━━━the article...

BIRDIE WAS WAY past the blood-boiling part, if she saw Rita Skeeter she would gladly turn her to dust no matter what the consequences were, that woman had actually had the audacity to write about both Hermione and Lorelei. Rita had not only brought her bestfriend into the whole mess but also her brother and his bestfriends too. Lorelei told her not to worry about it, but Birdie couldn't — if Lorelei got into this mess it was because of Birdie, if she'd only shut her mouth instead of punching that horrendous woman, maybe this wouldn't be happening right now.

"I swear to Helga if I see that woman" Birdie said, slamming down the newspaper on the table, Lorelei sighed, taking a bite out of her toast and Cedric joined them on the table soon enough with a bitter expression on his face.

"It's fine" Lorelei rolled her eyes, "At least it's a good picture of me, she could've picked a bad picture, like that one of me after the second task — my hair was all messy"

"OH, shut up" Birdie smacked her with the paper, and Lorelei released a yelp, "You always look nice, and your hair is practically perfect it's like some juju or something"

"It's not juju" Regan sat down at the table, "It's those Black genes, darling"

"Regan, how are you doing with the article?" Birdie asked, putting some chocolate cake she'd made in front of the kid, Regan shrugged.

"I mean, it's bullshit, anyway, so..." she trailed off, "and I don't like Harry, so um there's that, I mean he's made it pretty clear that he'd never date me, so really it's all just bullshit, doesn't affect me"

Regan eyed the article on the table.

Rita Skeeter had basically dragged the three bestfriends, Krum and Lorelei in the article, saying that there was some weird love-pentagon thing going on, it had said that Harry and Krum were head over heels for Hermione, but Harry's other bestfriend had a crush on him and Krum's classmate Lorelei had a crush on Krum.

Not only that, but there was some weird article about Lorelei trying to sabotage the other champions, so she could take the trophy home and feel good about herself, hoping she would make her father proud.

To conclude, it was all a mess and half.

"So, do you like him?" Cedric asked, and Regan's head popped up.

"No, obviously not" Regan said, "There's no way him and I could ever be together anyway, so...yeah."

Lorelei pulled Regan into a side hug.

"Uh...El, what are you doing?" Regan said stiffly, "Let go of me?"

"I'm hugging you" Lorelei said, putting her other arm around Regan too, "It's supposed to help"

"It's not" Regan shook her head.

"Give it a few seconds" Lorelei hissed, "You're always so impatient"

"Let go, freak" Regan pushed her away, "Merlin, El, sometimes you're so weird"

"I know" Lorelei shoved her toast in her mouth and took a bite, "It's not like you're not though"

"And do you like him?" Cedric asked and Lorelei frowned, "I mean obviously you do, with the amount of time you spend fawning over him"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lorelei said, putting her food down.

"Isn't it obvious?" Cedric put his toast down too, "The rumors didn't just sprout out of nowhere, El. Rita probably saw you two flirting with each other"

"Cedric" Birdie said, she had a frown on her mouth, "What's gotten into you?"

"Dude, fuck you" Lorelei exclaimed turning a few heads around from the table, "I was not flirting with him, we were joking around, he loves Hermione, just like you love Cho and should mind your own fucking business"

It was almost like when Lorelei walked out of the Great Hall, something in Cedric snapped and he looked away, Lorelei and Regan stared at him in shock.

"Hey, Birdie can I have a slice of that cake?" Susan came forward and passed a smile to her.

"Susan this is not a good time—" Birdie pinched the bridge of her nose but the girl did not budge.

"I'll give you two galleons for it" Susan said hurriedly as she was getting glared down by Regan, "Ok, maybe just one, but still"

"You're willing to pay?" Birdie asked, her eyebrows raised, "Really?"

"Yeah, I love your chocolate cakes" Susan shrugged, and Birdie handed her the plate of cake with an unsure look.

"Oh my god, thanks" Susan grinned, "Here you go" she handed her a galleon.

...

Lorelei Black was fuming, who did Cedric think he was questioning her like that? How did he even think that he had any business nosing around in Lorelei's life, and even if she did like Krum, what the hell was it to him? She'd asked him out and he'd been the one to say no, saying he wanted to save the friendship or what not.

This is all such bullshit.

Lorelei fixed her leather jacket and then made her way back to the ship, she'd gotten many nasty glares in between for liking Viktor, she presumes. Merlin, she couldn't imagine how it must be like for Hermione right now.

Lorelei slammed the door and made her way over to her desk, sitting down in it and then just staring at the wall in anger for a few seconds before pulling out a piece of parchment. She thought if she was going to be angry and away from everyone, she could at least be productive while doing it.

It was letter, and it was from her Aunt, she'd been asking about how she was doing and Lorelei had been putting off talking to her because she was angry with Sirene for letting Sirius stay at their house. Lorelei thought Sirene might want to know about what was happening, and she was going to rant out to her too, so there's that.

"Lorelei?" Ms Ross said, leaning on the doorframe, "We need to talk, kiddo"

Lorelei frowned, Ms Ross never called a student by their name, and she never called them kiddo either. Was she here to deliver some bad news or—

"You're my daughter"

✿

"SHE JUST SPRUNG that on you?" Fred asked Lorelei, both of them sitting on the counter with their legs dangling as Birdie and George were cooking spaghetti for them in the corner, George had said that he would do anything but hang out with Lorelei so Birdie asked him to help her out with the food.

