Found AIAOY 4

Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
G
Found AIAOY 4
Summary
All I Ask Of You's updated fourth book--Goblet of Fire's plot.Fourth year hasn't even begun when the craziness is back and turning Rebecca's life upside down. Deatheaters attack the Quidditch World Cup and term starts with an announcement of the return of a game of champions--The Triwizard Tournament. Rebecca has a bad feeling about the whole thing, only to discover that she and Harry are entwined in a web of deception like never before.And, while everything in her life is pushed to new limits, her friendships are too.Is it possible that the Lost Potter ends up Found?Series Order (so far):LostStuckHuntedFoundDarkFracturedRunning
All Chapters Forward

Chapter 19

"Repeat after me," George commanded in the empty classroom McGonagall had ignored their usage of in the days before exams and the final task.  "I am more than my exam scores."

Rebecca rolled her eyes, irritated by the interruption of her revisions.  "I know that, George.  Don't distract me."

"Love, humour me?"  Fred asked gently.  He hadn't moved from his seat beside her a day that week but his concern grew with each passing lunch hour.  Just then, for instance, Rebecca had two parchment unfurled in front of her to bounce between.  "You haven't even blinked."

"Exams start tomorrow."  Rebecca said, tearing her attention away from her work.  One parchment was devoted to herself, the other to any spells or information that could aid Harry.  "And the final task is Friday.  There isn't any time to-"

Fred closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her tightly, laying his cheek against the top of her head.  

George's answer was a little different.  "Ugh!"  He groaned, leaning back in his chair so only two legs were on the ground.  "Why do you even study?  If you don't know it already, are you really going to know it after reading it just before?  It'll only confuse what you do know!"

"Your O.W.L.s start tomorrow as well."  Rebecca looked up at Fred, unknowingly forcing his heart faster with her eyes peeking up at him over the rims of her glasses.  "You're not doing anything to review?"

"We feel our minds are better put to other queries."  Fred pecked her forehead before turning back to George.  "Don't worry, RJ."

"Here's something we've been thinking about!"  George let his seat crash back down with a bang that startled Harry at the other end of the room, the dummy in front of him finding reprieve from the constant barrage of defensive and offensive spells it had been under.  "What flavours should the Lying-Lollies be?"

"Grape, apple, strawberry and..."  Rebecca sighed.  "I don't know, pick something that's a different colour than those."  Rebecca turned back to her books and began writing and reading again, opening another book from the stack of her texts.

"Well aren't you just no fun."  George said, sticking his tongue out and letting his head fall to the table.  He couldn't help his attention turning towards where Hermione was scolding Ron for letting his attention drift in the emergency study-session he'd asked for while Harry let his arm fall to his side and he didn't cast any more spells.  George wasn't handling his own stresses and fears about the coming week well and, while he knew that, he didn't know how else to channel his nervous energy.

"Don't listen to him."  Fred said quietly, rubbing Rebecca's shoulder.  "He's just jealous."

"What do I have to be jealous of, Fred?"  George demanded, his self-reflection cut short.

"Well, for one..."  Fred lowered his voice as if he were trying to keep George from hearing.  "He's not the most handsome of us."

George scoffed and put his bag over his shoulder, warning the room that lunch was nearly over and leaving with a huff.

Hermione closed the books she and Ron had around them before stacking them only to find that the pile was scooped away by Ron who returned them to the shelves himself.

Rebecca's books were grabbed similarly, despite the fact that she had originally intended on putting them away herself.  Fred set the books back on the table--though still out of her immediate reach--when she looked at him as if there was something she wanted to say.  "Yes, love?"

"I just-"  Rebecca shook her head and lowered her eyes.  "I want to prove that I can do well this year, that I will do well next year on my O.W.L.s."  She lowered her voice further, sensing that what she was about to impart was something she wouldn't have shared to anyone other than Fred.  "I want to prove that I belong here--at Hogwarts."

Fred shook his head and knelt to one knee at her side, slipping an arm around her waist.  "There is already no doubt in a single mind that you belong here."  He kissed her quickly, the first of the bells beginning to toll.  "Besides, you're going to do well anyway.  You always do."  He stood and continued to put her books away as she stood and laid eyes on Harry who had yet to prepare to leave.

"Harry?"  Rebecca asked.  He was standing in front of the window muttering to himself, repeating a few spells he hadn't memorised well.  "Harry, are you okay?"

Harry jumped at her voice, but didn't answer her question.  Instead, he took a deep breath and turned away from the window to bury his face into Rebecca's neck.

