CHAPTER TWENTY NINE: 𝐒.𝐏.𝐄.𝐖
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The following day arrived, while the trio seemed to be at ease, I was the opposite. Knowing that I shouldn't interfere with Cedric, my anxiety was lingering all over my body.
We arrived at the Great Hall, I was there for breakfast, while the trio was there to look for the students who'll submit their names in the Goblet of Fire.
I quickly ran on the table and grabbed a toast and smeared blueberry jelly over it. I munched quickly due to my neverending hunger. I watched as the trio spoke to the other students.
"Anyone put their names in yet?" Ron asked, grabbing a toast from my hand, in which I returned with a strong kick to the arse.
"Not really, most were from Durmstang. I haven't seen anyone from Hogwarts yet." A third year shrugged.
As if on cue, Gred and Forge with Jordan entered the Great Hall, smiling victoriously holding two small vials.
"We've got the potion, folks!" Fred yelled as they raised their potions.
Everyone from Hogwarts cheered while I just laughed at them, waiting for the outcome of the potion.
"D'you think this will work, Coley?" George nudged me, showing me the vial full of glowing liquid.
"No, but I'd like to see you two fail so I'll wait for the outcome." I crossed my arms, smirking.
"I can't believe you doubted our skills, that hurts." George gasped, placing a dramatic heart on his chest.
"If you fail, you have to stop pulling pranks for a day and let Lee do it by himself." I said, smiling confidently.
"Yeah, that sounds nice. It's Lee's day, baby!" Lee hollered, throwing his fists up.
"A prank? Without us? Did I hear you wrong, love?" George turned to me in disbelief, grinning.
"Yeah, I think Lee has the full potential to pull pranks without you two." I nodded smugly.
George squinted his eyes on me for a second, before nodding.
"Alright.. but, there's a condition. If this potion works, you'll have to go on a date with me." George raised an eyebrow as if to taunt me.
"We have a deal." I nodded, hiding my smirk because I knew what would happen.
That's not cheating, right?
"Alright, what happened here? Just grabbed a quick bite by the table." Fred jogged over to us, wiping off a crumb of toast from his lips.
"There's an interesting bet that I would gladly like to see." Lee grinned, Fred only looked at us in confusion.
"Is that an Aging Potion?" Hermione eyed the vials suspiciously.
"Helped them with it last night, we almost got caught by Snape but we managed." Lee said, sighing in relief.
"One drop each," George grinned, stretching his arms. "We only need to be a few months older."
"We're going to split the thousand Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins," Lee snickered, high-fiving with the twins.
"Well, it's not going to work!" Hermione said in a sing-song voice, sitting down on a bench.
"Oh yeah, Granger? How can you say so?" Fred raised an eyebrow with a taunting grin.
"You see this? This is an Age Line, Dumbledore drew it himself." Hermione pointed around the Goblet of Fire.
"We know, and so?" Fred raised an eyebrow.
"So, a genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be fooled by a dodge as a pathetically dim-witted as an Aging Potion!" Hermione scoffed.
"Well that's why it's so brilliant," George shrugged with a smirk.
"Because it's so pathetically dim-witted!" Fred and George snickered before shaking their vials.
"Ready, Fred?"
"Ready, George!"
"This isn't going to turn out well, I know it." Ron shook his head, his forehead creasing in worry.
The twins drank their Aging Potion, making sure nothing happened, before jumping inside the Age Line.
Everyone cheered as the twins bro-hugged, putting their names inside the Goblet of Fire.
"Here it is!" I mumbled with a smug smile.
Not until the goblet threw back their parchment-written names. The twins were blasted back, causing them to land on their arses. Not just that, they had also grown beards white as snow.
"Oh, crap!" Lee yelled before running out of the Great Hall.
"You said-"
"You said!"
The twins began fighting as everyone hollered, cheering for them.
"I did warn you,"
Everyone went quiet as the twins stopped fighting, standing up properly when we saw Dumbledore standing on the entrance.
