4.3|lost in the woods
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked.
"Um, there is sort of a rampage going on?" She said, gesturing with her hands towards the noises and the screams, a little perplexed by the weird question. She has been wandering the dense forest for what seemed like an eternity. Her father had told her to go to the woods and stay there, she didn't quite understand why. But after fifteen something minutes she could hear attacks and noises and explosions. So she decided it was best to stay there. Although the woods weren't welcoming either— they had a weird vibes to them. "Where's Alex?" She asked wondering why the one fourth of their trouble making, chaos causing quartet was. After all she loved Quidditch almost as much as she loved chocolates, and her not being at the Quidditch World Cup was bizarre. The three Gryffindors exchanged glances with each other.
"She got lost" Ron said. "We're trying to find her"
“Wait— what!” Galexia asked, eyes wide in shock. “How— when—”
“We don't really have time to answer your Questions right now Galexia—” Harry started, his tone dripping with annoyance and worry as his eyes darted around to find any sight— anything of Alex.
“I'll help” she offered. Hermione looked like she would argue but before she could Harry had already accepted the offer, not wanting to waste time watching Hermione bicker with the Hufflepuff girl who she had grown to dislike for no apparent reason since third year's Divination lessons.
“Alright fine— but we need to be quick’’
A rustling noise nearby made all four of them jump. Winky, Barty Crouch's house-elf was fighting her way out of a clump of bushes nearby. She was moving in a most peculiar fashion, apparently with great difficulty; it was as though someone invisible were trying to hold her back. They saw during the Quidditch Cup, she was saving a seat for Barty Crouch.
“There is bad wizards about!” she squeaked distractedly as she leaned forward and labored to keep running. “People high—high in the air! Winky is getting out of the way!” And she disappeared into the trees on the other side of the path, panting and squeaking as she fought the force that was restraining her.
“What’s up with her?” said Ron, looking curiously after Winky.
“Why can’t she run properly?”
“Bet she didn’t ask permission to hide" said Harry. He was thinking of Dobby: Every time he had tried to do something the Malfoys wouldn’t like, the house-elf had been forced to start beating himself up.
Another loud bang echoed from the edge of the wood.
"Let's keep looking—we need to keep looking" Harry said and started moving forward.
They followed the dark path deeper into the wood, still calling out for Alex. They passed a group of goblins who were cackling over a sack of gold that they had undoubtedly won betting on the match, and who seemed quite unperturbed by the trouble at the campsite. Farther still along the path, they walked into a patch of silvery light, and when they looked through the trees, they saw three tall and beautiful veela standing in a clearing, surrounded by a gaggle of young wizards, all of whom were talking very loudly.
“I pull down about a hundred sacks of Galleons a year!” one of them shouted. “I’m a dragon killer for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures"
“No, you’re not!” yelled his friend. “You’re a dishwasher at the Leaky Cauldron—but I’m a vampire hunter, I’ve killed about ninety so far!"
Harry was too busy and worried about Alex (and his wand) to be mesmerised by the Veela at the time—but Ron’s face had gone oddly slack, and the next second Ron was yelling, “Did I tell you I’ve invented a broomstick that’ll reach Jupiter?”
“Honestly!” said Hermione, and she and Harry grabbed Ron firmly by the arms, wheeled him around, and marched him away. Galexia couldn't help but snort at the redheads' antics being charmed by the Veelas. Ignoring her hypocrisy as she too was trying to focus her attention on finding Alex rather than looking at the mesmerizing creatures. Which was harder than it seemed, the Veelas were practically glowing, illuminating their surroundings. Her eyes trailed towards them— and she had to snap herself out of the haze, hoping she wasn't caught drooling as she joined Harry, showing him the way with her illuminated wand.
“You're really worried, yeah?” She nudged him as Ron and Hermione bickered in the background about something.
