The weather could not have been more different on the journey back to the King's Cross than it had been on their way to Hogwarts the previous September – there wasn't a single cloud in the blue sky. For a moment, this improved Vega's mood and she felt herself smiling... until she remembered that they were one person short this time around, and Cedric was not here to enjoy this warm, clear and beautiful weather like the rest of them.
Just as usual, Vega, Harry, Ron and Hermione had managed to get a compartment to themselves. Pigwidgeon was once again hidden away under Ron's dress robes to stop him from hooting continually; Aquila and Hedwig were both dozing, their heads under their wing, and Crookshanks was curled up in a spare seat like a large, furry ginger cushion.
And it was here, as the train sped them southward, that the four of them talked more fully and freely than they had all week. It felt as though Dumbledore's speech at the Leaving Feast had unblocked the words stuck in Vega and Harry, somehow.
It was less painful to discuss what had happened now.
They broke off their conversation about what action Dumbledore might be taking, even now, to stop Voldemort only when the lunch trolley arrived with her array of sweets that Vega was yearning for.
Vega quietly picked out several of her favourite sweets, including crystallised strawberries, and returned back to her seat, plopping a piece into her mouth. Hermione came back into the trolley a little while later and put her money back into her schoolbag before dislodged a copy of the Daily Prophet that she had been carrying in there.
Harry looked at it, but Hermione, seeing him looking at it, said calmly, "There's nothing in there. You can look for yourself, but there's nothing at all. I've been checking every day. Just a small piece the day after the third task saying you both won the tournament. They didn't even mention Cedric. Nothing about any of it. If you ask me. Fudge is forcing them to keep quiet,"
"It's... unfortunate that they haven't mentioned Cedric's passing," Vega mumbled. "But knowing the Daily Prophet, it would've become more sensationalised rather than giving him proper respect,"
"He'll never keep Rita quiet," Harry said however. "Not on a story like this,"
"Oh, Rita hasn't written anything at all since the Third Task," Hermione said in an oddly constrained voice. "As a matter of fact," She added, her voice now trembling slightly. "Rita Skeeter isn't going to be writing anything at all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her,"
"What are you talking about?" Ron asked. "Have you been threatening people, too?"
"I found out how she was listening in on private conversations when she wasn't supposed to be coming onto the grounds," Hermione said in a rush.
Immediately, Vega had the impression that Hermione had been dying to tell them this for days, but that she had restrained herself in light of everything else that had happened. She was curious as to what the brunette had been up, and so was Harry.
"How was she doing it?" asked Harry at once.
"How did you find out?" Ron asked, staring at the girl.
"Well, it was you, really, who gave me the idea, Harry," Hermione said.
"Did I?" Harry asked, perplexed. "How?"
"Bugging," Hermione said happily.
"Wait," Harry said. "You said they didn't work –"
"Oh, not electronic bugs," Hermione said. "No, you see... as Vega suggested, Rita Skeeter –" Her voice trembled with quiet triumph. "– is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn –" She pulled a small sealed glass jar out of her bag. "– into a beetle,"
"You're kidding!" Ron exclaimed. "You haven't... she's not..."
"Oh yes, she is," Hermione said happily, brandishing the jar at them.
But Vega was shocked at what was going on and looked toward the jar to see what was going on there. Inside were a few twigs and leaves and one large, fat beetle.
"That's never –" Ron whispered, lifting the jar to his eyes. "You're kidding –"
"No, I'm not," Hermione said, beaming. "I caught her on the windowsill in the hospital wing. Look very closely, and you'll notice the markings around her antennae are exactly like those foul glasses she wears," Harry looked and saw that she was quite right.
"There was a beetle on the statue the night we heard Hagrid telling Madame Maxime about his mum!" Harry gasped slightly and Vega nodded slowly in agreement.
"You're right," Vega spoke up quietly. "And... there was also that water beetle that Viktor pulled out of your hair, Hermione – that must be how she heard your conversation... and in Divination class, I think she entered through the window – I heard something buzzing there. She's been buzzing around for stories all year,"
"When we saw Malfoy under that tree..." Ron said slowly.
