F O R T Y - O N E

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Before Adeline could even have time to react, the Third Task had seemingly arrived like that.

Adeline had barely taken a break the entire year, and the gap between January and May was no exception. Even though Adeline was exempt from her final examinations at the end of the term, she spent nearly every spare bit of time with her best friends, with George, or practicing for the Final Task – sometimes a combination of all three. Professor Flitwick had practically given up his classroom for Adeline to practice in when he wasn't teaching, and there had been too many days where Estelle or George would have to drag her out of there.

It seemed as if May 24th was shaping up to be the perfect day. Adeline nearly found herself blinded that morning when Delilah opened up the curtains of Ravenclaw tower and the bright sun came shining in. The past few months had been so gloomy and cloudy at Hogwarts that the sunshine felt like such a refreshing change of pace.

All of the Great Hall seemed to be bursting with excitement when Adeline walked in that morning for breakfast, and that attitude continued when she returned for lunch later that day. It seemed as if every student had wished her luck that morning, even the Gryffindors who were still supporting Harry at this point. Adeline sat at the Ravenclaw table, trying her best to eat her lunch even with Estelle and Ophelia talking loudly beside her.

None of them, even Adeline, seemed to notice that Melanie was much more quiet than usual.

Melanie didn't want to tell Adeline that something just didn't feel quite right to her. All of her friends were celebrating and were so excited for the upcoming task, but there was just this sinking pit in Melanie's stomach that she didn't quite know how to explain. There seemed to be nothing that was wrong, which led Melanie to be confused as to why she felt this way.

So she sat quietly and tried to act as if everything was normal and fine, when in reality Melanie couldn't help but feel something terrible was about to happen.

Near the end of lunch, Adeline felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Fleur looking down at her. "Our families are here! For the final task!" Fleur exclaimed, gesturing for Adeline to follow her. "Don't you want to see 'zem?"

Adeline didn't want to tell Fleur that there was likely no chance of her family showing up. So she walked along with Fleur and listen to her talk excitedly about her family and just planned on sneaking away when she had the chance.

When the pair arrived, Fleur noticed how there were only three families waiting in the room, and how Viktor was talking to one of the families and Adeline wasn't rushing over to the other. For a moment, Fleur thought that maybe her family hadn't arrived yet. But when she managed to catch a fleeting, sad look in Adeline's eyes, Fleur suddenly felt awful that she had pulled Adeline there with her.

So she quickly made a decision. Fleur took Adeline by the arm and dragged her over to introduce her to her family, telling her that she wanted her family to meet her "new Hogwarts friend."

On the other side of the room, Harry was happily greeting Mrs. Weasley and Bill, who had come to watch Harry in the Third Task that evening along with Mr. Weasley, who was still at work at the time but was going to be there soon.

"So, what are the other champions like?" Bill asked, his gaze occasionally flicking towards a certain silver-haired French girl. "Apparently this Tournament used to bring out the worst in all the Champions."

"They actually haven't been too bad. Adeline's been the nicest though," Harry admitted. "Apparently she's always been like that, though you've probably heard all about Adeline."

Staring at him with a confused look on her face, Mrs. Weasley asked, "Why would I have heard about Adeline?"

"Because her and George are together."

Mrs. Weasley's mouth dropped, and Bill burst into laughter. "He– George...what?" Mrs. Weasley managed to sputter out before saying, "Get her over here, Harry!"

"Why do I need to get Adeline–"

"Get her over here!"

A little fearful of what would happen if he didn't follow Mrs. Weasley's orders, Harry waited until Adeline had said goodbye to Fleur and was trying to subtly leave the room to go up to her.

"Adeline! Hey, Adeline!"

The curly-haired girl turned her head at the sound of her name being called out and saw Harry jogging towards her. "Are you going to be with your family right now?" He asked.

Adeline awkwardly fidgeted with her hands and looked down at the ground. "My family...has never really been into the whole magic thing. I didn't expect them to show up anyways."

