The Gryffindor Royal - Year Four

Chapter Eight

"Oh, yeah? Why's that, Granger?" George asked, as Hermione sighed at them as though they were stupid. "You see this?" she said, pointing to a glowing circle around the Goblet. "This is an Age Line. Dumbledore drew it himself." Hermione continued proudly. Fred and George, glanced at each other, then back at Hermione. "So?" Fred asked cluelessly, to which Hermione scoffed, and laughed a little at what she clearly thought to be the twins' evident stupidity. "So... a genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be stupid enough to be fooled by a dodge as pathetically dimwitted as an Aging Potion."

At that, Fred and George cracked up laughing. "Ah, but that's why it's so brilliant," Fred said. "'Cause it's so pathetically dimwitted." George went on, as the two laughed and uncoiled themselves from Hermione, and stood right outside the boundary of the Age Line. "Ready, Fred?" "Ready, George." In unison, the twins locked arms and said, "Bottoms up," then each took a swig from their vials, and hopped past the magical boundary of the Age Line.

The surrounding students whooped and clapped for the twins, who soaked up the attention gladly. Then, they dropped their names into the Goblet, and high-fived triumphantly when nothing happened. (Y/N) was fully prepared to say "I knew it!" to Hermione at that moment, but that's when the trouble started.

The flames sizzled loudly and shot out to the sides, and two connected with Fred and George, pushing them out of the circle as they yelled. The students burst into laughter when they saw that Fred and George had aged up considerably, and now both sported a shock of white hair and matching beards, which made them look rather like Dumbledore. "You said-" "You said!" "Oh, right, you want a piece of me?!" George got on top of Fred and tackled him, and the two began fighting on the floor in the middle of the Great Hall, as the students cheered them on, with a loud chant of "Fight, fight, fight!" (Y/N) couldn't resist the urge of getting up from her seat, which had an awful view of the fight, and went to stand by Ron and Harry, both of whom were deeply amused by the fight.

Hermione, on the other hand, was not impressed in the slightest, and went back to her book. Mathilde whispered to Shelena that this sort of thing happened in the common rooms at Durmstrang a lot, although Karkaroff would've offered absolutely horrifying punishments to those involved if he'd caught wind of it.

As the fight was about to get even more intense, someone hissed "Krum's coming!" which caused the whole lot of students to fall silent as they watched the world-renowned Seeker, with his surly expression and Karkaroff flanking him, went to drop his name into the Goblet, and even Fred and George were lying quietly on the floor . (Y/N) watched as Krum turned to look at Hermione, and the bushy-haired girl flashed him a shy smile. Hermione Granger was not one to be shy.

After most of the students had cleared out of the Hall, and Hermione and Shelena began waving goodbye to Mathilde, (Y/N) ran up to her two Gryffindor friends, and shocked Hermione by gripping her shoulders tightly from behind. "Hermy! What is up with you and Krum?!" (Y/N) asked, leaning to the right to look Hermione in the eye. But Hermione didn't meet her eye, and instead looked down at the floor, and went bright red. "Oooh, what's this about, hmm? Is someone in love?" Shelena joined in, making kissy faces at Hermione.

"Shut up, both of you! Viktor just happens to enjoy the library as much as I do, and I've seen him in there staring at me a couple times." Shelena and (Y/N) exchanged amused glances, then burst into very loud laughter. "See? In love, Hermy! Just admit it-" "Oh, you want to talk about love, do you, (Y/N)? How about you and Harry, then?" That shut (Y/N) up fairly quick, as Hermione and Shelena laughed at her expression. "Ugh, for the love of Merlin, Shelly, whose side are you on?" (Y/N) groaned, slapping her friend's shoulder. The grey-eyed girl grinned slyly. "I'm an unbiased player, and can therefore tease either one of you with no remorse." she said proudly, causing both Hermione and (Y/N) to roll their eyes at her.