"He was talking to her, in his hand," Hermione replied. "He knew, of course. That's how she's been getting all those nice little interviews with the Slytherins. They wouldn't care that she was doing something illegal, as long as they were giving her horrible stuff about us and Hagrid,"
Hermione took the glass jar back from Ron and smiled at the beetle, which buzzed angrily against the glass. Vega leaned back into her seat as she glanced around at them.
"I understand that," Vega said. "But how long do you plan to keep her in there?"
"I've told her I'll let her out when we get back to London," Hermione said. "I've put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so Rita can't transform. And we've told her she's to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can't break the habit of writing horrible lies about people,"
Smiling serenely, Hermione placed the beetle back inside her schoolbag.
The door of the compartment slid open – "Very clever, Granger,"
It was Draco Malfoy, hailed by Crabbe and Goyle standing behind him. All three of them looked more pleased with themselves, more arrogant and more menacing than Vega had ever seen them.
"So," Malfoy said slowly, advancing slightly into the compartment and looking slowly around at them, a smirk quivering on his lips. "You caught some pathetic reporter, and Potter and Lestrange's Dumbledore's favourites again. Big deal,"
Malfoy's smirk widened while Crabbe and Goyle leered.
"Trying not to think about it, are we?" Malfoy continued on softly, looking around at all four of the Gryffindors. "Trying to pretend it hasn't happened?"
"Get out," Harry told them.
Vega had not been this close to her cousin since she had watched him muttering to Crabbe and Goyle during Dumbledore's speech about Cedric. His face reminded of her his father, and that reminded her of what had happened in the graveyard. She felt anger and frustration at him, and her hand was inching toward her wand slowly.
"You've picked the losing side, Potter!" Malfoy said. "I warned you! I told you you ought to choose your company more carefully, remember? When we met on the train, first day at Hogwarts? I told you not to hang around with riffraff like this!" He jerked his head at Ron and Hermione.
"You're an idiot if you think that Voldemort wants Harry and I alive, even if we pick his side," Vega spoke up coldly, rolling her eyes when they tensed up at the name. "We'll be the first to be killed,"
It was the same mistake as Barty Crouch Junior,
who actually believed his stupid master's promise to give her to him.
"Well, you wouldn't know now, would you?" Malfoy responded. "It's too late now! They'll be the first to go, now the Dark Lord's back! Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first! Well – second – Diggory was the f –"
It was as though someone had exploded a box of fireworks within the compartment. Blinded by the blaze of the spells that had blasted from every direction, deafened by a series of bangs, Vega blinked and looked down at the floor of the compartment.
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were all lying unconscious in the doorway.
Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were on their feet, all four of them having used a different hex. Nor were they the only ones to have done so. She looked up to see that the compartment door was now open and in came –
"Thought we'd see what those three were up to," Fred said matter-of-factly, stepping onto Goyle and into the compartment. He had his wand out, and so did George, who was careful to tread on Malfoy as he followed his twin inside.
"Interesting effect," George said, looking down at Crabbe. "Who used the Furnunculus Curse?"
"Me," Harry replied.
"Odd," George said lightly. "I used Jelly-Legs. Looks as though those two shouldn't be mixed. He seems to have sprouted little tentacles all over his face. Well, let's not leave them here, they don't add much to the décor,"
Ron, Harry, and George kicked, rolled, and pushed the unconscious Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle – each of whom looked distinctly the worse for the jumble of jinxes with which they had been hit – out into the corridor, then came back into the compartment and rolled the door shut.
"Exploding Snap, anyone?" Fred said, pulling out a pack of cards before reaching over to bring Vega over to him until she landed on his lap. "And you're going to be my partner again, love,"
"Must you two do this?" Ron grumbled as he sat down, too. "And you need to stop hoarding her – let her partner up with someone else, too. You guys always win, and that's because of Vega,"
"You need to get used to this," Fred responded without a care. "Because Vega and I are going to be partners forever," He held out some cards to the girl and Vega took them with a smile.
