Jokesters In Love

Chapter Sixteen

Aries’s P.O.V
It was finally the day of the Second Task and both George and Fred were continuing with the whole bet thing as both Ginny and I had walked past them, “don’t be so mean” Ginny said to them and I shrugged a little before we continued walking over to the boats. By the time we had gotten there Dumbledore had soon spoken up to everyone, “Welcome to the Second Task. Last night, something was stolen from  each of our champions. A treasure of sorts. These four treasures, one for each Champion, now lie on the bottom of the Black Lake. In order to win, each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough, except for this, they will have but one hour to do so, and one hour only. After that, they’ll be on their own. No magic will save them. You may begin at the sound of the cannon.” Dumbledore said before the cannon went off and they had gone into the water, a moment later, Harry had surfaced before diving back in and I smiled hoping that he was going to be alright. After a while, Fluer was the first to surface before the others but without whoever she was supposed to get from the lake as the girls from her school had made sure she was alright and warmed up before waiting for the others and after Cedric had surfaced with Cho, Krum had surfaced as well with Hermione and after they had made it to the docks, I went over to help her and gave her some towels and a robe to put on, “are you alright Hermione?” I asked her, “yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be alright.” she said before we looked and waited for Harry hoping that he was doing alright. After a few moments longer, Ron and what looked like Fleur’s sister had surfaced and there were people helping to get them out of the water before Harry had finally flown out of the water and landed on the docks before I had gone to Ron with a couple of towles after seeing Fleur kiss his cheeks and I chuckled a little at his reaction, “you alright there mate?” I asked him, laughing a little and he nodded without saying anything, “looks like you enjoyed what she did.” I said to him teasing him a little, “it was brilliant.” he said before wrapping the towels around him and heard people cheering Viktors name before Dumbledore had gotten everyone’s attention, “Attention. The winner is, Mr. Diggory who showed innate command of the Bubble-Head Charm. However seeing as Mr. Potter would have finished first had it not been for his determination to rescue not only Mr. Weasley, but the others as well, we’ve agreed to award him second place for outstanding moral fibre.” Dumbledore said and we cheered for Harry.

By the time we made it to the Castle’s ground, I was walking with the twins and the other’s as we talked, “all that moral fibre, eh?” one of them said, “moral fibre. Blimey. Even when you go wrong, it turns out right.” Ron said to us, “yeah, well done Moral fibre.” one of the twins said to him, “see you at Hagrids Harry'' Ron said to him as he walked away with Mr. Crouch and I gently held onto George’s hand the entire way back to the Castle as we talked the entire time and by the time we eventually made it back to the Castle and into the Common Room, Fred, George and I had hung out for a while before Fred had left George and I alone for a bit before we started talking about our feelings for each other, “so, about our feelings for each other. That night during the Ball was the best night of my life. I would relive all over again if I wanted to.” George said and I smiled a little, “I couldn’t agree more. I loved it, and you.” I said to him and he smiled as well as we sat on the floor in front of the fireplace as we held hands and I rested my head on his shoulder, “and I love you.” he whispered which made me blush a little, “go out with me?” I heard him ask and I looked to face him, “are you asking me to be your girlfriend?” I asked him, smirking a bit and he smiled and nodded as I sat on his lap, “then yes, I will be your girlfriend.” I said to him before kissing him before resting our foreheads together as I caressed his cheeks.

