The Hufflepuff with a Reputation |Fred Weasley x Fem reader|

Chapter Eleven: The First Task

~.~.~Parts 23-27~.~.~
•Y/n's POV•

I felt oddly separate from everyone around me this morning, whether they were wishing me good luck or hissing "We'll have a box of tissues ready, LeStrange " as I passed. It was a state of nervousness so advanced that I wondered whether I might just lose my head when they tried to lead me out to my dragon and start trying to curse everyone in sight.

Time was behaving in a more peculiar fashion than ever, rushing past in great dollops so that one moment I seemed to be sitting down in my first lesson, History of Magic, and the next, walking into lunch... . and then (where had the morning gone? the last of the dragon-free hours?).

Professor Sprout was hurrying over to me in the Great Hall. Lots of people were watching. "LeStrange, the champions have to come down onto the grounds now. . . . You have to get ready for your first task."

"Okay," I said, standing up, my fork falling onto his plate with a clatter.

"Good luck, Y/n," Hermione whispered. "You'll be fine!"

"Yeah," I replied in a voice that was most unlike my own. I left the Great Hall with Professor Sprout and Cedric. She didn't seem herself either; in fact, she looked nearly as anxious as Hermione. As she walked us down the stone steps and out into the cold November afternoon, she put her hand on our shoulders.

"Now, don't panic, you two" she said, "just keep a cool head. . . . We've got wizards standing by to control the situation if it gets out of hand. . . . The main thing is just to do your best, and nobody will think any the worse of you. . . . Are you all right?"

"Yes," I heard Cedric say.

"Yes, I'm fine." I added after.

She was leading us toward the place where the dragons were, around the edge of the forest, but when they approached the clump of trees behind which the enclosure would be clearly visible, I saw that a tent had been erected, its entrance facing them, screening the dragons from view.

"You're to go in here with the other champions," said Professor Sprout, in a rather shaky sort of voice, "and wait for your turn, Potter. Mr. Bagman is in there . . . he'll be telling you the — the procedure. . . . Good luck."

"Thanks," we said, in a flat, distant voice. She left us at the entrance of the tent. Cedric and I went inside.

Fleur Delacour was sitting in a corner on a low wooden stool. She didn't look nearly as composed as usual, but rather pale and clammy. Viktor Krum looked even surlier than usual, which I suppose was his way of showing nerves. Cedric was pacing up and down. When Harry entered, Cedric and I gave him a small smile, which Harry returned. I could feel the muscles in my face working rather hard, as though they had forgotten how to do it.

"Harry! Good-o!" said Bagman happily, looking around at him. "Come in, come in, make yourself at home!"

Bagman looked somehow like a slightly overblown cartoon figure, standing amid all the pale-faced champions. He was wearing his old Wasp robes again.

"Well, now we're all here — time to fill you in!" said Bagman brightly. "When the audience has assembled, I'm going to be offering each of you this bag" — he held up a small sack of purple silk and shook it at them — "from which you will each select a small model of the thing you are about to face! There are different — er — varieties, you see. And I have to tell you something else too . . . ah, yes . . . your task is to collect the golden egg!"

I glanced around. Cedric had nodded once, to show that he understood Bagman's words, and then started pacing around the tent again; he looked slightly green. Fleur Delacour and Krum hadn't reacted at all. Perhaps they thought they might be sick if they opened their mouths; that was certainly how I felt. But they, at least, had volunteered for this. . . . And in no time at all, hundreds upon hundreds of pairs of feet could be heard passing the tent, their owners talking excitedly, laughing, joking. . . . I felt as separate from the crowd as though they were a different species. And then — it seemed like about a second later to me —