wandered off to find the woman that pushed the trolley with an abundance of sweets and when she came back she looked out of breath and clutched seven pumpkin pasties in her arms.

"I've just heard Malfoy," she said, handing out the pasties and trying to catch her breath, "He was telling Crabbe and Goyle that there's going to be some kind of tournament at school"

"Tournament?" Harry repeated, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Yes and when I asked him what he was talking about he laughed at me" she said, frowning slightly, "He said if I didn't know about the tournament then our dad must not be very well connected at work"

Fred and George gave each other dark looks, and fidgeted in their seats as though he were going to get up and find Malfoy. I clasped Fred's hand a little tighter and shot him a warning glance. He slunk deeper in his seat looking sulky that he hadn't had the chance to find that irritating Slytherin.

"I wonder what kind of tournament" George said, looking deep in thought.

"We should enter" Fred said resoundingly.

"You don't even know what it is yet!" Hermione squealed.

"Yeah but sounds fun" Fred shrugged.

"And dangerous" George said, finishing Fred's sentence with a wicked grin on his face.

I paid no attention. The twins were capable of looking after themselves, if they wanted to enter some silly tournament that was fine by me.

By the time we reached the end of the line, Hogsmeade station, it seemed the entire train had heard Malfoy's news. Every carriage that led to the castle now held students loudly speculating what kind of tasks the tournament might hold. There were announcements all evening, from people saying they would enter, but we'd have to see who really had the guts once we knew more about it. Or if it was even true.