"Hey now!"  Rebecca said, squeezing him tightly with one arm and using the other to pat his back.  "Pepper up!  No tears before tea time, I'm afraid."

"Is that a new rule?"  Harry asked, still not moving.

"Oh yeah, you haven't heard?"  Rebecca picked his bag up from where it lie nearby and held it out to him.

Fred hurried to Rebecca's side and pecked her cheek lightly.  "I'll try and sneak out of Charms early.  Meet you at your last class, okay?"

"Don't get caught!"  Rebecca warned as he rushed out of the room.

"Never!"  Fred called back.

Faintly, Harry and Rebecca heard George's complaints from the hall where he had waited for Fred.  "Why'd you say that?  We're identical, identically dashing!"

"We're near the end, Harry."  Rebecca said, her voice stronger than she felt.  Lately, whenever she let her mind wander towards the final event of the Triwizard Tournament, strong, sickening feelings of dread accompanied.  Rebecca had a bad feeling, one that wouldn't go away or be explained.

"I trust studying went well?"  Professor McGonagall asked, meeting them at the door as they were the last two to exit the room.

Harry shrugged, leaving Rebecca to elaborate.  "It went...I don't know.  I think we're just ready for everything to be over, right Harry?"

Harry nodded once before excusing himself.  He was certain that if Professor McGonagall showed him any kindness, any at all, he would dissolve into a teary mess he'd not be able to clean up before class started.

McGonagall bid Rebecca a good day and made sure the classroom was in order before voicing her response to the nothingness inside.  "I am too."  As it should have been, the class didn't answer.  Minerva felt no relief at voicing her thoughts aloud, but a weight that seemed to press down on her shoulders heavily.  "I am ready, too."

 

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"What a surprise!"  Rebecca said with a smile as she left their last class of the day.  Waiting in the hall, leaning against the stones nonchalantly with an anticipatory grin dancing across his face, was Fred.

"That's me."  Fred chuckled, taking her hand in his.  "Ever so surprising.  Definitely never would have told you to plan on me being here."

"Oh, never."  Rebecca said seriously.  

Fred raised her hand between them so that she was spun in a circle, smoothly slipping his other hand under the strap of her bag and taking it before she could protest.  "Now, where are we off to study this evening?"

"I think..."  Rebecca looked over her shoulder where Harry was between Hermione and Ron, his eyes distant and his mind somewhere equally as far away.  "I think you and George were right.  If we don't know it by now, we're not going to learn it the days before."  Harry felt her look at him and tried to give her a reassuring smile.  Harry only managed a grimace.  "We should do something fun!"

"Something fun?"  Fred asked shocked.  He raised his voice so the others could hear their conversation clearly, finding himself on the same page as Rebecca.  Where Rebecca was using lightening Harry as a motivator, Fred was using his love of seeing her happy.  "Studying is so much fun though."

Hermione opened her mouth to argue against not studying, but she caught sight of the life reentering Harry at the idea and knew that she had lost any fight she was going to put up because Hermione wanted to see Harry--the Harry of usual--as much as anyone else did.  "What do you have in mind?"

Ron jumped and punched the air at Hermione's giving in, throwing his arm around Harry and messing up his already-messed-up hair.

"What about a trip to Hagrid's?"  Harry offered up, relieved to find the others found as much appeal in the idea as he had.  "It's been a while."

"I should have known!"  George shouted, panting heavily as he found them down a corridor.  "I should have known you weren't going to the loo!  How could you have abandoned me like that--Your own twin?!"

"Oh no."  Fred sighed.  "Anyone know this bloke who keeps following me?"

"I HEARD YOU!"  George's voice raised higher and his footsteps went faster to join their moving party out of the castle.

 

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Rebecca tried to make the perfection of their afternoon with Hagrid leave her thoughts.  The final bout of fourth year exams were nearly through and she had found her mind wandering in the difficulty of the questions.  Harry--as well as the other champions--were excused from the examinations to prepare for the next day's task.

Dipping the nub of her quill back into the ink, Rebecca continued to answer the questions with as much thought as she could muster after so many hours of focus.

"Students?"  Professor Flitwick called, tapping his wand to his desk as he stood.  "Your time ends...now!"  Their parchements disappeared and reappeared on his desk, their academia ending.  

Chatter and cheers erupted immediately, students pausing to thank Flitwick or gab about how much harder it was than they had expected.  Rebecca stretched as Hermione and Ron joined her, all of them meandering out of the classroom with their table by the lake's edge in mind; Fred and George wouldn't be done until a little after them and that was where they had all decided to meet.

