Haunted by her second year and now with a murderer on the loose, Gwenevere Everill finds herself facing more battles that she does not think she can win.
Tormented by dementors and struggling under the impact of her new studies, will Gwen be able t...
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It was as though they had already won the Quidditch Cup; the party went on all day and well into the night. Fred and George disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of bottles of Butterbeer, pumpkin fizz and several bags of Honeydukes sweets.
'How did you do that?' Angelina cried as George started throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd. Gwen was sure she knew how. Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, that was who. The Marauders Map sprang back to mind, and Gwen did not miss Fred whispering her suspicions to Harry.
Only one person wasn't enjoying the festivities, and that was Hermione. She was sitting in the corner of the common room, amazingly, trying to read one of the Muggle Studies books that they had been assigned in the last lesson.
Gwen wandered over to her, taking the spare seat beside her.
'Did you come to the match?' she asked.
'Of course I did,' Hermione said sharply. 'I wouldn't ever miss it.'
Gwen smiled, and caught sight of Harry breaking free of Fred and George, who were now juggling Butterbeer bottles, and came and joined them.
'What did you think?' Gwen asked. Hermione didn't even look up from her book.
'I'm very glad we won,' she said, her voice strangely high pitched. 'I think you did great, Gwen. And Harry was excellent, as always, but I need to read this by Monday.'
'Come on, Hermione, come and have some food,' Harry said. Gwen glanced up at Ron, who seemed to not be aware that the three of them were huddled together, and wondered if he was in a good enough mood to bury the hatchet.
'I can't, Harry, I've still got four hundred and twenty two pages to read!' said Hermione, now sounding slightly hysterical. 'Anyway...' she glanced over at Ron, too, 'he doesn't want me to join in.'
Gwen couldn't even begin to argue, because Ron chose that moment to say loudly, 'If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of these Fudge Flies, he used to really like them--'
Hermione burst into tears. Before Gwen or Harry could say or do anything, she had tucked the enormous book under her arm and, still sobbing, ran towards the staircase and to the girls' dormitories and out of sight. Gwen had half a mind to follow her, but felt that it would only make Hermione cry more.
'Give her a break, will you?' she hissed to Ron as she rejoined the party, sweeping past him and rejoining the twins and Ginny.
The party continued well into the night. Music was playing loudly and everyone was in the most joyous mood Gwen had ever seen them in, drinking Butterbeer and filling up on sweets. At one point, George approached her when she was chatting to Ginny. He was holding his bottle of Butterbeer in one hand, and a box of sweets that Gwen had never seen before in the other.
