Time moved in a very peculiar way over the next five weeks. Students had a lot to look forward to - such as the end of the Triwizard tournament where a winner would finally be announced, as well as the summer holidays where students would finally be reunited with their families. Students were even more eager than usual to return home as the majority of them had stayed at school over Christmas, and the ones who decided to not bother returning home for the short Easter break had not been home at all this school year.

The Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students were even more anxious to return home, after spending nearly the entire school year outside of their native countries. The Beauxbatons students had been critical of Hogwarts since day one, but now even the Durmstrang students were growing tired of their host school. As the beginning of summer had started the weather had started to warm up. Scotland summers were mild for both the Hogwarts and Beauxbatons students as most of them resided outside of Scotland and in warmer climates. But the Durmstrang students, who's uniforms were thick and for cold weather, were struggling with the weather heating up.

But the students still had their final exams on the horizon, and thus were still slightly dreading the end of the year. Therefore although time seemed to be moving far too quickly for their liking, the students embraced this due to the excitement that was upcoming.

Almost suddenly, it was the night before the final task.

"Mmm, mmm Fred," Vicki protested through a closed mouth between kisses as she pushed her boyfriend away "That was fun, but I really need to go study for my Arithmancy exam tomorrow."

"See, everyone judged me for only getting three O.W.L.S last year. But jokes on them, I finished with my final exams yesterday. I'm now a free agent" Fred grinned as he placed a cheeky kiss onto Vicki's bare shoulder before stepping back to allow her to put back on her uniform.

Ever since the two were first intimate at Vicki's seventeenth birthday party, they had found numerous secret places around the castle to get together. It made the whole thing even more thrilling for the two.

Today the two were in a state of undress at the same secret passageway Fred had led them to the night before the second task a few months prior, where he confronted her about her friendship with Cedric. However this time there was no angst between the lovers whatsoever.

"I must say, I'm very jealous. But after breakfast tomorrow I have Arithmancy and then I'm free until N.E.W.T. year!" Vicki exclaimed happily as she quickly buttoned up her school shirt and threw her robes on over her shoulder.

"...but I'm free right now." Fred mocked Vicki with a large grin.

Vicki shot her boyfriend a dirty look to show she wasn't impressed with his joke, which caused him to immediately change his conversation.

"Then you'll be free tomorrow morning too! Just in time to see Harry win the Triwizard Tournament." Fred teased.

He watched Vicki cautiously as his proddings fell out of his mouth. In the past Cedric Diggory had been a very sore spot between the two. Fred used to be jealous of her special friendship with Cedric and it had caused a few silly fights between the two.

But recently Fred had let go of his jealousy he felt towards Cedric. He knew there was no need to compare his relationship with Cedric's friendship. There was clearly enough room in Vicki's life for both of them. Plus Fred had been a lot more friendly with Cedric since Vicki's party where he had been able to spend some time with Cedric. He now thought Cedric was an alright guy, although he'd never tell anybody out loud.

So hopefully a joke about Harry beating Cedric in the tournament wouldn't set Vicki off like it used to

"Yeah, I'm not even going to bite. We'll see who wins tomorrow." Vicki smiled at Fred as she put on the last of her clothes and smoothed them out quickly.

Fred internally sighed a breath of relief but kept up his cheeky front up by giving her a light smack on her behind as they both clambered out of the hidden passageway.

Now in the corridor and back in public, Vicki only responded to him by giving him a sly smile.

"So uh, I'll see you tomorrow morning? Can I quickly see you after breakfast before your exam?" Fred asked her.

"Of course. I'll see you then!" Vicki cheerfully stated as she gave Fred a quick peck goodbye.

The two then departed from each other. Vicki went left to make her way up Ravenclaw tower, whilst Fred went right to return to Gryffindor tower. The two kept stealing looks at each other over their shoulders until they were both out of sight.

A few minutes later Vicki arrived back at Ravenclaw tower. After taking thirty seconds and an incorrect guess she finally got the riddle correct ('I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?' The answer was an echo, Vicki first tried to guess fire). She quickly rushed to her dormitory to grab her Arithmancy textbook before returning to an extremely empty common room.

Normally the common room was bustling with people an hour prior to lockdown - Ravenclaw students would either sit in the alcoves with a good book, or sit at one of the tables with their friends. But tonight it was virtually empty aside from a small handful of students scattered around.

Vicki noticed only one member of her circle of friends present. In the past she would have turned around and studied in her dormitory in order to avoid this person. But they seemed to be in some kind of amicable place right now. That, and he had now noticed her so there was no way to silently avoid him.

"Hey." Vicki weakly smiled at Roger as she hesitantly took the seat next to him.

"Hey," Roger mirrored, before responding to the question he knew she was dying to ask "Everybody is studying in the library. Hence why there's almost no one here."

