Sigh, Teenagers

The world was quiet as one Y/N L/N approached the looming building loving dubbed "The Burrow." Most normal people had yet to wake while the sun rose inch by inch over the trees surrounding the land,but Y/N had special plans that required her awake; much to her dismay. No birds were to be heard at the slowly approaching dawn, only the light pads of worn sneakers on the dirt road.

The gloomy, almost grayish morning should've seemed eerie to the young L/N who had only neared the whimsical structure just a minute ago, but she was more than elated to be there. The Weasley abode was something akin to a second home to her, having spent a good bit of the summer after the first Hogwarts term with her best friends at the Burrow. Y/N may have visited that year to see Harry and Ron, but she stayed for the sweet ginger lady who was currently eyeing the young girl through her kitchen window.

Y/N was a second away from knocking on the aged door before her favorite Weasley nearly threw it open into her face. "Good morning Y/N dear. Come in, come in, you must be cold," the woman rushed cheerily as she ushered the slightly surprised girl into her home.

"Morning, Mrs. Weasley, how have you been?" the H/C haired girl greeted politely.

"Oh just fine. My my Y/N you've grown since the last time I've seen you. Must be that American air," Mrs. Weasley noted as she pinched the girl's cheek. "Now, Hermione's just arrived. Go wake up the boys would you? Breakfast is ready. Those boys, always sleeping in!"

With a quick nod, Y/N was sent up the the several, winding sets of stairs into the very top floor of the Burrow. The trek was just the slightest bit unnerving for the girl for she hadn't seen her best friends since the end of term. Although she attempted to write as much as possible, sending an owl over the Atlantic ocean over and over again seemed just a tad bit cruel. Finally, she reached the top landing, where the "sleeping beauties" were just about waking up.

The commotion was could be heard from the narrow hallway, and it was very clear that Hermione was wrecking havoc on the slumbering boys. Just the way Y/N liked it. Excitedly, she stuck her head through the side of the doorway before entering the room with a large grin on her face. "Hey guys."

"Y/N! When'd you get here?" Hermione asked.

"Just now." Y/N said. "You alright Harry?" she added, now turning her attention to the frazzled looking boy. His emerald eyes were widened and he was staring at her with a look of bewilderment on his face.

"It's-It's nothing," He lied. Frankly, Harry had not seen his friend in while but she definitely looked different from the last time he had talked face to face with her. He knew his memory was not nearly as horrible as Neville's but he had the fainted recollection of a rather plain looking E/C-eyed, H/C haired girl, and not the one standing in front of him right now. The boy wouldn't have gone as far as to think that she was abducted by perhaps a horde of cornish pixies only to be replaced by a better, more mature looking version of herself, but the thought had undeniably crossed his mind.

"Blimey Y/N, you look different," Ron commented, being the ever so blunt boy that he was.

"So I've been told," the girl hummed, already thinking back to what his mother had said just minutes ago. "Anyways, get dressed. I'd rather not be late because of your beauty sleep."

Y/N and Hermione left the bedroom and began talking about her summer in New York with her aunt Mildred. They'd been in a deep conversation about Y/N's visit to a particular muggle museum when the two girls ran into the two runners up for Y/N's "Favorite Weasley" award (Although she would never admit it to anyone but herself.)

A grin spread on the twins' faces as they laid eyes on their missed partner in crime. "Y/N," they said at the same time. How the two managed to stay so perfectly in sync was a complete mystery to the girl, but it was certainly satisfying to hear and she missed it very much.

"Took you long enough," George teased.

"Thought we'd have to fly all the way to New York just to get you to come back," Fred continued, leaning over to ruffle their younger friend's H/C locks.

"Oh shut up you two. You're so dramatic."

"Only for you Y/N," the twins replied smoothly as they draped their lanky arms around the girl's shoulder. They only received a playful eye roll in return.

"I'll go get Ginny," Hermione said before excusing herself from the group.

The trio shrugged and continued down the stairs. "Seriously, George and I were just about ready fly when mum woke up in the middle of the night to go to the loo."

"Yeah, threatened to take away our brooms all summer."

"Wouldn't have stopped us anyways. Our second plan was to mail ourselves to you using that muggle service, but mum thought we were being too suspicious."

