the goblet - f.weasley

- c h a p t e r - t w e n t y-t w o -

 "You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!" Hermione all but yelled in the back of the charms classroom.

"Keep your voice down!" Harry snapped at her. "I just need to - sort of fine-tune it, all right?"

Gemma gave him a sideways look from where her head was propped up on her fist, Fine-tune it, my butt.

"Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?" Harry continued harshly as Gemma watched as Professor Flitwick flew by them on top of a desk after Neville had misaimed. "I'm trying to tell you about Snape and Moody..."

Gemma already knew about it and fortunately already knew the charm they had been working on it, so she was only really half-listening.

"Snape said Moodys searched his office as well?" Ron breathed, his eyes glimmering as he performed his charm on a pillow and knocked Pavarti's hat in the process. "What. . . d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?"

"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it," Harry shrugged, making his pillow starfish on the desk. "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something..."

"What?!" Ron's pillow went spiralling out of control, landing with a thump on Flitwick's desk. "Harry...maybe Moody thinks Snape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!"

Gemma raised her brows, That was a possibility...

"Oh, Ron," Hermione sighed like a mother. "We thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?"

Gemma nodded quietly, her pillow being banished with grace into the trunk they were supposed to be aiming at. Hermione's was quick to follow.

"I don't care what Moody says," Hermione continued. "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin," She nodded purposefully at Gemma, who still frowned at her idolization of Dumbledore. "Even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit—"

"—evil," Ron interrupted harshly. "Come on, Hermione, why are all these Dark wizard catchers searching his office, then?"

"Why has Mr. Crouch been pretending to be ill?" Hermione just blatantly ignored Ron. "It's a bit funny, isn't it, that he can't manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?"

"You just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky."

"You just want to think Snape's up to something."

"I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance if he's on his second one," Harry finished off the argument with a surprisingly accurate shot of his pillow into the trunk.

"And I want this class to be over so we can go to the library and get food."

Her friends looked at her, and she grinned, "Just being realistic."

She was pretty sure Harry was ready to give up.

They had explored all charms, Transfiguration, and rule-breaking. Harry had even asked to access the restricted section, and nobody found anything. Harry had even asked her again if she could figure out a potion, to which Gemma regretfully admitted she had already been researching and couldn't find anything that wouldn't take months to brew.