"Figures. I used reverse psychology in my decision to study here. Everyone would assume that the common rooms are full, and the library would be empty. So they all went to the library to study for peace and quiet." Vicki shrugged.

"...that's not reverse psychology." Roger pointed out with a small smile to show he wasn't trying to be rude.

Vicki took a moment to study Roger before her response. If he was attempting to be a jerk she would snap at him and remove herself from the common room. But if he wasn't… she would go from there.

It had been over half a year since they had broken up. Vicki had changed a bit in that time, and she was sure Roger would have changed a little too. But they were together for a significant amount of time and thus she knew she should still be able to read him very well.

And she was right. She noticed he clearly meant no malice in his words to her based on the goofy smile he was sending her.

"You can call it whatever you want. The fact of the matter is that we have the common room to ourselves to study for Arithmancy. That's all that matters." Vicki shrugged as she returned his goofy smile.

"Sounds good to me. So er, do you want to study together?" Roger asked as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck "We can quiz each other, or something."

"Sure. Here's a question for you. What do Arithmancers use for birth control?" Vicki grinned towards Roger as she sat down.

"I-what? Is that really on the list of practice questions Vector gave us?" Roger asked in confusion as he frantically went through the papers on his desk to find the relevant practice exams.

"Vector? Please. That woman clearly has never gotten any any in her life," Vicki snorted before she began to use her whining voice "Answer the question, pleeeeease."

Roger shook his head but smiled towards Vicki. She had always been quite extraverted, a little crass and a little quirky. Which is why he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but she seemed even more outgoing. It was like she was an exaggerated version of her old self. She had an extra spring in her step. He liked seeing her this way.

"Alright. I'll play along. Please tell me, I'm absolutely dying to know what one who practices Arthimancy professionally chooses to use for birth control." Roger stated dryly.

"...their personality." Vicki cheesily grinned.

Roger said nothing but rolled his eyes in an exaggerated manner.

"See, it's actually a muggle joke about accountants. They work with numbers, Artithmancers work with numbers. It translates well," Vicki explained as she eyed Roger who was once again rubbing his neck. In particular she noticed something on his neck once the collar from his school shirt was pulled down.

"What's that on your neck?" Vicki asked him quickly.

She then immediately began to inwardly cringe at her personal question. She meant it in a playful way in an attempt to embarrass him - something she'd do towards Cedric or Stephanie. She had forgotten for the smallest second that Roger was an ex boyfriend and thus joking about a love bite on his neck could be considered off-limits.

But then another thing instantly hit her. Her first reaction was to joke about the lovebite. She honestly did not care one bit about it. Back in December during the Yule Ball she felt very strange and uncomfortable that he went with Fleur to the ball. She no longer cared for Roger romantically and was in the process of falling in love with Fred, but she still felt odd seeing Roger with Fleur.

But six months on, any uncomfortable feelings had now fizzled and only friendship remained.

"It's er, well…" Roger stumbled, fearful of Vicki's reaction.

"Alright, better question as it's pretty obvious what it is. Who's it from? Depending on your answer you'll either get high fived if you've done well, or ridiculed for two minutes before I never bring it up again if you've gotten desperate and snogged someone gross." Vicki grinned at Roger.

"...it was Kelly Winters," Roger stated sounding embarrassed about admitting his relations with the Slytherin Head Girl, but he continued on when he saw Vicki smile and wiggle her eyebrows for more details "We were doing a patrol this afternoon and we ended up in a secluded spot. She confessed she's had a bit of a crush on me since last year but hadn't acted on it because you and me were together, and I felt kind of obligated to give her a bit of a snog. Then things got a bit hot and heavy...and, yeah. I have a mark on my neck."

Roger became a little nervous again as he watched Vicki narrow her eyes and lean closer to him cautiously to study his face. But then she sprang back with a large grin.

"Don't downplay this. I know you. You were super dooper flattered Kelly has been harbouring feelings for you. She's also pretty fit so of course you wanted to snog her. I bet you even made the first move." Vicki giggled, this caused Roger to smile.

"Yeah. I admit it. That's all true. It's just a bit… weird with Kelly, because she's finishing Hogwarts in a week and I don't really want to start a relationship with her as we're not going to see each other anymore. I don't know how to break this to her." Roger admitted, still a little fearful he'd feel Vicki's wrath if she thought he was being a jerk.

"Meh, you'll work out how to let her down gently. It's a fair call, I couldn't do a long distance relationship. No judgment from me." Vicki shrugged.

"Thanks Vicki," Roger smiled in appreciation before a sly smile appeared on his face "In that case you'll get no judgment from me about the fact that your shirt is inside out, and you still have a tiny bit of smeared lipstick on your face."

