THE REST of Noor's week passed in a blur.

But, before she knew it, it was the day of the Second Task.

She had just come back from another meeting with her sister, bundled up in layers of coats and scarves and a bright smile on her face.

They had been getting along really well. Zara was everything Noor imagined a sister to be. Cool and trendy, with an abundance of knowledge and advice. All the little things that Noor couldn't ask a brother about, and hadn't been comfortable asking her mother about, she could ask Zara.

She made her way over to the Slytherin stands, still in a daze, she scanned the stands, and, upon seeing Blaise, made her way over to him.

Looking at him, she remembered with a start, that Blaise wasn't the only brother she had, she had another one, with an even bigger age gap between them then the one she had with Zara.

"Hey. Earth to Noor." Blaise said suddenly, breaking her out of her trance.

"What?" She asked.

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past ten minutes." He said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, sorry. What do you want?"

"I was just asking why you've been going to Hogsmede a lot lately? What, you've got a hot date?" He asked, smirking.

"What?" She spluttered. "No!"

"Then what?"

Noor stared at the floor, not knowing what to say. She still hadn't told Blaise about Zara. Noor wasn't sure why she hadn't told Blaise, it isn't like what she was doing was illegal. She had every right to talk to her sister.

Thankfully, Noor was saved from saying anything, as Ludo Bagman cleared his throat, using a microphone charm to amplify his voice.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One ... two ... three!"

A shrill whistle sounded and the champions jumped into the lake.

"What is this task anyway?" She asked Blaise.

"Apparently they have to retrieve the 'thing they would miss the most' from the bottom of the lake."

"So we're just meant to stare at a lake for an hour."

Blaise shrugged, "Apparently."

Noor huffed, putting down her Cedric Diggory flag and sitting down. This was going to be boring.

Soon, an hour had passed ( although it had felt like five ) and none of the champions had yet to return.

"The time limit was for an hour, right?" Blaise asked Noor, "So I guess they all - oh wait. Look! It's Diggory!" He shouted, pointing at the lake.

Noor stood up and squinted, and sure enough the blonde boy had surfaced. But, he wasn't alone, a dark haired girl was there with him.

"Who's that?" She asked, shouting to be heard over the noise of the cheering Hogwarts students ( minus the Gryffindors who were all rooting for Potter).

"I think it's Cedric's girlfriend Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker. Guess the 'things' they have to retrieve are people." Blaise said.

Noor stared at the lake, wondering who the other people the other champions had to rescue.

She let out an audible gasp as a thought crossed her head : what if the person Potter had to save was Weasley.

Weasley and Potter were good friends, which was extremely evident by how much Weasley talked about Potter, and how they were always in each other's company. And how they had both looked downright miserable when they had had their fight.

It was make sense if Weasley was the person Potter would 'miss the most.'

Noor turned her gaze to the Gryffindor stands, eyes narrowed, she scanned it for Weasley's signature mane of red hair, but he was nowhere to be found.

"You okay?" Blaise asked her, having noticed how pale Noor had just gotten.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She muttered.

'He's fine, this is a ministry of magic organised event, it should be completely safe.' She rationalised in her head.

'But then again,' she thought, sending a glance at Dumbledore sitting up on the teacher's stands, "Dumbledore is a real nutter, nothing he organises is safe.'

Soon, as more time passed, Viktor Krum emerged in the lake. And soon the Beauxbatons champion too.

The Beauxbatons girl was a mess, crying hysterically and babbling about how she, "Couldn't save her."

Noor felt a twinge of sympathy for the girl, but mostly felt panic. Potter was yet to emerge, and he was well over the one hour limit, something had gone wrong.

Noor couldn't describe the panic that gripped her, a sort of all consuming panic that left her breathless and suddenly hot in her layers of jackets and scarves.

She wasn't the only one worried, the teachers had rushed out to the lake, casting spells she couldn't see, trying to find out what was happening.

She gripped the railing in front of her, trying to calm herself down.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Blaise asked, putting a hand to her forehead. "You're hot, are you sick?"

"No, no. I'm fine, really." She said.

There was a shout from the stand over, and Noor saw three figures emerge in the water.

"It's Potter!" She heard someone shout.

She squinted and sure enough Potter was there, with some blonde girl, and Weasley.

Noor let out a sigh of relief, and sat down on the bench. He was okay.

Noor wanted to sprint over to him, to check up on him, give him a hug, ask him what happened. But she was a Slytherin, a Zabini, and he was a Gryffindor, a Weasley. She couldn't.

Instead she watched from a distance as his friends and siblings flocked him, wishing she was among them.

———

WHEN IT was time for their next chess club meeting Noor was there half an hour early.

She hadn't been able to talk with Weasley up until then. And although she had heard second hand, from the very efficient rumour mill at Hogwarts, what had happened, she wanted to hear it straight from him. For the rumours that were floating around were ... quite alarming.

After what felt like forever, Weasley walked into the library.

"Hey." He said, smiling.

"Are you okay?" Noor all but shouted, standing up.

"Uh, yeah." He said slowly. "Why?"

"The lake, you were taken hostage by Merpeople. And I heard that you single-handedly fought against fifty heavily merpeople, and they were armed, and there was a shark! Is that true?" She said very quickly.

Weasley turned bright red at that, "Uh, not exactly." He said sheepishly. "I might have stretched the truth a little bit."

"So there was no shark?" She asked.

"No shark. It was nothing really."

"Oh." Noor said, feeling quite foolish all of a sudden.

Weasley squinted, "Why? Were you worried about me?"

"What no!"

"You were worried about me!" He exclaimed.

"Was not! It's because of those ridiculous rumours you spread, I thought you got beat up!"

"Doesn't change the fact you were worried about me!" He said, a smug smile on his face.

"Well you're my friend, you know, I was worried." She admitted quietly, after a minute of silence.

Weasley turned red at that, and stammered, "I - I was fine really, I was asleep all of the time." He said, patting her shoulder awkwardly.

There was another stretch of silence.

"So we're friends, huh?" Weasley asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Shut up Weasley." She snapped.

"Well if we're friends now, call me Ron." He asked.

"Ronald."

"Ron." He said frowning.

"Ronald."

"Ron!"

"Okay, Ronald."

"Ugh, whatever. Let's play." He said.

"It was pretty scary." He said after a minute of silence, as they moved their pieces.

"I know you're lying now." She said, eyebrow raised.

As the game went on, Noor felt herself relax, the all consuming panic that had gripped her for the past few days, disappearing.

She just hoped the Third Task would be less eventful then the Second.

It wasn't.

Instead, the Third Task ended with panic rising in everyone as the Boy - Who - Lived returned to the maze, a lifeless corpse in his arms, uttering a phrase that would forever change the Wizarding World,

"He's back."