White Heather for Protection

Resurgence

A dark blur barrelled into Heather and Hadrian, almost knocking them to the ground with the force of impact.

"Fawn! Prongslet!"

Smiling at her godfather's exuberance, Heather returned his hug. She'd gotten somewhat used to his tactile affection after being a recurring recipient of his 'love tackles', as he liked to call them. She didn't begrudge him these; she suspected it was a result of the lack of human contact during his years in prison.

"Ready for the Quidditch World Cup?" Sirius said after finally releasing his hold on them.

"You bet!" Hadrian exclaimed, "I can't wait to see Viktor Krum in action!"

"Thanks again for the tickets, Padfoot," Heather said.

"No, problem." He waved them off. "Come on! The Weasleys are already at the clearing with the portkey."

They walked toward where the mass of redheads were gathered. Heather noticed two brunets in the crowd and squinted to get a clearer look. One of them was vaguely familiar. When they neared the group, one of the males turned around and caught sight of them.

"Hey, there are Hadrian and Heather!"

Surprised, she gave a little wave to the whole group. Rian gave the boy a cheerful greeting after doing the same for the rest. "Hello Cedric!"

After Sirius introduced himself, Mr Weasley introduced Cedric and his father, Amos Diggory. Heather thought the man looked nice enough.

"This is the Boy-Who-Lived, eh?" And that impression went up in smoke.

"Nice to meet you, Mr Diggory," Hadrian nonetheless said politely.

"Doesn't look like much," the man said contemptuously. "No wonder you were able to beat him at Quidditch. My son, beating the Boy-Who-Lived!"

With narrowed eyes, Heather said calmly, "Appearances can be deceiving, Mr Diggory. Surely a discerning man like yourself doesn't take anything at face value?" She smiled sweetly at the man's sputtered protests.

To his credit, Cedric looked appropriately mortified by his father's rudeness. "Sorry Hadrian," he whispered after his father turned his back to talk to Mr Weasley. "My father's just really competitive about these things. Wants to be the best. Have the 'best' son." The Hufflepuff's expression showed how much he thought of that.

"S'alright, Cedric. So you excited for the match?" Hadrian asked eagerly.

Heather left them to their conversation, smiling inwardly at the way they immediately closed the gap that she'd left between them.

"Hey there GredForge." The twins were whispering deviously to Sirius, no doubt involving him in one of their schemes. They practically worshipped the ground he walked on. No surprise, considering all the tales she'd told them of the Marauder's conquests. She'd made it clear that she wouldn't tolerate anything bullying or hazing, though.

"Heather-harp! Our good man-"

"-Sirius, here, was just expanding our horizons."

"We never noticed how blind we've been to-"

"-other avenues of pranks!"

"These muggle devices-"

"-he gave us are genius!"

Poor Sirius was rapidly looking between the two, getting dizzier by the second. Their fragmented speech pattern took a while to get used to.

"Just as long as you don't hurt anyone," she reminded them. They winced at the warning, clearly remembering the tongue-lashing she'd given them when a group of first year Claws had tripped and badly abraded their palms and knees because of a prank. She'd also made the two carry the Ravenclaws' books around for three days as recompense.