The party in the Hufflepuff common room pretty much went all night and Professor Sprout didn't stop it at all. It turned out that the egg held a clue to the second task and of course everybody wanted Cedric to open it which everyone regretted immediately. An unbearable scream started as soon as he opened it. So, both Cedric and I had been spending the past week in the library trying to figure out the clue but we were having no luck.
"Unless you have to fight a banshee, I have no idea what the hell that clue is meant to be," I said as I closed the book in front of me.
"That all I can come up with as well. Maybe we should take a break for a bit," he said, rubbing my back as I rested my head on the table in front of us.
"Yeah, you're probably right. I think I have read the same line like a hundred times," I sighed.
As Cedric and I started to put the books that we had been reading away, I noticed Viktor sitting alone in the corner reading a book. Or should I say he was trying to read a book, it seemed as if every few seconds he kept glancing up at something or more to the point, someone. I followed his gaze and found he was staring at Hermione who was studying alone.
"Hey, Ced. Come and have a look at who Viktor can't take his eyes off," I whispered to Cedric.
"Is that Hermione?" he asked as I nodded. "Ron is not going to be happy about this."
"Well, if Ron can't get off his butt and tell her how he feels something like this was bound to happen one day," I pointed out.
"He's going to have a fit and blame everyone but himself if anything happens," Cedric laughed.
"Yeah, but he won't see it that way," I said as I looked at the time on one of the clocks in the library. "Damn, I'm meant to have another training session with Loki and Danny in ten minutes. I'll see you later at dinner."
I quickly grabbed my bag and gave Cedric a quick kiss before basically running out of the library so I could get to Loki's classroom quickly, making Madam Pince glare at me. But I really didn't care, there was no way that I was going to be late for the lesson. Loki was teaching me something new and I couldn't wait to find out what it was.
"So, let me get this right. You want me the throw fire balls at Elsa while she tries to apparate away from them," Danny said, not quite believing what Loki was asking him to do.
"Don't be silly Daniel. You can't apparate inside Hogwarts grounds," Loki sighed, making Danny visibly relax. "I want you to throw fire balls at your cousins while she teleports away from them."
"But that's the same thing!" Danny yelled at him.
"Just do it Danny. I'm the one who should be worried, not you," I laughed.
"This is what I want you to do, Elsa. Focus on the spot you want to appear in, then actually picture yourself in the that spot while willing it. But don't make it obvious to Daniel, you want to ensure that when you are in a battle that you don't give away you position to the enemy," Loki told me before speaking to Danny again. "And Daniel, please try not to set my room on fire...again."
"Oh, come on! That was only the one time!" Danny yelled as he threw his hands in the air and walked to the other side of the room.
"Begin when you feel ready, Daniel," Loki told him as he sat behind his desk and put his feet up on the desk.
While Danny was getting ready to throw fire at me, I focused on a spot behind him and started to picture myself standing on it. As soon as I Danny threw fire at me, I closed my eyes and hoped to God that it was going to work otherwise I was going to have to explain how I got burnt to everyone. But it turned out that I didn't need to worry because suddenly a felt a cool breeze wash over me and the next thing I knew I was standing behind Danny.
"I did it!" I cheered as I bounced on the spot.
"Well done, Elsa," Loki said with pride in his voice. "Now, try again."
As we continued to practice, I began to be able to move around the room more easily soon enough I could appear on the spot I wanted to without even having to think about it. That was until I heard it again. That voice. The one that I heard that morning that I ran in to Viktor. But this time there was something almost...familiar about it. I was starting to think it wasn't the Nornir because they would grow board of the little game when I refused to give into them. And the voice sounded like home, in strange way. But as I was distracted by the voice, I missed one of the fire balls that Danny threw at me and it hit me on my shoulder.
"Oh, shit! Elsa, I am so sorry!" Danny said as he ran over to me.
"It's okay, Danny. It's not your fault. I wasn't concentrating," I told him, feeling bad that he was so upset.
