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SIX.
ARABELLA SAT next to Ron, perched on the wooden benches where the Goblet of Fire stood proudly emitting blue flames. Her hand was rested on her chin out of boredom; she had been waiting for Fred and George to appear for twenty minutes now.
It seemed to be an endless cycle of people - walking up to the Cup, entering their name, and being clapped until they were out of the room again. With every person that came, Bella got increasingly more bored.
Enthusiastic yells suddenly woke the girl from her tired trance, looking up to see Cedric Diggory being pushed over the age line. His hair was sodden from the rain, with his Hufflepuff robes hanging messily over his loose tie. He dropped the parchment into the cyan flame before a sea of his friends surrounded him with shouts and cheers of joy.
Ron stared at Cedric, muttering a small greeting with a feeble hand wave, though he was ignored entirely. Arabella giggled at the ginger boy's disappointed face, yet secretly felt a little sorry for him. They may not have been siblings by blood, but Bella certainly felt that the Weasleys - despite how much she adored her parents and her younger sister - were more like a family than her own.
"Three years from now, we'll be old enough to be chosen." Ron said to nobody in particular.
"Yeah, right." A female voice scoffed, belonging to Erin Martell. The brunette stood in front of Arabella, who had rose from her seat at her roommate's arrival, wearing a disapproved scowl.
"Where's Zoe?" Bella asked, suddenly remembering the mental note she made, reminding herself to ask Erin of her other roommate's disappearance. "I noticed she wasn't in Professor Moody's class earlier."
Erin rolled her eyes, beginning to divert her attention dismissively to the bracelet that was fastened upon her wrist, and the moonstone charm that hung from it. "Oh, she said she wasn't feeling too great and decided to skip class. When I left her she was tucked in bed in our dorm."
Arabella raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Are you sure she wasn't lying to you?"
"Why would my best friend lie to me?"
"I just think she must be up to something, that's all."
Harmonious shouts echoed throughout the room, and Arabella instantly recognised the voices as Fred and George. They ran in clutching small bottles of a greenish substance, which the redhead guessed was the Aging Potion they had so eagerly told her about. As he passed, they both high-fived her, smiling and laughing with delight. "We did it! Cooked it up just this morning!"
She watched as they jumped upon the stands, kneeling down beside Hermione Granger where she shut her textbook angrily. "It's not going to work." She teased.