What Adeline didn't realize was that Harry knew the feelings of living in a household with Muggles who hated the mere idea of magic all too well.

"Well Mrs. Weasley really wants to meet you," Harry told Adeline, making her eyes go wide with shock. "Do you want to come with us for the day?"

When Adeline had pictured meeting Mrs. Weasley for the first time, she figured that George would be with her for this. She knew how much Mrs. Weasley meant to George – despite his occasional complaints about her. In all the scenarios Adeline had come up with in her mind when it came to meeting the famous Weasley parents, she had never thought Harry Potter would be the one to introduce them.

But, with Harry waiting for her to say something, Adeline knew she had to respond soon. "I'd love to spend the day with you guys," She finally answered before taking a deep breath and nervously making her way over with Harry to the two Weasleys. "Hi, I'm Adeline!" She said with a bright smile, sticking her hand out to the two. "It's lovely to finally meet you. George talks about you guys all the time."

"It's lovely to meet you too," Mrs. Weasley responded as her and Bill took turns to shake Adeline's hand. Mrs. Weasley took in her kind smile and the knitting needles sticking out of her messenger bag and decided right then that she liked Adeline quite a lot.

"Just wondering..." Mrs. Weasley continued. "How long have you and George been together?"

"Since Christmas!" Adeline answered with a fond smile as she remembered that wonderful night at the Yule Ball.

"Since Christmas..." Mrs. Weasley muttered to herself. "Since Christmas..."

"Have...have I done something wrong?" Adeline asked, a little fearful that she had already messed up with meeting Mrs. Weasley.

"Oh no, no, no!" Mrs. Weasley quickly answered, shaking her head fervently. "You haven't done anything wrong. Now, George...I'm going to need to have a little talking to."

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The group, who was later joined by Mr. Weasley, had an amazing time wandering the Hogwarts grounds. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Bill hadn't seen the school in years, so exploring the places that were once familiar to them and seeing how they had changed was fascinating to them. The group eventually met up with Ron, Ginny, and Hermione at dinner, and now they had all taken up a considerable amount of space at the Gryffindor table.

Fred and George entered the Great Hall, not realizing that they had a few more of their family members at the school that day. George's eyes widened with shock – and a little bit of fear – when he saw his mum, Adeline, and Hermione sitting together, talking together as they dug into the roast beef dinner with his dad, Ginny, Bill, Harry, and Ron cracking jokes around them.

"I'm guessing you didn't tell Mum about Adeline," Fred muttered beside him. George shook his head, and his twin brother snorted with laughter. "Well good luck with that."

Upon seeing the twin brothers approach the table, Mrs. Weasley stood up and pulled the younger of the two off to the side. George smiled nervously, quickly saying, "Hi, Mum, lovely to see you, You look great, by the way–"

"You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend!" Mrs. Weasley hissed. "And such a wonderful one at that!"

"I was going to tell you over the summer holidays!"

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Mrs. Weasley wanted to say something else to George but couldn't figure out the words.

"Love you, Mum..." George said weakly, trying his best to make the situation at least a little bit better.

Despite her annoyance, Mrs. Weasley couldn't help but let out a small smile as she stared up at her son. "Love you too, sweetheart. Now let's get back to the table, shall we?"

The rest of dinner seemed to fly by quickly. A while later, Adeline happened to glance up and she noticed Professor McGonagall ushering for her and Harry to go over to the front of the Great Hall where the other Champions were starting to gather. "What's that all about?" George asked behind Adeline.

Adeline looked back at the group and grinned. "I think that means it's time for me and Harry to get ready for the Third Task."

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a/n:

my university is doing two break days right now to make up for not having a spring break and my teachers assigned so much work that it's impossible to enjoy them lol

i hope you enjoyed this chapter, and i hope you guys all have a lovely day!!

- g ♡