"Yeah" Lorelei said, leaning back on the wall for support.

"What did you say then?" Fred asked, sitting on the counter criss-cross-apple-sauce and turning towards Lorelei.

"I actually didn't say anything" winced Lorelei.

"She ran out" Birdie said from the other side of the room, and George snorted from beside her, Birdie shook her head and smacked him in the arm with a spatula, "Now's not the time George"

"You ran?!" Fred exclaimed, his eyes widening and Lorelei turned suddenly felt small.

"I didn't mean to" Lorelei looked at the ground, "It was just my initial response, I mean she did that when I was born"

"Fair enough" Fred shrugged, and Hope walked inside with Donna, both of them chatting excitedly about Quidditch.

"Loopy Hopey" Fred grinned at the girl who almost turned around and walked out but Donna stopped her, chuckling lightly.

"Loopy Hopey?" Birdie questioned, George turned towards her, popping a chocolate snitch in his mouth.

"It's something we started calling her when she walked in with the worst hangover ever" George explained to the brunette, "It's like once every month, she has all these random bruises and then just falls asleep on the couch"

"Uh..." Birdie was speechless, she wonders if anyone besides them knows about Hope's problem, they were all so stupid. George looked over curiously, "Haha, that's Hope...hungover..."

"Yeah" George shoved a banana in his mouth, "How long do we have to wait for the sauce to be done?"

"Just a minute or more now" Birdie said as she took the lid off the pot and looked down at it, "It'll be done then"

"Cool" George said, "Hey, are you doing ok?"

"What do you mean?" Birdie furrowed her eyebrows, "I'm fine"

"Well, I was kind of there when Rita said all that" George said, "You just didn't see me, I was making my way out of Zonko's and saw you and Lorelei talking to that woman"

"You must've seen the—"

"Yeah, I saw you break her nose" George nodded and Birdie chuckled, "She deserved it though"

"Well, if that's what people really think of me, I don't really think I can change that" Birdie shrugged, "I mean, who cares though, it's fine. I'm fine"

George passed her a smile, letting the topic go cause Birdie seemed a bit uncomfortable, Birdie cleared her throat, "Well, the sauce should be done now"

"Oh, yeah" George said and started placing the spaghetti noodles on the plate, turning around to face Hope and Donna who were both now talking to Fred and Lorelei, "Loopy Hopey, and Cinnamon you guys want some pasta too, right?"

"Obviously" Hope and Donna responded together, and Donna for some reason handed Hope two knuts, probably a bet or something.

Birdie grabbed three plates — that was the most she could carry — and George grabbed two plates and made their way to their counter, Birdie handed the girls and Fred a plate, and George gave her a plate and kept the other one for herself. Leaving Lorelei with nothing.

"Where's mine?" Lorelei frowned, "Weasley, what the fuck? I'm the one sulking — I deserve a plate of pasta!"

"Get it yourself" George said, spinning his spaghetti around his fork and keeping it up in the air for a long time, coincidentally — or maybe not — in front of Lorelei's face.

"You go get me it" Lorelei said, crossing her arms and Birdie looked at her with exasperation.

"Oh, for fuck's sake" Birdie exclaimed, "Here have mine, I'll go grab the other plate"

"Thanks" Lorelei beamed at her, take a huge bite of the spaghetti.

...

"Merlin, I mean, what do you even say to that?" Hope said, the kids were all sitting down on the floor and eating warm chocolate chip cookies with each other and the topic of Lorelei's mother was being discussed.

"Right?" Lorelei sighed, "She just came in, said that while I was writing a damned letter"

"I get why you're so dark and twisty now" Hope said and everyone turned towards her, "I mean, the girl got left by both her parents"

"Yeah, well" Lorelei shoved the cookie in her mouth aggressively, "Not everyone can Mcsunshine over here"

"Hey!" Donna protested, "You don't think I want to go dark and twisty? My mother is a murderer!"

"Fair point" Birdie chuckled.

"I think you should talk to her" Hope said and everyone turned to look at her, "I think she's trying to make amends, and well, you can"

"I think Hope is right on this one" Birdie said to Lorelei, "Your mother was just three years older than us when she had you, it's possible that she panicked, and though it wasn't right to leave you — she was just a kid. She's all grown up now and became a literal teacher just so she could spend some time with you"

Lorelei played with her hand, George awkwardly took a bite of his cookie, Fred mirroring his actions. They weren't really sure what to do here, so they just...didn't.

"You're right" Lorelei sighed, "I guess, I'm just angry, I mean why now? I spent all those years without her, and I did good...maybe I had a few bumps on the road here and there, but I did good and now she has to come in and make me start all over again"

"You don't have to start all over again" George spoke, surprising everyone as Lorelei looked at him with her eyebrows raised, he cleared his throat, "I mean, it's like learning a new language, I don't know, you don't forget the previous one, you just learn another" everyone looked at him, not having any idea what he was saying, everyone but Lorelei — she'd used that exact statement years ago with George, "Look, my point is — don't let her have control over your life just because she's here now, just let her be there, let someone be there, Lorelei"