To Hell ~ Fred Weasley

Chapter 53.

The first task had come to an end.

Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour had successfully retrieved the golden egg the needed. Harry did as well, but since he flew around the school grounds because he was being chased by the dragon when it set itself free, the crowd had agreed Harry Potter had out staged the other three Champions' performance. It had been quite a nerve-wracking end to the first task.

As soon as Ludo Bagman announced the first task had ended, Helena headed to the tent where the Champions went after they had encountered their dragon, the audience around her leaving the arena to head back to the castle as they all kept celebrating and talking about the event they had witnessed.

"Nina."

The girl turned around when she got called as some students were walking past her.

"Fred?"

Did he just call me Nina? I'd gotten used to him calling me Hell. This feels... strange.

"Umm... I know you'll go see Diggory, but I wanted to let you know that we'll throw a party in Gryffindor Common Room, you know... for Harry. We'll wait for you there!"

And with that being said, Helena continued her way.

"Cedric!"

The girl had stopped by the Hufflepuff's compartment inside the tent where he had been treated for his bruised and cuts after his performance in the first task. He looked relieved to have passed that challenge without any serious injuries. But when Helena had showed up, it had come to a surprise that the boy had company already.

"Erm..."

It was the same group of Ravenclaws she had seen at the arena, but this time it was only two girls.

"Nina, hey! Bloody dragons, eh?" he greeted casually, getting up from the chair he had been sitting on. "I thought I would lose an arm or something. It was scary but now I can't stop smiling. Must be the adrenaline! But I got the egg!"

Cedric was so excited and glad to have passed the first task that he seemed to be unaware of his girlfriend's confusion as to why some random Ravenclaw girls were at his tent. After some seconds of silence, he got the hint.

"Oh, how rude of me!" the boy excused himself. "This is Marietta Edgecombe and Cho Chang. I've been tutoring them. Very poorly, I may add since I haven't got that much free time these days."

The boy introduced the two girls sporting the blue and silver Hogwarts uniforms, both of them smiling shyly.

"Hello!" said the girl named Marietta, waving her hand.

"Hello, nice to meet you," said the one named Cho. 

"Erm... Hi!" Helena was conscious that she was being awkward about this encounter. She turned to look at Cedric. "Tutoring? That's nice, umm... yeah."

Helena could not think of anything else to say. What was there to say? Cedric hadn't done anything wrong. He had been tutoring other students without her knowing anything about it which was why she was hesitant about this new information. Why wouldn't he tell her? It seemed like something he could bring up on a conversation. And then she remembered how she had helped the twins with the Aging Potion and not told Cedric about it. And about the time Fred, George and herself had met Sirius Black back in fifth year and kept it a secret. Her thoughts then took her to the day of the Quidditch World Cup and how Fred had kissed her. She never told Cedric about that either.

It didn't mean anything.

"Are you okay, Nina?" the boy in front of her asked worried, taking her by the shoulders. "You look a bit pale."