Amortentia ~ A Fred Weasley Love Story and Retelling of the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 1 - The Beginning

"Chloe Dakota Halifax if you are not up and ready in ten minutes I will personally charm your legs so they do it for you!"

I opened my sleep filled eyes and groaned. If Mum was using my full name, I knew I had slept well passed the line. Fearing my mothers early morning wrath, I spilled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom.

I was an absolute mess. I had barely slept at all last night, due to my excitement. After spending nearly 3 months at home, I was more then ready to go back to Hogwarts. Hogwarts, even though it was my school and housed all my teachers and their horrid homework, was as much of my home as where my parents lived, perhaps even more so.

My parents, both with magical abilities, had taught me well while I was growing up. My father, who worked at the Ministry for the Department of Magical Transportation, was a more scholarly and strict parent who taught me English and basic muggle knowledge before I attended Hogwarts.

My mother was the juxtaposition of my father. Eccentric, with flyaway hair and hardly any memory at all, she invented the aguamenti charm and murtlap essence. Because of her useful creations, she had become somewhat of a respected figure in the wizarding world, even writing her own biography. She taught me handfuls of helpful magical spells and potions, and because of her early help, I was one of the brightest in my year.

But that was all lost on me in my early morning haze. Fighting off sleep, I detangled my wavy brown hair and tied it back in a pony tail. I pulled on some faded jeans and an oversized Appleby Arrows Quidditch team shirt before heading downstairs. I was short for my age, barely scraping five foot two, and everything I bought tended to hang much too low. Luckily, I was quite slender, and could often get away with wearing kids clothing, even though I would never admit it publicly.

I grabbed my Hogwarts trunk, already packed with clothes, quills, money and textbooks, and hauled it downstairs where I left it at the front door with my broomstick and owl cage. Binx, my tawny owl, was seven years old. When I was eight, I found an egg down a backstreet in Diagon Alley. I showed it to my mother and she took it, saying she would use it for one of her experiments. She was quite surprised when a week later it hatched an owl. She gave it to me as an early birthday present, and ever since Binx has been utterly loyal to me.

I traipsed into the kitchen. Mother was already setting out rashers of bacon onto some buttered toast.

"Oh look who decided to join us," she scolded, though she smiled anyway. "Dad is just picking up a car from the Ministry. He'll be back soon, so eat up, you don't want to miss the train."

I did as I was told, still to sleepy to argue. We lived a couple hours drive from Kings Cross, but still Dad insisted on taking a car. Apparently the Floo Network was having some difficulties and he didn't want to risk something going wrong, hence the early wake up.

As I swallowed my last bite of breakfast, I heard a honk from outside.

"Dads here!" I yelled to mum, who had disappeared into her room. I grabbed my trunk and pulled it outside to where dad was waiting.

"Morning sunshine, good to see you're dealing with the early wake up." Dad threw me a grin, and all I could do was grumble in return. I passed him my trunk and headed back for Binx and my broom. Once everything was packed, I said a teary goodbye to mum, who I knew I would miss horribly. After many hugs and reminders to send weekly letters, I was finally in the car and heading down the freeway, dad humming to the Weird Sisters beside me and Binx hooting from the back seat.

I was finally heading back to Hogwarts.