Diving Into You | Fred Weasley

23 | A Secret for a Secret

The gloom from the night before had passed, but the ceiling of the great hall the following morning had been sporting dark clouds. Naia sat with Fred, George, Lee, Hermione, Ron, and Harry as they looked at their new timetables, well, the third-year students in the group were anyway.

"Our best bet is still an aging potion," Fred mumbled, grabbing an orange slice from Naia's plate and pointing it to Lee. "Then it's possibly getting an older student to do it."

There was rustling above them and over a hundred owls entered the great hall. Fred watched as Naia's eyes lit up, hoping to spot her owl, Aster with letters from her friends. She had been worried sick about them ever since the incident in the Quidditch World Cup.

"C'mon, c'mon.... YES!" She said happily, looking at Aster as she carried more than one letter. Over six envelopes dropped in front of her and she went to scan through them.

"That's a lot of post," George muttered. "Hurry up, Vance we need to hear from Maria!"

Naia laughed, lightly hitting his forehead with an envelope. Two letters were addressed to Harry from her parents, and she reached to hand them to him.

"Fthanks" He muttered, his mouth full of toast. She tore open the letters from her friends and was relieved to find that they were all alright and none of them had gotten hurt during the incident. The other two were from her mother and Sirius, just checking up on her and telling her and Harry where they currently were. Apparently, Sirius had been staying further down south of Europe for the past months, but due to recent events, he and Emmaline had gotten to meet as he traveled back up north, and even managed to be accompanied by Lupin occasionally.

They had all sat down at the Gryffindor table for lunch when Naia saw Hermione swallowing her food hastily. "Er- is this the new stand on elf rights?" Ron asked. "You're gonna make yourself puke instead?" Hermione found out just yesterday that Hogwarts had over a hundred or more house-elves, and she had initially thought it enslavement, causing her to not touch any of her food the night before. "No," She swallowed a pork chop, "I just want to get to the library."

At the mention of the library, Naia's eyes widened as she remembered that she was supposed to meet with Cedric. "I'll go with you, Hermione! I've got stuff to do as well-"

"Oh, Naia I was thinking the same thing! I figured we could begin our research on finding out just what your-er... the situation is."

Naia nodded. "That's a great idea!"

Fred, George, and Lee arrived in the great hall just when Hermione and Naia stood up in haste to rush to the library. "Hey, hey! Where you going, love?" Fred asked.

"Library! I'll see you later!" Naia ran up to him to kiss his cheek and was immediately out door. She didn't realize that everyone had seen, and so Fred looked at her retreating back and turned around to see the students in the hall looking at him. Some with knowing smirks and, a couple with disappointed faces.

"Ho ho hooooooh-"

"Shut it, Jordan," Fred's cheeks reddened. A big smile crept up his face and his mood was instantly lifted after finding out that morning just what had happened to his galleons from Ludo Bagman.

Naia and Hermione ran to the library. As she entered, she scanned the room for the familiar face and spotted him on one of the couches with a book in hand. "I'll uh, catch up with you later, Mione," she said, "Just need to have a word with Cedric," Hermione's face turned into one of confusion as she stared at the Hufflepuff.

"Why?"

"I'll tell you later!" Naia walked off to approach Cedric where he sat. His nose was in the book and he didn't realize she had arrived. Naia put a finger on the book to gently push it down.