Exploding Snap was always the most competitive, especially when it was partnered up. Harry and George were together, and Ron and Hermione – but it was always Vega and Fred who won, much to the others' chagrin. They were halfway through their fifth game when Harry decided to ask the twins –
"You going to tell us, then?" Harry said to his partner, George. "Who you were blackmailing?" Vega didn't look up, shuffling through her cards quietly.
"Oh," George spoke darkly. "That,"
"It doesn't matter," Fred interjected, shaking his head impatiently. Vega looked to the boy sitting next to her in wonder. "It wasn't anything important. Not now, anyway,"
"We've given up," George added, shrugging.
Those words caused Vega to frown deeply and her curiosity shot up, but out of respect to what she and Fred had discussed, she didn't question him until he decided to tell her on his own. But Harry, Ron and Hermione didn't make that promise, so they kept on asking again and again until Fred finally said –
"All right, all right, if you really want to know...
it was Ludo Bagman,"
"Bagman?" Harry asked sharply while Vega looked at them in surprise, momentarily not understanding how Bagman was related to this. "Are you saying he was involved in –"
"Nah," George responded gloomily. "Nothing like that. Stupid git. He wouldn't have the brains,"
"Well, what, then?" Ron asked.
Fred hesitated, looked toward Vega, and then said, "You remember that bet we had with him at the Quidditch World Cup? About how Ireland would win, but Krum would get the Snitch?"
"Yes?" Vega asked, starting to understand where this was going and she gently placed a hand onto her boyfriend's knee, rubbing it to comfort him slightly.
"Well, the git paid us in leprechaun gold he'd caught from the Irish mascots," Fred finished, looking back toward Vega as she started to frown once it was out in the open.
"So?" Ron asked anyway.
"So," Fred responded impatiently, looking at his younger brother in annoyance. "It vanished, didn't it? By next morning, it had gone!"
"But – it must've been an accident, mustn't it?" Hermione exclaimed, somehow still looking to think that Bagman wasn't a bad person when it was clear he was a very shady person.
George laughed very bitterly and said, "Yeah, that's what we thought, at first. We thought if we just wrote to him, and told him he'd made a mistake, he'd cough up. But nothing doing. Ignored our letter. We kept trying to talk to him about it at Hogwarts, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us,"
"In the end, he turned pretty nasty," Fred revealed, wrapping an arm around Vega as she set her head on his shoulder. "Told us we were too young to gamble, and he wasn't giving us anything,"
"So, we asked for our money back," George added glowering.
"He didn't refuse!" Hermione gasped.
"Right in one," Fred replied.
"But that was all your savings!" Ron exclaimed.
"Tell me about it," George said. "'Course, we found out what was going on in the end. Lee Jordan's dad had had a bit of trouble getting money off Bagman as well. Turns out he's in big trouble with the goblins. Borrowed loads of gold off them. A gang of them cornered him in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had, and it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts.
"They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him. He's lost everything gambling. Hasn't got two Galleons to rub together. And you know how the idiot tried to pay the goblins back?"
"How?" Vega inquired, feeling suspicious as she thought about Bagman's behaviour.
"He put a bet on you, Vega – you and Harry," Fred said, sounding very annoyed at the thought of that. "Put a big bet on you two to win the tournament. Bet against the goblins,"
"So, that's why he kept trying to help us win!" Harry exclaimed, also realising what was going on. "Well – We did win, didn't we? So, he can pay you your gold!"
"Nope," George said, shaking his head. "The goblins play as dirty as him. They say you two drew with Diggory, and Bagman was betting you'd win outright. So, Bagman had to run for it. He did run for it right after the third task,"
George sighed deeply and started dealing out the cards again. Vega looked up at Fred, who gave her a weary smile and placing a kiss onto her lips. She kissed him back lightly and looked across from herself and at Harry, sharing a knowing look.
