Say You Won't Let Go || Bill Weasley

Seventeen: For the Love of Dragons

The following few weeks passed incredibly slowly. Isabelle was working more and more every day while Flitwick helped prepare for the first task and even got to take over teaching completely the last few days leading up to the event.

As exciting as the Triwizard Tournament was meant to be for the Hogwarts students, Isabelle could tell that her younger friends were all but enjoying it. She mostly felt bad for Harry, who had confided in her a few days after his name was drawn from the Goblet of Fire. She believed him when he said he didn't put his name in and had no interest in competing, but the rest of the students seemed to believe otherwise. It was like every Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and especially Hufflepuff had grown to hate Harry's presence, believing he was trying to steal the spotlight yet again. Even Ron was acting a bit sour towards his best friend, clearly jealous.

To make matters worse, Rita Skeeter remained in everyone's business and Isabelle realized that many of her students in class were now sporting pins that flashed words such as "Potter Stinks", which eventually became such a fuss that Professor Flitwick ended up banning them from his classroom upon Isabelle's request.

It wasn't until Isabelle was sitting alone in the empty charms classroom during a free period one afternoon and heard the door open and close quickly that she realized it was truly getting out of hand.

She looked up from the book in her hands to see Hermione Granger making her way towards her, her hand covering her mouth and strands of her wild hair sticking to her tear-stained face.

"Hermione, what happened?" Isabelle asked, setting the book down and standing from the desk.

The only response was a few sniffles and her whole body shook as the young girl stopped in front of Isabelle. Isabelle took Hermione's shaking hand gently and lowered it, eyes widening when she saw that Hermione's front teeth had grown down to nearly her chin.

"Oh, Merlin..." Isabelle whispered. "It's alright, I can fix this." Isabelle pulled out her wand and muttered the counter-curse, and slowly Hermione's teeth returned to their original size.

Once Hermione's teeth were back to normal and she had calmed down enough to speak, Isabelle started speaking again.

"How did this happen?" Isabelle asked softly.

"Malfoy," Hermione said, wiping the last tears from her eyes. "He and Harry got into it over those stupid pins in potions and tried to curse each other, but they both missed. Goyle and I got hit instead, and he got sent to Madam Pomfrey."

"Why didn't Snape send you to the hospital wing too?"

"He said t-there was n-no difference," Hermione said, a new wave of tears filling her eyes.

"That pompous piece of shit," Isabelle mumbled before pulling Hermione into a hug. "Don't listen to him, Hermione. You're beautiful."

Isabelle let Hermione stay with her for the rest of the day, not wanting to face her friends or classmates after being humiliated by Malfoy and Snape.

As the days went by, things only seemed to get worse, then a little better, then much worse. The tension between Harry, Ron, and Hermione only grew, as each took their individual turns complaining to Isabelle about it. She, like Hermione, thought the conflict between Ron and Harry was ridiculous and wanted nothing more for the two to stop acting like small children, but let the boys rant to get out their frustrations. She chose to stay back from the trip to Hogsmeade that month, needing a few hours to herself even for a little bit.

It wasn't until Isabelle received an unsigned letter in handwriting that she vaguely recognized one afternoon, while the older students were away at Hogsmeade, a few days before the first task. Isabelle and Eleanor, the young Hufflepuff girl, were sitting in Isabelle's room/office sorting papers and sharing some of Molly's fudge that she had been sent. After the interaction with the Durmstrang boy, Eleanor had become practically attached to Isabelle, offering to help her whenever possible. Isabelle didn't mind, as she wished she had someone to look up to when she was a first year.