stars || fred weasley

✰ chapter twenty five ✰

871 words
when i walked into breakfast the hall was celebrating. the third and final task wasn't until tonight but everyone was excited. the students all had wide smiles on their faces and chatting loudly. i sat beside lee who was hunched over a potions book for the exam we would have first period.

"does it smell good," i laughed grabbing an apple.

"it smells like george's hair," he grimaced.

"how are they?" i asked letting my frown drop from my face.

"they're a mess. but it's fred and george, so they won't admit it." lee and i took two of our owls together, both of which i think i failed. at sunset, the three different schools made their way down to the quidditch pitch, which now had a large maze covering it. i walked with angelina and alicia and we met the twins and lee there. music was blasting as the twins took the students final bets, their younger brother ron sat i front of me with hermione and their friends.

"what's the deal with you and the twins lately?" he shouted over the music. this had caught hermione's attention and she swung around to look at me.

"what do you mean?"

"you guys keep fighting. this morning at breakfast you didn't even sit near each other." i frowned and he used that as an excuse to turn around. everybody was either dressed in red and black, yellow and black, red and gold or blue. students held banners and had their faces painted with stripes. the four champions emerged from below the stands each earning cheers as they came. dumbledore silenced the crowd and the band before he began his speech.

"earlier today professor moody placed
the tri-wizards cup deep within the
maze. only he knows its exact position.
now as mr diggory-" dumbledore was silenced by deafening cheers from students.

"and mr potter tied for first position they will be the first to enter the maze. followed by mr krum and miss delacour. the first person to touch the cup will be the winner. i've instructed the staff to patrol the perimeter, if at any point should a contestant wish to withdraw from the task he or she need only send up red sparks with their wands." the champions all huddled together with dumbledore as we sat silently. without a word fred and george sat beside me giving me small smiles.

"everything-" i was interrupted by dumbledore.

"champions! prepare yourselves. on the count of three," the canon blew and cedric and harry walked carefully into the maze. we watched as the trees behind them closed blocking our view from the maze.

"we came to say sorry," fred shouted over the cheers.

"it's my fault, i should have told you." i yelled back to them.

"we made it a big deal," lee then came with a four chocolate frogs in his arms and sat with us.

"have one," he said throwing one at me. the noise began to die down and people were taking their seats. we played a large game of exploding snap for about an hour until red sparks covered the sky. everybody shot up and mcgonagall emerged with fleur handing off her arm. the teachers ran to her and began aiding her.

"it wasn't like everyone didn't expect it," the twins said in unison. i shot them a glare before sitting down once again. another half hour passed without any sign of the three remaining champions.

i couldn't help but let my mind race to what cedric was likely doing. he was fit, running wouldn't be an issue. and he was very clever, so hopefully she should be fine. he was older than harry so he would be able to beat him at spells easily.

in a loud bang all the walls to the maze sunk into the earth revealing cedric standing and krum unconscious on the floor.

"harry's gone! he touched the cup and it was a portkey!" cedric shouted. they ordered us to stay in the stands as every teacher began searching the grounds. harry then hit the ground in front of us and ron and hermione burst out of their seats. he lay on the floor crying and bleeding.

"he's back, he's back! voldemort's back." he cried and almost everyone had gasped. i watched as moody dragged harry away as the professors began talking to one another.

"does anyone else have a bad feeling about this?" hermione asked turning to face me.

"potter? potter? albus, the boy is gone." mcgonagall, snape and dumbledore all followed the path moody had used away from the students.

"ladies and gentlemen, if you could please sit down and wait for further instructions." the professors kept us in our seats for another hour and the three other champions joined there friends.

cedric smiled at me but stayed seated with the other hufflepuffs. his eyes flickered down to fred and i'd joint hands but i didn't seperate them.

dumbledore came walking back out and told us all to go straight to bed. fred held my hand as we walked back to the gryffindor tower and i decided on sleeping in my own dorm rather than theirs.

so cedrics alive.....