“What kind of question is that? Of Course I'm wo—”
“Woah, woah, no need to get all angry, Harry. I know that was a dumb question. but, well, Alex is …. Alex? She's very smart, I'm sure she won't be in danger”
“I know, sorry for snapping — I'm just. Worried, that's all” he said, feeling guilty. Galexia just nodded. She'd ask more questions about where they last saw her. Or what happened and how it happened — but she didn't. She reckoned he was already fretting enough. The furrow that seemed to be near his eyebrows. And the uneven breathing. It was all a dead away at how perturbed he truly was.
Suddenly, Ludo Bagman emerged from behind a tree right ahead of them. He no longer looked buoyant and rosy-faced; there was no more spring in his step. He looked very white and strained.
“Who’s that?” he said, blinking down at them, trying to make out their faces. “What are you doing in here, all alone?”
They looked at one another, surprised.
“Well—there’s a sort of riot going on” said Ron. Bagman stared at him.
“What?”
“At the campsite...some people have got hold of a family of Muggles....” Hermione explained making Bagman swear loudly.
“Damn them!” he said, looking quite distracted, and without another word, he Disapparated with a small pop!
“Not exactly on top of things, Mr Bagman, is he?” said Hermione, frowning.
"God, where is she?" Hermione asked, worry lacing her tone.
"We'll find her" Ron said, reassuring Hermione. "Don't worry"
“Do those two always bicker like an old married couple and then comfort each other like one too?” Galexia muttered to Harry which did seem to brighten his mood a bit as he let out a small chuckle, nodding his head.
"I mean where cou—" she broke off abruptly, looking over her shoulder. It sounded as though someone was staggering toward their clearing. They waited, listening to the sounds of the uneven steps behind the dark trees. But the foot-steps came to a sudden halt.
“Hello?” called Harry.
There was silence. It was too dark to see very far, but he could sense somebody
standing just beyond the range of his vision. “Who’s there?” he said. And then, without warning, the silence was rent by a voice unlike any they had heard in the wood; and it uttered, not a panicked shout, but what sounded like a spell.
“MORSMORDRE!” And something vast, green, and glittering erupted from the
patch of darkness Harry’s eyes had been struggling to penetrate; it flew up over the treetops and into the sky.
“What the—?”
For a split second, Harry thought it was another leprechaun formation. Then he realized that it was a colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched, it rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation.
Suddenly, the wood all around them erupted with screams. Harry didn’t understand why, but the only possible cause was the sudden appearance of the skull, which had now risen high enough to illuminate the entire wood like some grisly neon sign. He scanned the darkness for the person who had conjured the skull, but he couldn’t see anyone.
“Who’s there?” he called again.
“Harry, come on, move!” Hermione had seized the collar of his jacket and was tugging him backward.
“What’s the matter?” Harry said, startled to see her face so white and terrified.
“It’s the Dark Mark, Harry!” Hermione said, pulling him as hard as she could. “You-Know-Who’s sign!”
“Voldemort’s—?”
“Harry, come on!” The four of them started across the clearing— but before they had taken a few hurried steps, a series of popping noises announced the arrival of twenty wizards, appearing from thin air, surrounding them. Harry whirled around, and in an instant, he registered one fact: Each of these wizards had their wand out, and every wand was pointing right at them.
Without pausing to think, he yelled, “DUCK!” He seized the others and pulled them down onto the ground.
“STUPEFY!" roared twenty voices—there was a blinding series of flashes and Harry felt the hair on his head ripple as though a powerful wind had swept the clearing. Raising his head a fraction of an inch he saw jets of fiery red light flying over them from the wizards’ wands, crossing one another, bouncing off tree trunks, rebounding into the darkness—
“Stop!” yelled a voice he recognized. “STOP! That’s my son!”
Harry’s hair stopped blowing about. He raised his head a little higher. The wizard in front of him had lowered his wand. He rolled over and saw Mr. Weasley striding toward them, looking terrified.
