An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Fifty-One

"Thanks for the save, Alexa," said Fed, grinning and leaning into me.

"I guess we have to believe you're a superhero now," George said, sighing heavily. "No more denying it after that."

I laughed, shoving both of them jokingly. Cedric and I had just won the first task, which was an incredible feeling, and I couldn't be happier about getting to share it with these two.

"Thank goodness!" We looked up to see Percy bustling over to us, breaking through Madam Pomfrey's perimeter and actually looking a little frazzled, which was rare for him. "Very well done, Alexa. How do the two of you feel? Are you all right? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

He was looking anxiously back and forth between the twins, and I thought this rare moment of brotherly concern was adorable. The twins, apparently, found it amusing.

"We're fine Perce," said Fred, rolling his eyes as he stood and stretched. George did the same, fixing his older brother with a mischievous grin.

"Thanks for the concern, though," said George. Percy looked a little flustered, trying to brush it off, but George got out ahead of that immediately. "Ah, come here Percy!"

With that, he and Fred wrapped their older brother in a soaking wet hug. Percy started fighting them off as best he could, and I just grinned at the brotherly wrestling match in front of me. I maintained the position that a little embarrassment and teasing was good for Percy; it kept him from going too far off the rails.

Once the twins had moved on, I turned to Cedric. Tamsin had been swept up by a bunch of her other friends, and Madam Pomfrey and the crowd had been distracted by Viktor and Milena coming back with their hostages, so Cedric and I had another second to ourselves in the middle of the crazy.

"Nice work," sighed Cedric, pulling me close for a tired hug.

"You too." We stayed like that for a minute, just holding each other. Finally, we broke apart, letting the craziness around us creep back in.

As soon as they had room, our friends swooped in again, chattering excitedly about the task and how we'd done and what we saw. We tried to relay everything as well as we could, and the twins got to tell their own story about being called to Dumbledore's office and put under the water.

"You should all be happy we got back alive," said Fred, looking around at our friends seriously.

"Exactly. All this celebration over Alexa and Cedric, but we deserve some relief from our friends that we didn't die down there!" agreed George. They were both grinning now, which made us all nervous. We knew the twins well enough to know that this was going somewhere.

"A hug seems like a good place to start," said Fred.

The twins were still soaking wet, and as soon as Fred spoke everyone caught on to their idea. They tried to get away before the twins could soak them like they did Percy, but George managed to wrap Angelina in a tight hug and Fred chased Lee halfway down the dock until he succeeded.

"Get off!" yelled Angelina, whacking George and pretending to be upset. She had a massive grin on her face, though, so I knew she was having fun.

Once the twins calmed down a bit, we all sat there and talked for the rest of the task. Fleur and Mark hadn't been successful in reaching their hostages; they'd been grabbed by some grindylows and barely managed to escape.

That just left Harry at the bottom of the lake, still down there and over the time limit.

"What's he doing down there?" asked Cedric, sounding a little agitated as we stared out at the lake together.