Throughout the next few days Delilah managed to finish the list for Harry, do all her homework, and summon enough willpower not to jinx a certain journalist named Rita Skeeter.
In the days after the Potion's lesson, Skeeter had published her piece about the tournament. Except, it wasn't actually about the tournament. It really was a highly colored life story of Harry, minus his apparently non-existent twin, who luckily hadn't even been mentioned. Much of the front page had been given over to a picture of Harry; the article (continuing on pages two, six, and seven) had been all about Harry, the names of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions (misspelled) had been squashed into the last line of the article, and Cedric, the Golden Boy, hadn't been mentioned at all. The article had appeared ten days ago, but Delilah was positive it was fake. She could not picture Harry saying almost any of it.
An example was, on page six, which recorded Harry saying rubbish like how he still cried about their parents. Delilah knew that was untrue, she shared a room with him at Private Drive, and if he didn't cry in that dementor-starving place then he wouldn't cry at Hogwarts. If that wasn't even enough Skeeter had even interviewed others, including that obnoxious Creevey boy about him. It was ridiculous.
Harry had also refused to try and learn any of the spells she had suggested, saying he was already stretched thin on school work. Delilah thought she had handled it well, not yelling at him or showing how he was such a pathetic dueler if the first task involved dueling. He only practiced one dueling spell, which was easily blocked. It was infuriating.
So Delilah spent most of her time either studying with Draco or helping Fred and George with their inventions, though it had mainly been Fred since George had been getting behind with his schoolwork. They were currently trying to figure out how to perfect their Metamorphic Mints, or M&Ms for short, which was fun, even if they didn't get the joke.
"So, I think this Stellarlune should help, I brewed it earlier today," Delilah told them in one of the rarer meetings where all three of them were there. .
Fred grinned.
"Thanks Lil, you're amazing!"
Fred and George had started calling her that ever since the day the Goblet had spat out the champions' names.
Delilah rolled her eyes.
"Really? Still with that nickname? I told you it's weird...."
"Come on! Lil fits! And Delilah is such a mouthful!" George complained.
"Well, since you won't stop anyway," Delilah conceded, grinning as Fred added the Stellarlune to their current mixture.
"Why do you think this will help?" he asked.
"It has changing properties, and if we include it with the essence of murtlap it should change the person into a murtlap, or at least give them some murtlapish features."
George nodded.
"Then that would explain how we switch the type too, and we can add dye so the colors are different, but how will we undo them?"
Delilah paused.
"Well, after so many hours or days it would wear off, but some Billywig wings should undo it if you mix it in with something..."
"Maybe Wiggenbrush bark?" Fred suggested.
"I think that would work, great idea. How long should we let it sit?" George asked.
"Not too long or it will cause even more destruction than last time."
Delilah shuddered just remembering how they had barely escaped Filch.
"I say we check it the morning before the Hogsmeade trip tomorrow, if it is too early we'll check it that night and so on until it's good," George answered.
Delilah nodded.
"Great! Do you guys want to take a break or something?"
"Yes please! All this thinking is ruining my brain!" Fred joked.
Delilah and George laughed.
"Alas I have this stupid essay I need to finish, but you two can go do something. Don't not have fun because I have homework I forgot about," he dramatically said.
"You sure?" Fred asked.
George nodded encouragingly.
"Yeah, absolutely."
"Alright then, mind taking my stuff up with you?"
George grabbed all of his and Fred's things and left for Gryffindor Tower. Delilah put the few ingredients she kept in her bag.
"Where should we go this time?" Delilah inquired.
"How about the lake? It's a bit chilly but looks very nice."
"That would be great."
Fred grinned at Delilah, who shot him her own mischievous smile.
"Or," she added, "we could get rid of some of our excess dungbombs by Filch's office. I know he's recently been on the higher levels because of those brilliant choral and fish you stuck to the ceiling. That really was an excellent water spell, you even made it last for a week, and it probably would have stayed longer if McGonagall hadn't removed it. "
"Yeah, that'd be fun. Meet you in the corridor just to the right of his office in fifteen minutes?"
