The Girl Everyone Forgot About

Chapter 19

Sleep? What even is that? Evie was beginning to forget. Today was the day of the first task and she hadn't been able to sleep a wink.

She was sat out on her balcony while the rest of the school were in the great hall eating breakfast. Evie was far too nervous to eat anything right now and opted for a hot cup of tea and some fresh air instead.

Yesterday, she had spent the whole evening revising with Draco. He had been helping her prepare for the task ever since he had seen her studying alone in the library one day. She was thankful he had asked her if she wanted a last minute revision session, she feared she would go insane just sat around waiting until morning

It had been just over a week since Ginny had gone MIA. Thankfully, the girls had spoken a few days ago and Ginny apologised for her disappearing act, blaming the stress of the tournament for her actions. Evie wasn't convinced it was the tournament that had Ginny acting strange but let it slide. She was just happy to have her friend back.

After spending the morning drinking tea on the balcony, writing letters to Remus, she decided to go inside. Still in her pyjamas, Evie got dressed. Meanwhile, Galahad arrived with a letter from Remus and her family. The letter was short and sweet, wishing her the best of luck for the first task. Once dressed, Evie headed down to the common room where everyone had now gathered in a large group.

"Ah here she is finally - Everyone listen up! Today is a big day. We have two of the finest witches and wizards Hogwarts has to offer, representing our great house today. We actually have a chance of winning with you two. So Evie, Leo, we all wish you the very best of luck!" Cedric announced as the rest of the group cheered.

The announcement by Cedric had made Evie blush, not used to the attention. "Thanks Digs!" Evie uttered as the crowd of Hufflepuffs disappeared.

The task was taking place after lunch. Once Evie had finished her pitiful amount of soup, she headed straight for the courtyard. It had been set up as an arena for the task to take place.

Taking the far left podium, which had her name on it, Evie wished the other competitors good luck as she walked over to her designated space. Crowds began to form around the courtyard as people arrived to show their support. No surprise that all Weasley's had attended, along with Harry to support both Ginny and Evie. The swarm began to chatter loudly among themselves until Dumbledore came.

"Silence!" he commanded. Everyone stopped talking immediately. "Welcome all, as you know today is the first task of our house tournament. Each head of house will form our judging panel, including myself to make sure that the grading is fair," he continued, "Each champion will be marked out of 10. We will be scrutinising their technique, accuracy and speed..." Turning to the champions he revealed that the potion they would be making was a cure for boils. "Let the task begin!" Dumbledore announced.

Dried nettles, snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, porcupine quills and flobberworm mucus, were the ingredients needed for this potion. Evie remembered that at the start of the year, Snape had quizzed them on this exact potion.

Evie liked potions. Snape had always been kinder towards her than the rest of the class, she didn't know why. She guessed that he liked her more because she actually took a keen interest in the subject.

From the large array of ingredients laid out in front of them, Evie took what she needed and made a start. The children had to complete the potion from memory as no text books were allowed. Evie was just hoping she wouldn't miss any of the steps out.

Unsurprisingly, Ginny finished first. She was very good at potions, despite not having much of an interest in the craft. After a short deliberation she was given a score of 8.7. Evie gave a warm smile and a big thumbs up, she was glad Ginny had done so well.

Next to finish was Morgan from Ravenclaw. The black haired boy was quick but it seems his accuracy or technique was off as he 7.2. After that, Rose (Slytherin) finished, she received 8.1. Thankfully, Ginny was still in the lead.

Evie grew more nervous by the second. She looked up at the crowd who were intently watching the first year competitors. As she scanned the crowd, her eyes fell on Harry who gave her a small, reassuring smile. Her eyes glided across the swarm of people, there she saw Draco, who gave her a reassuring nod. She felt so lucky to have so many people supporting her.

Finally, Evie had finished her potion. The judges gathered around her table to assess how well she had done. She had been a little slow but Leo, Juno, Cole and David were still working on their potion. As Evie nervously waited for her results, she picked at her fingers and stepped from foot to foot in an anxious jig.

"9.3" Dumbledore declared.

A huge cheer came from the crowd, who were now whooping at Evie's success. Evie stood still, her jaw slightly gaped. She couldn't believe it. 9.3! She had now taken the top spot. Ginny turned and smiled at Evie with her hand stretched for a high five, which Evie gladly reciprocated.

"Fantastic Evie, I Knew you would smash it, even if you did take my top spot," Ginny winked.

When the others had finally finished their potions, the winner was announced. Thankfully Evie had managed to keep her win, with Ginny close behind.

As the crowd dispersed, Ginny invited Evie back to Gryffindor common for a mini celebration party. Evie gladly accepted of course. She left to get changed into more comfortable clothes before dinner, but was stopped by Draco on her way.

"9.3 aye, not bad Evelyn," Draco hummed.

"Couldn't have done it without your help of course," Evie clarified.

"Nonsense, of course you could," he assured her.

"Well either way, I appreciate your help," Evie bumped Draco's shoulder with hers as they walked.

...

After dinner, Evie was sat in Gryffindor common with everyone, drinking a cup of tea. They had all congratulated Evie and Ginny on their success. Fred and George even managed to sneak some extra pudding out of the great hall, with the help of Ron, to add the celebrations.

Once the cake was eaten, the twins and Harry began to talk about Quidditch. From what Evie overheard, they had a big game coming up against Slytherin. They were very animated when they were talking, Ginny was engrossed in the conversation too.

"I want to be a chaser one day," Ginny whispered.

Evie pulled a face.

"You never did tell me why you hate flying so much..." Ginny stated rather loudly. It pulled the boys from their conversation.

"You dont like flying!?" Fred practically shouted.

"No, I've had some bad experiences on a broom. Scarred me for life... quite literally," Evie chuckled.

"Oh really, what happened?" Harry asked.

Evie proceeded to tell them all of the incident 4 years ago. Evie had been begging Remus to let her fly. She loved the idea of being in the air, floating, gliding. So he had finally given in. Turns out she had been to hasty to get on her broom and it took off before she was ready. She had been a fair few feet in the air, when she fell of it, landing on her right side. The fall had been so bad she had a pretty gruesome elbow break, Hope took her to a muggle hospital where they fixed her up and sent her home. However, she was left with a small scar across her elbow that loosely resembled a snake. The group flinched at her story. Fred of course, asked to see the scar. Obviously, she showed them.

"You just need to get back on with a group of us, that way if you fall, one of us will catch you," Fred joked.

"Yeah, you'll love it once you get the hang of it," Harry explained.

After much persuading, Evie agreed that she would give it a go over the summer, if she is able to visit them at The Burrow. Realising it was beginning to get late, Harry walked her back to her common room.