𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱, fred weasley

˗ˋ 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
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-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH SHE'S HOMESICK

. . .

With everything going on, from being chosen as a champion on the night of Halloween, to the first task on the 24th of November, it seemed like Elodie had barely had time to breath. 

Balancing being a champion and going to classes had ended up being rather a pain. First, when she was called out of class, she would need to catch up on the work. She would need to somehow do all her homework as well as preparing for the task - which ended up taking so much time that she barely had any time to herself. 

But now the first task was over, and in comparision to the past month, Elodie was almost overwhelmed by the amount of free time she had. On the weekends she could sleep in - hell she could even sleep in on weekdays, arriving in the Great Hall just minutes before the bell for first lessons rang.

She could now spend more time on her homework, rather than trying to finish it in the quarter hour before she fell asleep. The time she had after school could now be spent relaxing rather than reading books on spells and then rushing to empty classrooms to practise said spells. 

And it wasn't just once a week, it was every day and night until the task. She worried constantly and her mood could slip from happy to sad and any given moment - but somehow for others, she managed to stay pretty happy. 

If anyone really noticed the fake happiness, it was Fleur - who had always tried to get her to go to bed earlier and save the homework for another day, or convince her to take a few hours off on Saturday and hang out with her.

Now that the preperation period was over, Elodie felt horrible for ignoring Fleur's words, but during the time, she had felt so stressed towards the task that she couldn't fully realise that she was running herself ragged. 

And of course, it hadn't bothered the Beaumont girl during the time, but now she couldn't really believe that she had let herself get that bad. Of course - now she had more time to think and breath, it came with positives, but also negatives, such as taking time to reflect on how horribly she had been treating herself.

With her left arm bandaged up for Merlin knows how long, Elodie couldn't exactly do anything energetic or sporty, and instead stuck to sitting in the library corner with Fleur, laughing in the golden, dust filled light. 

But eventually, Fred and George ended up inviting her to the Gryffindor common room, not for any reason in particular but just to hang out. And there they were sat,  next to a window, all of them trying to do their Transfiguration homework. 

Or - Fred and George were trying to read Elodie's tiny, swirling handwriting that the homework was written in to try and copy it, whilst the girl herself was sat, leant against the wall a little bit, quill hovered over a blank piece of paper. 

The night before, just as she was about to slip into what would be a rather empty, dreamless sleep, a pang of homesickness had hit the girl. She was yet to be hit by this emotion, and seeing as she had adjusted pretty well to Hogwarts life and was so busy, she literally forgot to be homesick.

She had assumed that just because she was so comfortable there, that she could skip out on the whole homesick thing, and that she would just miss her family a normal amount. But no, the homesickness had come all at once, and it had almost stopped her from sleeping. 

Elodie had decided to write her family a letter - it was the quickest way she could communicate with them, and explain why she couldn't really have written in the weeks before. She was pretty sure that Madame Maxime will have informed her parents briefly about what had happened - she had been selected for the tournament, had done will in the first task but practically split her arm in half.

And so, she only summarised this quickly, in the first paragraph. But now, she wasn't entirely sure on what else to put in there. "You're gonna have ink blots." Fred murmured to her, not even looking up from his parchment as he used his free hand to pull Elodie's hand from over the parchment, it resting on the table instead.

"Quite quiet today, huh?" George said, a few minutes later, looking over to Elodie, then his brother, who did the same, putting down their quills and smiling when they saw the girl. 

She had fallen asleep, hand still clutching her pen in the position that Fred had moved it to. "She's exhausted." The twin told George, as he saw the dark bags under her eyes. "You would be though, wouldn't you. Chuck us that." Fred gestured at the cushion next to George.

Getting the cushion, Fred gently moved Elodie's head so that she was leaning on the cushion, and not on the hard wall. The twins would stay there until Elodie woke up, letting the poor girl sleep.

They had witnessed almost every mooment of Elodie preparing for the tournament, but due to her attititude, they hadn't really noticed how exhausted she had become.

And after the month of the twins helping her out, they would at least let her sleep - she deserved it.

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