“Ron— Harry”— his voice sounded shaky— “Hermione—" his eyes scanned over to Galexia, not recognizing the new face— "are you all right?”
“Out of the way, Arthur" said a cold, curt voice. It was Mr Crouch. He and the other Ministry wizards were closing in on them. Harry got to his feet to face them. Mr Crouch’s face was taut with rage.
“Stop! Which of you did it?" he snapped, his sharp eyes darting between them. “Which of you conjured the Dark Mark?”
“We didn’t do that!” said Harry, gesturing up at the skull.
“We didn’t do anything!” said Ron, who was rubbing his elbow and looking indignantly at his father. “What did you want to attack us for?”
“Do not lie, sir!” shouted Mr Crouch. His wand was still pointing directly at Ron, and his eyes were popping—he looked slightly mad. “You have been discovered at the scene of the crime!”
"They're kids, Mr Crouch" the woman said.
“Where did the mark come from?" Mr Weasley asked.
“Over there" said Hermione shakily, pointing at the place where they had heard the voice. “There was someone behind the trees... they shouted words— an incantation—”
“Oh, stood over there, did they?” said Mr Crouch, turning his popping eyes on Hermione now, disbelief etched all over his face. “Said an incantation, did they? You seem very well informed about how that Mark is summoned, missy—”
But none of the Ministry wizards apart from Mr Crouch seemed to think it remotely likely that they've conjured the skull; on the contrary, at Hermione’s words, they had all raised their wands again and were pointing in the direction she had indicated, squinting through the dark trees.
"They must've disapprated by now—"
“I don’t think so" said a wizard with a scrubby brown beard. It was Amos Diggory, Cedric’s father. “Our Stunners went right through those trees.... There’s a good chance we got them..."
“Amos, be careful!” said a few of the wizards warningly as Mr Diggory squared his shoulders, raised his wand, marched across the clearing, and disappeared into the darkness. Hermione watched him vanish with her hands over her mouth. A few seconds later, they heard Mr Diggory shout.
“Yes! We got them! There’s someone here! Unconscious! It’s—but— blimey..."
“You’ve got someone?” shouted Mr Crouch, sounding highly disbelieving. “Who? Who is it?” They heard snapping twigs, the rustling of leaves, and then crunching footsteps as Mr Diggory reemerged from behind the trees. He was carrying a tiny, limp figure in his arms. Harry recognized the tea towel at once. It was Winky. Mr Crouch did not move or speak as Mr Diggory deposited his elf on the ground at his feet. The other Ministry wizards were all staring at Mr Crouch. For a few seconds Crouch remained transfixed, his eyes blazing in his white face as he stared down at Winky. Then he appeared to come to life again.
“This—cannot— be" he said jerkily. “No—” He moved quickly around Mr Diggory and strode off toward the place where he had found Winky.
“No point, Mr Crouch" Mr Diggory called after him. “There’s no one else there" But Mr Crouch did not seem prepared to take his word for it. They could hear him moving around and the rustling of leaves as he pushed the bushes aside, searching.
“Bit embarrassing” Mr Diggory said grimly, looking down at Winky’s unconscious form. “Barty Crouch’s house-elf—I mean to say..."
"Come off it, Amos" said Mr Weasley quietly, “you don’t seriously think it was the elf ? The Dark Mark’s a wizard’s sign. It requires a wand"
“Yeah” said Mr Diggory, “and she had a wand"
“What?” said Mr Weasley.
“Here, look" Mr Diggory held up a wand and showed it to Mr Weasley. “Had it in her hand. So that’s clause three of the Code of Wand Use broken, for a start. No non-human creature is permitted to carry or use a wand" Just then there was another pop, and Ludo Bagman Apparated right next to Mr Weasley. Looking breathless and disorientated,he spun on the spot, goggling upward at the emerald-green skull.