Hermione took a deep breath, knowing what was on her mind would bring an unsavoury reaction.  "That's it, fourth year.  We should probably start preparing for the O.W.L.s this summ-"

"Don't you start!"  Ron bellowed, glad Rebecca was between the two of them.  If he had been beside Hermione, his hands might have accidentally found their way around her neck.  "Don't you even dare!  Summer is for peace and relaxation, not your bloody study-regime!"

Rebecca tried to placate the argument before it could really grow.  "I think that's a great idea, Hermione.  We'll coordinate topics and just leave Ron to suffer.  Yeah?"  This solution seemed to appease Ron and Hermione and, upon exiting the castle, Rebecca couldn't help but walk a little faster to have a moment of semi-privacy to enjoy how it felt to be outdoors after so long inside.

"How do her legs move so fast?"  Ron mused as the distance between the one and the two of them grew a little further.  He thought it was a little funny how Rebecca had her face turned into the breeze blowing over them slightly, her face turned up towards the sun.

"Anxiety?"  Hermione offered.  Ron didn't know--nor did Rebecca know that Hermione did--how many hours she was trying to stay awake even after drinking the draught.  Whether it was fear of another dual-dream or the tournament or any other number of things, Hermione knew that Rebecca was not sleeping well.  Losing her dark tone as the niceness of the day forced a better outlook, Hermione contradicted her first speculation.  "Relief?"

Ron and Hermione reached the top of the last hill to the table just as Rebecca launched herself at Harry, her arms wrapped around his neck tightly.  "We just saw each other at lunch!"  Harry laughed loudly as Hermione and Ron joined them.  None of them had heard a laugh that true of Harry's in days.

"I know."  Rebecca said with a long-since-returning laugh of her own.  "But you really would have enjoyed that exam."

Harry glanced at Ron to know if that was true and got a scowl in return.  "Sure, Becs."  Harry shook his head.  "If you really think so.  I actually have something for you--From Sirius."  Harry rummaged through his bag and pulled out the second letter attached in the day's, one addressed solely to Rebecca.

Rebecca didn't give it another glance and spoke immediately to keep Harry from nosing in about what he had wanted with just her.  "What'd he say today?  Another good luck?"

"And a variation of the four-point directional spell he thinks will work better than the one we have."

"Really?  Better than the one I found?"  Hermione's eyes widened with alarm.  "What is it?"

Harry held Sirius' letter to he and Rebecca--his mind flitting towards speculations of what he could want with just Rebecca--and tried to keep from laughing at how Hermione's cheeks reddened.

"I..."  Hermione nodded once.  "I must have missed that one."

Ron laughed loudly.  "Ha!  You don't actually know everything!"

Hermione raised an eyebrow.  "You've known me for four years and you only know have the opportunity to say that."

"I have to tell everyone!"  Ron shouted, standing up from the bench and pausing before sinking back down.  "Later.  I'll tell everyone later.  That exam was too horrid to run."

Harry nudged Rebecca with his elbow as Hermione and Ron's conversation quickly drowned any offerance they could have.  "How do you feel about your exam?  You're awfully quiet."

Rebecca chewed the inside of her cheek.  "I hope my practicals cover up the essay part."

Harry patted her shoulder and went to reassure her that she did brilliantly, but was interrupted by Fred and George appearing over the hill with echoing shouts.  "We killed the O.W.L.s!  We killed the O.W.L.s!"

They jumped into open spots around the table and began to reenact the horrors of what questions and spells they had been asked to perform in increasing dramatics until they had every one of their friends laughing themselves to tears.

 

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"Can't sleep?"  Rebecca jumped, she hadn't expected to see anyone else at all--Not when it was the middle of the night and the final event of the tournament was the next evening.  Fred sat at the end of the couch, purposefully leaving space between them in case that was what she needed.  "I didn't think you would be able to."

"I-"  Rebecca shook her head.  Fred noticed how the hand she had on the cushion between them clenched tightly.  She moved quickly, without asking and without explanation, until she had her arms wrapped around Fred's middle and her face was buried in his chest.

"Hey now!"  Fred said gently, holding her tightly.  "If you can't be upset when you're with me, who can you really?"

Rebecca nodded and wished that her tears had had any resistance.  The built up worry, anxiety, fears, everything that Rebecca had been suppressing in the past few days made their way out of her until she stilled against Fred and realised how tired she really was.

"Did that help?"  Fred murmured.  "Never mind."  He knew it had.  He could tell by the littlest of differences in her face, in how she sat against him.  "Why don't you go on up to bed?"

"Can't."  Rebecca said, sitting up slightly but leaving one arm around him.  "I can't, Fred."

