stardust ⋮ george weasley

forty-one :

F O R T Y - O N E

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Before Adeline could even have time to react, the Third Task had seemingly arrived like that.

Adeline had barely taken a break the entire year, and the gap between January and May was no exception. Even though Adeline was exempt from her final examinations at the end of the term, she spent nearly every spare bit of time with her best friends, with George, or practicing for the Final Task – sometimes a combination of all three. Professor Flitwick had practically given up his classroom for Adeline to practice in when he wasn't teaching, and there had been too many days where Estelle or George would have to drag her out of there.

It seemed as if May 24th was shaping up to be the perfect day. Adeline nearly found herself blinded that morning when Delilah opened up the curtains of Ravenclaw tower and the bright sun came shining in. The past few months had been so gloomy and cloudy at Hogwarts that the sunshine felt like such a refreshing change of pace.

All of the Great Hall seemed to be bursting with excitement when Adeline walked in that morning for breakfast, and that attitude continued when she returned for lunch later that day. It seemed as if every student had wished her luck that morning, even the Gryffindors who were still supporting Harry at this point. Adeline sat at the Ravenclaw table, trying her best to eat her lunch even with Estelle and Ophelia talking loudly beside her.

None of them, even Adeline, seemed to notice that Melanie was much more quiet than usual.

Melanie didn't want to tell Adeline that something just didn't feel quite right to her. All of her friends were celebrating and were so excited for the upcoming task, but there was just this sinking pit in Melanie's stomach that she didn't quite know how to explain. There seemed to be nothing that was wrong, which led Melanie to be confused as to why she felt this way.

So she sat quietly and tried to act as if everything was normal and fine, when in reality Melanie couldn't help but feel something terrible was about to happen.

Near the end of lunch, Adeline felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Fleur looking down at her. "Our families are here! For the final task!" Fleur exclaimed, gesturing for Adeline to follow her. "Don't you want to see 'zem?"

Adeline didn't want to tell Fleur that there was likely no chance of her family showing up. So she walked along with Fleur and listen to her talk excitedly about her family and just planned on sneaking away when she had the chance.

When the pair arrived, Fleur noticed how there were only three families waiting in the room, and how Viktor was talking to one of the families and Adeline wasn't rushing over to the other. For a moment, Fleur thought that maybe her family hadn't arrived yet. But when she managed to catch a fleeting, sad look in Adeline's eyes, Fleur suddenly felt awful that she had pulled Adeline there with her.

So she quickly made a decision. Fleur took Adeline by the arm and dragged her over to introduce her to her family, telling her that she wanted her family to meet her "new Hogwarts friend."

On the other side of the room, Harry was happily greeting Mrs. Weasley and Bill, who had come to watch Harry in the Third Task that evening along with Mr. Weasley, who was still at work at the time but was going to be there soon.

"So, what are the other champions like?" Bill asked, his gaze occasionally flicking towards a certain silver-haired French girl. "Apparently this Tournament used to bring out the worst in all the Champions."