song of the chapter- mr. brightside by the killers
"Professor please!" George pleaded, "You have to let us see her."
George, Fred, Cassie, and Kelly all stood, blocking Professor McGonagall's path.
"Mr Weasley, all students are supposed to be in their common rooms right now. I should give you a detention right now for still roaming the halls." She exclaimed, looking at all the students.
"But, we just want to make sure she's okay." Kelly tried defending them.
"And you two can, in your common rooms. She should be there shortly." She shooed off the girls and they reluctantly left. "As for you two, you may see Ms Black tomorrow."
Stella was slowly walking through the corridors, walking towards the Ravenclaw common room. She heard arguing coming for around the corner, and she peeked her head around.
"... -in danger. You have to-"
"George?" Stella asked seeing him and his twin talking to Professor McGonagall. His head snapped up towards her and he pushed past the Professor, running to her. She met him halfway and he immediately took her into his arms.
"For Heavens sake!" The Professor yelled, "Five minutes! You have five minutes before I give all of you a detention!" She stalked down the hall angrily.
"What happened?" Fred asked joining the two.
"I don't know. Someone must've put my name in." Stella explained, pulling back from George.
"Why would someone do that?" George shook his head.
"Dumbledore thinks someone knows." She gave him a knowing look.
"So someone must have put Harry's name in too, right?" Fred questioned.
"Harry was so torn up during our meeting. There's no way he entered himself." Stella remarked.
"What does that even accomplish though? What does someone get from entering yours and Harry's name?" George looked towards Stella.
"I don't know. I don't know anything. I need to write my dad. I highly doubt he'll be able to come again, but maybe Remus can. Dumbledore was also looking into it when I left." She rambled, "All I know, is that I can't do this. I'm not good at these things. I-"
"Stella!" George exclaimed, "It's okay. We're here for you."
She looked towards Fred and saw him nodding at her.
"Whatever you need. We can help."
"You guys can't be in the tasks with me though." She sighed, the twins' reassurance not helping much.
"No, but we can help you prepare." George nodded. His hand was placed on her arm, comfortingly.
"What if I'm not good enough?"
"Stella, I'm pretty sure everyone in this damn school things you're the smartest witch to roam these halls. You're beyond good enough." His deep brown eyes bored into hers.
"McGonagall is coming." Fred quickly told them, hearing the clicking of her heels.
"Meet me for breakfast tomorrow?" She asked.
"Of course." They both yelled running off towards the Gryffindor tower. Stella quickly made her way to her own common room, feeling dizzy. Her mind spun with all the different possibilities. She watched almost everyone enter meaning she more than likely watched someone enter in her name unknowingly. A shiver went down her spine at the thought of one of her class mates doing something like that to her.
She was met with loud cheers and music as she entered through the door. People were celebrating her, as if she had won the whole thing. She wondered if they were doing the same for Harry in the Gryffindor common room. People offered her drinks, and tried to get her to dance, but she just politely turned them down and kept trying to get to her dorm.
Funny enough, all the Ravenclaw boys seemed to be suddenly interested in her, wanting to talk to her about her life. Roger Davies went to the extreme of inviting her back to his room. She awkwardly denied him, along with all the other boys, and fought her way through the crowd.
As soon as Stella got back to her room, she was bombarded with questions from her dorm mates, who patiently waited for her while she was trying to get through the party. She answered their questions as best as she could without giving them too many details. They eventually stopped pestering her and went to bed.
Stella cautiously got in bed, suddenly feeling like the world was on her shoulders. She had a vision of the goblet, but she ignored it. It suddenly made sense why she saw it, and Stella wanted to scream into the wind. Hindsight is always 20/20, she reminded herself. Stella barely slept a wink that night, but when she did, nightmares haunted her mind
★ ★ ★
Little fox,
We heard of the news, Dumbledore got in contact with us immediately. You need to begin preparing. Learn all the defensive spells you can. Do not take anything lightly, people die in this tournament Stella. Whoever put your name in the fire, is not your friend: do not forget that. People can be deceiving, remember who you can really count on. George and Fred. This tournament is deadly and it makes things even worse when it's been meddled with. Also, letters are starting to get intercepted, you will be seeing Remus's owl much more often. Stay safe, write often.
Love,
Mooney and Padfoot
Stella quickly dressed herself before heading down to breakfast, relieved she would be able to see Fred and George. She was happy to hear from her family, but not under these circumstances. As she entered the hall, Roger Davies called out to her asking if she wanted to sit with him. She politely declined before heading over to where the twins were. She saw George glaring over at the Ravenclaw table while Fred sat there smirking.
