"The Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory."
Summer clutched the sides of the table as her heart felt like it had dropped to her stomach. Fred noticed this and placed a hand on the small of her back, which encouraged her to relax a little.

"It's okay Summer, he'll be okay," he whispered in her ear, as Cedric stood from his seat and went to the backroom, along with Fleur and Viktor.

                                    ❀❀❀

The first task was about to begin. Summer watched Hermione run down to the champions' tent, and decided to follow her. If Hermione was going to speak to Harry, she was going to speak to Cedric, no matter the rules. She tapped the girl on the shoulder and she jumped in alarm.
"Oh Summer! It's just you, I thought McGonagall had come to tell me off."

"No, I'm just here to talk to Cedric, let's get their attention." Hermione nodded and peeked in.

"Pst! Pst! Harry! Cedric!"

"Hermione?" The voices sounded from inside.

"And Summer!" She added.

"Summer?" Cedric poked his head through the gap.

"Dragons! Oh God be careful!" She gasped, and before she could stop herself, she ran to him and enveloped him in a tight hug. He squeezed her in return, just as a flash emitted from a nearby camera, and they pulled away abruptly. Hermione and Harry pulled away from their hug too, looking confused.

"Perfect! Ah, young love," cooed Rita Skeeter. Wait a minute. Before anyone could do anything, Summer had launched herself at Rita, swinging her arms around in any way that would hit her.

"You lying bitch! You dare show your face again, you-"
Just as she had successfully smashed her glasses, she felt herself being lifted away. She struggled against it and flailed her limbs to try and break free, but soon realised that it was Hayden and Cedric who were restraining her, and she stood no chance, and backed off. Everyone in the tent watched in shock, before Krum stood up.

"She's right, leave. This tent is for champions only, and friends." The woman gave an attempted smirk at them before hurrying away, taking off her broken glasses as she did.
"Good luck bro," Hayden smacked Cedric on the shoulder, who gave a sympathetic look to the siblings and thanked them, as they left the tent.

"I didn't think I was gonna see you scrapping with Rita Skeeter when I came to wish Ced good luck," Hayden turned to his sister, who was still clenching her fists and said nothing.
"Look," he carried on, after she still hadn't replied, "I'd love to curse that old bag until she begged on her knees to me, but we can't just go around attacking her in front of all those people."

She scoffed. "That's rich, coming from you, since when did you become so sensible?"

"Hey, do as I say not as I do, you're my little sister, I don't want you getting into any trouble, especially over people like her."

They had reached their seats next to Fred and George again.
"Watch out for this one," Hayden began, "Just tried to one v one Rita Skeeter."

The twins both raised their eyebrows.
"Wait let me get this right... Summer tried to fight Rita Skeeter?" Fred repeated, with a look of disbelief. Hayden nodded, fighting to keep the corners of his mouth from turning up into a smile.

"Stop saying her name," Summer scowled at them all. "And she deserved it... I don't know why you guys didn't just let me get at least one good hit in..."

"Why?" Fred looked confused, "I get she's not the best person, but..."

"She did something very horrible to our family," said Hayden.

"Unforgivable," muttered Summer. The twins looked at the pair, unsure what to make of this information, but angry for them all the same.

"One day, we will all get her, just not here okay? That's a promise," Fred held out his pinky to the girl, who took it in her own and shook.

"Well glad that's settled then, I better be getting back to the Slytherin stands, see you later," Hayden saluted to the three and strolled away, just as the first dragon began to saunter around the stadium.

❀❀❀

The dragons had been fought, but what lay ahead was a new challenge, the Yule Ball. Everyone had been frantically talking about it, girls wondering who would ask them, guys all talking themselves up into asking by their friends.

McGonagall was currently explaining the ins and outs of it, and what would take place on the night. Summer wasn't paying much attention, until she called for Ron to slow dance with her. The poor boy looked mortified, as the twins whistled for him in the background.
"You're never gonna let him live this one down are you?" Summer whispered over to them.

"Never." They replied in unison, their faces still lit up in amusement. She watched between Ron and the twins, who were mimicking his dance with their professor, humming the tune mockingly. When they were done, McGonagall turned to the rest of the hall.

