Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [4]

⚡️ Chapter 19 ⚡️

Vega, Harry, Ron and Hermione walked through the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall, which was quite populated for lunch, but there was no sign of Fred and George, unfortunately for Vega. The four of them joined the Gryffindor table, sitting down together and helping themselves to some lamb chops and potatoes. Hermione began to eat so fast that Vega, Harry and Ron stared at her.

"Er – Is this the new stand on elf rights?" Ron asked, sharing a look with Vega, who shrugged her shoulders to let the two boys know that she knew nothing about this strange behaviour by Hermione. "You're going to make yourself puke instead?"

"No," Hermione responded, with as much dignity as she could muster with her mouth bulging with sprouts. Vega bit her lower lip, a bit repelled. "I just want to get to the library,"

"What?" Ron asked in disbelief. "Hermione – It's the first day back! We haven't even got homework yet! You two don't even have a Time-Turner now, do you?"

While Vega shook her head once more at his question, Hermione only shrugged and continued to shovel down her food as though she had not eaten for days. And then she leapt to her feet, telling them "See you at dinner!" before departing out of the Great Hall at high speed.

"Must have gone to the library to look up books about house-elves," Vega said as she looked down at her own lunch, which was almost done. "I expect she'll want to discuss it with Dumbledore..."

"Aren't you going to go to the library, too?" Ron asked, weary of just how interested the two girls were at spending time in the library of all places – quite opposite of him and Harry.

"I suppose so," Vega replied. "There's some stuff that I want to check up in the Magical Creature section. Yeah... it's for Hagrid's sake – I'll get going too. See you guys in Divination,"

Once Vega was finished with her lunch, she picked up her schoolbag and started off out of the Great Hall on her own. It wasn't that bad to be on your own, Vega realised, but she still preferred being with friends. She wondered how it would turn out once the other schools will come visit Hogwarts.

"Vega!"

It was a sudden, unexpected yet familiar voice who had called out, and when Vega stopped and turned around, she saw Cedric jogging over with his long legs. She waited patiently for him to reach her, watching his tousled dark hair flutter and his bag bouncing – she wondered if he was some fairy.

"Uh, is everything alright?" Vega asked as she held onto the strap of her own bag tightly. She was confused because she was sure she had nothing of help for a sixth-year Hufflepuff boy.

"Everything's okay," Cedric replied with a smile as he looked down at her. "I was just worried – you know, after everything that happened on the night of the Quidditch final,"

"I understand," Vega said, although she was not sure if Cedric knew about his father's actions that night. "Yes... it was quite terrifying. But I'm glad that no one got seriously hurt,"

"Oi, Cedric!"

Cedric stopped before he could say anything further, and Vega looked around his body to see that it had been a friend of his who had called out his name. And when the friend realised that Cedric had been talking to a female, he turned red while the gaggle of Hufflepuffs around him all chortled at it.

"I believe they're your friends?" Vega asked as she turned to look back at Cedric, who nodded. He opened his mouth but she beat him to it – "You should go ahead, don't let me hold you back. I was just about to head to the library as well, you see...?"

It was clear that Cedric wanted to continue the conversation but Vega just smiled airily at him and walked off away from there, hurrying up the marble staircase to head off to the safety of the library.