“The Dark Mark!” he panted, almost trampling Winky as he turned inquiringly to his colleagues. “Who did it? Did you get them? Barty! What’s going on?” Mr Crouch had returned empty-handed. His face was still ghostly white, and his hands and his toothbrush mustache were both twitching.
“Where have you been, Barty?” said Bagman. “Why weren’t you at the match? Your elf was saving you a seat too— gulping gargoyles!” Bagman had just noticed Winky lying at his feet. “What happened to her?”
“I have been busy, Ludo" said Mr Crouch, still talking in the same jerky fashion, barely moving his lips. “And my elf has been stunned”
“Stunned? By you lot, you mean? But why—?” Comprehension dawned suddenly on Bagman’s round, shiny face; he looked up at the skull, down at Winky, and then at Mr Crouch. “No!” he said. “Winky? Conjure the Dark Mark? She wouldn’t know how! She’d need a wand, for a start!”
“And she had one" said Mr Diggory. “I found her holding one, Ludo. If it’s alright with you, Mr Crouch, I think we should hear what she’s got to say for herself"
Crouch gave no sign that he had heard Mr Diggory, but Mr Diggory seemed to take his silence for assent. He raised his own wand, pointed it at Winky, and said, “Rennervate!” Winky stirred feebly. Her great brown eyes opened and she blinked several times in a bemused sort of way. Watched by the silent wizards, she raised herself shakily into a sitting position.
She caught sight of Mr Diggory’s feet, and slowly, tremulously, raised her eyes to stare up into his face; then, more slowly still, she looked up into the sky. Harry could see the floating skull reflected twice in her enormous, glassy eyes. She gave a gasp, looked wildly around the crowded clearing, and burst into terrified sobs.
“Elf!” said Mr Diggory sternly. “Do you know who I am? I’m a member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures!” Winky began to rock backward and forward on the ground, her breath coming in sharp bursts. Harry was reminded forcibly of Dobby in his moments of terrified disobedience. "As you see, elf, the Dark Mark was conjured here a short while ago" said Mr Diggory. “And you were discovered moments later, right beneath it! An explanation, if you please!”
“I—I—I is not doing it, sir!” Winky gasped. “I is not knowing how, sir!”
“You were found with a wand in your hand!” barked Mr Diggory, brandishing it in front of her. And as the wand caught the green light that was filling the clearing from the skull above, Harry Recognized it.
“Hey—that’s mine!” he said. Everyone in the clearing looked at him.
“Excuse me?” said Mr Diggory, incredulously.
“That’s my wand!” said Harry. “I dropped it!”
“You dropped it?” repeated Mr Diggory in disbelief. “Is this a confession? You threw it aside after you conjured the Mark?”
"Amos, think who you’re talking to!” said Mr Weasley, very angrily. “Is Harry Potter likely to conjure the Dark Mark?”
“Er—of course not” mumbled Mr. Diggory. “Sorry...carried away..."
“I didn’t drop it there, anyway" said Harry, jerking his thumb toward the trees beneath the skull. “I missed it right after we got into the wood"
“So" said Mr Diggory, his eyes hardening as he turned to look at Winky again, cowering at his feet. “You found this wand, eh, elf ? And you picked it up and thought you’d have some fun with it, did you?”
“I is not doing magic with it, sir!” squealed Winky, tears streaming down the sides of her squashed and bulbous nose. “I is... I is... Iis just picking it up, sir! I is not making the Dark Mark, sir, I is not knowing how!”
“It wasn’t her!” said Hermione. She looked very nervous, speak-ing up in front of all these Ministry wizards, yet determined all the same. “Winky’s got a squeaky little voice, and the voice we heard doing the incantation was much deeper!” She looked around at Harry and Ron, appealing for their support. “It didn’t sound anything like Winky, did it?”
“No" said Harry, shaking his head. “It definitely didn’t sound like an elf”
“Yeah, it was a human voice" said Ron.
“Well, we’ll soon see" growled Mr Diggory, looking unimpressed. “There’s a simple way of discovering the last spell a wand performed, elf, did you know that?”
