To Hell ~ Fred Weasley

Chapter 38.

Getting back to the Burrow after the chaos that followed the Quidditch World Cup brought some peace to Helena, especially when she thought about how she would be back at Hogwarts in a few days.

The sight of the Dark Mark had released mayhem at the Ministry of Magic. Mr. Weasley and Percy would spend most of their day at work as the Ministry was dealing with thousands of complaints from the witches and wizards that attended the Cup and witnessed the skull and the snake in the sky.

News of the story were immediately plastered all over the Daily Prophet. There was an article writen by Prophet correspondant Rita Skeeter, accussing members of the Ministry, including Mr. Weasley, that it had been their fault that the security of the World Cup had been poorly managed.

Helena wrote to Cedric as soon as she got to the Burrow to make sure he was okay. Mr. Weasley had rushed them to their Portkey the morning they left the campsite, and did not have time to talk to the brunette. Cedric had wrote back to her, saying how he felt terrible for losing her in the crowd but was glad she had reunited with her friends before anything bad happened.

On her last day at the Burrow, Helena spent most of it reading several of the books for sixth year Mrs. Weasley had bought for her at Diagon Alley to get an idea on what her adnvanced classes would cover. Hermione was doing the same, sitting on the other couch of the living room as they both shared the room in silence.

"Nina, could you help us up here with something?" yelled Fred from the third floor, interrupting her reading.

She got up from her cozy spot, leaving a quiet Hermione to her book of the Standard Book of Spells Grade 4, and went upstairs to the room Fred and George were sharing with Harry and Ron, only to find just one twin there.

"Where's George?" Nina asked looking around. "You said 'help us'."

"I lied to make you come up here," he confessed without guilt. "You've been acting weird all week. What's wrong?"

She had been spending time with the twins like usual, either helping them fill out forms for their joke products or just messing around, but whenever someone would bring up the World Cup and what happened after, she would fidget with her fingers or excuse herself and find a nook to read. Most of them thought seeing the Dark Mark had upset her, but Fred and George knew something else was bothering her.

"Nothing... why would anything be wrong?" she said airily, tucking her hair behind her ear.

Fred arched his eyebrow.

If he didn't knew her, he would had believed her calm behaviour but he noticed the small habit she had whenever she was nervous or uncomfortable.

And Nina was aware tucking her hair had been a giveaway to the boy.

"Okay, yes. Sorry for acting strange. I'll stop," she muttered, "It's just..."

She shut her mouth close, arguing with herself if she should bring up the subject or not. Fred stared at her, as if he knew what she was thinking about.

"It's just that...you feel weird because I kissed you," he said quietly.

"No... Okay, yes! I mean... You're my best friend and it took me by surprise, of course. I know you said it was in the spur of the moment, but still," she was having a hard time putting into words how she had been feeling all week. "Friends are just... friends."

"Right."

Nina paused, thinking how she didn't want this to keep her from hanging out with Fred.