"I think that is enough for tonight," Loki said as he walked over to us and placed his hand over the burn on my shoulder, healing it in a second. "Daniel, why don't you head down to dinner. I want to speak to Elsa for a moment and make sure that she isn't pushing herself to far with everything that she has committed herself to this year."
I could tell Danny wanted to stay and find out why I was distracted all of a sudden but something in Loki's face told him not to argue with him. So, he did what Loki asked of him and headed down to dinner. As soon as he was sure that Danny wasn't hanging around the door to listen to our conversation, Loki sat back down behind his desk and motioned for me to sit down next to him.
"What is wrong Elsa? You have been quite distracted for a few of our lessons and it is not like you. I am starting to grown quite concerned about what is actually going on," he told me as he gently held my hand.
I smiled at my uncle, feeling privileged that I got to see this side of him. The kind and caring side that very few were lucky enough to witness. I also knew that I couldn't lie to him, he was the god of lies after all. But at the same time, I didn't want him to think I was going insane, so I just told him part of what was going on. That was I was lying...technically.
"I have been up late with Cedric trying to figure that stupid egg, that's all," I told him.
"Are you sure?" Loki asked me, not believing that that was all that was wrong.
"I'm sure."
"Very well. But if you ever need someone to talk to, you know where I am."
"I know and thank you, Uncle Loki."
"You haven't called me Uncle Loki in quite a few years, snøfnugg*," Loki said with a small smile appearing on his face. "I've missed it. Now, go and eat and stop staying up so late with Cedric."
That night after dinner both Cassy, Zane and the twins came to sit with us at the Hufflepuff table. Everything was going fine until Hermione walked over with a copy of the Daily Prophet clutched in her hands.
"I'm sorry to interrupt but I thought you would want to see this before it got around the school and Harry wanted me to give you this as well," Hermione said as she passed me the newspaper and a note from Harry.
I figured the letter could wait for the moment because it was clear whatever was in the paper was something important from the look on Hermione's face. And as soon as I looked down at the front page, I knew why. In the front page there was a photo of Dad and me during the battle in Sokovia with the heading Student or experiment? A disturbing new fact about one of Hogwarts brightest students. I knew straight away that Skeeter had wrote the stupid article, she had it for me ever since I protected Harry from her. But I figured that the article couldn't be that bad, I mean after the battle of Sokovia some of the worst articles about the Avengers I had ever read had been published but I was wrong. Very wrong.
Looking at Elsa Rogers, 16, you wouldn't think there was anything different about the girl. She has the face of what everyone pictures when they hear the say 'All American Girl' who is the longtime girlfriend of Hogwarts Triwizard Champion Cedric Diggory, 17. With her blue eyes and blonde curls and her all-American views on the world, you would think that she had it all. But there is a dark side to the picture-perfect girl and her father.
Steven Rogers who is better known as the American superhero 'Captain America', who fought during World War 2. But how, Rita, you may be asking. It turns out that he was part of a United States of America secret 'experiment' in the 1940's to create the perfect solider resulting in turning him from a 5'4 sickly young man to a 6'1 killing machine. That's right, loyal readers, behind the blonde hair and good looks, Steven Rogers has probably ended the lives of more muggles that Grindelwald and he must not be named combined. The serum, which I have been informed is a muggle version of a potion, that was used on Captain Rogers was untested and has not been replicated to this day. Which leads me to wonder what are the long-term effects of this serum and have they affected his daughter in anyway? Well, my loyal readers, you need not worry for I have the answer to these questions. I have spoken to an intelligent young Hogwarts student who was more than willing to fill me in on who Elsa Rogers, or Stargirl as she has taken to calling herself, it truly like under that perfect face.
"A lot of us are scared of her," Cho Chang, 15, informed me. "She has a violent temper and she will do anything to get what she wants. You see I was dating Cedric before Elsa did and she wasn't happy about it. She has always been obsessed with Cedric and harassed and threatened us to the point where Cedric felt he had to break up with me for my own safety. My only hope is that Cedric realises after reading this that he no longer needs to protect me from her."
