"Give it a rest, Rosemund," George groaned when he saw that Helena had brought a book with her to breakfast.
"It was probably a ghost?" suggested Fred, taking a sip from his pumpkin juice. "Or maybe the map got mixed up."
Helena was scanning her book, Hogwarts: A History, for the fourth time to check if she had missed the name somehow these last few days. She reached for a piece of bacon, stuffing it in her mouth and continued turning pages.
"It can't be a ghost. It's not here on this book," Nina said definitively, closing it shut. "And you two told me yesterday that the map is always right. Why would it be wrong this time?" she asked the twins.
Fred and George groaned in unison, resting their heads on the table, giving up all hope that the girl would stop searching for an answer as to why they had seen an unfamiliar name next to Ron's the other night.
Not knowing who Peter Pettigrew was, made Helena even more curious and determined to find out. She's asked Harry and Ron if they knew the person, but neither of them have heard of him.
Then, she decided it was best if she asked a teacher and approached Professor McGonagall if she had any information after class had ended.
"Peter Pettigrew?," McGonagall was surprised to hear the name. "Peter was a student here at Hogwarts. Why did you want to know, Miss Rosemund?" the woman looked at her over her glasses.
"Umm... just curious." Nina did not want to mention the Marauders map since she promised the twins she would keep it a secret. "Professor, is there a way to communicate with Mr. Pettigrew?"
"Communicate?" McGonagall took her glasses off, a soft look staring back at the girl. "That would be impossible, Miss Rosemund, since Peter Pettigrew is dead."
Oh.
Walking to Divination, their last class of the week, Helena told the twins about her talk with Professor McGonagall, asking them again if they hadn't seen the name before whenever they used the map.
"We don't exactly go searching for ghosts when we sneak around, Hell," said Fred taking a seat next to his brother once they entered the foggy classroom.
"Hogsmeade is coming up, Nina," George reminded her, "Let's forget about this Peter and enjoy this weekend ghost-free!"
Helena rolled her eyes, "Okay, I get the hint. I'll stop talking about it... for now," and she walked to where Alicia was with a mischievious smile.
"We have corrupted her," George muttered to his brother when he saw the girl's face.
Fred slowly turned to look at her direction, not wanting to get caught by the girl. Helena had a quill in hand, scribbling away in the corner of some parchment, a look of determination on her face that he considered adorable just now.
The boy smiled to himself.
"We have."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nina spent one evening in the library with Cedric looking up a book hoping to find something about Peter Pettigrew, instead of doing her Astronomy chart like she told the Hufflepuff she would.
"Why would he show up in the map if he's dead?" she whispered to herself, closing The Dark War: Stories of the Fallen, a book she thought would mention the name.
"What's that?" asked Cedric, turning his head up.
"Nothing, just..." Should I tell him? "It's... nothing."
Helena decided to finish her chart instead and clear her head for a while and focus on her school work. According to her calculations, there would be a full moon two nights before Christmas, her mind quickly thinking about Professor Lupin and how he will spend the holidays as a werewolf.
"Is something bothering you?" asked the boy infront of her.
"Just a bit of stress, no biggy!" Nina waved dismissively smiling at him.
Both of them returned to their work, but Cedric was only pretending to be reading, trying to muster up some courage to ask the girl something that he'd been wanting to do since the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff game.
He looked up from his notes, watching how Nina had an extra quill between her teeth, biting on it while she read, her hair in a high ponytail and resting her face on her hands, elbows on the table. She tried turning the page with her right elbow, too tired to move from her comfortable position.
"You are something else, Rosemund," he chuckled when she failed to do so.
"Thanph myou, Diggory!" Nina said with her quill still between her teeth.
"Say," the boy started, pushing his books aside, "you know how there's a Hogmeade trip coming up and... I was wondering, if you don't have any plans, er... Would you like to go with me?"
Nina was definitely shocked to hear those words come out from the brunette and especially surprised they were directed at her. She felt her cheeks burning up and her hands start to sweat so she placed them over her lap.
Cedric looked at her expectantly, waiting for her answer. With each passing second, he began to lose hope until...
"I would like that very much," she grinned at him, then stared down at her notes.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There were two weeks left for Christmas and today was the last trip to Hogsmeade before winter break, Helena was not a big fan of the cold weather that came along with the holidays, especially when she still had to go to classes these past weeks and had a hard time to keep her hands warm when taking notes.
But now that school was over, she could layer as many clothes as she pleased to keep her body temperature from freezing.
The Weasley twins told her the day before they had decided to pass the Marauders map to Harry so he could sneak out of the castle and visit Hogmeade, and the three of them agreed Harry would make better use of it.
"We've memorized every secret hallway-"
"-So we don't need it anymore." said George.
Nina then explained to the twins why she would not be joining them to the little town, going with Cedric instead, and then regretted having told them.
