To Hell ~ Fred Weasley

Chapter 3.

"Hi, Cedric!" the girl beamed to hide her embarrassment.

I just yelled for the entire school to hear. Great.

The Hufflepuff smiled back at her after eyeing the pair of twins who were obviously trying to contain their laughter.

Cedric reached for the back of his head and ruffled his brown locks, chuckling to himself to spare the poor girl from turning her already flustered cheeks even more red.

"Hi, again," the boy finally said. "I was actually wondering if we could continue doing our homework together this year?"

He could feel the curious stares from both Weasleys and decided to put his hands in his pockets to avoid fidgeting nervously, looking at his feet for a second then returning to his confident self.

"You know, I... er, last year you helped me a lot," Cedric continued before Helena could answer. "And this year we have O.W.L.s and I could really use a study partner."

He could feel his hands in his pockets sweating.

Helena opened her mouth to reply but the Hufflepuff jumped her to it.

"Only if you want to, that is. And just for the classes we share if it's too much." Cedric laughed awkwardly.

But Helena joining that awkward laugh was even more awkward and the twins were doing everything in their power to not laugh at the two.

The twins turned to Nina waiting for her answer until one of them, George, had to nudge her because she was taking a bit too long to reply.

"Y-Yeah...That would be nice, Ced!"

The girl gave him a thumbs up which she had immediately regretted because she knew how dorky that must have looked.

"Excellent!" beamed the brunette, "I'll find you later to work up a schedule, yeah? See you around, Nina!" and he left joining his friends at the Hufflepuff table.

The girl got back to eating her peanut butter sandwich, swatting her hair behind her shoulders and re-reading the chapters they reviewed in Transfiguration.

Remembering she had company, her eyes left her book and looked up at the twins' expectant stares.

"Well?" asked George after a moment of silence.

"Well, what?" she shifted her eyes and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.

She did that whenever she felt nervous or anxious if she was in public. Privately, she would usually fidget with her fingers or move her legs up and down when sitting.

"What was that whole 'study buddy' thing with Pretty Boy Diggory?" asked Fred poking Helena on her arm teasingly.

"Just that. We had studied last year together and he wants to do the same this year." Helena explained bluntly trying not to suggest anything.

I thought that was obvious, you were here when he said it."

"So... you do have a friend," said George. "You were starting to worry us, Rosemund."

Fred ruffled her hair making it get even more tangled up and frizzy which Nina quickly tried to fix, patting her hair to get it back to it's place, glaring at him.

"Who would've thought Hell was all friendly-" began Fred.

"With Diggory?" finished George impressed, attempting to reach Helena's hair to ruffle it as well but the girl swatted his hand away.

"He cares about his grades. What's wrong with that?" she shrugged her shoulders, wide-eyed looking like a doe.

"Ughhh!" groaned Fred, "there you go again with the grades, woman!" he tilted his head back making a noise that to Helena, resembled a crossover between a toad and a sheep.