Ravenclaw's Shadow

Chapter 40

The next couple of months become a whirl wind of exam preparations. While the twins seem to breeze along I become buried in a mountain of homework and exercises. I'm taking an OWL level exam for Care of Magical Creatures plus all my sixth year exams. By the time the exam period arrives my hair is starting to fall out.

"I'm going to be bald!" I complain to Georgiana on the last morning of exams as we head down to breakfast.

"Don't be silly," she says, "you'll be fine. Once the exams today are over you can relax! Plus, the final task is tonight!"

"I hope it's better than the last one," I say, sitting next to George.

"Morning!" he greets me cheerfully. I narrow my eyes at him and help myself to a bowlful of porridge.

"Someone's grumpy," he teases.

"Yeah, well, someone didn't finish exams last week like someone else," I mutter, stuffing porridge into my mouth.

George wisely leaves me alone until I've eaten.

"So, how many left?" he asks.

"Two," I sigh, "one before lunch and one after.

"Great, well, I'll see you at lunch then," he says, kissing me on the cheek, "good luck!"

"I'll give him good luck," I mutter as Georgiana and I head up to Arithmancy part 1.

After the exam I walk out feel exhausted. Georgiana is looking stressed.

"I've failed everything," she says desperately, "oh, I know I have!"

We walk into lunch and sit down at the Gryffindor table with the twins, quietly talking over the exam.

"Aurelia, dear!"

I jump out of my skin as I spin around.

"Mrs Weasley!" I exclaim, blushing deeply, "I didn't see you there!"

"We've come to support Harry," she says, smiling, "have you met Bill?"

"Once before," I say, recovering from my surprise and leaning over to shake Bill's hand, "how are you?"

"Better than you look," he says, "exam stress?"

"You have no idea," I sigh. George tries to put his arm around me, but I shrug him off, embarrassed. I wait until Mrs Weasley's attention is diverted before stuffing my face. I feel so hungry I could drain a human and still need more. All of the stress is causing my body to go more into vamp mode than ever.

"You need some you-know-what," Georgiana mutters as I tear into another sandwich.

"'M fine."

She rolls her eyes and checks the time.

"We've got to go," she says.

"Good luck, dear!"

"Thanks, Mrs Weasley."

After the exam I walk out and burst into tears. George is waiting outside and pulls me into a hug.

"What's wrong?!"

"I'm so relieved!" I sob. He laughs and kisses the top of my head.

"Come on, let's go get some dinner," he says.

"We'll meet you down there," Georgiana says, taking my arm, "going to drop our stuff off first."

She drags me up the stairs, away from George. Once we're alone she turns to me seriously.

"You need to get some blood into you," she says, "go now, I'll cover for you."

"But-"

"If you go now you'll make it back in time for the task," she says, "or... Most of it."

"Fine," I say, "I'll see you later."

I finish feeding and rush down to the Quidditch pitch to find Georgiana. It takes me ages of pushing through the crowd, but eventually I find her sitting with the Weasleys.

"Hey, what did I miss?" I ask, leaning over to tap George on the shoulder. She stops me and hands me a tissue.

"You got a little, uh," she motions to the corner of my mouth. I wipe my face and tap George's shoulder.

"Hey!" he says, pulling me over to beside him, "where've you been?"

"Uh, stuff," I say quickly, "what did I miss?"

"Not much," he says, "the champions went into the maze, Harry and Cedric first, then Krum, then Fleur. Fleur and Krum have been pulled out of the maze, but we couldn't see why. They seemed fine."

"They really did not think about this from a spectator's point of view, did they?" I ask.

"Not even a little bit," he says, "the first task was great, the second two have sucked."

"Right, I mean, the second and third task are good in theory, but if we can't see what's going on-"

There's a flash of blue light and Harry and Cedric appear, along with the Triwizard Cup. The Hogwarts sections of the stands erupt in applause and cheering, but then someone starts hushing and it spreads quickly.

"Cedric is dead!"

"He's dead!"

Georgiana grabs my hand tightly.

"What the hell happened?" she gasps.

Dumbledore calls for silence and there isn't a peep.

"Would the Hogwarts students please return to their common rooms," he says, "Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, please go to their lodgings."

"Come on," Georgiana tugs on my hand. I look over my shoulder to see George, but he's gone already. I let Georgiana tow me along, my mind whirling.

"Let's go see the Gryffindors," I say as we climb the stairs.

"No, Aurelia, not now," Georgiana says anxiously, "let's just go back to the common room and wait until we're told what's happened."

I follow her, but wish I could see George. We sit in the common room with the rest of our house for hours before the Head Girl comes up and tells us to go to bed, we'll be told what happened in the morning.

"Do you think Harry did it?" Georgiana whispers as we lie awake.

"No way," I shake my head, "but... I don't know who else could have."

In the morning, before breakfast, a house meeting is called. Professor Flitwick tells us a rough outline of what happened the night before. The Cup was a Portkey. Voldemort killed Cedric. He has returned.

"It can't be true," Georgiana breathes as the house starts to filter away, some people going upstairs, others down to breakfast.

"How can You-Know-Who be back?" I ask quietly, "I mean, they say the killing curse rebounded off Harry and hit him. He might be powerful, but there's no way to block a killing curse."

The last week of term is usually a relaxed, happy time, but not this one. Everyone is sad and quiet, especially the Hufflepuffs. On the last day of term, at the End of Year feast, instead of the Hall being hung in the colours of the house that won the House Cup, it's hung in black, to honor Cedric.

Dumbledore stands up and gives a short speech about how Voldemort killed Cedric, but I still can't believe it. It's just not possible.

The next day I head down with the others to the train station. George hangs back for a moment to say goodbye.

"Promise you'll visit," I say, hugging him, "and write lots."

"I promise," he says, holding me tightly, "I love you."

"I love you too," I say. He kisses me and jumps on the train. I wave them off, then sigh and wait for my parents to come and get me.