Winky trembled and shook her head frantically, her ears flapping, as Mr Diggory raised his own wand again and placed it tip to tip with Harry’s.
“Prior Incantato!” roared Mr Diggory.
Harry heard Hermione gasp, horrified, as a gigantic serpent tongued skull erupted from the point where the two wands met, but it was a mere shadow of the green skull high above them; it looked as though it were made of thick gray smoke: the ghost of a spell.
“Deletrius!” Mr Diggory shouted, and the smoky skull vanished in a wisp of smoke. “So" said Mr Diggory with a kind of savage triumph, looking down upon Winky, who was still shaking convulsively.
“I is not doing it!” she squealed, her eyes rolling in terror. “I is not, I is not, I is not knowing how! I is a good elf, I isn’t using wands, I isn’t knowing how!”
“You’ve been caught red-handed, elf !” Mr Diggory roared.
“Caught with the guilty wand in your hand!”
“Amos" said Mr Weasley loudly, “think about it...precious few wizards know how to do that spell... Where would she have learned it?”
“Perhaps Amos is suggesting—" said Mr Crouch, cold anger in every syllable, “that I routinely teach my servants to conjure the Dark Mark?” There was a deeply unpleasant silence. Amos Diggory looked horrified.
“Mr Crouch...not... not at all—”
“You have now come very close to accusing the two people in this clearing who are least likely to conjure that Mark!” barked Mr Crouch. “Harry Potter—and myself! I suppose you are familiar with the boy’s story, Amos?”
“Of course—everyone knows—” muttered Mr Diggory, looking highly discomforted.
“And I trust you remember the many proofs I have given, over a long career, that I despise and detest the Dark Arts and those who practice them?” Mr Crouch shouted, his eyes bulging again.
“Mr Crouch, I—I never suggested you had anything to do with it!” Amos Diggory muttered again, now reddening behind his scrubby brown beard.
“If you accuse my elf, you accuse me, Diggory!” shouted Mr Crouch. “Where else would she have learned to conjure it?”
“She—she might’ve picked it up anywhere—”
“Precisely, Amos" said Mr Weasley. “She might have picked it up anywhere... Winky?” he said kindly, turning to the elf, but she flinched as though he too was shouting at her. “Where exactly did you find Harry’s wand?” Winky was twisting the hem of her tea towel so violently that it was fraying beneath her fingers.
“I—I is finding it...finding it there, sir...” she whispered, “there...in the trees, sir...”
“You see, Amos?” said Mr Weasley.
“Whoever conjured the Mark could have Disapparated right after they’d done it, leaving Harry’s wand behind. A clever thing to do, not using their own wand, which could have betrayed them. And Winky here had the misfortune to come across the wand moments later and pick it up"
“But then, she’d have been only a few feet away from the real culprit!” said Mr Diggory impatiently. “Elf? Did you see anyone?” Winky began to tremble worse than ever. Her giant eyes flickered from Mr Diggory, to Ludo Bagman, and onto Mr Crouch.
Then she gulped and said, “I is seeing no one, sir... no one..."
“Amos" said Mr Crouch curtly, “I am fully aware that, in the ordinary course of events, you would want to take Winky into your department for questioning. I ask you, however, to allow me to deal with her” Mr Diggory looked as though he didn’t think much of this suggestion at all, but it was clear to Harry that Mr Crouch was such an important member of the Ministry that he did not dare refuse him. “You may rest assured that she will be punished” Mr Crouch added coldly.
“M-m-master—" Winky stammered, looking up at Mr Crouch, her eyes brimming with tears. “M-m-master, p-p-please—”
Mr Crouch stared back, his face somehow sharpened, each line upon it more deeply etched. There was no pity in his gaze.
