For the last few days, Margaret had locked herself away in her home, debating on how to handle the situation regarding Eleanor. She would admit as soon as she learned of Sirius Black running loose among the wizarding world and other things that Anne informed her about, Margaret had been absolutely furious. It was evident in the letter she had sent to Eleanor, one that she had scribbled down as she swore under her breath profusely. She didn't know what caused her heart to beat faster, a murderous wizard or the fact that the year before students had been attacked within the castle.

However, once Margaret had a chance to calm down, she realised it was the fact that Eleanor would rather take her chances of facing dangerous situations than confide in her own mother. It was a painful reminder of all the damage that had fallen upon their relationship, due to no one fault's but her own. And several hours after she had sent the letter, Margaret deeply came to regret it as she suddenly felt overwhelmed with guilt.

A quick glance at the pictures that decorated the mantle over the fireplace, Margaret could clearly see that Eleanor wasn't smiling in any of the photographs. Even the pictures of Eleanor as a baby, where she didn't have a care in the world, she looked miserable. It wasn't a secret that Eleanor was miserable within her own home, she was always so quiet when it was time to return from school. And as soon as she walked into the house, she excused herself to her bedroom where she would spend most of her time, writing back and forth to her friends or knitting.

She remembered how happy Eleanor had looked upon arriving at the Diggory Household over the holidays, that was until she saw Margaret and the smile had quickly faded. Thankfully, they had been able to start mending their relationship as Margaret made the promise to do better and be there for her daughter. But after the letter she had sent, Margaret felt as though she had just taken a million steps back.

A light tap came from the nearby window, bringing Margaret to break from her thoughts as she glanced over to see a window. Pushing herself up, Margaret approached the window and opened it, grabbing the letter that was quickly dropped. She kept the window open to allow the owl to rest as Eleanor often told her to do.

After what Margaret had said in her last letter, she didn't expect a letter from Eleanor, but she had been hoping for one. However, as she looked over the letter that was addressed to her, Margaret could clearly see that it was not her daughter's handwriting. Curiosity got the best of her at the moment, as she tore the top of it off.

Inside was a lengthy letter that started off with an apology.

Immediately, her eyes trailed over the letter to the bottom where it had been signed by the sender. As soon as she read over the name, Margaret knew she needed to sit down or she was bound to collapse onto the floor. With one hand holding the letter, the other came to cover her mouth, although it did little to conceal her shock.

For years, she had waited on such a letter, prayed for it many times and now that she had finally received it, she didn't know what to say or what to do, except read it over and over.

Leaving the Owlery, after sending off her letter to her mother, Eleanor hurried all the way to the Greenhouses for Herbology. It had taken a few days to send the letter off after Fred and George continued to insist on her company, especially with the constant Quidditch practices, but Eleanor felt like she had said all she could to Margaret, hoping it would smooth things over. She tried not to think about it until she received a response if her mother chose to send her one. As she entered the Greenhouse nearly out of breath, she was greeted by Professor Sprout as she greeted students by the door.

"Is what I hear true, Ms Ross?" Professor Sprout questioned as Eleanor said hello. "You have received your second detention of the year? I wasn't even aware that you had served one!"

Feeling the blush creeping up her face, Eleanor bit the inside of her cheek before nodding her head. She heard a couple of students chuckle from behind her, listening as she was placed on the spot.

"Um, well, I guess there's no sense in lying to you, Professor," she said, "it is true."

There was a small gasp that escaped from Professor Sprout as her expression turned from curiosity to shock within a heartbeat. However, before Eleanor could try and explain, she found an arm wrap around her shoulder as Marnie appeared beside her.

"That's right, Professor, let it sink in. Good girl Ellie is now a naughty girl!"

If it were possible, Eleanor would have found the nearest potted plant to bury herself to avoid further embarrassment. But as Professor Sprout was left somewhat speechless, Eleanor took the opportunity to walk over to her seat where Cedric was already seated, waiting on her and Marnie.

"Is it possible to die from embarrassment?" she whispered to him as she sat down. "Because I feel like dying right now."

"Well, is Marnie wrong?" Cedric asked her with a grin. "Ever since you've partnered up with the twin, you're not the Ellie I've come to know over the years. It's not a bad thing though, it's actually kinda amusing."

"So is calling you Queenie for the rest of your life."

Cedric's eyes widened as Eleanor proceeded to pull out her textbook to review the Chinese Chomping Cabbage.

"You wouldn't!"

"I would, Queenie."

With Gryffindor up for the Quidditch Cup going against their rival house of Slytherin, the pressure was on, and it seemed to be the only topic within the Gryffindor Common Room during the evenings. The pressure was on the entire team since Gryffindor had yet to win the Quidditch Cup since Charlie Weasley had been Seeker and that was years ago. Fred and George were known to be excellent Beaters, but they couldn't carry the team on their skills, especially since their positions on the team didn't partake in any scoring. It was just their jobs to keep the other team from scoring to the best of their abilities.

For Fred, he was wishing the match would happen sooner because despite keeping a cheery and playful disposition, he was so tired of hearing about it. Usually, Oliver's obsessive and excessive rambling didn't get on his nerves, and practices had never bothered him, no matter how frequent, but Fred realised that they were cutting into his free time.

Meaning it was cutting into the time that he could be spending around Eleanor.