Y/N rolled her eyes at the antics but smiled nonetheless. She could expect nothing less from the two eccentric gingers. "I would've mailed you right back to your mum," she countered.

"How cruel, we thought we were your favorite," they chimed.

"Your mum's my favorite Weasley cause she feeds me. Learn to cook and we'll talk about it."

Said Weasley matriarch was waiting by the dining table by the time the trio arrived at the bottom of the stairwell. Unbeknownst to the L/N, the woman was quite pleased to see her two troublemaker sons approaching with their arms still draped languidly across the young teen's shoulder. A knowing grin made its way onto the mother's face. She wouldn't be too opposed to welcoming the L/N into the family, but she was getting ahead of herself.

The three teens settled on the seats and began to devour their breakfast with excitement. Almost as if eating their food faster would bring them to the Quidditch world cup faster. It certainly felt that way. Especially, when they were joined seconds later by Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, most of which looked dead tired.

"Mornin," the twins greeted.

After the rest of the teens quickly scarfed down their breakfast, the two Weasley parents entered the kitchen. One Molly Weasley was making sure to pack all of the needed items into her husband's bag whilst muttering about how "You can never been too sure."

"Mornin' kids. Must get going now. tick tok tick tok," he ushered, sending the teens into a scramble to get outside. Fred and George were the first to go seeing as they were the most excited. After the twins came the three girls, who were already chatting amicably about the upcoming Quidditch world cup. Unsurprisingly, Ginny was most enthusiastic as she was the biggest quidditch fan out of the trio. Hermione and Y/N on the other hand, were just happy to be able to experience an event like this.

A bit of a ways behind the main group, trudged Harry and Ron, still groggy from their precious, interrupted sleep. Better yet, the sun had still not fully risen, casting an somber, grayish tint across the forest they were traveling through. The boys merely stared at the back of the girls' heads blankly as they talked.

"I don't get it," Ron stated suddenly.

"Get what?" Harry asked.

"How they wake up this early and still stay energetic. Bloody hell even Y/N's up and at it. And she doesn't wake up on the weekends until one in the afternoon usually," Ron whined.

"Don't suppose she's been replaced do you?" Harry added, already giving into Ron's strange ranting.

"Wouldn't be surprised. I mean look at her. She's even prettier than Hermione," The ginger blurted.

"Yeah she is," The black haired boy replied absentmindedly as he watched his female friend run a hand through her luscious H/C locks. Since when did Harry start thinking of Y/N's hair like this? Was it normal to stare at his friend so long and think she was pretty? And wait a second did Ron just call Hermione pretty?

"Wait what?" Ron asked, not expecting this type of answer from his friend.

"Huh what?" Harry replied dumbly, only then realizing his slip. "Oh never mind that, where are we actually going?" He asked in order to change the subject, and of course because they had been walking through the woods a bit aimlessly for the past ten to twenty minutes.

"Don't know," Ron replied. "Hey Dad!" He called, catching the attention of everyone ahead of him. "Where are we going?"

"Haven't the foggiest!" Arthur shouted back. "Keep up."

Per his instruction, the two boys jogged up to the group and settled right behind the girls. "Took you two long enough. Thought we'd lose you to some wolves or something if you'd been any slower," Y/N teased before casually slinking her arms through Ginny's as they walked.

About another ten minutes into walking, the wizards and witches walked into a sort of clearing; minus the large gnarled tree that stood proudly in the middle. Beside the tree stood a man. Y/N had to hop a few times just to see over the twins' shoulders. "Who's tha-"

"Arthur!" The man yelled, interrupting Y/N's barely formed question. "It's about time, son," he continued as he approached. By now, Y/N could see the large backpack and cane he sported.

"Sorry Amos, some of us had a sleepy start," Arthur answered, looking back at the two soon to be fourth years still trailing a bit behind the group. "This is Amos Diggory everyone. Works with me, at the ministry," he introduced.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, landed a very handsome young man with a thump. "And this strapping young lad must be Cedric am I right?" he continued. Of course every single boy and girl currently attending Hogwarts knew of the dashing young Hufflepuff that was Cedric Diggory.

