Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [4]

⚡️ Chapter 31 ⚡️

It didn't take long for Monday to come by, and Vega was internally dreading it. She had spent most of her weekend in the Gryffindor common room, not wanting to go out there and bother the rest of the school with her presence. She just wanted them to get used to her and Harry being champions.

Not that she expected that to happen any time soon.

Some of the Gryffindors wanted to have another mess of a party or just simply gush around at the fact that they had two champions but Vega didn't want to take any part in any of that anymore.

Of course, who would want two fourteen-year-olds to be the champions?

Vega could not avoid the rest of the school for long – it was inevitable for her to face everyone once the classes commenced once more. And it was very clear, very soon that the rest of the school, just like many of the Gryffindors, thought Vega and Harry had entered the tournament on their own.

Unlike the Gryffindors, however, they did not seem impressed.

The Hufflepuffs, who were usually on excellent terms with the Gryffindors, had turned remarkably cold toward the whole lot of them. One Herbology lesson was enough to demonstrate this.

It was plain that the Hufflepuffs felt that Vega and Harry had stolen their champion's glory; a feeling exacerbated, perhaps, by the fact that Hufflepuff House very rarely got any glory, and that Cedric was one of the few who had ever given them any, having beaten Gryffindor once at Quidditch.

Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley had reverted back to their behaviour from second-year. They ignored the two Gryffindors, even though Harry was working on the same tray as them. And they eagerly and unpleasantly laughed when one of the Bouncing Bulbs wriggled out of Harry's grip and smacked him hard in the face. Vega was very upset by this, believing that they wouldn't have –

Well, none of them understand how badly we feel.
It's not like we want to take Cedric's glory.

Even Professor Sprout, who was usually very nice to both Vega and Harry, was avoiding the two of them. But then again, she was the Head of Hufflepuff House, and it was not very surprising.

It was during the classes that Vega found out the extent of Ron's issues – he flat-out did not want to talk to either her or Harry. Not that Harry wanted to talk to him, either. Hermione was soon forced to sit between Vega, Harry and Ron, making very forced conversation between the two parties.

And Vega, Harry and Ron would respond to her normally, but didn't look at each other in the eye.

Usually Vega was very interested in classes but she couldn't find it in her to be very excited for anything, even if it was the Care of Magical Creatures. Because that meant seeing the Slytherins as well, and predictably, Malfoy arrived at Hagrid's cabin with his familiar sneer firmly in place.

"Ah, look, boys, it's the champions,"

It was, of course, Malfoy who said this to his usual lackies, Crabbe and Goyle. And he made sure to say it the moment he got into the earshot of Vega and Harry being the dramatic idiot that he was.

"Got your autograph books?" Malfoy went on. "Better get a signature now, because I doubt Potter's going to be around much longer... Half the Triwizard champions have died... How long d'you reckon you're going to last, Potter? Ten minutes into the first task's my bet,"

Crabbe and Goyle guffawed sycophantically, but Malfoy had to stop there, because Hagrid emerge from the back of his cabin balancing a teetering tower of crates, each containing a very large Blast-Ended Skrewt. Vega had forgotten that they even existed. She wished he would send them away.