| Inked | (George Weasley)

Chapter Seventy-Five

"Nat, have you seen Cho?"

Olive pulled a knit hat over her head, her sneakers crunching over dirt and dead leaves as she walked just behind Nat and Marjorie.

The entire student body (and their guests from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang) was headed down towards the Black Lake, which was apparently where the Second Task would be taking place. Olive was surprised that her earlier inklings were right, but was still a little confused on what exactly would be happening there.

And where was Cho?

"Cho? No, I assume she went down to the lake early with Cedric." The blonde walked hand in hand with Marjorie. The Beauxbaton student was wearing the Ravenclaw's jumper and scarf, not having brought much to combat against the cold. Olive found it cute, especially since Nat was several inches taller than her, so the sleeves and length of the jumper were a bit long.

"Good point." Olive shoved her hands into her pockets, wishing she had brought gloves... or if she had someone's hand to hold.

Speaking of, where was he?

She looked around, her eyes scanning the rows of students, searching for two tall figures with ginger hair and terrible marketing skills taking advantage of the abundance of students. Fred and George would not miss an opportunity to plug their slowly growing business.

"Olive," Marjorie turned to the raven-haired girl, "Where is your tall ginger friend?"

Her slight accent made the word ginger sound like ging-air, which made Ollie giggle just slightly. However, at the mention of George, her cheeks threatened to turn pink. She looked around again, shrugging her shoulders with the slight shake of her head.

"That's a good question." She said, "I'm... not sure?"

She wanted to add that she wasn't entirely sure that George and her were dating... but guessing by the amount of time they had been spending together lately... and the kissing... that topic was definitely up for debate.

Besides, as they got closer to the Black Lake, the more she wondered where Cho was, and less about the fact that she was currently the awkward third-wheel to Nat and Marjorie's mini-date... or whatever hanging out at the Second Task together counted as...

As she turned around to see if George was maybe somewhere behind her, she spotted a very tense-looking Harry, his shoulders stiff and his face a very pale shade of white as he walked alone down to the lake. Something slimy stuck out of the pocket of his robes, which caused the Ravenclaw to furrow her brows.

"I'll see you two later?" Olive said to Natalie and Marjorie, waving to them with a small smile before walking away. She backtracked, slowing down to allow the Gryffindor Champion to catch up with her.

"Harry?" Olive greeted him with a curious look, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fantastic." He quipped back suddenly, then when he realized who had greeted him, "Sorry, Olive... I'm..."

"You look nervous." She fell in-step beside him, "What's on your mind?"

She was wondering why Harry was walking alone down to the Second Task, when his two best friends were almost always by his side. Harry looked around, as if wondering where Ron and Hermione were himself, then turned to Olive with a tired sigh.

"I was able to figure out what the next task is," He began, "But I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to pull it off. I'm completely unprepared."

Olive looked back out to the Black Lake, where students were being corralled into a horseshoe shaped crowd around the shore of the lake. Two of the champions, Cedric and Fleur, were already standing ankle-deep in the water, shivering as they waited for the Second Task to begin.