Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(64) Pre-Tournament Troubles

The following school days were weirder than anyone had even imagined. There was an obvious tension amongst the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs—who usually got along very well in all circumstances. All except one, apparently.

She had heard Jillian Devereaux angry rant to Alexander as she sat with the Ravenclaws for breakfast. To her understanding, the Hufflepuffs felt as if Gryffindor was stealing their Champion's glory. And that house rarely got any recognition for anything, and thought of the given situation as one that was unfair.

This said tension was manifested further during first period, when Olivia Banks had picked a fight with Lee Jordan after having a single conversation about Harry joining the tournament to George. Professor Binns had to call in Professor Sprout,
Who sent the brunette straight to Dumbledore's office.

Cedric did not at all look to happy with this, growing silent as the class went on with their discussion. "Hey, you okay?" she couldn't help but ask her seatmate, who offered her a small, unsure smile, "I don't really like what they're saying about Harry..."

"Well," Florence began, "It's just a big deal for your house, you know? To have someone from their house to represent the whole school."

"I've told them to tune it down a bit," he huffed, "I don't know why Olivia had to do that. Jordan didn't really do anything."

"She'll come to her senses and will know that what she did was wrong," she said, "Now don't think about it too much. We have lessons to catch up with."

"You're right," he smiled, "I shouldn't let this stress me out more than it should."

Lunches weren't all too pleasant either. There was a wave of whispers as Slytherins went across table to table to hand out suspicious looking buttons from table to table. Fred looked furious at this, showing Florence the pin that he had picked up from the ground.

"I mean, seriously?" he grumbled bitterly, "They aught to cut Harry a bit of slack, yeah? He's entering the competition whether they think he deserves it or not. And he's going to win it."

The Slytherins were endlessly handing out buttons to people, even during Florence's free period where she was face-to-face with Draco Malfoy and his cronies.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class?" she questioned the blonde boy skeptically, making him clench his jaw. "That's none of your business, is it? Now are you lot going to take one or not?"

Florence set her book down beside her, glaring up at Malfoy, "Honestly, though, what are you supposedly going to gain out of distributing these nonsense pins?"

"What are you trying to achieve? Aside from making yourself look like a bigger toerag?"

Malfoy's cheeks flushed red, slightly embarrassed to have been told off by a 6th year. Without a single word of retort, he had marched off quickly.

She had also found Harry among a sea of students, all were clearly talking about him behind his back. Seeing as Alexander and Nicolai were nowhere in sight, she went over to the black haired boy.

"Hello," she said, unsure of how to start a conversation with him. It had only occurred to her that she had never had an actual conversation with Harry ever since. He, too, looked startled by her presence, "Oh, uh, hi."

"Sorry, I just, I know we don't know each other that much but you looked like you could use some company."

"No, no, it's okay," he said hurriedly, "I do need some company, thank you. Florence, was it?"