CHAPTER VIII:
walk with miss lovely

( October 1994 )

NIGHT HAD FALLEN UPON HOGWARTS ONCE MORE, SOME STUDENTS WERE CREATING THEORIES, SOME WERE ANGRY FOR NOT BEING CHOSEN, AND SOME WERE BEING SHOUTED AT FOR BEING CHOSEN.

"This can't be real, this can't possibly be real!" Ginger and Cedric were standing fridgetly in the Hufflepuffs dorm. Ginger was near manic at the one in a million chance that the person closest to her would be chosen for three extremely difficult tasks. Cedric on the other hand was actually joyed he was chosen.

"Ginger, it was my decision to put my name in the goblet, I chose this to happen! I want to participate in the tournament!"

"Yes I'm perfectly aware, but what happens if you get severely hurt? Or worse, killed!" She was having an extremely hard time grasping how in the world he was joyed to be chosen. The thought of losing her best friend made her want to vomit, and if it were to happen, she wouldn't know what to do with herself.

Cedric dragged his hands over his face in frustration at the girl in front of him. "I won't be killed, I will be fine."

"Oh, so now you've suddenly become a seer? Did Trelawney mysteriously pass her abilities to you overnight? Tell me, is there a way to foresee a future where I beat you with Hogwarts; A History just to get some sense into you?" Her sarcastic remark brought a smile to his face and his smile urged one to appear on hers. "Cedric, there is no way in hell that you can guarantee your safety for this tournament."

"Maybe not, but, if I get mauled by quintapeds then you can have my room." He approached her with raised eyebrows at the deal, she rolled her eyes but no longer fought the smile on her dimpled face.

"Not funny, and your room always smells like you've begun a fire in a rubbish bin." He enveloped her in his arms and she wrapped her arms around him as well.

She felt his chest vibrate when his chuckle bubbled out from his throat, "ah, well, it's for ambience." She laughed at this and lets go of him. Maybe Cedric couldn't see into the future, or guarantee his safety, but the chances of him being killed were slim. Not too slim, but slim enough.

GINGER WAS A WORRIER OF A SPECIAL KIND. She couldn't give a damn if she was near causing her to wand to explode right out of her hand, as long as her friends were alright, she would be too. She had her moments of worrying for herself and whatnot, but she tended to care more for Cedric and Alexander than herself.

Said worrying is what lead her to be anxiously walking the halls of Hogwarts completely past curfew.

After her talk with Cedric about his choice of being in the tournament, she had returned to her dorm to get some form of sleep, but with her mind racing billions of miles per hour, she decided to take a stroll in her pajamas.

She stayed in the shadows, for the most part, her wand was dimly lit in her hand to give her a slight sense of direction in the dark halls. The school let off a dark yet comforting allure to Ginger, in the corridors she strolled every day, she felt more comfortable while it was in its midnight glory.

With her nerves quieting down, she finally gained the ability to breathe with no restriction. Well at least for a small moment.

"I don't suppose you're sleepwalking right now, are you?"

Ginger's head whipped around behind her with a gasp and the clattering sound of a wand falling only to let out a sigh of relief at the familiar sight of fiery red hair. "It's like you're trying to give me heart palpitations." she put a hand over her heart and bent down to pick up her wand.

"Sorry Miss, couldn't help myself." He shrugged with a smirk painted on his lips. She squinted trying to recognize the difference between which twin she was standing before but couldn't in the dimly lit hall.

Approaching the boy, she gently cupped his cheeks in her hands and brought him down to her level to examine him closer. His eyebrows furrowed at her actions but he didn't pull away. "Well, this is new." Not even finishing her investigation, she concluded which twin she was with and let go.

"Hello, Fred." He smiled down at her uncanny way of recognizing the two twins from each other.

He began walking down the corridor and she allowed her feet to fall into step with his. "How exactly do you do that?"

She tilted her head upwards at him, "do what exactly?"

He shrugged, "tell us apart. We're identical and even our own mother gets us confused constantly." Ginger frowned at the fact of their mother not knowing which of them is which when she's known them from the day they were born.

"I haven't had too many interactions with you two, but in those small moments, I've noticed your body language." He furrowed his eyebrows at her as if to tell her to elaborate. "You hold eye contact longer than George, at least with me." He smirked beside her but it went unnoticed as she continued speaking. She thought for a moment as they turned a corner, "your faces also have small differences, getting past the identical part."

Fred nodded his head and hummed. He found her interesting. Not in the ways George did, of course, he would never do that to his brother, but there was something about Ginger that made him want to be close friends with her. Just a spark in her eye that drew him in like a magnet.

"How about I walk you back to Ravenclaw Tower?" She smiled and gladly nodded.

Stretching her arms out forwards, the sleeves of Ginger's top rolled up and exposed her wrists while her wand illuminated small and faded details on it. It didn't go unnoticed by Fred and he attempted to read out the faded words but failed. "What are those?" He pointed at her arm.

She turned her head down to read out the words and let a close-lipped grin at the words she had written there earlier in the week.

" 'Find out if Ced's entering the tournament. If so, hit him with Pride and Prejudice. If not, give him a cookie" He read aloud. "I'm guessing Pretty Boy Diggory didn't get that cookie." He laughed and so did she.

"No he didn't, but he also didn't get hit with Pride and Prejudice. I reckon he hid it somewhere in the house before we left for Kings Cross." Fred noticed the way she hadn't said it was Cedric's house as if saying it was her house too. "I live with the Diggory's, in case you were wondering." She added as if she read his mind.

"My parents are on a worldwide expedition, I've forgotten what it was for since I actually haven't seen them in a few years, but my mother and his made an arrangement for me to live with them so I could go to school here," she explained. The two teens living together for so long was exactly the reason for their sibling-like relationship. Most in the school had assumed they were an item of some sort, but they had just been extremely close with each other.

The entrance to Ravenclaw Tower came into their view as they continued to walk slowly towards it. "How long have you been living with them?" Fred asked.

She furrowed her eyebrows at him, "what is this, twenty questions?" His eyes widened and he choked over his words to deny but she only let out a small laugh. "Freddie, I'm only joking." He sighed in relief. "But to answer your question, I've lived with them for.." she squinted her eyes to think about how long she had been with the family. "Around seven years."

His eyes bulged out of their sockets, "You haven't seen your parents for seven years?" He gaped at her, she seemed completely unaffected by the situation while he was crazed at the amount of time she had been away from her family.

"That'd be correct."

The Eagle Knocker was only a step in front of them as they reached the end of their walk. She was easily let in through the entrance after answering its odd riddle. Ginger turned at the boy who had already been walking away, "Goodnight Freddie."

He turned around with a grin and nodded at her, thinking about all the new information he had learned about the girl, "goodnight, Miss Lovely."