Sure, he could drag her along to the Quidditch practices, but there was no fun in that as he could only interact with her for a bit before he was getting yelled to focus by Oliver. George could sense his brother's frustration but every time he tried to bring it up, Fred brushed it off as being annoyed with Oliver and that was it. However, George knew better, and he didn't like to see Fred upset, even though he tried to hide it behind a smile and jokes.

So, George came up with a little plan.

Fred had been told that Oliver had called another emergency Quidditch practise and arrived at the pitch one afternoon, to find that no one was there. George had claimed he had to use the toilet and said he would catch up, but Fred was beginning to think it had all been a setup. Just as he was about to turn around and head back to the castle to kick his brother's arse, he spotted movement in the stands.

A smile immediately formed as he saw Eleanor sitting near the announcer's box, knitting quietly to herself.

Climbing up the stands, he made his way to sit beside her, and as she finished a row, she greeted him with a smile.

"Where's the rest of the team?" she asked. "George told me Oliver was practically screaming for another practice."

With a slight roll of his eyes, knowing what George had done, Fred shook his head. "He cancelled it, actually. Angelina threatened him over the number of practices he was holding. I came out here to tell you, sorry I couldn't tell you sooner before you walked all the way out here."

"Well, I'm not upset about it," Eleanor said. "I've actually enjoyed being out here. The weather has been nice these last couple of days and it's actually really peaceful out here when Oliver isn't here yelling."

It seemed she was in no hurry to leave, much to Fred's delight as he watched her continue with her latest project. He moved a little closer to observe and every so often, Eleanor would look up at him and offer a small smile. Though was little said, Fred didn't really care as it was far better than being out on the pitch being yelled at. But eventually, she stopped and placed the knitting aside before giving him her full attention.

"Do you want to go for a walk?"

The question was simple, but it seemed to catch him off guard as he didn't answer right away. Once again, Fred was left unsure if Eleanor was asking him to walk with her in the terms of spending more time together as friends or perhaps because she wanted to spend more time with him alone? How he could feel confident at all other times, but when it came to Eleanor, he constantly felt like second-guessing himself?

Suddenly, he found her hand in front of his face, as Eleanor was up on her feet. He didn't dare miss out on an opportunity to hold her hand as he quickly grabbed it. However, the hand holding was short-lived as Eleanor seemed to only offer it to have him stand up before she withdrew it back to her side. She grabbed her things and the two of them left the stands to walk the grounds of the castle.

"Are you feeling sick?" she asked him at one point as they walked near the lake. The back of her hand came to touch his forehead and the sides of his face, leaving Fred to swallow nervously. "I've never seen you this quiet."

"I'm tired," he lied, "Oliver's been running us ragged with all these last-minute practices. And it's not like he shuts up when we get back to the tower. He's been non-stop. If he goes missing, well, I'm making you my alibi and you better vouch for me."

"Of course, I will," Eleanor chuckled. "But you know, Cedric and I were talking about it the other day. Strictly about Oliver, not about the practices, I swear. And something he said made sense. We all know its Oliver's last year playing before he leaves Hogwarts and of course, every captain wants a win in their name. But Cedric thinks that Oliver is probably calling more practices because he's going to miss all of you. You have a brilliant team, anyone with eyes can see that, and Oliver always looks so proud of all of you. I think Cedric's right, I think he's going to miss all of you a great deal."

"Well, for Merlin's sake, we'll send him "miss you" cards after he leaves then! He doesn't have to run us into the ground all because he'll miss us. He'll miss us more if he ends up killing us, I reckon!"

Eleanor laughed again and went to push him playfully as he failed to take what she said seriously, but as she went to move, she caught something out of the corner of her eye and came to a halt.

"Fred, look."

Her voice became barely above a whisper as she pointed off in the distance and as Fred followed her finger, he could see that she was pointing at a large black dog. The dog seemed just as surprised to see them there as well as it appeared to be frozen in place. It didn't look healthy with matted fur, exposed ribs, and a timid stance. Of course, that didn't seem to stop Eleanor from slowly lowering herself to the ground.

"Aww, look how cute he is," she said softly, "although he looks positively starved. You don't have any food on you, do you?"

Fred shook his head and was about to warn Eleanor that it was probably not best to approach a sickly-looking dog, but she already had her hand outstretched as an offering to pet. The dog only seemed to stare at her, a curious tilt of the head as she spoke gently to him. It did take several steps towards her, smelling her hand briefly before taking another step closer. And finally, the dog was close enough for her to pet.

The wag of its tail seemed friendly enough as Eleanor stroked the dog between the ears.

"I'm afraid I don't have any food on me," she said, "but I do have this scarf that I've been knitting. I can't imagine that you would want that though. Although I swear it'll keep you warm-"

The sound of voices coming from the castle as other students ventured outside seemed to startle the dog, enough that it ran away but not before it grabbed the scarf from Eleanor's bag and took off with it.

"Did that dog just steal my scarf?"

"Yes, yes it did. But in his defence, you did say that it would keep him warm."

Left bewildered by what had taken place, the two decided it was best to head back up to the castle, only to have Eleanor start whining that it was a long walk up the hill.

"You know, Ellie, if you wanted to be carried, all you had to do was ask!"

But rather than throwing her over his shoulder as he did all the other times, he turned his back to her and waited for her to jump on. She seemed hesitant for a second before a smile grew on her lips and she hopped onto his back. There were zero complaints from the two as Fred carried Eleanor all the way to the castle and even through the corridors.

But he knew that when he saw George again, he would have to thank him because an afternoon with Eleanor was just what he needed before the big match.