The next morning Vicki got up bright and early. She normally wasn't one who wanted to cram before an exam (she found it was pointless and made her unnecessarily nervous) but she had decided to go to breakfast early in order to have time to do a spot of light reading before her last exam.

She quickly and sloppily dressed and only applied light make-up, as she intended to pretty herself up properly later for the third task, and then made her way down through the school to the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was fairly empty due to the early hour - most students were either studying for their final exams in their common rooms, or having a lie-in to save their energy for the night. Therefore Vicki was one of the only few to plonk herself down at the Ravenclaw table.

Before she could grab a piece of toast she felt two firm hands place themselves on either side of her shoulder.

"Vicki, my love. Come with me." She heard an unfamiliar voice greet. She quickly whipped her head up to see the smiling face of Amos Diggory greet her.

She sent him a smile as she quickly jumped up and kissed his cheek to greet him.

"What's going on?" Vicki asked him curiously.

"After breakfast there's going to be a chance for the champions to greet their families. I want you to join us, after all from what Cedric's told me about you both, you're family to him." Amos smiled.

Vicki hesitated for a second. The first thing she thought of was the fact her exam was very soon, she wanted to have a proper breakfast before she commenced a quick study session. She also didn't want to be late for her exam, spending time with the Diggory's could jeopardise her plans for a prompt arrival to her exam.

Then she remembered Cho. Cho was Cedric's girlfriend, and last time Vicki was chosen over Cho a lot of drama had gone down. Vicki was keen to avoid a situation like that again.

Then finally, she thought of Fred. Last night she had agreed to see Fred straight after breakfast. She had no way of even passing a message onto him as not a single one of their mutual friends were presently in the Great Hall.

But she had no way of turning down Amos' request - she didn't want to be rude. So she grabbed a few pieces of buttered toast and followed him through to the chamber behind the Great Hall. Behind his back she was quickly scoffing the toast, chewing and swallowing as fast as she could.

"Studies going well?" Amos asked Vicki pleasantly on their walk as they made their way through the chamber entrance.

"Mmhm!" Vicki mumbled as she swallowed the last bit of toast before answering properly "Final exam is in about an hour. I'm so excited the year is over and summer holidays begin next week."

"Yes, I was actually a bit disappointed Cedric didn't have to sit his exam. I knew he'd get top of the class marks. I told him, I said 'Cedric, wouldn't it have been an honour to win both the Triwizard Tournament and get the highest mark in the class'," Amos began to explain as he began to talk louder to bring attention to all of the occupants of the room "But I suppose winning the Triwizard Tournament is good enough. Especially as he is Hogwarts' one true champion."

It was at this moment Vicki had a look at the other people in the room awaiting their loved ones. It was pretty obvious who Fleur and Krum's family were.

Fleur's family consisted of her very beautiful half-Veela mother, a handsome father who had the striking good looks to court a Veela, and of course Fleur's younger sister Gabrielle who was taken hostage alongside Vicki during the second task.

Krum's parents also were easy to spot - Krum shared many facial features with his parents, in particular his father's hooked shaped nose.

It took a moment for Vicki to put her finger on the third family. She knew they were there for Potter, but she couldn't see who had actually come for him as they had their backs to her as they were admiring the chamber walls.

Vicki didn't know too much about Harry Potter (aside from what the rest of the wizarding community knew) as they had only had limited interactions - but according to Fred (whose family was very close with Potter), he lived with the nastiest muggles who were neglectful and liked to pretend Harry didn't exist. Therefore it didn't make sense to her to see a family there for him.

Then realisation (and the sight of vivid red hair) dawned on her.

"You were at the World Cup weren't you Vicki? It's interesting to see Krum's parents over there." Amos mused as he nodded his head towards Krum's parents who were looking over in fear upon hearing Amos' comments "It makes you realise that even Quidditch superstars are just regular people."

Vicki sent Amos a small smile as she kept one eye on him, and one eye on the two Weasleys. She guessed the shorter woman was Molly Weasley, but couldn't tell which of her sons was with her. It clearly wasn't Percy, so it had to have been Bill or Charlie.

She had written to Molly a few times after her initial letter to thank Molly for the Christmas gift. But had still yet to ever meet her boyfriend's mother in person, and this was unexpected. Vicki felt extremely nervous at this turn of events.

"Where's Mrs Diggory?" Vicki quickly asked Amos in an attempt to keep herself submerged in conversation so she didn't have to speak to Molly Weasley.

"I think she's off to try and grab Ced. She's just as proud as me that our son is the true Hogwarts champion. Our Ced!" Amos bragged loudly, but seemed to intentionally carry his voice over to where the two Weasleys were standing.

Vicki gulped as she saw both of them turn angrily to face Amos. This was it - there was no backing out now. She was about to meet her boyfriend's mother for the first time with no warning, without her boyfriend and in very unusual (and potentially hostile) circumstances.