After quickly recovering from that bit of shock - of course who wouldn't be shocked when a boy suddenly jumps out of a tree without your knowledge of him being there in the first place- the girls threw each other a knowing look. Even Hermione, who rarely ever stuck her nose out of a book whenever her friends weren't around, had to admit; Cedric was one handsome man. Y/N especially, had been ogling the pretty boy until Ginny nudged her rib and smirked at her. "Oh shut up," the girl laughed as pushed the ginger girl's face away and started walking once again.

~

Y/n couldn't tell if it was because the distance was shorter or she was less bored, but they arrived at their destination in no time. For a second, the girl was wildly confused why there were no qudditch related anything in sight. Harry seemed to be in the same boat as her when he stopped next to the girl to stare incredulously at a single boot.

"Why are they standing around that manky old boot?" Harry questioned.

"No idea," Y/N mumbled before walking up to the aforementioned object. She settled beside none other than good ol Cedric who flashed her a charming smile. "H-hi," she greeted shyly. Merlin, there was just something about that dashing smile that had her knees week. Good thing she was already close to the ground, cause she would not have survived an encounter standing up.

"Hi, Y/N right? Nice to meet you."

"Mhm, you too." By now, everyone including Harry had their hand on some part of the shoe. "So any idea what this is?" she asked.

"It's a port key."

"Port key? What's a port key?"

The Hufflepuff was unable to answer before his father cut in and began counting down rather loudly. All he could afford was a sort of apologetic look in return for the young girl's slightly panicked one. Really, countdowns can be stressful when you don't know what they're for. But what's the worst that could happen? You get flung out of the sky?

Y/N really should've expected this by now. Magic was magic and it was unpredictable. Like when the boot seemed to warp the world all at once just to send the party spinning in circles in the middle of god knows where. From whatever blur of blue she could make out, Y/N could only guess they were ripping through the sky like madmen.

If Y/N could guess who the madmen were, she'd settle on the adults of the group, who were laughing merrily at the roller coaster of a travel method. "Let go kids!" the ginger yelled. He received a rather frightened "What?!" from none other than Hermione.

Eventually, Y/N's friends let go and seemed to be sucked out of the air and sent hurtling towards the ground. The charming brunette gave her reassuring look, which the girl begrudgingly accepted. After shutting her eyes, Y/N too released herself from the portkey and felt her stomach flip over and over as she plunged toward the ground.

In the flash of an eye, one L/N came crashing back down onto the Earth with a thump that winded her more than she would ever like to experience again. Except the so called Earth was much squishier and bonier than she thought. The "Earth" groaned from underneath the girl who then realized she had fallen on none other than Harry Potter.

"Sorry," she wheezed breathlessly before rolling onto the ground. From the grass, The two watched as Cedric, Amos, and Arthur fluttered to the ground as if they were walking on air. ' 'Lucky,' She thought to herself bitterly.

Promptly after the brunette Hufflepuff landed on the ground, he strode up to the girl on the ground. It was a bit shocking for Y/N when the most popular and attractive student at Hogwarts outstretched his hand for her to take. After all, Y/N L/N was quite used to being the most overlooked of all her friends, and here was the most sought after boy in school purposefully offering her a hand. Or maybe Y/N was over thinking this entire scenario and Cedric was just being nice. But that just goes full circle back to Cedric being completely and utterly attractive.

Gladly, she let the older boy help her up. After all, it wasn't every day she got to talk to Cedric Diggory. "I think I hate port keys," she muttered, recalling the conversation just a minute ago. To which the brunette chuckled.

"Y'know we're going to have to take the portkey back home after the world cup," he teased.

Y/N didn't even need to reply because her scrunched up, unsatisfied face did all the talking for the girl. She would've replied with something about how she'd rather walk all the way back to the Burrow rather than take a port key, but Mr. Weasley was already hurrying the kids along. A bit reluctantly, Y/N rejoined Ginny, who wiggled her thin brow at the older girl. Y/N barely felt guilty for swatting at the ginger girl's shoulder.