"Everyone come together now. Boys, on your feet, don't be shy!"
It took a few moments of shuffling and awkward looks from one student to the next, before people finally started crowding around the dance floor. Summer wasn't sure where exactly to be, the only people she could think of that she could dance with was Fred or George.

"Care to dance?" A voice behind her sounded. She'd recognise it anywhere.

"Of course," She turned to face him, relief flooding her, and saw he had his arms held out to her.

"Show me," he said simply. Summer giggled at that, she was sure he knew that she probably had more experience than him with ballroom dancing. Her cheeks looked dusted with roses as she carefully moved one of his hands to her waist, and felt him give her a little squeeze.

"Follow my lead," she said softly, and in time to the music, began to glide across the dance floor.
Fred thought he looked rather stupid next to her; an angel in the way she moved, then him, acting as though he had two left feet.

"Nice one Fred," George mocked when he and his brother got close enough mid-dance. Fred only rolled his eyes before concentrating back on being in time with the small girl whose waist he was currently holding. When she looked up into his eyes, however brief the moment, it felt as though they were the only ones in the hall together, that they were floating above the ground, and swirling through the sky. He wasn't entirely sure that he had ever felt a feeling like this for anyone before.

                                     ❀❀❀

Breakfast the next morning had an air of urgency about it, they were getting closer to Christmas, which meant finding dates for the festivities. Despite the yawning and tired statures of their group, they managed to keep up the gossip about the upcoming Ball, which was all anyone seemed to talk about nowadays.

"What if no one asks me?"

"Someone's gonna ask you, Summer, why are you worrying? You're gorgeous, and new, trust me at least ten guys will ask you." Angelina retorted.

"Yeah, and if they don't, I will," Lee winked at her before getting smacked over the head with George's potions book.
"Quit flirting Lee, you know she only has eyes for Diggory." At that, Summer sprang to full attention.

"What? Who said that?"
George said nothing, only passed a copy of the Daily Prophet down the table to her. On the front page, were two pictures, both framed with a heart. One was Hermione with Harry, the other, herself with Cedric.

"That woman..." She snatched up the article, leaving her untouched breakfast, and stood up, scanning the hall for Cedric. He was looking in her direction, clutching the same article in his hands, shaking his head.

"I am not in love with him!" She cried, scanning over the article.

"Hey, it's not me you need to convince, it's everyone else," Fred nodded his head towards the turning heads of students, all exchanging hushed whispers. She even caught a girl at the Slytherin table saying "Diggory and Blanchet? He's way too good for her, I heard she has stale blood."

"Pansy Parkinson, piece of work that girl is," Hayden muttered from behind her.
"Bloody Hell, you scared me," she held a hand to her heart, but then began to worry, what would Hayden think of his best friend and sister being on the front page of the Daily Prophet together- in a love heart? However, he seemed able to read her mind.

"What, you think I believe Rita's bullshit?" He laughed, although it sounded forced, and gave the impression of containing a lot of deeper anger. It took her a second, but she now realised he was visibly shaking, and noticed that the fist in which he was holding the scrunched up paper was turning white.

Breakfast was finishing up now, and as her friends were beginning to pack their things up, she thought it was a good opportunity to leave as inconspicuously as possible before he blew up. Summer gave the twins a quick apologetic look, in which they returned a knowing one, and Fred pointed to her bag and gestured he would bring it to her later.

"Come on." She grabbed her brother by the arm, and led him out the hall, they left the building, and were now down in the courtyard, even though it was Saturday, she hoped most people would be inside due to the cold weather. They stood there in silence, she watched as his eyes flickered from line to line, hands running through his hair, foot tapping impatiently on the cobblestones. Finally, he stopped. She braced herself for the eruption.

"I... I'm going to fucking kill her- who the fuck does she think she is?" Hayden had now read the whole article, which mainly consisted of foul lies about Summer and Hermione, who were both just as much angry for each other.

"I know, but just calm down-"
"Did you see what she said about Kalen? They called him a drunk, Summer. She said I was a belligerent good for nothing- Never mind what she called me, I only care if she hurt you, are you okay?" However he left her no time to reply, before continuing, "I just can't believe she's doing it again, with no shame. She's already done this to one of my sisters, Summer, I can't lose you too." He was half crying, half raging, meaning she was unsure whether to reach out to comfort him, or stay a good distance from him.

