Faith .|. H. J. POTTER ✔

Chapter nineteen

"Hey - Harry!" Faith looked up and saw her brother rushing towards Harry who was halfway the stairs with Ron, probably on their way back to the Gryffindor common room.

"Yeah?" Harry asked. Faith could tell he wasn't in the mood for a talk with Cedric. A few seconds later, Ron walked away, already going to the common room. Faith walked closer, wanting to know what it was about. 

"Listen ..." Cedric started before he noticed his sister. Faith didn't look like she was going to move so he looked back at Harry. "I owe you one for telling me about the dragons. You know that golden egg? Does yours wail when you open it?"

"Yeah," Harry simply said.

"Well ... take a bath, OK?"

"What?"

"What?" Both Harry and Faith were confused. "You took a bath with the egg?"

"Shut up," Cedric rolled his eyes at his sister who was smirking. "Take a bath, and - er - take the egg with you, and - er - just mull things over in the hot water. It'll help you think ... trust me," 

The two fourth-years just blankly stared at him. 

"Tell you what," Cedric quickly said. "Use the Prefects' bathroom. Fourth door to the left of that statue - wait Faith knows where it is, she can take you. Password's Pine-Fresh. Gotta go ... want to say goodnight," Cedric grinned the last words. Faith looked past him and saw Cho Chang, the fifth-year Ravenclaw Seeker. She was patiently waiting by the door. Cedric patted Faith on her shoulder and quickly went back to her.

"That is some weird advice," Faith commented as she and Harry walked up the stairs. 

"How does putting the egg in a bath help?" Harry asked, equally as confused. 

"I have no idea. Are you going to try?"

"I don't know, I might be wasting my time just for him to -" Harry stopped, realising he was talking to the sister of who he was talking about.

"Ah, I see. You think he'll make you look stupid in front of your crush," Faith smirked as she bumped her shoulder against his. Harry smiled, he liked that she didn't take things like this seriously. He was almost afraid she'd judge him for judging her brother.

"I do not think that," Harry clarified as he bumped her shoulder back. 

Soon enough the two reached the portrait of the Fat Lady who was sound asleep with her friend Vi. The two Gryffindors had to yell the password - fairy lights - at least a dozen times before she woke up. 

"Well, if you don't like it, you know what the solution is, don't you?" That was the first thing Harry and Faith heard when they got in. Hermione was yelling at Ron. Her sleek bun was almost falling out and her face was red in anger. 

"Oh yeah?" Ron yelled back. "What's that?"

"Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!" Ron's mouth fell open as Hermione turned around and stormed up the stairs to the girls' dormitories. Ron turned to look at Faith and Harry.

"Well," Ron was looking for words. "Well - that just proves - completely missed the point -" 

They both didn't say anything, except for goodnight when Faith went to the girls' dormitories and them to the boys'. Faith quickly changed into her comfortable and warm pyjamas and got into her bed, not long before she fell asleep.

#

The remaining free days they had after Christmas were filled with homework since the teachers did not hold back before the holiday. Faith spent most of her time in the library, studying with Alex, and when she wasn't with him, she was in the common room playing games with Ron. Faith, Ron and Hermione had an unspoken agreement to not talk about the whole Durmstrang date fiasco and they were back to normal. Only Ron and Hermione were oddly formal to each other and Ron couldn't help but silently disagree with everything Hermione said, especially when it was about S.P.E.W.