"Best to say, let yourselves get fixed by Madame Pomfrey." Dumbledore spoke with amusement as the twins ran out in eagerness to lose their beards.
The trio sat on the tables, starting to eat breakfast. I looked around at the Great Hall, due to the changed atmosphere, I realized there were Halloween decorations everywhere.
"There's a rumor going around that Warrington got up early and put his name in," Dean sat next to us. "That big bloke from Slytherin who looks like a sloth."
"What? We can't have a Slytherin as a champion!" Harry gasped, I nudged him in the ribs.
"Oh-sorry." Harry turned to me before eating.
"And all the Hufflepuffs are talking about Diggory," Seamus said, both eyebrows raised. "But I wouldn't have thought he'd have wanted to risk his good looks."
"Look!" Hermione gestured behind us, we turned and saw Angelina Johnson and a few Gryffindors enter.
"I've done it!" Angelina said as everyone cheered.
"No way!" Ron gasped.
"Are you seventeen yet?" Harry asked with surprise.
"Of course, she is! You didn't see a beard, did you?" Ron rolled his eyes.
"Just turned seventeen, last week." Angelina grinned.
"Well I'm cheering for you, it's great to know there's someone from Gryffindor entering." Hermione smiled.
"Thanks, Hermione!" Angelina said before jogging out of the Great Hall.
"Better you, than Pretty Boy Diggory." Seamus huffed, making other girls glare at him.
"Oh shut up, you're just jealous of Cedric's strikingly good looks." I snorted. A few Hufflepuffs passing by agreed with my statement.
"Fred and George would be jealous of Angelina!" I snickered.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Harry turned to me as he handed me a toast.
"Nope, I already ate." I shrugged.
"Okay, then." Harry ate the toast as we ate in silence. We finished eating in a few minutes, or Ron and I did, Harry and Hermione just took a few bites.
"Do we have any plans today? No classes!" Ron grinned as he stretched with glee, walking around the hall.
"I have an idea!" I raised a hand as the trio turned to me.
"What?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"I say, let's just sleep!" I announced enthusiastically.
"Of course, that's your idea!" Harry scoffed with a small smile. "I don't know how you could still be so sleepy, honestly!"
I shrugged at him with a proud smile as Hermione gasped.
"Wait! I forgot to recruit Hagrid for S.P.E.W!" Hermione jumped up and down excitedly. "Uh, wait for a few minutes, I'll go get my badges!"
"What is it with her?" Ron shook his head as Hermione went to the common room.
"Jills!"
I turned around, along with curious Harry and Ron to see Draco waving at me, stopping when he saw the two.
I gave Harry and Ron a look before walking over to Draco.
"Hobbs! What's up?" I asked.
"I'm fine, I couldn't find the others, it's a good thing I found you." Draco panted a bit as he sighed.
"What? Where are they?" I frowned.
"I don't know, they're not in the common room, they're not in the Astronomy Tower." Draco shook his head, putting his hands on his hips.
"Oh, so that's why I didn't see them in the Great Hall earlier," I nodded before turning to him, "Have you eaten yet?"
"I did, grabbed an apple and finished it on the way here." Draco nodded at me as he showed me the finished apple.
"Good, seeing as you didn't have any plans today, you should come with me." I said as I nudged on his arm.
"Wait, you're going," Draco frowned before throwing a hard look to Harry and Ron, who was now staring at the Beauxbatons ladies, "With them?"
"Oh don't be so harsh, we're going with them, but I promise we'll keep a distance. Then after that, we could find the squad, sounds good?" I raised an eyebrow at him, he looked at me for a moment before sighing with a nod.
"Fine, but don't expect me to be quiet, especially around those three." Draco scoffed as I controlled a smile.
"Good." I pulled on his arm as we met up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who was now holding a box full of badges, labelled S.P.E.W.
"Draco's coming with me, then after that, we'll be splitting with you three." I said as I could feel the boys' tension.
Ron scoffed, "As long as he doesn't ruin our day."
"Why you-"
I was about to stop the both of them from fighting but Hermione already beat me to it.
"Boys!" Hermione's voice boomed, before giving them a stern look.
