Gossip {Sherlock Holmes/Harry Potter}

Chapter Forty Six

Julius stood in front of Pierce in the Ravenclaw Common Room sitting beside Nancy as they watched Pierce walking in circles around the sofa.

"Pierce, sit down. You're making us dizzy."  Nancy told him, holding her forehead.

"You can try all you want, but he's not going to stay still. " Julius replied. "Let's be thankful that he's just walking in circles, he could definitely get into much more destructive behavior if he wanted to."

Suddenly, the two jumped as several stacks of books fell from one of the bookshelves in the room. Pierce continued to walk around as if he had done nothing. 

"See?" Julius said looking to Nancy.

"Oh this is ridiculous." Nancy scoffed before pushing herself up and walking over to Pierce. She grabbed the boy by the sleeve and pushed him over to sit beside Julius. "All of this has to stop, right now! You're freaking out over nothing."

Pierce glanced up at her, and blinked several times without a word.

"Freaking out over nothing?" He arose to his feet. "How am I freaking out over nothing? Do you not understand that the final task is coming up and my dad and John have not figured out anything!"

"He has a point." Julius agreed. "It's nerve wracking, I'm nervous for him." 

Nancy covered her face with her hands for a moment, before looking at the two. "Sitting around and feeling nervous isn't going to solve anything."

"What is there to solve, Nancy?" Pierce questioned. "I have to compete regardless of the task, my father hasn't figured out who put my name in the goblet. "

"Didn't you say that they suspect it's Moriarty?" Nancy pointed out.

"Yes, but suspecting does nothing without proof."

"Well, how do you get proof, your name was already placed in." Nancy sighed.

"A confession?" Julius suggested. 

"Oh yes, as if he would just confess if he had done it." Nancy said with an eye roll.

"You don't know Moriarty obviously," Pierce said. "He would be the one to confess if he did it. He takes pride in his crimes, that's why he's so frustrating to my father. However, he's not confessing to this, which means he didn't-"

"Which means he didn't do it, right?" 

The girl closed her eyes as Pierce shook his head in response. "He's not the one who put my name in the Goblet, it doesn't mean he wasn't involved, but he's not going to own up to something he didn't do. Which means he might have gotten someone else to do it."

"But who? Who would want to put your name in the Goblet?"

"The same person who put Harry's in." Pierce answered. "It could be possible-"

"But why? You two aren't connected in any way."

"Different incentives but same outcome. It's obvious whoever entered our names wanted us to get hurt. For different reasons but we would still probably get hurt, luckily, we've been fortunate so far. Harry's doing fantastic in the tournament-"

"So are you." Julius reminded him. "You're doing great too."

Pierce glanced over at the boy and smiled. Since Julius' feelings had been brought to light, and Pierce was coming to terms with his new feelings emerging, the two boys were closer than they had ever been. It had been more than awkward when Julius had to confess his true feelings to Vanessa. She seemed shocked, slightly hurt, but she didn't create the scene that the two expected. She only wished them happiness, while agreeing to keep quiet about it until the boys were ready to come out to everyone.

Julius was waiting on Pierce to be fully comfortable with everything and gave him as much time that he would need. Pierce, wasn't against the idea of being with Julius, he just wanted to make sure that he was in the right mindset as he didn't want to hurt Julius. He didn't want to be in a state of confusion, he wanted to be a hundred percent certain. His feelings for Hermione had dwindled especially as he figured out that he wasn't the only one after her affections, but he had spent so much time caring for the girl, that his feelings for her weren't going to vanish completely overnight.

He was just more than thankful that Julius was patient and understanding with him, especially during the crazed times that were coming upon them.

Pierce was all worked with the idea of entering the third task without a clue as to who had placed his name in the goblet, especially with Julius claiming worse things happening in Divination classes. Julius' dark predictions of mass chaos didn't settle Pierce's mind at all as he found himself working up into a panic in the Ravenclaw Common Room after classes.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore." He sighed. "Let's just change the subject, shall we?"

"Fine," Nancy said folding her arms. "What do you want to talk about, Holmes?"

"Anything, preferably with less attitude involved, Drew." He countered rubbing his temples. "Thank you."

"I haven't seen your mother around as of late." Nancy pointed out.

"Way to lighten the mood of the conversation, Nancy." Julius shook his head.

"It's been an absolute blessing that she's been banned from castle." Pierce said resting back into the sofa and closing his eyes. "Nothing but a pain, that woman is. If you can call her that. She's a pest...a bug that needs to be stepped on. Literally."

Nancy eyed him curiously but Pierce offered no more on the topic .

"I know what will cheer you up, " Julius said. "Let's do some homework! It has nothing to do with the final task, just simple homework, that's all. It'll get your mind off of the other things."

"Sounds good to me. Open up the textbooks."