Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(67) Feelings

Florence,

Thank you for informing me about Harry. He has written to me about it as well, on the next day after your letter arrived. I would say that I am very alarmed with his safety, and if it's not too much trouble, please do look out for him as much as you can. He is confused with what he should be doing, and I hope you could assist him in some way to overcome this Tournament.

Hoping you are well,
Snuffles

PS: your mum caught me using the door in the elves' quarters. I didn't rat you out, I promise. But I, myself, am royally screwed.

-

The first task was the talk of the whole castle for days on after it happened. Noel had been very much chattery during his tutoring sessions with Florence. He was joined by his friend Lisa, who Florence was happy to help as well.

"And then when Harry opened the egg, something screamed inside it like a bloody banshee!" Noel told Florence about the egg, that was supposedly a clue for the next task. Even if Fred and George had filled her in on the details, she liked to hear the story again and again, working up her brain by trying to process what the clue was supposed to be.

"Are you sure it was just a scream, though? Not words of some kind?" Florence asked.

"Nobody listened to it that long because it was too loud. It might be words, but Harry has to get past the irritating noise to understand it. Dunno how he's gonna do that, though." said Noel, before scribbling something down on his parchment, before showing it to Florence. "Does this look right?"

She squinted at the paper, before jabbing one of the sentences, "You might want to rephrase that... Lisa, how are you doing with your Arithmancy?"

"Just a few more sentences—" there was a loud giggle that erupted from behind one of the bookcases, startling the three as Madame Pince let out an equally loud shushing sound, before resuming her library work.

"I wonder why those girls spend so much time ogling over Viktor Krum," Noel rolled his eyes, looking at the Bulgarian Quidditch player that sat near the bookshelf where the giggle had came from, "He clearly has no interest in them or whatsoever."

"I suppose they're trying to get him to ask one of them out to the Yule Ball." muttered Lisa in boredom, now doodling flowers on her scrap parchment.

Both Noel and Florence turned to her, utterly bewildered, "What Ball?"

"The Yule Ball," Lisa repeated, the looks on their faces making it clear that they were clueless to what she was saying, "You know? It's a tradition for every triwizard tournament to host a winter ball. Dancing and stuff... I suppose. I heard it was a very popular ball back in the days."

"How'd you know about that?" asked Noel, to which his best friend simply rolled her eyes at him, "It's called reading, Johnson. You should do more of it, you know."

"I don't suppose we're going to have it too this year?"

"It's possible. I mean, a Triwizard Tournament wouldn't be complete if they took off one of the most famous traditions of it." Lisa said, "My mum's going ballistic this early, looking for a dress for me."

"A ball would be cool," said Florence, "The first school dance Hogwarts will have in a long time..."

"And!" Lisa added, "I'll get to see Noel in formal clothes," she giggled, making Noel frown.