Once over the little hill, the sight before everyone was breathtaking. By now, the sun had finally shown itself, basking the camp ground in it's warm rays. Wizards and witches of all shapes and sizes swarmed around, enjoying themselves. A cute Irish jig even seemed to be coming from an unknown source from within the grounds. A decently equal amount of Irish and Bulgarian flags peeked out from within the crowd, thus showing whose allegiances lied with which team.

The party entered the crowd with a doubled amount of enthusiasm as heads whipped left and right to point out knick knacks and magical doings. All the while, the Weasley patriarch was trying his best not to lose the teens in the crowd. Particularly the girls, who couldn't stop oohing and awing at the sights.

~

Once gathered in the tents, the group spent an awfully long amount of time wrecking havoc in it. The first few minutes were filled with shouts from Mr. Weasley trying his best to maintain order. From the girls who's first idea was to chase each other around the tent to Ron who was already raiding the kitchen to the twins who were simply lounging with their feet on the table. Then there was the business of the twins attempting to convince their father to allow Y/N to dorm in the boys' side of the tent for the night. Arthur knew they'd be too much trouble if he let Y/N participate in whatever nefarious business the twins were cooking up so he had to say no.

Lunch passed by extra quickly for the teens who stuffed their faces almost twice as fast as when they ate breakfast. In no time, everyone save for Mr. Weasley was preparing for the match. Whether it be with comically large hats or simply their team colored scarves.

Y/N herself was decked with a warm white and green scarf that resembled a certain serpent house's color just a bit too much. Of course this was on the insistence of the twins who had to go above and beyond to support the Irish. So much so that they had roped Y/N into painting their faces with audaciously eye catching colors.

At the moment, Y/N was sat across a slouching Fred, who was trying his best to get within range of the girl, who was quickly becoming tired of holding the paint brush up. You'd think that holding a wand for nearly three years would have made the girl's arm stronger but she rarely used magic unless absolutely needed. Just another "quirk" that made Y/N even more boring.

"Fred stop moving or I will get paint into your eyes. Then you won't be able to watch the match," the girl scolded. "Ugh, you're hair's in your face, George go get my pins," she commanded.

"And I'm supposed to know where they are?" George said. The boy received an unamused look, which only served to make him grin. "Only joking, I'm on it."

A moment later, the tall boy reentered the room with a handful of tiny buttery pins. "I'm not wearing those," Fred protested.

"Aww really, I think they'd look cute on you. Don't you agree Georgie?" She teased.

"You look strapping, Freddie," George joked.

"Yeah yeah you git, come on now."

The room fell silent as Y/N pinned the boy's long, ginger hair away from his face and dipped her brush in the small jar of green paint. Slowly, she began to trace the outline of what would be a giant shamrock over the twin's face. She began filling in the space and then filled in the rest of his face with white paint until she reached a slight problem area.

"Stay still would ya, and close your eyes. Don't open them until I tell you to," she instructed as she scooted so close to the boy that there was less than a foot in between them. In a bit of a surprise to Fred-who was rarely ever surprised-, his friend gently grabbed onto his chin and tilted his head towards hers.

For the first time probably his life, Fred Weasley felt a bit flustered by a girl. And his best friend nonetheless. Both he and George knew that Y/N had changed over the summer. She seemed more confident and sassy, and they liked that difference very much. But not only did her demeanor change, so did her appearance. She'd lost that childhood baby fat that gave way to more defined features, gotten much smoother skin, and wow had her eyelashes always been this long? Every tiny detail was becoming blatantly clear when he was staring at her from up close.

"Hey didn't I tell you to close your eyes," she reminded, raising a nicely trimmed brow.

Fred obliged and closed his eyes. He was glad he no longer needed to stare into those deep E/C pools. Instead, everything felt much more sensitive to the teen. Y/N's touch had always been gentle. So gentle to the point where he barely missed her fingers parting from his chin. The only way he caught on was by the absence of warmth on his face.

The Weasley opened his eyes to see a wonky grin on his friend's face. "You look ridiculous," she said.

"Brilliant!"

Fred's spot was soon replaced with George, who was already eyeing the small pile of clips in Y/N's hand. " We can do without them," he insisted.

"I suppose. Since you're not doing your full face like Fred." Inwardly, George gave himself a high five for avoiding the same tease worthy fate as his identical sibling.