"And why ever not?"  Fred asked.  "You are magnificent--brilliant in every way, but I think you still need rest.  Even that's something you haven't mastered yet."

"Fred..."  Rebecca's voice held both her gratefulness for him and her need for him to be serious.

"I know."  Fred sighed and brought his hands to her cheeks, using his thumbs to wipe away the remaining signs that she had cried at all.  "You're worried about not being at your all for tomorrow."

Rebecca closed her eyes and leaned into his hands, his words taking the very worries from her head and bringing them into the world.  

"But you can't worry about that."  Fred leaned closer to her and kissed her forehead.  "There, I've made it so you won't have a dream, alright?"

"Oh really?"  Rebecca asked, wrapping her arms around him again.  "If only it were that easy."

"Let's believe it is, for tonight at least."  Fred made his way to his feet and took her with him, slowly walking her back to the girls' stairs.  "I can't have you sleeping on the benches tomorrow, not when we're so close to the end of all this."

"It is close, isn't it?"  Rebecca wasn't just phrasing the question as a remark, she was asking him.

"Of course, love.  Why ask?"

Rebecca shook her head and stood up a stair, kissing Fred's cheek gently.  "Never mind then, darling.  You're right, why ask."

Fred's heart stammered at the pet name and he waited for her to close the door behind her to begin his own way back to bed.  Something was bothering him, something he couldn't quite place.  He couldn't get the look on her face when Rebecca had said never mind to her question, the look that she always had when she was trying to tell a lie.

 

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All Harry wanted for the morning before the event was to spend time with his friends. That's exactly what they did--planned to, at least.  They all ate breakfast with the forced-light conversation of usual before loitering around the castle; bouncing from courtyard to bench to common room until lunch time came.

"Mr Potter!"  Professor McGonagall called as she caught sight of their group.  "Rebecca?  You, too!"

Harry had turned immediately, beginning his way to the professor's voice.  Rebecca, however, was held back a moment.  "Fred, you have to let go!  They're waiting for me!"

McGonagall raised an eyebrow at Harry as they both heard Rebecca scolding him, the questioning gaze not fading in the slightest as Fred's shout, "Never!" reached them.

"I'm sorry."  Rebecca breathed as she jogged around the corner where the others wandered into the Great Hall.  "Technical difficulty."

Professor McGonagall shook her head and turned towards her office, walking and expecting them to follow her.  "As is tradition, the parents of each champion have been brought to attend a luncheon with the other competitors and their families."

"Oh, professor please."  Harry stopped in his tracks, the colour seeping from his face.  "I don't want to see the Dursleys before tonight.  Can I-we, can we please go back and eat with-"

"Harry!  Rebecca!"  Molly gasped, laying her eyes on them and hurrying towards them with her arms opened for the hug she was already preparing for.

"Mrs Weasley?"  Harry asked, hurrying to her and disappearing in her arms.

"Did you put this together?"  Rebecca asked quietly, intensely grateful for the reprieve this lunch was going to give Harry from his worries.

McGonagall let only a peek of her smile escape so Rebecca knew that she wasn't serious.  "I would never.  This is completely unallowed.  But, if the files for two students with the Potter name were rearranged, how could I have possibly known?"

"You couldn't have."  Rebecca smiled.

Another red-haired person appeared around the corner behind Molly, bringing Rebecca running down the hall as Harry had moments before.  "Bill?"

"Woah!"  Bill laughed loudly, patting Rebecca's back and hugging her too.  This would have been unimaginable to Bill when he had first met her in Egypt, and now?  Now it was wholly welcome.  "I saw you a few weeks ago!"

"Too long."  Rebecca only stepped away when the door to the lunch opened and sent the music and laughter from inside out to them.

"'Arry!"  Fleur called, the two attendants she had been looking forward to the most finally arriving--late.  "Rebecca!  You must meet my maman!"

Bill swore he had fallen through a portal to another dimension as a young woman guided another woman who was clearly her mother to Harry's group.  Molly, eyeing Fleur warily, was slightly confused.

"Fleur?"  Appoline, yet to be introduced by name, clarified who was in front of her.  "C'est lui et elle?"

"Oui, maman."

Fleur's mother took Harry's hand gently, speaking seriously.  "Monsieur, tu as sauvé mon bébé, merci.  Merci beaucoup, un mille fois merci."

Harry's questioning look to Fleur prompted a translation.

"She says you 'ave saved her baby."  Fleur wiped at her cheek sheepishly, Gabrielle looking over at the feeling of someone talking about her.  "She thanks you a thousand times."

