Last First Kiss {HP Next Generation}

Chapter Eighty Four

"That's it, we're doomed, we're all doomed," Stella said pulling at her hair. It was an odd sight to see the older girl lose her composure, but Hope seemed to find it rather amusing as she smirked in the direction of her cousin. Teddy was doing his best to comfort the girl but anytime he tried to tell her to settle down, she gave him a look that warned him to back off before he was turned into a fiery crisp. 

Eliza's face was full of regret of every thinking to put their names in the goblet in the first place, while Elliot sat beside her trying to console her. While Hope, sat with a smile with Henry facepalming beside her. With the Third and final task taking place that day, all the competitors seemed nervous, despite the fact that Hope had told all of them to relax.  From the Ilvermorny students to the ones in Durmstrang, Hope had informed everyone to not worry over the matter. However, when they asked the girl what she thought the third task was, she did not give them a clear answer.

While the Ilvermorny and Durmstrang students brushed it off as Hope being completely mental and only wanting to rile them up more, Stella had had enough of Hope's mischievous nature and went to pounce across the table in the Great Hall. It took Teddy and Elliot to hold the girl back while Victoire and Henry came to Hope's defense in case the dragon was released.

"Hope, I swear to Merlin, if you know something that we should, you better tell us right now!" Stella growled at her.

"I thought you two trusted me?" Hope said, looking back and forth between the twins.

Eliza spoke up while Teddy finally got Stella to sit down on the bench.

"Hope, we do trust you, but we're worried, why can't you just tell us?"

"Because if I'm wrong, I don't want everyone jumping on my case," Hope said. "But I'm fairly certain I'm right and if I am, then we have nothing to worry about."

"Of course we do!" Stella snapped. "It's the last task, which means it's the hardest of them all, they're going to pull every possible danger that they can! It's what separates the losers from the winners. We've already gone through Earth and Water, which leaves us with Fire! Fire...on the hardest task. And you're trying to sit here and tell us to just relax?"

"Yeah, exactly," Hope nodded but jumped as Stella launched again. 

"You're going to get us killed!"

"Oh, will you stop being so dramatic!" Hope waved her off. "As if I would do something like that. I enjoy my life too, you think I would put that in danger? I don't think so. You all need to calm down and stop badgering me on all of this. After all, who got us through the first two tasks?"

The girl stood up from the bench moving away from Henry and Victoire as she held eyes with Stella. The twins held no argument against her in that sense, leaving Hope to smile again in triumph. 

"Exactly."

"Oh, I have such a bad feeling about all of this," Eleanor muttered from where she sat in the stands next to Fred. With the final task getting underway, the mother had been chewing at her nails after knitting failed to calm her down. They were surrounded by other students and the parents of those that had come down for the tournament, including Charlie and Anora.

"You have a bad feeling? I'm actually excited!" Anora said clapping her hands together. "Did you hear what they all suspect it to be? Fire! How great is that?"

Charlie placed his hand on his wife's shoulder, trying to warn her that speaking of fire with the final task was probably not the best thing to do, sitting next to a nervous badger.

"I swear if anything harms Hope, I will not hesitate to enter that arena myself and rip whatever it is to shreds," Eleanor growled under her breath. Charlie and Fred's eyes widened as they exchanged looked behind their wives. Although Fred looked quite amused at Ellie's rant. 

"We should get her working at the Dragon Sanctuary," Anora whispered to Charlie. "Think about the possibilities."

"I'm just picturing all the dragons wearing knitted jumpers, a mental image, I did not need," Charlie sighed as he squeezed his eyes shut. "Especially Sultan."

"I think Sultan would look the cutest in a knitted jumper and if he gets all worked up, we send in the badger."

"Why would we send in a badger when we already have a dragon?" Charlie smiled at her. 

"You two weren't instructed about any dragons coming here, right?" Eleanor asked as she tried to soothe her own nerves. "There's none from the sanctuary here..."

"Only one," Charlie said before pointing to Anora. "But she's well-behaved in public for the most part."

Anora elbowed him in the ribs before looking back to Eleanor. "Come on, Ellie, if we had brought dragons you would have been the first to know. But that doesn't mean dragons aren't part of the task. After all, we're not the only sanctuary. There's even one here in Scotland that they could have called upon..."

Fred waved his hands from behind Eleanor, warning Anora to stop before Eleanor went absolutely mental.

"But I'm sure that's not the case either!" Anora wrapped it up quickly.

"Who cares what it is!"

The adults jumped and turned around to see Grandpa Lyall take a seat behind all of them after telling several students to make room for him.

"Grandpa?" Eleanor looked at the man in confusion. "I thought you were home-"

"I was home and now I'm here. Did you honestly think I was going to miss out on this? I don't think so. I've been standing here for the last five minutes listening to you all ramble about and worry over them...what a waste of time. You all realize that we have a strong bunch of girls in this tournament representing Hogwarts? I'm not saying that to be biased either. But you all ought to have more faith in them. Especially you Eleanor, if you're daughter is telling you to relax, you should! Hope knows her limits very well-'

"She also knows how to push them," Eleanor responded.

"Yeah, and where do you suppose she got them from?"

Eleanor went to look at Fred but Lyall let out a laugh before shaking his head. "Oh, no, don't just look at him. Look at yourself, you're just as stubborn as he is. Anytime someone has told you no, you figure out a reason to make them say yes. Which is why you work well together..."

"Aww thank you!"  Fred said touching his hand over his heart.

Lyall made a face at him before looking at his granddaughter once more. "Hope is beyond smart, you two know that better than anyone. Put some faith in her abilities. Put it in all of them because they're a tough batch...makes those other students look like a bunch of daisies."

"Grandpa!" Eleanor laughed.

"I'm just saying! Half of them look like they can be taken out by a slight breeze over the meadow. But our girls...yeah, they can do some damage."

Eleanor smiled before taking in her grandfather's attire for a few seconds.

"Are you wearing a Go Hope shirt?"

"Made it myself!"