"Kids! we'll be out soon," Mr. Weasley shouted from somewhere within the tent.

"Better hurry," Fred warned.

"Mhm," the girl replied before grabbing a hold of the younger twin's devilishly sharp jaw to angle his cheek towards her. With a quick swipe of the paint brush in both green and white, Y/N was done with the face paint.

Y/N promptly stood up to leave the twin's temporary room, but stopped when she saw them exchanging a look she knew all to well. Before she knew it, she was no longer on the floor, but dangling between the twins who had both picked her up by her arms. She kicked her feet and wiggled against their arms. "What're you doing? We gotta go," she whined.

"Stop moving or your shamrocks won't be shamrocks," George commanded.

"Yeah wouldn't want them to end up looking like something else," Fred inserted playfully.

The girl only pouted in return. "I hate you guys," she said, albeit insincerely.

"No you love us," the boys asserted. Carefully, they each dipped their thumbs into the jar of paint and made three little green spots and an additional swipe of paint on both her cheeks. Finally, they released the girl and started walking out. "Well what are you waiting for?"

~

"I thought you weren't going to paint your face cause you weren't interested in Quidditch," Hermione rambled as she continued descending the dozens upon dozens of stairs up to wherever their seats may be.

Y/N shrugged. "I'm not. Those two twits made me. I thought they'd painted willies on my face."

"Would've looked just as dashing," Fred said from in front of the girl. He promptly earned a slap to the shoulder that had him and his twin dashing up the steps laughing like children.

"Blimey dad. How far up are we?" Ron asked at some point long into the climb. Mr. Weasley stopped at the landing to talk to his son, but turned once a voice cut through. The four fourth years were only able to tell who the malicious voice belonged to once they themselves arrived. Immediately, the mood seemed to dull.

"Well put it this way. If it rains, you'll be the first to know," Lucius Malfoy jeered from below them. Harry and Y/N immediately spotted the crestfallen faces of Ron and his father, who had taken this insult to heart. Fred and George elected to ignore the harsh words and keep moving, while everyone else stayed glued to the spot.

A very noticeable frown appeared on Y/N's face as she caught sight of the young Malfoy approaching the railing with a mocking look on his face. Why must Draco Malfoy of all people be blessed with attractiveness. Why must he look so good in that all black suit? Y/N just wanted to smack the living daylights out of the Slytherin's pretty face and give him a piece of her mind.

If he hadn't been her enemy just by her association with the golden trio and the Weasleys, she wouldn't have felt so bad for thinking he looked good in his suit. But this isn't a perfect world, and she really did think he looked smashing. Until he opened his mouth and soiled his lips with whatever bull he would bring up.

"Father and I are in the minister's box. By personal invitation of the minister himself," he bragged.

Y/N rolled her eyes and slammed her hands on the rails. "Shut up Malfoy. We don't care," she spat unexpectedly. All eyes were now on the girl who glaring furiously at the blonde. Although she appeared to be fuming, the girl was really just annoyed to have encountered the bully on a day that was supposed to be fun.

No one had seen or even imagined this behavior from the usually passive girl. Especially Draco, who had made it a point to blatantly ignore the Gryffindor in the past. Somehow, it was worse to have the Slytherin ignore her entire existence than to have him hurl insults at her. It was like he couldn't even bother to acknowledge the girl.

Things were different now. The spotlight was on Y/N L/N now, and Draco couldn't take his eyes off of her. He'd never seen this fierceness in the girl and it was, dare I say, attractive.

Malfoy opened his mouth to speak, but the words never came. If he threw an insult at the girl, she would finally have what she'd been missing for the past three years; a presence. So Draco bit back, resorting to gawking at the girl who smirked at her mini victory.

Harry didn't quite like the way that his sworn enemy was ogling at his best friend and made a move to grab her hand and lead her away. Admittedly, the boy felt a bit of pride at how he had something that Malfoy didn't; Y/N. From the sound of Lucius scolding his son for staring, the teens knew that Y/N's relation to Draco was going to change dramatically.

Y/N didn't know it either, but her relationships with all the boys were about to change drastically. For the worse? maybe. For the better? Who knows.