“Winky has behaved tonight in a manner I would not have believed possible" he said slowly. “I told her to remain in the tent. I told her to stay there while I went to sort out the trouble. And I find that she disobeyed me. This means clothes"
“No!” shrieked Winky, prostrating herself at Mr Crouch’s feet. “No, master! Not clothes, not clothes!”
“But she was frightened!” Hermione burst out angrily, glaring at Mr Crouch. “Your elf’s scared of heights, and those wizards in masks were levitating people! You can’t blame her for wanting to get out of their way!”
Mr Crouch took a step backward, freeing himself from contact with the elf, whom he was surveying as though she were something filthy and rotten that was contaminating his over-shined shoes.
“I have no use for a house-elf who disobeys me" he said coldly looking over at Hermione. “I have no use for a servant who forgets what is due to her master, and to her master’s reputation” Winky was crying so hard that her sobs echoed around the clearing. There was a very nasty silence, which was ended by Mr Weasley, who said quietly—
“Well, I think I’ll take my lot back to the
tent, if nobody’s got any objections. Amos, that wand’s told us all it can—if Harry could have it back, please—” Mr Diggory handed Harry his wand and Harry pocketed it.
"Excuse me Mr Weasley" Galexia spoke up, Mr Weasley looked at her. "Could you drop me off at my tent?"
"Of course dear, we'll go to our tent and then drop you off" he said, giving her a warm smile. "Our tent is near the woods. Come on" he said hospitably and Ron, Harry and Galexia started following him. But Hermione didn’t seem to want to move; her eyes were still upon the sobbing elf. “Hermione!” Mr Weasley said, more urgently. She turned and followed Harry and Ron out of the clearing and off through the trees.
“The way they were treating her!” said Hermione furiously. “Mr Diggory, calling her ‘elf’ all the time...and Mr Crouch! He knows she didn’t do it and he’s still going to sack her! He didn’t care how frightened she’d been, or how upset she was—it was like she wasn’t even human!”
“Well, she’s not—" said Ron.
Hermione rounded on him. “That doesn’t mean she hasn’t got feelings, Ron. It’s disgusting the way—”
“Hermione, I agree with you" said Mr Weasley quickly, beckoning her on, “but now is not the time to discuss elf rights. I want to get back to the tent as fast as we can. What happened to the others?”
"Dad, Alex got separated from us" Ron said, worriedly.
"What?" Mr Weasley asked, worried. "Let's go back to the tent, then I'll go to look for her. When did Alex get separated from you three? Are you sure she isn't with Fred, George and Ginny?"
"She was with us, even after we got separated from them—"
"We'll look for them, don't worry. You kids need to reach the tent safely first"
_
"Dad?" Charlie said, his head poking out from the tent. “Fred, George, and Ginny got back okay, but the others—”
"Is Alex not with them?" Mr Weasley asked, his voice sounding worried.
"No" Charlie said. "What happened?"
"She got lost" Mr Weasley said. "I'll go and look for her, kids go inside. Bill, Charlie, Percy take care of them—"
"Wait dad, should we come?" Bill asked. Mr Weasley shook his head.
"You all should stay here, I'm sure everyone is pretty shaken up and Bill you're bleeding—" he said gesturing to his arm, which was wrapped in a bloody bedsheet.
"But dad—" Charlie said, his shirt ripped. Percy sat in the corner with a bloody nose.
"No" Mr Weasley said sternly. "I'll go now, we need to find her as soon as we can. And Percy could you go and drop her off at her tent" he said gesturing to Galexia.
"So where's your tent?" Percy asked her.
"It's on the opposite side" she said, her voice still sounding a little shaken up as the two made their way out.
For a while there was a deafening silence. Agony hung in the air, but at last Charlie spoke up.
"I think I should go look for Dad. It's been what?— half an hour since he left?” Charlie said and Bill nodded. Both of them worried for not their dad but also Alex. She was just asking good as their little sister, after all.