"Excited for your date with Diggory, Rosemund?" George teased during breakfast before they would leave the castle.
"It's not a date!" she hissed, after she had said the same thing over and over again.
"He asked you to go with him. It's a date." Fred stated, swinging his fork with food infront of her.
George turned to his brother, "Probably gonna show her where he buys his mirrors-"
"-And hair product," Fred laughed. The two of them had a hand over their mouths to avoid spilling their food.
"Then you two would know where to get them because you need them!" Nina said a bit too cheery and got up, ruffling both of their orange messy hair and walked away laughing in victory.
"We are beautiful just the way we are, Hell!" Fred shouted as she walked past the wooden doors.
Helena met with Cedric by the carriages, wrapping her leopard coat close to her body to not let the chilly air hit her when she got out of the castle, carefull not to slip on the snowy steps.
"Ready?" the brunette asked with a big smile on his face, his cheeks rosy from the cold weather.
The both of them kept glancing at each other during the ride to Hogsmeade, blushing when they looked away.
Helena wanted to come up with something to talk about but her mind was completely blank and could only think how cute Cedric looked in his muggle clothes.
The Hufflepuff took her hand once they got out of the carriage and lead her to Honeydukes, where they easily made their way through the candy-filled aisles since they got there early.
"Grab anything you like, it's on me!" Cedric said when he saw the sudden glow on Helena's face when they had entered the store.
"Oh, Cedric... there's no need, I brought money."
Nina reached for her jean pocket but Cedric stopped her.
"Please... I insist, Nina," he assured.
Helena's father once told her that "if a man offered to do something for you, let them. Even when you are capable of doing it yourself."
He said it was their way of showing they cared.
She still felt weird having someone pay for her when she had the money, but knew Cedric had good intentions.
"Ok, Diggory. Then I guess I'll have some Cauldron Cakes," Helena reached for the sweet treats that were on a shelf.
After that, they stopped at Gladrags Wizardwear and Nina bought a pair of socks for her father for Christmas. Cedric helped her choose a pair and ended up buying a red pair that had a tiny Golden Snitch flying from one sock to another.
A giddy Helena then took Cedric's hand and dragged him through the snow filled streets and into Zonko's, wanting to show him the ever-so adorable Pygmy Puffs and the Nose-Biting Teacups.
"Don't hold it so close to your face!" she warned with a laugh when the boy grabbed the teacup from its high shelf and held it infront of him to analize it.
"What... like this?" and he slowly leaned the cup towards him, a smirk on his face as he watched her squirm with panic.
"Okay, now I want it to bite you!" she joked, hands on her hips and glaring at the tall brunette and then snapped the teacup from his hands.
"Now," Cedric clapped his hands together, "where are your so-called precious babies?" he chuckled.
Helena laughed when he heard him say it. Just as nice as I imagined it would sound with his voice.
The two of them had their share of laughs just by looking at the rest of the students that were actually brave enough to try the joke products, some of them getting either bitten or splattered with a mysterious black powder.
"You are quite evil, you know that?" Cedric laughed on their way to The Three Broomsticks.
"Me!? You laughed at those poor kids too! If anything, you are just as evil as I am," she grabbed onto his arm, almost falling when she stepped on the slippery entrance of the pub.
Nina had been very nervous in the morning about hanging around Cedric outside of Hogwarts, but she had started to relax once they arrived to the snow covered town and realized how easy it was to talk with the boy even when it wasn't school work related.
"Fine, we are both evil," said Cedric, leading Nina to a small table for two near the window. "But I'm just gonna go ahead and say that you won't look as evil with all those colorful Pygmys you will adopt," he joked.
"Oh, that will only make me look more sinister, dear Cedric," she grinned, rubbing her hands together like a villain. "An army of Pygmys at my command!"
Nina tried to laugh like Maleficent, having watched the Sleeping Beauty in the summer with her father, but it came out more like a girl version of Father Christmas.
"Very evil," Cedric mocked, pretending to be scared.
"Whatever," the girl said shrugging her shoulders. "I'll go get ourselves some food... and we can decide later who pays!" The Hufflepuff had been ready to offer to pay for their lunch but then nodded at her.
Helena walked to the counter, greeting Madam Rosmerta and ordering two sandwiches and two butterbeers for Cedric and herself.
"Coming right up, dear!"
The woman went to prepare the meal at the far end of the bar, where Helena just then noticed Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Hagrid were seen chatting along side the Minister of Magic himself, Cornelius Fudge.
The five of them, including the multi-tasking Madam Rosmerta, seemed to be having an intense talk as they were all huddled together.
Helena was about to head back to her table with Cedric, not wanting to eavesdrop on their conversation until a name caught her attention.
"... It was Pettigrew."
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a/n I'm sure you know what they are talking about but this is a fanfiction and I can change EVERYTHING !!! (but probably won't lol)
Anyway, thanks for reading! Maybe posting next chapter tomorrow :)