"Hayden, it's okay, it's-" She tried to place an arm on his shoulder, but he whacked it away with what she thought was excessive force.
"Ow! I was only trying to help," she protested.

"It doesn't help that you have to get your picture taken with my best friend. You're just giving her more shit to use on us, another reason to write about our family."

"That's not what this is about, she's just bringing up bad memories..."

Hayden said nothing, only heavily chewed on his lip as his breathing became more rapid.

"Why can't you just talk to me? All you've done is pretend it never happened, but it did, and she's not coming back." Summer continued, sick of the lonely feeling that plagued her every night, spurring her to carry on. "You need need to talk about it, it's the first step to taking on the responsibility for what happened."

"Responsibility? Shut the hell up, Summer, you seemed to have gotten over it pretty quick, did you even love her?" The girl froze after hearing that. Those words made her heart physically hurt, and she had to fight to get images of her younger sister to leave her head.

"Just... Just because you feel like it's your fault, doesn't mean you can take it out on everyone else, or, pretend you don't have feelings, or something." She rapidly regained her posture, and forced a confident expression.

"My fault? You think it's my fault?" He smiled now, but it wasn't a friendly one.

"Yeah, maybe it was your fault, you let Kalen think he's all to blame, but the truth is, you're the one who got him into that situation in the first place... You can never keep your mouth shut!"

"No, you know what, you're delusional, if you care so little, it should have been you, Summer. At least Felicity had a good heart." Again, the words pierced through her, and she felt lost for breath, and could only muster out two words.

"Your fault!"

"Should. Have. Been. You!" 

She couldn't take it anymore, she sunk onto a nearby bench, head in her hands. Through her fingers, she saw Hayden toss the paper to the floor, spit on it, and punch the jagged stone wall. Swearing loudly, he stalked off back into the castle.

A few minutes later, she heard quick footsteps, and prayed that it wasn't her brother returning.
"Summer!" The footsteps quickened in pace as the person approached. Embarrassment flooded over her, and she wanted more than ever, to just hide. When she felt the gentle touch of someone's hands on the back of her head, she finally looked up, to see none other than the person she wanted least in the world to see her cry.

"I'm fine," she hastily stood up, but Fred still looked at her with concern.

"I was worried something bad might happen, here's your bag, are you hurt? Why were you crying?"

"Thanks for my bag, I really appreciate it," she gave a forced kind of smile, not really meeting his eyes.

"Did you guys have an argument?"

"No, it's nothing, really. I'll explain to you after term finishes, I don't want to get into it right now."

"The end of term? Are you sure?" His eyes boring into hers almost begged her to tell him the truth.

"Yeah, let's do something fun, how about... Skinny dipping?" Fred choked on his mouthful of coffee, and winced as he recovered himself.

"Sorry, what?"

"Just come down to the lake with me, hurry!"

With that, she started sprinting down the hilly grounds towards the lake, forgetting the argument, putting aside any problems she might have, it was just her and the wind and the trees. The pounding footsteps behind her implicated that Fred wasn't far behind her, they sounded as if they were getting closer. In an instant, her feet were no longer coming into contact with the grass, as Fred grabbed her from behind, and swung her round in circles.

"Fred! Put me down!" She screamed, although was unable to stop herself from giggling in excitement. He carried on running until they reached the lake, finally giving her one more spin before placing her gently on the silt.

"Ahh, I'm dizzy now." Summer pretended to be wobbling around, until she fell on her back, still laughing and staring up at the sky. Fred flopped down next to her and was panting- trying to catch his breath.

"You're... Crazy..." He said between large inhales of sharp, icy air.

"You followed me."

"That I did."

"Only because you thought we were going skinny dipping."

"No, I knew you were joking Sum Sum, I'm not that gullible."

Summer chuckled and turned her head so that it faced his.

"Promise we'll go swimming here when it's warmer, though? I'll remember to bring my bathing suit from home." She held out her pinky.

"Sure, I promise." Fred took it with his own and shook it.