Delilah nodded and so they left to grab their hidden stashes of dungbombs.
Fifteen minutes later they met in the corridor adjacent to the one with Filch's office.
"So we'll set off the dungbombs and a few other surprises and then meet me by the tapestry just around the corner, the one with the witch and unicorn," Fred planned.
"Great, now or never?"
Fred grinned.
"Now or never."
They both hurried over to Filch's office, which was deserted except for a sleeping Mrs. Norris. Delilah threw her dungbombs and fanged frisbee into the room. Fred threw a handful of dungbombs, fanged frisbees, nose-biting teacups, and a few of what looked to be his own inventions.
There was a huge explosion and Fred took off running towards the tapestry, Delilah at his heels. As soon as they reached it, Fred moved it, showing a secret passageway. He climbed in and helped Delilah up. Just as the tapestry was in its regular place, Filch came around the corner.
"What was that noise? I heard something."
A loud yowl came from his office and they heard Filch running to his office.
"Mrs. Norris!" he screamed. Mrs. Norris was probably in a pretty rough shape.
Delilah grinned at Fred.
"Success," they whispered in unison, biting back their laughter.
After a few minutes, Filch seemed certain that the hooligans who had done it weren't in the vicinity and rushed to try and find them.
Laughing, Fred led Delilah down the passageway. A few minutes in, he stopped, turning to face her in the semidarkness.
"The exit is right here, but... I have a question for you," something in Fred's voice seemed different, almost nervous.
"Yeah?"
"After we finish checking the M&Ms, do you," he paused, taking a deep breath. "Do you want to go on a date with me to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow? If not that's fine, I just was hoping that, you know, maybe we could spend more time together, you are so amazing, and-"
Delilah could practically hear his blush.
"That would be fun, I'd love to go with you," she said, cutting off his ramble.
They grinned at each other.
"We should... probably get going, shouldn't we? It's probably almost lights out," Delilah finally said, breaking the warm silence.
"Yeah. See you tomorrow!"
And they headed their separate ways.
The next day Delilah took a little more care getting ready than she normally did. She had hung out with Fred a lot recently, most of it just the two of them, but this was an official date. Although the other times they had spent together, now that she thought about it, were similar to a date.
Delilah put on her comfortable green sweater, making sure that all her necklaces were secure beneath it. Grinning, she headed off to their meeting place.
"Hey Lil!" Fred and George called in unison.
"Hi!" Delilah replied. "How's the M&Ms?"
"Almost set, by the time we get back from Hogsmeade they will be done. Hopefully not before then, but they won't have anything to tie the damage to us."
"And we're not in a crowded area either so it won't cause too much disturbance," Delilah pointed out.
Grinning George and Fred nodded.
"So, Hogsmeade?" Fred asked, motioning to the door.
"I need to grab a quick toast from the Great Hall first, then yeah."
George grin widened at the two of them as they headed there.
"I'll let you two get on with it then."
George left to join Lee and Ron.
Delilah grabbed a toast and then headed out with Fred.
"So where are we going to go?" Delilah inquired.
"I was thinking we could go start with Honeydukes."
"That sounds great."
They walked to Hogsmeade, talking about pranks, life, and school. It was fun, and they were laughing for most of the trip.
"And here we are!" Fred announced. "Honeydukes! Home to the finest sweets in England!"
Delilah laughed.
"Come on, I heard a rumor that they got a new type of fudge, berry cream or something like that, they'll be giving out free samples."
Fred grinned, opening the door for her.
"I hope they are, they have good fudge, mostly. That fly fudge was more for a prank than anything else...."
"Definitely. I bet if we got a bit though we could convince Lee or someone to eat it," Delilah mischievously stated.
Fred's smile widened.
"Yes! Let's do it! Nothing too big though or we'll waste most of it."
Delilah nodded.
Luckily there were samples of the new berry cream fudge, which was pretty decent. Not their best, but not too far below it.
They each grabbed the few sweets they wanted, paid, then left.