Later on that night, before George and I were about to head to bed before Harry, Ron and Hermione had come back into the Common Room, “what’s wrong, I thought you guys were going to Hagrids?” I asked him, “something happened to Barty Crouch.” Hermione said and I was confused, “what happened? Is he alright?” I asked them and they all just looked at each other before Ron spoke up, “Harry found his body in the forest.” he said and I just stood there, “what do you mean? Are you guys saying that he’s dead or something?” I asked them and they all nodded before Ron and Hermione had gone back to their dorms and so did George as it was just Harry and I in the room, “are you alright?” I asked him but he said nothing, “I’ll take that as a no.” I said as he sat down and I sat next to him, “I’m scared Aries. I don’t want to do this anymore.” he said and I sighed, “I know but at this point you’re too far into the Tournament to walk out now.” I told him and he just sighed, “I guess you’re right. Anyways, I’m going to get changed and then going to talk to Dumbledore. Do you want to come with me?” he said and I nodded, “yeah, sure.” I said and waited for him to come back down and when he did, we left the Common Room and made our way to Dumbledore’s office. By the time we got there, we began to hear people talking and one of them being the Minister of Magic and  furrowed my brows a bit as they were talking about what had happened before we heard Professor Moody speak up before the door had opened, “Oh Harry, Aries. Harry, Aries, how good to see you both.” the Minister told us, “we can come back later, Professor.” Harry told Dumbledore, “oh not necessary, Harry and Aries. The Minister and I are done. I’ll be back in a moment. Minister, After you.” Dumbledore said as he began walking toward the door, “oh Harry and Aries, do feel free to indulge in a little Licorice Snap in my absence. But I have to warn you, they're a wee bit sharp.” Dumbledore said as he grabbed one and left the room and Professor Moody had done the same not long after and I noticed Harry grab a handful of the Licorice Snaps, “be careful with those, you might want to eat them before they do anything.” I mentioned just before they began to move and one of them had bit his finger and the rest of them started jumping around and not long after Harry had tried stepping on them, something had opened, “Harry, look” I said as it moved out from the wall and both Harry and I walked toward it wondering what it was before Harry had put his face into the water that was in the bowl. After some time had passed, Dumbledore had walked back into his office and told him how it happened as I sat on the steps while he stood next to Harry before he eventually came away from the bowl, “Curiosity is not a sin, Harry. But you should exercise caution. It’s a Pensieve. Very useful if, like me, you find your mind a wee bit stretched. It allows me to see once more things I’ve already seen. You see, Harry and Aries, I’ve searched and searched for something, some small detail, something I might have overlooked, something that would explain why these terrible things have happened. Every Time I get close to an answer, it slips away. It’s maddening.” Dumbledore explained and I furrowed my brows a bit wondering what he was on about before Harry spoke up, “sir? R. Crouch’s son. What exactly happened to him?” Harry asked him, “he was sent to Azkaban. Destroyed Barty to do it. But he had no choice. The evidence was overwhelming. Why do you ask?” Dumbledore told him, “it’s just that I- I had a dream about him. It was in the summer, before school. In the dream, I was in a house. And Voldemort was there, only he wasn’t quite human. And Wormtail was there too. And Mr. Crouch’s son.” Harry told Dumbledore, “have there been others like this dream?” Dumbledore asked him, “yes. Always the same one.” Harry told him as Dumbledore walked away from him and over to where Harry saw the memory, “sir, these dreams, what I see, you don’t think it’s actually happening, do you?” Harry asked him, “I bloody well hope not.” I said to them, “I think it’s unwise for you to linger over these dreams Harry. I think it’s best if you simply cast them away.” Dumbledore said, taking out another memory.

Both Harry and I eventually left Dumbledore’s office, “I have a bad feeling about Professor Moody because ever since he came here, these things started happening, your name coming out of the Goblet of Fire, Barty Crouch’s death, all of it.” I told Harry as we were walking down one of the halls before we hear Igor Karkaroff speaking to Professor Snape just as we were walking past the room they were in, the door had opened revealing the both of them and they both had noticed us standing there just before Igor walked out of the room after covering his arm back up and we were about to leave as well before Snape called our names, “Potter, Black. What’s your hurry?” he asked us, “we were trying to get back to our Common Room.” I told him as we walked up to him, “congratulations, your performance in the Black Lake was inspiring. Gillyweed, am I correct?” Snape said to Harry, “yes sir.” Harry said to him, “ingenious. A rather rare herb, Gillyweed. Not something found in your everyday garden. Nor is this.” Snape said as he walked in the room to grab something, “what’s that supposed to mean?” I asked him as he made his way back to us, “know what it is?”  he asked us and I shook my head before Harry spoke up, “Bubble Juice sir?” Harry asked, “Veritaserum. Three drops of this and You-Know-Who himself would spill his darkest secrets. The use of it on a student is, regrettably, forbidden. However, should you ever steal from my personal stores again, my hand just might slip over your morning Pumpkin Juice.” Snape told us, “We haven’t stolen anything,” Harry told him, “don’t lie to me. Gillyweed may be innocuous, but Boomslang Skin, Lacewing Flies? You and your little friends are brewing Polyjuice Potion, and believe me I’m going to find out why.” he told us, “you’re bloody mad. We haven’t taken anything from your bloody stores and none of us are making Polyjuice Potion either. So instead of blaming us for something we didn’t do, why don’t you ask or blame anyone else who’s possibly doing it, for once and just maybe you’ll get an answer then.” I told him and he slammed the door in our faces and Harry and I soon walked away and headed back to the Common Room for the night, “are you alright Aries? I’ve never seen you act out like that before.” Harry asked me and I sighed a little, “I don’t know. My mind is everywhere at the moment and to be honest, I just want to go to bed.” I told him and we eventually made it to the Common Room and went to our Dorms for the night.