Hogwarts' Next Top Witch

Hogwarts' Next Top Witch

By Mariposa

Chapter 8: The Girl Who Sucked Up To Fleur

"Well, at least we know whoever wins will be a Gryffindor,"' said Hermione as she and Ginny and Lavender made their way back to their room after the latest elimination.

"It's the battle between the brunette, the blonde, and the redhead," Ginny said with a grin.

"Tomorrow we should go to the beach and help Hermione spend her gift certificate," Lavender suggested.

"I didn't bring my bathing suit," Hermione replied.

"Me neither," said Ginny.

"That's okay, I'm sure there's a shop on the walkboard that sells them," said Lavender.

"Boardwalk," Hermione corrected her.

"Right, so are we in agreement about tomorrow's plans?" Lavender asked. "Good," she said as Hermione and Ginny nodded.

* * *

Harry and Ron were awoken the following morning by voices coming from outside.

Harry slipped on his glasses as Ron stumbled to the window. "Hey, it's Seamus and Dean!"

Harry frowned as he joined Ron at the window. "I wonder what they're doing here?"

"Maybe Dean is here to hex you for stealing Ginny from him," Ron said, trying not to smile.

Harry rolled his eyes. "She broke up with him before we started dating."

Ron opened the window. "Oi! Dean! Seamus! What are you two doing here?"

"Your brothers invited us to be part of their boy band!" Dean shouted back.

"Oh, for the love of Merlin," Harry muttered. He and Ron watched as their fellow Gryffindors were let into the house by Fred and George.

"I can't believe they're actually doing this," Harry said. "This can only turn into a disaster." He paused. "Wanna go watch them?"

Ron shrugged. "Sure. Though watching my brothers make fools of themselves isn't anything new."

"True," Harry replied with a smile. "But have we ever seen them try to put together a boy band of all things?"

Both boys looked at each other and raced downstairs. They weren't going to miss this for anything!

Seamus and Dean were helping the twins with music selection as Harry and Ron entered the room. Dean was speaking:

"There are always key songs to sing when one is in a boy band. The first is the poppy, upbeat song that every twelve-year-old witch in the country will be singing along to on their Wizarding Wireless Networks. Now this particular tune usually entails of a snappy chorus, the kind that stays in your head. There's also the what I like to call the 'Girl, I Love You With All My Heart and I Won't Treat You Like That Git You Dated Before' song."

Harry and Ron looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"Of course," Dean said in a cold voice once he saw Harry and Ron were in the same room, "Ginny broke my heart when she decided to kiss someone else in the Common Room in front of everyone." He glared at Harry as he said this.

"You guys were already broken up!" Harry defended himself.

"And technically Harry and Ginny aren't a couple anymore because Harry is noble," George said as he air quoted the word "noble."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry demanded.

"Hey, can we get back to the task at hand here?" Fred said. "If we want to start our own boy band, we have to get serious." He turned to Harry and Ron. "You guys can stay and watch, but not if you're going to be a distraction to us." He turned back to Dean. "Carry on."

"Okay, so there's also the sappy love song every boy band has that every girl wants her boyfriend to sing to her, like 'This I promise you' or 'Merlin must have spent a little more time on you because you are the most beautiful witch in the world and no other compares to your beauty'..."

* * *

The next morning, Hermione, Ginny, and Lavender went down to the boardwalk to help spend Hermione's gift certificate. They had the entire day off, and it was a perfect day to spend on the beach. The sun was shining and there was not a cloud in sight.

"Nice change from cloudy old England," Lavender commented as they walked towards the beach.

Their first stop was a small boutique that sold bathing suits called The Aqua Lagoon. Lavender was immediately drawn to a skimpy two piece that was, what else? Lavender.

Ginny also chose a two piece, not quite as skimpy as Lavender's, but still showed quite a bit of skin. It had a tropical pattern with pink hibiscuses and green vines.

"I think I'll get this one," Hermione said as she took a navy blue one-piece from off the rack.

"That?" Lavender gave it a sneer. "Oh, come on, Granger, even you have more of a sense of adventure. That one is boring. But then again, so are you, so maybe you should get it."

"Lavender is right: it is boring," Ginny decided. "But you're not. Plus I'm sure Ron would love to see you in something like this." She grinned as she held up a small yellow bikini.

Hermione went pink. "I would never wear something like that in public!"

"Okay, you don't have to get this one, but how about one of these? They're still two pieces, but they cover a fair amount."

"All right," Hermione agreed. "I can negotiate with that." In the end, she purchased a suit with a solid navy bottom and a navy and white striped top.