"You two are being weird this morning." She joked, nearing them. Fred scooted down a little further, giving her space to sit in between them out of habit.
"You've got a way with the lads around here, Stella. It's quite impressive." Fred mused, seeing his brother's scowl.
"It's pathetic for them, really." She tried ending the conversation about her sudden male attention.
"Pathetic? You're a champion now. Everyone's going to be pining after you." Fred reminded her and her heart skipped a beat hearing the word: champion. She didn't want it. She wanted nothing to do with it.
She looked over towards George, curious about his quiet behavior. Usually he's the first one to greet her or he's teasing her as soon as she sits down. But this morning he stayed silent, staring down at his plate.
"Well they can try. I'm not really interested in the 'champion glory' and all that stuff." She chuckled. She put her hand underneath the table and found George's. She gave it a quick squeeze before pulling it up and starting to fix her plate. She felt him smile at her before instantly picking his mood up.
"I heard from my father. They told me I need to start preparing now." She told the twins.
"We can do that." George reassured her.
"I can't wait to be your practice dummy that gets hexed and jinxed every five seconds." Fred sarcastically scoffed, a joking smile on his lips. Stella laughed at him, reassuring him she'd go easy on him. Their light air was suddenly sucked away by a presence coming up behind them. Stella turned her head and saw Adrian Pucey towering over her. She stayed seated and she looked up at him amusedly.
"Are you lost?" She asked.
"You think you're hot stuff now, don't you Black?" He glared down at her. She tried her best to suppress an eye roll, as the twins visibly tensed. George's hand on the table started to clench into a first making the veins on his arms pop out.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She huffed.
"I can name at least fifty other people in this room that deserves the title more that you-"
"I didn't know you could count that high-"
"-so I'm just going to say it because no one else will." He slightly learned down, his eyes starting to darken, not affected by her sarcastic remark, "If you think you can win this, you're delusional. Quite frankly, I'm betting my money on you dying in the first task. I only wish to be there to see-" His dreadful monologue was interrupted by George standing up from the table.
"Watch your mouth, Pucey." His frame was defensive in front of Stella. Fred quickly stood up as well, cutting off her view of the Slytherin boy. Stella sighed before she stood up, and placed herself in front of the twins, facing Pucey.
"Or what? What are you going to do?" Adrian tauntingly took a step forward, now standing very close to Stella.
"Step. Back." George spat. Adrian's smirk only grew, and he looked like he was going to give another snarky comment when Stella spoke before he could.
"Listen, Pucey. I don't give a damn about what you're betting on." Her tone was clipped, "Just leave me alone." She stood her ground. She felt the twins standing closely behind her, waiting for Pucey's next remark. George was so close to her she could feel his chest against her back. She could feel his ribs press into her as he took heavy breaths, trying to calm himself down.
"By the way, some Durmstrang boys were asking about you yesterday. I told them not to bother... I assume you get passed around enough between the Weaslebees, you probably couldn't handle anymore." He snickered before striding away. George leaped forward, but she quickly put her arm out, holding him back. Fred's hands were balled in fists at his side, and she was thankful he still had self control. She never would've been able to hold back both of them.
"Don't waste your time on him, George. He's trying to get to you." She turned to face him, her voice low. The three sat back down, all quiet. As soon as she hit the bench, George grabbed her inner thigh tightly and pulled her closer to him so that their legs were touching. A slight blush sprinkled her cheeks at the placement of his hand, but she liked how it felt there.
Shaking off her feelings, she sighed and felt an even bigger weight placed on her. This competition was going to hard enough with the emotional and physical strain she had to endure, and now it's going to even worse with people from her own school betting against her.
"How's Harry?" Stella broke the silence.
"Him and Ron got into it. Everyone thinks he put his name in." George told her, his hand still on her thigh.
"That's awful."
"Ron can be a real git sometimes. He'll realize it eventually." Fred added in. Stella looked slightly down the Gryffindor table and saw Hermione and Ginny looking at her with smirks. She told the twins she'd be right back before getting up and walking over to the two girls. She hastily sat down across from them, their looks unwavering.
"What?" Stella asked dumbly.
"Nothing." Hermione laughed, "It's just you and the twins."
"What do you mean?" Stella pressed.
"Oh come on, it's obvious." Ginny commented. "You've got them wrapped around your finger so tightly, it's not even funny."