The rest of the journey passed pleasantly enough; Vega wished that it would never end. It was the first time that she had felt this light in seemingly such a long time. She just wanted to be around her friends, around her boyfriend, and just spend a long time just going on and on in the training.
But as Vega had learned the hard way that year, time will not slow down when something unpleasant lies ahead, and all too soon, the Hogwarts Express was pulling in at Platform Nine and Three-quarters.
As expected, the usual confusion and noise filled the corridors as the students began to disembark. Ron and Hermione struggled out past Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, carrying their trunks. Vega and Harry, however, stayed put behind with Fred and George.
"Fred – George –wait a moment," Harry said, and the twins turned.
Sharing another look with each other, Vega and Harry pulled out their Triwizard winnings from their trunks and held out to the Weasley twins.
"You should take this," Vega said to them, holding her bag of money to Fred while Harry thrusted his sack towards George. "This is for you,"
"What?" Fred said, looking flabbergasted as Vega took his hand and handed the bag to him. "Vega... what are you going on about?"
"Take them," Harry repeated firmly. "We don't want them,"
"You're both mental," George said, trying to push Harry's bag of money to him.
"No, we're not," Vega replied. "Actually, I feel like this is the sanest thing I've done in a while. I don't want you to refuse this, Fred. I've seen your creations so take this and start inventing. Open your joke shop, the one you really want to," Harry nodded.
"They are mental," Fred said in an almost awed voice.
"Listen," Harry went on firmly. "If you don't take them, we're throwing them down the drain. We already decided that we don't want them and we don't need it,"
"But what we do need is a few laughs," Vega added. "We both could do with a few laughs. We could all do with a few laughs. I've got a feeling we're going to need them more than usual before long,"
"Harry – Vega," George said weakly, weighing the money bag in his hands. "There's got to be a thousand Galleons in each of them,"
"Yeah," Harry replied, grinning. "Think how many Canary Creams that is," He looked at Vega. "Right?" She nodded eagerly, smiling widely at Fred and George.
The twins stared at them.
"I would recommend against telling your mum where you got it, though," Vega said but then added, thoughtfully, "... although she might not be so keen for you to join the Ministry anymore, come to think of it..."
"Vega, Harry," Fred began, but Harry pulled out his wand.
"Look," Harry said flatly. "Take them, or I'll hex you. We know some good ones now. Just do me one favour, okay? Buy Ron some different dress robes and say they're from you,"
Harry left the compartment with his stuff.
"Buy something for Ginny, too," Vega added. "Oh, Fred, look at you – the last time I saw you that thunderstruck was when we..." She decided not to finish it since George was around. "Just take it, love," She moved over to give her boyfriend a quick kiss. "Come on, or the train would go back,"
Vega left the compartment, blushing just as much as Fred.
Outside, Vega didn't care to be careful with Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle (who were still lying on the floor, covered in hex marks). She stepped on them and climbed out of the train and beyond the barrier, where Mrs. Weasley pulled her into a very tight hug and patted her back.
"See you, Harry," Ron said, clapping him on the back.
"'Bye, Harry!" Hermione spoke up, and she did something she had never done to the boys before, and kissed him on the cheek.
"Be careful out there, Harry," Vega said, giving him a small smile but he reached to pull her in a hug, patting her back as well. "I hope to see you very soon, too,"
"Take care, too," Harry said as he pulled back, looking at her, knowing that she had had a very bad time in the graveyard, and after coming back to the castle. "See you,"
"Harry, Vega – thanks," George muttered, while Fred nodded fervently at his side as the two of them came out of train and behind them.
Harry was the first to leave with his Uncle Vernon, and then Vega and Hermione parted from the Weasleys to head to the second entrance of the train station where Hermione's parents and Vega's uncle would be waiting for them, as per usual.
"Let's meet soon," Vega said to Fred, giving him one last kiss for now before waving him goodbye and disappearing into the crowd with her belongings and Hermione. She looked to the brunette. "Remember to free Skeeter soon, Hermione – and let's keep in touch in summer,"
For things were not going to be the same anymore.
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