They next walked a few shops down and entered a store called Beach-a-Rama! where they all bought towels in bright colors (orange for Lavender, seafoam green for Ginny, and aqua blue for Hermione) and sunglasses and flipflops and suntan lotion and Hermione also added a canvas beach bag to their purchase so they would have a place to store all their belongings and clothes once they had all changed into their suits, which they did in the restroom of McDonald's. They all walked out wearing their new bathing suits with their towels tied around their waists, except for Hermione, who had her towel tightly wrapped around her body.

"You know, you can't go in the water like that," Ginny told her with a smile.

Hermione eventually had to unwrap her towel when the three girls found a spot on the sand. They laid out their towels in a row and applied sunscreen to themselves and each other.

"I think I'm living one of Ron's fantasies," Ginny grinned as she rubbed sunscreen on Hermione's back.

Hermione laughed and swatted at her.

The three girls laid out in the sun for awhile, then took a dip in the ocean for a few minutes and came back to dry off.

"It's hot," Lavender said, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, a cold drink sounds good now." Ginny's eyes wandered to the small shops surrounding the boardwalk. "That place is selling drinks and smoothies...whatever those are," she said reading a sign under a yellow and white striped awning.

"I'll stay here and watch our stuff," Lavender volunteered. "Go and get me something tasty. Something with strawberries."

Lavender laid down on the towel and folded her arms under her head as Ginny and Hermione wrapped towels around their waists and headed to the small stand. There was a bit of a line they had to stand in. Apparently, they weren't the only ones craving something cold on this hot day.

"I guess we'll get Lavender the strawberry smoothie," Hermione noted to Ginny. "Or should we get her the strawberry-banana?"

"Better stick to strawberry," Ginny advised.

"I wonder if she wants whipped cream," Hermione pondered as she saw a young girl leaving the stand holding her mother's hand with one hand and a smoothie with the other topped with whipped cream.

The girl standing in front of them turned around. "Do you know what they put in that stuff?" she asked startling both Hermione and Ginny. "All those chemicals and that sugar! That's only there to kill you! And make you fat!"

Hermione and Ginny glanced at each other, then looked at the girl who had just scolded Hermione. She was tall and thin and Hermione estimated her to be a few years older than her and Ginny. The girl had on huge sunglasses and had a geometrical-printed scarf tied around her short hair. She wore a brown bikini top with a long flowing orange skirt and beaded brown sandals. Her neck was covered with beaded necklaces.

"Okay, we won't get whipped cream, then," Hermione said holding up her hands.

"You're British?" the girl asked. "Are you here on vacation?"

"Yes, you could say that," Ginny replied.

The girl rolled her dark eyes. "Jade wishes she could live in some posh European country. It's Jade's dream to be a model, you know."

"Uh, that's great," said Ginny. "Who's Jade?"

"Oh, I am." The girl shook their hands. "Jade Schafer. Hey, can I ask you how long you two will be in town?"

Hermione looked at Ginny and shrugged. They weren't sure how much longer they would be in the States.

"Because I may be a pretty face," Jade said as she started to dig through her woven purse, "but I am also committed to environmental issues. I plan to make it my life's purpose to save the elephants of Thailand. Did you know that these beautiful creatures are diminishing by the thousands just so poachers can kill them for their tusks? It's outrageous!"

"It's very sad," Hermione agreed.

"I'm holding a fundraiser car wash this weekend to raise money so I can go to Bangkok and try to talk to the Thai government about poachers cruelly slaughtering these gentle beasts. It's important that the elephants don't become extinct like their family members, the dinosaurs."

"Uh, I'm pretty sure dinosaurs and elephants aren't related to each other." Hermione gave Jade a quizzical look.

"Yes, they are!" Jade insisted. "Elephants are part of the dinosaur family!"

"No, the mammoth is an ancestor to the elephant. I think you're mixing up your prehistoric animals."

Jade gave a haughty sigh. "What are you, some kind of know-it-all?"

Ginny stifled a laugh.

"You're probably going to go to college at Oxford or Yale or one of your fancy universities."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Yale is in Connecticut."

Luckily she didn't have to argue anymore with this crazy Jade person because it was her turn to order. After she received her low-fat tofu smoothie with skim milk, she shot Hermione and Ginny a dirty look before walking off.

"What a lunatic," Hermione muttered and Ginny nodded in agreement.

They ordered their smoothies and strolled back to Lavender where they spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sand, surf, and sun.

* * *

Later that evening, Fleur stopped by. She sat down in an armchair across from the couch where Hermione, Ginny, and Lavender all sat in a row. "As you can tell, we're now down to ze final zree. You should all be very proud of yourselves for getting zis far."

