Sketchbook ~ A George Weasley Fanfiction

Chapter Six - The Four Champions

"Paige," Fred yelled out to me from down the hall, attracting a lot of attention like the Weasley twins tend to do. "Come on we have to head to the Great Hall now if we want to get good seats."

Both boys stood towering over me and Hermione as we were making our own way to the Great Hall. "Right, I was going to sit with Hermione tonight."

"What? But you promised you'd sit with us," George said, as they both made pouting faces that kind of had the opposite effect of what they wanted them to do.

"No, I didn't promise at all actually," I said.

"Is this about this morning? We said we were sorry Paige. You know we didn't mean it," Fred said, putting a hand on my shoulder that I immediately pushed off.

"No, it's not about this morning. I just want to sit with Hermione tonight," I said and before either of them could say anything, I added, "I'm allowed to have friends that aren't the two of you."

"Of course you are, Paige," Fred said.

"Just not right now," George added.

Hermione and I shared a look.

"How about tonight I sit with Hermione and I promise I'll sit with you guys at all of the tasks, okay?" I said and walked away after I saw them reluctantly nodded.

Hermione and I continued on our way to the Great Hall with the twins stalking and dragging their feet not too far behind us.

Hermione leans over to me and asks, "What happened this morning? Is that why you came into class so early?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it, it was just Fred and George being assholes like they usually are," I said. She still looked concerned, but nods regardless and decides not to press any further on the subject, which I'm grateful for.

Once everyone had gotten into the Great Hall, Dumbledore called for everyone to take their seats. I did as I said I would and sat with Hermione and, of course, Ron and Harry as well. Although, I don't think Ron was too happy about it. Fred and George sat slightly off to my right on the steps below, right next to Harry. So much for getting away from them for the night. They turned and waved at me and I gave them the sweetest smile I could muster.

"Now the moment you've all been waiting for, the champion selection," Dumbledore said. He waves his hand to dim the lights in the room which turned your attention to the massive glowing goblet in the center of the room. A blue fire blazed on top, dancing off the faces of the student who stared in awe. You would be able to hear a pin drop in the room it was so quiet. The fire flashed red and a small piece of parchment floated right into Dumbledore's hand.

"The Durmstrang champion is Victor Krum." Applause erupted all throughout the room, but also mainly from Drumstring kids who probably thought that they didn't need to hear the other names announced to know that they were going to win.

"The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour." More applause came from the Great Hall as a pretty girl with long blonde hair proudly sauntered over to where the champions stood, but my stomach churned because I had a horrible feeling I knew what was going to happen next. I always get the feeling when I know what's going to happen next. It's like a punch in the gut from the universe saying "Hey, you're not supposed to know that."

"The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory," the Great Hall erupted in cheers for the last time that night, all for the Hufflepuff boy who I couldn't bring myself to feel happy for.

"Oi, Paige, your boyfriends a champion," Fred called up to me.

I reached over and smacked the upside of his head, "Shut up."

"Excellent! We now have out three champions, but in the end, only one will go down in history. Only one will hoist this chalice of champions. This vessel of victory. The Triwizard Cup," Dumbledore shouted and everyone's eyes immediately turned to this beautiful chalice that glowed in the dark hall. It was a light blue cup with silver finishing that looked far too big and fancy to just hold some pumpkin juice.

Everyone's attention turned back to the goblet, though, when it started flashing red. One long piece of parchment fell out and right into Dumbledore's confused hands. Now this I did not see coming.

Dumbledore whispered something I couldn't quite hear at first, but sparked up whispers all around the Great Hall. Then Dumbledore said it louder, "Harry Potter."

Everyone turned to look in the back corner that we sat in as whispers and insults were thrown around the whole room.

"Harry Potter!" Dumbledore yelled louder and Hermione had to physically push Harry out of his seat. He walks slowly towards the other champions and this time when all eyes were on him, it wasn't in a good way. As soon as he was out of sight, everyone starts to talk about it and most people were not saying anything good.

"That's not possible," I said, looking over at Hermione.

"Maybe a seventh year did it as a prank or something," Hermione suggested.

"That still wouldn't explain why the goblet spit out a fourth champion," I said.

"Isn't it obvious? Harry must have done it himself. Potter can't go a day without being the center of attention," Ron said from behind us, which shocked me because I thought if there would be anyone on Harry's side, it would be Ron. I certainly didn't expect to have to be the one to defend him.

"No, he couldn't have. That would have taken an extremely powerful Confundus charm and I don't even think I could pull that off, let alone Harry," I said, but Ron walks off anyways, stomping his feet like a toddler. He'll get over it eventually.

"You mean to tell us you knew how to get our names in the Goblet and you just kept it to yourself that whole time?" Fred asked aghast.

"I told you it's an extremely difficult charm. I didn't think I'd be able to do it and you two definitely wouldn't. Besides, it's not like I wanted to see you die in this tournament," I said.

"Awe, you hear that, Georgie? She cares about us," Fred said, leaning down on my one side to give me a hug as we continued to walk back to the common room.

"Awe," George cooed on my other side, also leaning down. I rolled my eyes and Hermione gave me a knowing smile and walked off ahead of us back to the common room.

"Of course I care about the two of you or else I wouldn't have dragged both of you to the hospital wing yesterday," I said, pushing both twins off of me.

"You know, we always forget how insanely good at charms you are," George said.

"Yea, could be very useful in a prank one day," Fred said.

"I'm sure you'll find a way to make that happen," I said and we walked back to the common room laughing and joking. I had a feeling it would be the last time for a long time that my life would feel normal.