Alex Weasley: Book 3

48

A/N- oops, uploaded the wrong part. I missed out part 47. Lemme just go upload that right now. Sorryyyy.

Before long the next Hogsmeade trip came around. This time though, Alex resolved to go with her friends for the first half before meeting with her parents for the potions semi-finals.

They visited Zonko's and Honeydukes. Emiko decided to spend the day with George. Charlie wanted to visit the hair salon across the street, so Megan went with her, splitting off from the group, leaving Alex, Hermione, Hannah, Susan and Ernie together. Then Hannah and Susan broke off to go back to Hogwarts to use the toilet and it was just the three of them. Ernie lasted maybe five minutes of Alex's teasing before he left to go to Emiko, Megan and Charlie.
"Hey, is that Ron and Draco?" Alex pointed up ahead. Draco was shadowed by his two goons and Ron seemed to be alone. Suddenly a snowball materialised out of nowhere and hit Draco who flinched.

"And Harry, it seems." Hermione said bitterly. Alex smirked.

"With an unfair advantage. I should help." Alex said. She balled up some snow and gave it to Hermione. "Hold this." She said before balling up some more snow. Factoring the angle and direction the snowball that hit Draco came from, as well as Harry's height, Alex threw the snow she was holding so it hit Harry straight in the head, causing the hood of the cloak he was wearing to fall off. She took the second ball from Hermione and threw it hard at the back of Ron's head. She dusted her hands. "Now, what do you say we go to Scrivenshaft's? I hear they released a new set of dictation quills." Hermione smiled and let Alex lead her away.

"For the record, you didn't have to do that."

"Nobody died of a snowball to the face." Alex said. "I don't think at least. And you said I couldn't hex them. They deserved something."

"Come on, let's go find everyone." Hermione looped her arm through Alex's who squeezed back. "We've got ten minutes before you need to meet your parents at the station."

"Yeah."

This potions contest was less eventful than the last. Danny and his mother avoided her and her parents which meant she could focus on her potion making. She was grateful for the large spaces between each workstation, because she had no doubt Danny would have attempted to sabotage her potion if given the chance.

As usual they did not announce who'd go forth to the final round though it was really between her, Danny, a Beauxbatons student called Amélie and a student from Koldovstoretz called Artemii. This particular competition was open only to the European schools, though similar competitions occurred worldwide. Before long she and her parents dropped her off back at Hogsmeade at the rendezvous where a teacher was supposed to pick up both she and Danny.

"Thanks." She told her parents, giving her mother a hug. Her mother wrapped her arms around her in reply and Alex could almost hear her smile. She let go and moved on to her dad, and gave him a hug too before skipping off to where Snape seemed to be waiting for them.

"Have fun?" He asked.

"As always." She shrugged as they waited for Danny. Her parents disapparated.

"Anything notable?"

"Not really. Won't know anything until next week."

"Did you enjoy your hogsmeade trip before?"

"Yeah."

"See anything unusual? For instance, a floating head?" She laughed.

"Draco came to you?" She said.

"I know Potter was in Hogsmeade, though I'm not sure how. I'm sure he doesn't know the disillusionment charm. I wonder if perhaps Miss Granger might have helped him?"

"Hermione would never. The boys are being rather mean lately. They don't understand she's protecting them. Harry got a broom in the mail randomly and didn't want to give it to McGonagall."

"The firebolt?"

"Yeah. He didn't care that it might be cursed. And Ron thinks Hermione's cat killed the family rat which Crookshanks did not. Anyways, they wouldn't ask her for help and Hermione wouldn't approve of Harry leaving the school grounds."

"Interesting."

"Oh please, it's regular Harry Potter drama. Nothing interesting about it." She said.

The next day, Hermione got an owl from Hagrid informing her that Buckbeak's trial lost. Both she and Alex went to visit Hagrid as soon as they received word.

"S'all my fault. Got all tongue-tied. They was all sittin' there in black robes an' I kep' droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them dates yeh looked up fer me. An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told 'em." Hagrid blames himself.

"We're not done. There's still an appeal. We won't let them do this." Alex said.

"S'no good. That Committee's in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. I'm jus' gonna make sure the rest o' Beaky's time is the happiest he's ever had. I owe him that."

"We're not giving up. He's not going to die." Alex said. "You can't give up, Hagrid."

"Look at him blubber!" Draco and his goons stood a few yards away. "Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?" said Malfoy. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"

"Shut up, Draco!" Alex glared at him, turning to face him. Hermione, however, ran over to them, swinging her fist back before hitting him square in the face. Alex let her jaw drop, before moving over to restrain her friend. She didn't stop the laugh that escaped her though, as she pulled Hermione back. Draco held his face as he stumbled back and left. Alex turned to Hermione. "You're a hypocrite."

"Oh, my god. What did I do?" She stared at her closed fist, as though realisation dawned on her, and tried to open her hand, wincing in pain at her red knuckles.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't care that it was hypocritical because that was awesome, H. I feel like I just saw a whole new side of you. Here, let me fix that." Alex said, bringing her wand to the back of Hermione's hand.