The three witches looked at each other and nodded.

"But now ze challenges are getting tougher, as you already know from your last challenge of slaying vampires weeth Buffy Summers."

Lavender rolled her eyes.

"'Owever, zis week I've decided to do somezing different. Instead of a challenge, I am going to 'ave un tête à tête weeth each of you individually. I want to get your zoughts on some zings. Zere weel be an elimination before ze end of ze night. So, Lavender, I'll start weeth you. We'll talk en ze bedroom."

They moved into the bedroom where Fleur took a seat on an over-sized floral-print armchair and Lavender plopped down on the bed, lying sideways with her elbow propped up on the bed and her hand holding her head up, facing Fleur.

"Lavender, tell me, why do you deserve to be 'Ogwarts' Next Top Weetch more zan Ginny or 'Ermione?" Fleur supplied her with the first question.

"Well, if I won, it wouldn't look like I got the title because I know Harry Potter, whereas if Hermione or Ginny won, people might think, Oh, well she won because she's Harry Potter's best friend, or she used to date Harry Potter. Also, and most importantly, I've taken this contest seriously from the beginning. I got the impression that Hermione and Ginny thought this was a waste of their time, even though they seem to be liking it now, especially Hermione since she keeps winning most of the challenges." Lavender had to refrain from rolling her eyes.

What would you say 'as been ze most difficult challenge for you?" Fleur asked.

"Probably the Quidditch challenge just because I'm not very good at it. I've played Quidditch a couple times before, but just for fun. Playing a match against fierce competitors like Harry and Ron is a lot different. Of course, slaying vampires was no easy task either!"

"'Oo eese your inspiration?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, you inspire me a lot, Fleur."

Fleur's eyes lit up. "I do?"

"Of course! You were the only female to be picked from the Goblet of Fire! I was secretly rooting for you to win the TriWizard Tournament. Of course, I never admitted it to anyone since it would look like I was rooting against my school, and of course I love Hogwarts. But you were amazing in those tasks! You did them just as well or even better than Cedric, Merlin rest his soul, Viktor, and Harry. You proved that witches can do anything that wizards can do. If I were Hogwarts' Next Top Witch, I would want all the young witches to have a role model for them out there. It seems all you hear about is how great wizards are: Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, Dumbledore, not to say he wasn't a great wizard and I did respect him immensely, even He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, though obviously he's known for being infamous. But where are all the famous witches? We don't nearly have enough representing us!"

Even though Lavender really did mean what she said about Fleur being an inspiration to her, she knew it couldn't hurt to suck up just a little.

"Very well said, Lavender!" Fleur smiled brightly. "And I completely agree weeth you. Zat's one of ze reasons I started zis competition een ze first place. Zank you for talking weeth me, please tell Ginny eet's her turn to come een next."

* * *

Ginny sat cross-legged on the bed, leaning against the wall, waiting for Fleur's first question.

"Ginny, did you ever expect you would make eet zis far?"

"Maybe a little bit," Ginny replied. "I don't doubt my skills as a witch and I am proud to have made it in the final three, but honestly, winning the title of Hogwarts' Next Top Witch isn't the most important thing to me. Right now the most important thing to me is Harry being safe on his journey to find the Horcruxes. And he's taking Ron and Hermione with him, so that just triples my worry. As long as Voldemort is gone forever, I don't care who becomes Hogwarts' Next Top Model. I wouldn't even care if it were Pansy Parkinson if she was still in the running. Of course, I would be honored if I did win."

"Do you zink you 'ave an unfair advantage since I'll be your sister-in-law soon?"

"Well, I certainly hope you don't let me win just to win points with me." Ginny smiled at her. "I want you and Cyra to choose who you believe is the best witch for Hogwarts' Next Top Witch, whether or not that's me."

"Wheech challenge was ze most difficult for you?"

"Oh, I'd have to say the Witch-Sees. It was just a flurry of trying to get to many different classes as possible and it was sort of on-the-spot type thing."

"'Oo eese your role model?"

"I know it sounds cliché to say that my mum is, but it's true. She may drive me crazy sometimes, but my mum is an amazing woman. She raised seven kids in a family with limited means, but she always made sure we were happy and loved. While we didn't get lots of fancy toys for Christmas, those were always the happiest moments of my life growing up. She taught me how to knit and we'd bake cookies and the whole family would have snowball fights and play Quidditch in the snow."

"Zanks for sharing zat, Ginny. You can tell 'Ermione to come een now."

* * *

Instead of sitting on the bed, Hermione opted to sit in the wooden desk chair.