"Thank God." I sighed in relief.
"By the way, Draco, do you want to join S.P.E.W?" Hermione took a badge and showed it to Draco, who squinted his eyes at her behavior.
"Spew? What even is that?" Draco scoffed.
"It's S.P.E.W, Society Promotion for the Elfish Welfare. Basically supporting elf rights.." Hermione explained. Draco went silent and I knew what that meant.
"Hermione, I don't think Draco wants to-"
"I'll join."
"See? I told you-wait, what?" I turned to Draco, eyes widened, the trio also seemed to be surprised of his reply.
"Oh, then it's settled! Welcome to S.P.E.W! Uh, you need to pay two sickles for a badge." Hermione smiled sheepishly.
Draco sighed before handing her the sickles and grabbing the badge, while I just stood there, like a statue.
"Off to Hagrid's, let's go, S.P.E.W!" Hermione announced before pulling the two boys, while Draco and I were walking behind.
"I'm surprised, I thought these things weren't your thing?" I looked at him with amusement.
"Dobby was my friend, my only friend when I was a kid, but it was unpleasant how he hit himself whenever he did something wrong. Father seemed to be the only one amused by it." Draco huffed as we walked.
"Dobby, sweet elf. Remind me to visit him sometime, last time I saw him was on third year." I spoke.
"Why?" Draco asked in curiosity.
"I just became hungry that night, then I went to the kitchen. Oh, that was the same night when I took Daphne to your common room, by the way." I snorted.
"I'm sorry," Draco said, I looked at him in confusion, "I made fun of you last year."
"No biggie, Hobbs. What matters now is that we're very good friends. I had fun teasing you last year." I winked at him as he gave me a small laugh.
"You'll fit in Slytherin, with us, you know?"
I almost stopped walking at his comment, I refrained myself from looking too shocked.
"I hear that most of the time too, I think the Sorting Hat made a mistake." I jested with a lie.
We stopped talking when we arrived at Hagrid's hut. I felt Draco squeeze my hand, probably to stop himself from speaking a snarky comment to Hagrid.
"'Bout time! I thought you had forgotten where I live! 'Ello there, Malfoy." Hagrid opened the hut's door, my eyes widening at the sight of him.
"Sorry, we've actually been really busy-" Hermione stopped, realizing what Hagrid was wearing.
We were met with the sight of his disheveled appearance, his furry coat, along with a yellow-orange tie. His hair looked like it was slicked with gel, and he attempted to put it in a ponytail, but he failed.
"Uh.. where are the skrewts?" Hermione suddenly blurted out, obviously didn't want to comment about Hagrid's appearance.
"By the pumpkin patch, they've grown three inches, but the problem is, they've started killing each other." Hagrid grimaced.
"That doesn't sound good." Harry spoke.
"Make yourselves at home!" Hagrid gestured to the door while I panicked, knowing Draco wasn't pleased with the idea of entering his hut.
"Hello, Hagrid!" I greeted him as he gave me a smile.
"Draco and I are going to find our, um, friends from Slytherin. So we'll be going-wait let me fix a few things." I stepped back as I pointed my wand at him and chanted "Portanis!"
Hagrid's eyes widened in shock as his furry coat turned silver, his yellow-orange tie turned black.
"Oh, the last detail to change," I tapped my wand gently on his hair, "Ristaris!"
Hagrid's hair was still bushy, but it was now kept in a possible but seemed to be impossible ponytail.
"Madame Maxime would be flattered!" I crossed my arms with a victorious smile.
"'Ow did you know?" Hagrid turned to me in shock.
"I just know." I shrugged.
"Well, thank you, Nicolette." Hagrid bowed at me jokingly.
"You're welcome, bye Hagrid!" I pulled on Draco's arm as we ran up to the castle.
"Thank goodness you pulled me away from there, I could've made a comment." Draco sighed in relief.
"It's a good thing I knew spells about changing appearances, I do make a good fashionista, don't I?" I raised an eyebrow as Draco laughed at me.
"Dream on, Jills."