Stella's mouth fell open and the two girls only laughed at her response.
"I do not." Stella huffed.
"Yes you do!" Ginny exclaimed. "Especially George. He rarely gets angry. He usually lets Fred deal with all the confrontation. But with you he's always ready to get into a fight." Ginny laughed. Stella's cheeks only got more red as the red headed girl talked about George.
"Ms. Black, Dumbledore would like to see you in his office." Professor McGonagall stood over her. Stella said goodbye to her friends as she walked with the professor to the Headmaster's office. As she passed George, she tuffed his hair teasingly and he reached up to smack her hand away. She gave him a passing smile as she walked out of the Great Hall.
"How are you feeling?" McGonagall asked her.
"A little shook up, but I'm alright. My friends are really supportive." She explained.
"Oh yes, the Weasley twins." The Professor smiled.
"Yeah, them." Stella bashfully agreed.
"Keep an eye out for Mr Potter, will you?" The woman's voice lost her tone of amusement.
"Of course. I'm going to help him as much as I can." Stella reassured the Professor. They had arrived at the door of his office and the door opened as Professor McGonagall muttered the password.
"I'm glad to hear that. Even though you are not in my house, I don't want you to hesitate in coming to me for anything." The woman smiled at her.
"Thank you, Professor."
With one last smile, McGonagall walked away, not following Stella into the office. She immediately began to wonder what this conversation was going to be about.
"Hello, Professor." She greeted him as she walked up the stairs. "You wanted to see me?"
"I wanted to see how you were doing today." He was sitting at his desk, his posture relaxed.
"I'm doing better." She nodded at him. "Other people seem to have confidence in me, so maybe I should start listening to them." She chuckled. Kelly and Cassie were over the moon she got chosen, thrilled that their house was being represented. When Stella expressed her concerns, they immediately shushed her and told her it wouldn't have chosen her name if she wasn't the best person to represent Hogwarts.
"Ah yes." He smiled, "That seems to be a common trait among the Ravenclaws."
"What do you mean, sir?"
"A lack of confidence in your own abilities." His eyes followed her as she took a seat in front of him. Her cheeks got red at the statement. "You're afraid of failure, so you have a difficult time committing to tasks you don't believe you can achieve. However, in reality, you are more powerful than you know." He smirked, "Take that as my word of advice. And please know I don't go around saying this to all my students; you have an extraordinary talent for magic. I have only seen intelligence like yours in a few others in my lifetime."
"I really appreciate that, Professor. But I'm afraid it's going to take a lot more than my book smarts to survive this competition, let alone win." Stella awkwardly chuckled. She had never received praise from her Professors before, so she had a difficult time figuring out how to respond.
"Do you think you're only worthy trait is intelligence?" His eyebrow lifted.
"Well, I was put in Ravenclaw for a reason wasn't I?"
"Just because you're in the House of wisdom does not mean you are not brave, or loyal, or ambitious." He explained, "You have more courage than you give yourself credit for."
"You honestly think that?" She asked.
"Don't tell McGonagall I said this, but," He looked around playfully, pretending someone was there to eavesdrop on the conversation. The Headmaster's lighthearted energy made Stella laugh a little bit. "I would dare to say you have more bravery than some of her Gryffindors." He winked at her. She sat back with a smile, feeling confidence rise in her.
"That means a lot." She was genuinely grateful he called her up to talk to him and made a mental note to herself to come to Dumbledore if she ever needed a pep talk.
"Yes, well anyways. I wanted to check-"
"Professor!" A voice boomed out from behind Stella. She felt herself jump, before turning around to see who had barged into Dumbledore's office.
It was Cedric.
His cheeks were pink and he was breathing heavy, like he was running. His face no longer held a pained, angry expression. He looked like his normal self which made Stella tilt her head in confusion.
"Mr. Diggory, is there something the matter?" Dumbledore immediately stood up, sensing the boy's urgency.
"I know who put Stella's name in the goblet." His voice cracked slightly.
"Who?" Stella asked, also standing up. Her body heated up in suspense and her heart seemed to beat a little faster, anxiety racing through her veins.
"Mr. Diggory, that's a heavy accusation. Are you positive you know for sure?" Dumbledore stepped forward, walking towards the boy.
"Yes. I'm absolutely sure of it." He looked down, sighing. "I-I know who did it because-"
He paused, and looked at Stella.
"It was me. I put Stella's name in the Goblet of Fire."