"Bill."  Bill stuck his hand out too quickly in between the conversation that began between the mothers.  "Bill Weasley."

"And 'ow is it you are related to 'Arry?"  Fleur asked, shaking his hand with a little smile.

Molly reached forward and shook Fleur's hand politely, though it hadn't yet been offered to her.  Lowering her voice to reprimand Bill, Molly's tone went entirely maternal.  "Mind your drooling, Bill.  Remember what you are here for."

Bill grimaced at the chastising, but Fleur only laughed not un-kindly.  "You must be Mrs Weasley!"  Fleur smiled further.  "Rebecca has said many things about you, how you can solve all problems."

Molly was taken back slightly by the kindness and the truth in Fleur's voice.  "Well, thank you.  That's very...kind."  Molly eyed Rebecca with a hint of a tease.  "Rebecca has mentioned you, as well.  I have heard that the love you have for your sister is very much like that between she and Harry."

Fleur nodded to Harry and Rebecca, eternally grateful for the return of her sister.  "Is there anything stronger than family?"

Just as Molly was resigning herself to the fact that she might enjoy the rest of the conversation with the very girl she had already decided to dislike, Amos Diggory came bounding over with an embarrassed Cedric close behind.

"There you are m'boy!"  Amos clapped his hand on Harry's shoulder roughly.  "I was just telling Cedric how you must have entered the contest to follow in his footsteps!"

"I didn't enter the contest, sir."  Harry corrected Amos politely while sneaking his hand behind his leg to catch Rebecca's wrist, to warn her against any impoliteness.  

Cedric grimaced as his father continued to speak.  "Sure you didn't!"  Amos winked.  "Anyway, as I was saying: I was trying to tell Ced here that you really played your cards right in that second task!  Really, saving two girls and then the debacle up top?  Ced should have gotten his strategy from you!  And the Prophet--You've been on the front page more than anyone else!"

"Strategy?"  Harry echoed, his voice nearly strained.  "Debacle?  My-"

"Dad!"  Cedric's voice dropped open at the audacity of his father.

Molly laid her hands on a shoulder of Harry and a shoulder of Rebecca's, narrowing her eyes slightly.  "I think you'll find this a conversation best left unfinished, Amos."  Her tone left no room for disagreement and Amos wandered back to his wife unaware of any strife left behind.

"I am so sorry."  Cedric whispered before returning to his mother's side as he was called for.

"Please tell me talk like that is a rare occurrence."  Molly asked Harry and Rebecca, seeing with her own eyes some of that which Fred had included in his letters.

"Well," Harry said, his tone showing that he was brushing the issue away already to not ruin their afternoon.  "I could.  You'd know Rebecca was lying, of course, but I-"

"Harry!"  Rebecca interrupted with a whack at his arm.

Molly shook her head and brought them to the spread of food, insisting that Harry eat seconds to build up his strength for later.  "A full stomach will keep your spells sharp!"

Harry slipped the food she piled onto his plate onto Rebecca's beside him, who then in turn slipped it onto Bill's.  He picked at what was in front of him while continuing his 'snuck' glimpses at Fleur that everyone saw.

"She is right though."  Rebecca said quietly when Molly left them to find the last of the vegetables for Harry.  "You need your strength."  Bill stood with a yawn and excused himself, coincidentally when Fleur returned to the lunch.

"I don't know if I'm ready."  Harry said softly, he and Rebecca alone enough for him to reveal some of his building nerves.

"I know you are, Harry."  Rebecca took his hands in hers and bent her head down so that he had to look into her eyes.  "I know it.  You've got the spells, you've clearly had the food."  This brought a small smile to his lips.  "And, best of all, you've got me.  I'm going to be in the stands every second and, when you leave the maze, I'll be right there."

"Sometimes..."  Harry paused and restarted.  "A lot of the time, I think it should have been you who was picked."  He turned his eyes away from hers at the admission.  "You're so much stronger than I am, Becs.  You're braver, smarter."

Rebecca grabbed his face and turned him back towards her, squeezing his cheeks roughly.  "Have you gone mad?  Listen to yourself!  I never would have gotten as far as you have, let alone done as well as you have!"  She didn't know if this was true, of course.  But she knew that it was precisely what he needed to hear at the moment.  "Now eat your food and stop being stupid.  The others will want to see you again before we head back to the pitch."

"We?"  Harry grinned as his face was released.  "So you'll be walking down with me this time?"

"Yes, I bloody said we didn't I?!"  Rebecca snapped.  "And heaven help whoever gets in my way."

 

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<3

 

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