"It's getting pretty cold, want to go get a butterbeer?"
Delilah nodded, pulling her gloves on tighter.
Fred slipped his hand into hers, holding light enough that she could easily pull away. She didn't.
Again he opened the door for her and they moved to an empty booth. Delilah noticed George, Lee, and Ron sitting not too far and Hermione sitting apparently alone, although Harry was probably under the cloak sitting beside her. Delilah shot them a quick wave.
As soon as they sat down and ordered some Butterbeer they continued their slight disagreement.
"No, a dementor would totally defeat a dragon," Fred argued. "It could just suck its soul out and dunzo no more dragon!"
"But do dragon's even have souls? I know Charlie thinks they do but if he could Charlie would marry one."
"Exactly! Charlie says they have souls, and he works with dragons! Sure he's a bit biased but still!"
"Ok, let's say they do somehow have souls, how could the dementor get close enough to suck it out without getting either smashed or burned to death?"
"It could sneak through the dragon's legs, surprising it!"
"That would never work, dementors have to attach their mouths to the person's, or in this case dragon's, mouth. The dragon would blow fire at it, burning it to the ground before it could suck out its soul."
Fred groaned.
"Fine, but I still think the dementor would win."
Delilah rolled her eyes, some people were hopeless.
"You know, it's getting pretty late, we should head back," she stated, changing the topic.
Fred nodded.
"Yeah, so who would win, a mermaid or dragon?"
They both paid before heading out into the cold night breeze.
"Ooo, that's tough. I think it probably depends on the type of dragon. There are so many different types, if it's one of the-"
They both stopped. They were standing so close. Fred brushed a lock of her hair out of her face, his eyes studying her face. And then his lips met her.
It was different than she expected, more awkward than anything. He pulled away almost immediately.
"S-sorry. I should have asked first..."
"It's fine," she immediately responded. And it was. "But... didn't it seem more empty than it should be? As if-"
"As if there was no spark," Fred grimly finished.
"Exactly. So... just friends?" Delilah weakly asked.
Fred nodded.
"Yeah, so which do you think would win?"
It took Delilah a moment to realize what he was talking about.
"Oh, it depends on the type of dragon. If it's one of the types that loves water then the dragon, the dragon. But if it's one of the types that can't stand it, the mermaids because how could the dragon reach them? Of course even then it would be more of a stalemate because the dragon could just fly away."
"That makes sense, but if it is the water loving type how would they still manage to get that deep? Merfolk live in deep bodies of water, like oceans and even a few lakes, like ours. I mean they could dive, but even they need to breathe."
"True I didn't think about that. So definitely the Merfolk then, because if the enemy flees you still technically win."
They reached the castle.
"I had a nice time tonight, thanks," Delilah genuinely said with a smile.
"Me too. How are you feeling with the first task coming up?" Fred asked. "And don't say fine, I know you're not. If it was George I'd be worried sick."
Fred's confession made her feel a bit better.
"I am worried sick. He literally won't prepare, at least he wouldn't when I asked him yesterday. Hopefully Hermione will wack some sense into him, she agrees with me. Harry usually listens to her too."
"Harry will be fine. With the combined efforts of you and Hermione no one could be safer!" Fred joked, trying to get her to laugh.
"We'll do our best, anyways, thanks. See you later?"
"Yeah, bye."
"Bye."
They both went to their separate tables.
Delilah sat by Draco.
"How was your date?" Draco asked in an odd tone.
Delilah shrugged.
"It was fun, but we're not going to do another. We decided it best just to stay friends."
Draco's attitude changed almost immediately.
"Oh, that's g-interesting."
Delilah smiled.
"Yeah."
That night Delilah had trouble sleeping. Her nightmare kept including Harry dying in increasingly unlikely ways. She doubted the task would involve fighting the giant squid, which turned out to be Snape in animagus form, or that the champions would have to climb all the way to the top of the castle blindfolded for a key that would unlock Dumbledore's sanity, which didn't make sense because he didn't have one.