Alex Weasley: Book 3

42

Upon seeing Cedric, Alex handed him a thick roll of parchment. The Christmas holidays were over and she was back at Hogwarts.

"What's this?" He asked, apprehensively.

"Open it." He slowly unfolded the parchment only to find it was filled with ten pieces of parchment, each page at least three feet long. "The report on how your competition went, I take it?" He asked. She burst out laughing.

"I just wanted to freak you out. It's my holiday homework." She said taking the pages back.

"Oh, thank Merlin." He breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Remember that boy Danny? The Slytherin?"

"The boy you kicked with the broken ribs?"

"Okay, the ribs mended within moments after he got to the hospital wing." She defended. "He was there too."

"Yeah, I met his mother once. She was debating with another woman about the merits of Hogwarts versus Ilvermorny. She's... intense."

"Tell me about it. She tried to start a fight with my mum and dad."

"She did?"

"Oh yeah. Said I was a violent delinquent who had no business being allowed to take part in the competition and that my parents should be ashamed of themselves for raising such a hooligan."

"What'd your parents say?"

"That Snape had already written to them about the incident and determined that I was not to blame for defending myself and that she should focus on raising her son to not go around grabbing girls in isolated corridors, and that she should be the one ashamed." Alex grinned. "She tried to defend him and say he just wanted to talk, but Mum cut her off and told her simply announcing his presence first vocally, or even a tap on the shoulder would be more polite than grabbing my arm from behind without warning."

"Ha, bet she didn't have anything to say to that." Alex shook her head.

"Nope. She just threw us a dirty look and pulled her son away."

"Now I really wish I'd been there." Cedric said. "And remind me never to get on your mum's bad side."

"She does want to meet you properly, by the way. She said I can stay at Hogwarts over the Easter break, which is a win, but she would like to invite you and your parents over for dinner this summer."

"That sounds perfect, because my parents would like to meet you too. I think my dad's more interested in catching up with your dad though. Said they're old friends, apparently."

"Really? Small world." She said, wondering if her father had ever mentioned Mr Diggory. She hadn't exactly been very talkative with her parents for the past few years, and she supposed she probably didn't know all of her parents friends. Especially ones her parents had lost contact with.

"What are you thinking?" He asked, searching her eyes for a hint. She just shrugged.

"Nothing much."

"Well, now that's definitely a lie." He smirked. "There's always something cooking in that head of yours."

"Am I losing my mystery streak?" She pouted and he laughed.

"You could never. You're always full of surprises."

"Good. I gotta keep you on your toes."

"Right, because life with you isn't exciting enough without your mystery."

"You have no idea."

"Oh god. You're plotting something." He realised.

"I'm not plotting anything." She replied. "I don't think it technically counts as a plot. I'll ask Hermione and get back to you."

"Or you could tell me."

"I can't. Not yet. It's a surprise.  For the whole school. We'll tell you before we tell the rest of the school, of course."

"Or you could tell me now and I could help."

"I can't. It wouldn't be fair." He nodded in understanding. She stood up and dusted her back. "Come on."

"Where to?" Cedric asked, following her.

"Something I can show you."

"Are you sure? I don't need a consolation prize." She stopped and looked at him.

"It's not a consolation prize. I want to show you, I promise." She told him and he nodded.

"Okay." He let her lead him back to the school. They had almost reached the stairs when they came face to face with Lupin. She planned to just ignore him and walk past when he stopped them with a warm smile.

"Nice break?" He asked. Alex nodded, stepping closer to Cedric, almost trying to hide behind him.

"Great, thanks sir." Cedric said.

"I have you first thing Monday, don't I?" He asked Cedric who nodded dutifully. "You've dome your homework?"

"Yes, sir." Cedric responded.

"Good good. And I bet Professor Snape's keeping your workload busy too?" He tried to peer at Alex who just shrugged. Lupin looked a little discouraged by her lack of speech. She gave Cedric's arm a discreet tug and he thankfully understood.

"Nice seeing you professor." He excused them and they passed him. "I haven't seen you so silent in a while." He frowned. "You usually interact with the teachers well enough."

"He just reminds me of someone." She said. "I prefer to avoid him when I can, which has actually worked out pretty well for the past couple of months."

"He's pretty nice, honestly, and good at defense."

"I'll stick with Snape." She shrugged. "I like the one to one tuition, and he lets me stop when I'm bored."

"He does?"

"Well, he usually assigns me more homework so that if I'm not going to be productive in class, I can be productive in between lessons and then gives me a quiz the next week."

"If Snape's ever half as patient with his classes as he with you, I'd be terrified the world was ending."

"He's not that mean."

"When you're around." Alex frowned.

"You still went to him for help." She said. "For our first date, so you can't think he's that bad."

"Okay, that's true. He's really strict and harsh,  especially so with the younger years but he's not mean. He's never really unfair. It's just an established policy around here to complain about him far more than necessary. He's less strict after he knows we know enough to not blow ourselves up. Really he's only unfair when it comes to the Slytherins- he's a lot more lenient with them, and you." Alex smiled.

"Only because I proved I knew my way around the lab." She said. "And I think the DADA lessons had something to do with it."