Echo | Harry Potter - George Weasley

Chapter 54: The Second Task

It was the evening before the second task and even though Harry had told Shaye that he, Ron, and Hermione were going to decipher the clue from the egg themselves and that she should rest, she just couldn't sit still.

Shaye had been able to spend months on end in bed just fine, wallowing in her grief and guilt. Now that she had the riddle bouncing around in her head, she felt as if she might lose her mind if she spent one more second in her dormitory, staring at the same plain wall.

She repeated the four short sentences over and over again. Harry had speculated that the first part referred to merpeople in the Black Lake, but as for recovering what had been taken, they were all at a complete loss.

Staring up at the clock on the wall, Shaye noted the time. Harry, Ron, and Hermione would still be in the library. 

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Shaye leaned back against the bed's headboard and closed her eyes. As soon as she did so, she saw her dad's face in the darkness and her breathing hitched. The next thing she knew, she was jumping out of bed, throwing on a sweater, and rushing out the door of her dormitory.

It was just after dinner, so Shaye knew that the common room would still be full of Gryffindors. She could hear their voices as she descended the steps and hoped that they would all give her a little bit of space and simply ignore her, which they had been able to do so perfectly when they had pinned her and Harry as a couple of cheats. Oh, how Shaye wished she could go back to being hated instead of pitied.

By then, the whole school had heard about poor Shaye Frazier's dead dad. The once heroic dragon-tamer had been bedridden and rumours had even circled that she had quit the tournament altogether and gone home. The rumours were wrong, of course; they usually were. But still, kids seemed shocked when they saw her enter the common room nonetheless. 

Quills dropped onto tabletops, books were shut, conversations hushed. All eyes turned to gawk at the devastated champion. Then the whispering started. Shaye heard faint snippets of the conversations as she stood by the stairs, unsure if she should continue on or turn around and go back to bed.

"Wow, she's so brave."

"Do you think she's competing tomorrow?"

"I heard her dad isn't actually dead. She just made it up to gain support for her and Potter."

"I thought she went home."

"All right, everyone!" A stern voice cut through the blatant gossip. George rose from the corner of the room where he had been sitting with Fred and Lee. "Show a little respect. Stop your staring and go back to your mediocre lives. There's nothing to see here."

Shaye felt a wave of relief wash over her and she smiled as George moved across the room toward her, threw an arm over her shoulders, and escorted her out of the common room. Once they were in the much emptier corridor, she exhaled. 

"Thank you." Shaye looked up at George and realized that even though she hadn't seen him much at all in months, he still looked the same as she remembered. Usually, over the summer, the twins changed ever-so-slightly—like most people did. Over these months, however, he had stayed the same.

"Don't mention it." George brushed it off as no big deal. His eyes then softened as he looked down at her. "You doing okay?"

Shaye shrugged, her mind wandering. She had no idea how to answer that question anymore. She certainly felt better than she had on the night of the Yule Ball, but with that relief came the guilt for slowly getting over her grief. She didn't know what the right amount of time to grieve the death of a loved one was. She figured it was probably different for everyone, but she wasn't sure.