"'Ermione, eef you won, would you be worried zat people would zink of you as ze girl 'oo's friends weeth 'Arry Potter?"

"I know people know I'm friends with Harry," Hermione said, "but I hope that's not the only thing they think of me. I want people to know that I won this contest because of my skills and my cleverness and that I worked hard through this contest to do the best I could do at all the tasks, even the Quidditch one. I want to succeed in the things I do by my own accord, not by the people I know because that wouldn't be fair."

Fleur nodded. "Makes sense to me. What was ze most difficult task for you...eef there was any!"

"Well, like I said, Quidditch wasn't the easier for me, but I would have to say that the most difficult was the one I also enjoyed the most and that was slaying vampires with Buffy Summers. First of all, it was amazing to meet her and to have her compliment me on my very limited slaying skills was just about the highest form of flattery I could receive. I have such respect for her though, because slaying vampires is not easy and there were five of us that night and she does it on a nightly basis, alone!"

"Yes, she truly eese a remarkable young woman," said Fleur. "'Ard to believe she ees only sixteen. And finally, "'Ermione, 'oo eese your role model?"

"I admire Professor McGonagall a great deal. She's a great teacher and she's fair, unlike other teachers I could name at Hogwarts. I'm proud that she's the Head of Gryffindor."

"Zank you, 'Ermione. Well, I guess I weel leave to review my notes weeth Cyra."

Fleur and Hermione walked out of the room and Fleur air-kissed them all good-bye before exiting.

* * *

Dean had taken it upon himself to write a song for The Magic Boys. He performed it for Fred, George, Seamus, Harry, and Ron.

"Harry, I got my inspiration from your Invisibility Cloak." Dean cleared his throat and pressed a key on his MagicKeyboard. "This is called If I Had An Invisibility Cloak.

If I had an Invisibility Cloak,
Then I could just watch you in your room
If I had an Invisibility Cloak,
I'd make you mine tonight
If spells were unbreakable
Then I could just tell you where I stand
I would be the invisible boy
If I had an Invisibility Cloak
(Wait..I already do)."

Dean looked up. "So what do you think? I only have the chorus so far, but it won't be too tough to come up with the rest."

"That song is a little bit creepy," Harry supplied. "There's a guy watching some girl in her room, unbeknownst to her? I never even did that!"

"How about some feedback from someone who is actually in the band?" Dean asked.

"I don't know, mate," said Seamus. "I have to agree with Harry on this. Plus the title is a mouthful."

"Well, I like it!" Fred said jumping up. "And I think it will be a huge hit! As leader of this group, I say we go for it!"

"Hey, who says you get to be the leader?" George demanded. "We both thought up the idea of creating a boy band!"

"But it was my idea first," Fred replied. "Do you like the song?"

"Yeah, I like it," George said.

"Well, there you go. Since we both like it, we'll be recording it."

"Ha!" Dean shot a triumph look at Harry and Seamus.

* * *

Each girl was equally nervous about the elimination the following day. With only three of them remaining, they knew their chances of elimination were more probable.

"Zere are only zree of you left," Fleur said as Hermione, Ginny, and Lavender stood in front of her and Cyra, each awaiting their fates. "You 'ave all come a long way, but, alas, zere can only be one Top Weetch. And zat means one of you must leave us today. And I know none of you want to go home, after making it zis far."

Each girl nodded. Hermione wanted to add she didn't want to go home, especially after some of the stuff she had to do, but kept her mouth shut.

"Each of you 'ad a one on one weeth me. Ze girl 'oo most impressed me was..." Fleur paused dramatically. "Lavender! Your speech about wanting to be a role model for ozzer young witches to look up to was very inspiring. Congratulations, you 'ave made eet to ze final two!"

"Oh my gosh!" Lavender shrieked. "Really?" She ran over and hugged Fleur. "Thank you for believing in me."

"I guess this is it," Hermione whispered to Ginny as they clasped hands.

"Whoever makes it, let's promise to the other one we'll win," Ginny whispered back.

"Hermione, Ginny, only one of you weel be able to move on. Ginny, you stated zat winning zis competition wasn't ze most important zing to you and I want ze winner of 'Ogwarts Next Top Weetch to want eet bad! I want 'er to breathe eet, to sleep it, to live it! And zat ese why I am giving ze second spot to 'Ermione. Congratulations, 'Ermione."

Hermione squeezed Ginny's hand before crossing over to join Lavender.

Before she left, Ginny hugged Lavender, congratulating her, then hugged Hermione, whispering, "Don't forget about the little people when you win!"

Only Hermione and Lavender remain...WHO will be Hogwarts' Next Top Witch?