"Take care" Bill said, cleaning up the blood from his shirt. He nodded before exiting the tent. Ginny was fast asleep in a corner, far before Harry, Hermione and Ron had even arrived. Fred and George were slouching on their beds, looking worried too. And if the twins are worried, then it is a serious thing.
"When did you lot last see her?" Bill asked the trio.
"She got separated from us inside the forest" Hermione said. She tried to think of all the places Alex could've gotten separated from them, could've been anywhere — the forest was immensely deep, especially at night as It was all dark, and there were explosions—how could she not remember when her best friend got separated from her. She sighed in distress.
"Don't worry 'Mione, dad'll find her soon" Ron said, but it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself rather than Hermione.
_
"Wait a second" Alex said, stopping in her tracks. "Why do I feel like this is the fifth time we've travelled through this path? Or do the trees look the same?"
"That's a great question," Cedric said. "I would've answered it if I knew" he said, giving Alex an apologetic smile. Alex sighed loudly, running a hand through her wavy, dark hair in frustration. "We're officially lost" he announced.
"Yeah, no shit" Alex gave a tight lipped smile sitting down under a nearby tree, resting her back against the trunk. Her legs stretched out infront of her. Cedric too, joined her. Sitting so close to her that they're arms were brushing against each other. "What should we do now?"
"Wait for the sun to ris—" but before Cedric could finish his sentence he was cut off by what sounded like a zouwu, startling Alex so much that she grabbed Cedric's arm tightly. Cedric smiled a teasing smile. "Well, I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave?"
"And I thought Hufflepuffs were supposed to be kind?" She teased back, ignoring the red hue of her cheeks.
"Well, it depends" he said, holding her hand that was holding his arm. "If you deserve it"
"Well am I deserving of your kindness?" Alex asked, leaning closer and looking up from her thick lashes at him. She could feel his nose brush up against hers because of their close proximity. He leaned in even closer, his hand moving up to cup one of her cheeks. His hands were soft, and bigger compared to Alex's.
"Perhaps if—" but before he could speak any further, they heard a twig snap nearby. Both of them jumped to their feet, their wands held up in defense. She could hear someone approaching. Cedric got a hold of Alex's hand and he held it tightly.
"Lumo—" Cedric was about to say, but was stopped by Alex, who shook her head and put her hand infront of his wand.
"Don't" she said. "if it's someone or something dangerous, they'll notice us immediately"
"Alex?" A familiar voice called out. "Alex, where are you?"
"Charlie?" Alex asked. "Charlie, is it you?" She muttered a quick, "lumos" to see better, now that she knows it's safer.
"It is" he called out. She could see the light of his wand illuminating a few feet away from them. "Oh thank Merlin you're safe!" He said and joined her. "We've been looking for you, for ages!"
"I got lost" she said apologetically.
"It's alright" Charlie assured. "Let's go now. Dad's worried sick" he said and then glanced at Cedric, furrowing his brows.
"You're Charlie Weasley" Cedric said, “you used to be Gryffindor's Quidditch captain, Before you graduated"
"You were in the Hufflepuff team right?" Charlie asked. "Also a seeker" Cedric nodded. "I'll drop you off to your tent too, if you want"
"Oh no, it's fine" Cedric smiled. "I don't want to trouble you anymore. It would be fine if you'd help us out of the woods"
"Sure, this way" he said, guiding the two out of the forest. Chatting about Hogwarts, Quidditch and whatnot. At last, finally they could finally see the numerous tents, stretched for a long, long distance.
"Thanks again" Cedric said.
"No problem" Charlie smiled. Cedric then looked at Alex, smiling his usual smile which made Alex swoon.
"I'll see you at Hogwarts?" She asked, he nodded. She watched him go towards the side of his tent, smiling. After they were done bidding their farewell, Alex turned towards Charlie who was looking at her, a smile on his face and raised eyebrows, shaking his head.
"Charlie!" She said, blushing even darker.
"Little Alex has grown so much" he said, ruffling her hair. She hit him on his arm lightly.
"Stop!"
_