I also have found out that Elsa's mother, Dr. Kimberly Rogers has been in a coma for over a year now and one can only guess as to why this happened. Was it due to something her violent husband and daughter did? We will never know but if I was part of the Muggle law enforcement, I would be looking into it.
So, there you have it, just like her father who was clearly an experiment gone wrong, Elsa Rogers has a violent personality and in my personal opinion should not be among the students of Hogwarts but in a muggle jail where the pair of them can no longer hurt anyone, every again.
"That's it, let me at her," Cassy said as she tried to get up and confront Cho but I pulled her back.
"No, this is my fight, Cassy. No one and I mean no one, says things like that about my family. I don't care who they are," I snarled.
"Love, let me go with you," Cedric said to me with a worried look on his face.
"I need to do this alone, Ced. I don't care what she says about me but she made out to be some murdering lunatic and no one talks about Dad that way."
Cedric nodded at me, understanding that I alone had to talk to Cho. And I wasn't letting her get off this time.
"Chang! We need to talk," I snapped as I walked over to the Ravenclaw table.
"Oh, is something wrong, Elsa," she smirked.
"Yeah, this," I told her, slamming the copy of the newspaper down onto the table.
"Well, it's not my fault that Rita Skeeter wrote her article the way she did. I only told her the truth and there is nothing you can do about it," she giggled.
"Oh, yes there is. I'm going to Professor Flitwick and tell him every last detail of what you have done. From the potion in my shampoo that turned my hair red, white and blue to using the doubt potion you used on Cedric to this article and I will be willing to take veritaserum to prove that I'm not lying. So, enjoy what little free time you have Cho because something tells me that you are going to be spending a lot of time in detention soon enough," I told her as I picked up the newspaper.
"You wouldn't dare!" she shrieked at me.
"Yes, we both would," Cedric said as he walked over and wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
"Good bye, Cho and have fun in detention," I said, waving to her as Cedric and I walked over to teachers table to tell Professor Flitwick the truth about the perfect Cho Chang and what she was capable of.
Both Cedric and I spent hours in Professor Flitwick's office, since he was the head of Ravenclaw, telling him every little thing that Cho had done to the both of us. When we had finished telling him the story, he promised that he would get a front-page retraction of the story as well as a public apology to Dad, Cedric and me for the disgraceful and untrue article that was printed. He also promised us that Cho would not go unpunished and would be spending a lot of time in detention.
By the time we got back to the common room it was almost midnight but I was way to hyped up to sleep, so I pulled the letter from Harry out of my pocket to see what he wanted.
"Who's that from, love?" Cedric asked me as we sat down on one of the plush couches in the now deserted common room.
"It's a note from Harry about something. It's the one Hermione gave me a dinner with the newspaper," I told him, unfolding the letter and reading Harry's messy scrawl.
"That boy really needs to work on his hand writing," Cedric joked.
"I know, tell me about it," I said as I started to read the note.
Dear Elsa,
I have received a letter from Snuffles tell me that he has arrived back from his holiday and wants to meet up with the both of us as well as Ron, Hermione and Cedric during the next Hogsmeade visit. I have told him that I would ask if the two of you could come.
And before you ask, yes Ron and I have made up. After the dragons, he has realised that I didn't put my name in the Goblet of Fire. It only took a Hungarian Horntail breaking free of its restraints and trying to eat me from him to figure it out. Still haven't told him about Fleur being part vela, I thought you would want to be there when I told him.
I also wanted to say that I am sorry that you have been brought in to the whole Rita Skeeter mess because of me. If you didn't have to be my guardian or whatever Dumbledore wants to call it, you would never have met her and she would never have wrote all those horrible things about you and your Dad. Please let me know if I can do anything to clear any of up.
Harry
I felt bad that Harry thought it was his fault that Skeeter wrote the article. The only two people to blame were Skeeter herself and Cho and I was going to let him know that. But the most important thing right now was that Sirius was back and we had to find a way to keep him safe.
*snowflake