Last First Kiss {HP Next Generation}

Chapter Fifty Two

"Are you sure she didn't have anything to do with this?" Fergus asked Henry as the two boys were sitting in the dorm the same evening of the selection of champion teams. Henry was sitting on his bed with his legs crossed beneath him while Fergus was propped up against his pillows in his own bed.

"You actually think Hope would lie about something like this?" Henry looked up at him, after hugging his pillow to his chest. "She's one of your closest friends, my best friend and my girlfriend and you think she's lying?"

Fergus frowned with a shake of his head. "I'm not trying to say anything against her, I'm just saying that she really wanted to be in the Tournament. So did you but she's in it, along with both of her cousins. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

Henry nodded. 'I do, but I don't want to. Hope enjoys mischief as much as me even more...more than my dad if that's possible. But she's always been honest. She's owned up to every prank she's ever been involved in. Besides she would have told me if she was entering the tournament. Hope tells me everything."

"I get that you two are dating and that you guys have been friends a lot longer than I've known you, but ...all three of the Hogwarts champions are Weasleys."

"Eliza put her name in along with Hope and Stella's." Fergus told him. "I mean, Eliza...of all people? She's the one who tells us to stop running in the corridors. Then all of a sudden, she feels the need to stir some conflict. Doesn't that seem a bit out of the ordinary?"

"What do you want me to say, Fergs? Do you want me to be mad at Hope for this?"

"No. Not at all."

"Then why do you keep trying to direct the blame back to her?"

"I don't know!" Fergus gripped at his hair. "I don't know, maybe because I'm scared! I'm actually terrified that she's going to get hurt. You know she's always been pretty outgoing, this just might be the thing that will ...I don't even want to think about it."

Fergus and Henry silently agreed not to discuss it anymore, but while the two pretended to go to bed, Henry lied wide awake in his bed staring into the darkness of the room. He couldn't bring himself to sleep no matter how hard he tried to relax his mind. Instead he pushed himself out of the bed and sat up with his feet against the floor. Fergus had filled his mind with fear for Hope, he didn't want her to get hurt. There was the possibility of her getting physically hurt and emotionally hurt if something were to happen to her cousins.

Now he understood why the adults, especially his mother and Remus advised the two not to join. The fear of them getting hurt in any way possible had been in them from the beginning, but now he was experiencing the same thing. 

He stood up from the bed and went to head down the stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room. However, halfway down the stairs, he caught sight of someone moving about in the common room. They were pacing back and forth rapidly.

"Hope?"

Hope came to a sudden halt as she looked over to him, her face dropping as she saw Henry coming down the remaining steps.

"What are you still doing up?" He asked her. 

"I ...I...I.." She ran a hand through her hair. "I don't know. I can't sleep. Why are you awake?"

"I can't sleep either." He admitted.

"Is it because of the tournament?" She asked him.

He nodded. "Same thing for you? Can't sleep because you're so excited?" He said forcing a smile on his face.

" I can't sleep because I'm scared." Hope said softly. "I didn't think I would be, but all I can think of is what Grandpa Rem Rem said about entering...what my mother said. I should have made it clear to Eliza that I didn't want my name in the tournament."

Henry walked over to stand in front of her. "You can back out-"

"I can't." She shook her head. "Then I would be letting Eliza down and-"

"So she really did put your names in the goblet, along with hers.." Henry said to himself.

Hope's eyes scanned over him. "Well, you certainly didn't think I did it...right? We both agreed we weren't going to enter and I certainly didn't do it-"

"I know, I know." Henry said as he could hear her voice rise in the slight panic that he didn't believe what she was telling him. He reached out his hands and rested them on her shoulders as the two were standing eye level to one another.

She frowned with a small groan before pressing her forehead against his chest.

Henry fully wrapped his arms around her, bringing her into a hug as they stood in silence for a few moments.

"Everything is going to be alright, Hope. If you choose to back out, I don't think anyone is going to hold it against you. And if you want to compete you know you're going to find all the support you'll need and more right behind you. I'll always be right in your corner. The only person that could probably cheer you on louder than me is your Greatpa Lyall. But I can't compete with a man that can be heard in Japan."

He heard her let out a laugh before she looked up at him.The bright smile had returned to her face, bringing his own to return.

Running his hand through her hair partially, Henry drew her in and kissed her forehead before holding her into him.

"You need to get some sleep, Hope. I'm sure tomorrow is going to be filled with just as much chaos."

Her eyes met his. 

"I don't want to sleep alone."