CHAPTER FOUR

A.N: Next chapter folks.

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The training with the twins was actually fun, and he was learning plenty at the same time. Hermione took a while to get over the fact that they barely touched on the theory, but their teaching style worked for Harry, and Neville as well it seemed. They met for two hours, three times a week with Saturday morning as a review.

They had covered the main spells used in fourth, fifth, sixth and much to the surprise of Hermione, even seventh year work. This included the summoning and banishment charms, that they then covered in Charms earning the three of them twenty points each for their quick mastery of both spells. The teachers did seem to be rather generous lately, though in actual fact, they did earn them.

Other basic spells such as those used for cutting, cleaning, blasting, lighting, repairing, etcetera that were well known in Wizarding households were covered. The one spell Harry was finding most useful was the 'Point Me' spell. Their new quarters were in a different section of the castle than Gryffindor so they were still getting used to the different routes to take, and the three still got lost on occasion when the stairs were being uncooperative. The twins with their experience of sneaking around never got lost, or at least they never admitted it.

They had also practised basic visualisation transfiguration, though that was much harder than casting the specifically crafted spells they had used before. Of course, it also seemed that much more useful. You just imagined what you wanted, rather than a specific spell for specific objects. Harry was still working on it. Sometimes he could transfigure the most perfect china tea set but of a size that only a pixie could use, other times the pattern only appeared on the side he was looking at.

The twins had been discussing how hard it was to start relearning how to cast non-verbally. After five years of practise, it was second nature to say the spells. Harry, Hermione and Neville had all decided that it was better to start now rather than wait for two years. Like transfiguration using only visualisation, they hadn't mastered it yet, though now they only needed to murmur the incantation for the spell to work. They were focusing now on regulating the power behind the spell while not relying on a change of volume.

The first task was at the end of November, two weeks away. Though still unaware of what it would entail Harry was quietly confident. With Hermione's help they had gone through the most useful spells for any situation they could think of, it would just be up to him to apply them.

Harry was glad to hear that traditionally the tasks were mini adventures rather than being marked on a particular spell, and it was the way you tackled the task that got you points. Honestly, when he first found himself in the tournament he wanted nothing more than to get out of it alive and relatively unharmed. Now though, he was rather hoping to do well, and if not win, then at least hold his own against the older students.

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Since they had agreed, well Hermione had informed them and they all surrendered to her genius, that they couldn't prank Ron or Collins individually as it would just make it too obvious, the twins had to think of another way to get revenge. However that didn't mean they couldn't prank the whole school. And of course, if the prank affected certain students just that little bit more, well that's magic for you. Always doing the unexpected.

Their first prank had been aided by Dobby, who was delighted to assist in the merrymaking. One night in the Great Hall those who had sampled the chocolate gateaux, which was pretty much everyone, found themselves nearly weightless.

Not completely buoyant, there was much bouncing around and a few hastily cast cushioning charms before everyone became used to the sensation. A couple of muggleborns had started imitating the astronaut walk they had seen on television, much to the consternation of the purebloods.

Harry, the twins and Neville had all tasted the dish, but sensible Hermione had missed out. Publically it was because her parents didn't approve of too much sugar, but she had privately made known that someonesensible enough should remain unaffected.

Dumbledore had reinforced his insane image by bouncing himself off the ceiling again and again. But Harry was much more entertained by the two more reserved professors. McGonagall just stayed very still, watching the students to make sure they didn't have too muchfun. Snape on the other hand acted as if it hadn't affected him, but Harry could see that the man's feet were securely underneath the table support allowing him freedom of movement without the additional problem of floating away.

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The Polyjuice potion was slowly coming along. Neville was cultivating a few needed ingredients in the greenhouses, babying them from the cold turn that the weather had taken. September and the majority of October had been surprising warm, now though winter had definitely arrived and Neville was keen to bring the plants out of it flourishing.

This had an added benefit of involving Hermione and Harry in Herbology. As it was a group project, they shared the work as evenly as possible, but varying the jobs so that they all learned. After a few days of settling in, Neville had easily slid into Ron's place in the trio without them noticing. With his passion for plants, the other two were learning without really noticing, and Harry's Herbology mark in particular increased dramatically.

Two weeks on and things had settled down somewhat. The morale at Gryffindor was still at an all time low and the points gap was becoming even more noticeable. Though the three of them spent a majority of their time in their quarters with Fred and George, there were times where they had to study in the library or work on their potion. The shunning from the Gryffindors was still in force, which had the benefit of bringing them into contact with other students in their year.

Hermione was composing a history of the potion in its various incarnations. Harry was writing out the schedule and making it as efficient as possible, taking into account lessons and curfew, while noting the essential points like knotgrass harvested near the half moon. He planned to make a universal schedule with a timeline that could be adapted by any brewer and allowed for the availability of ingredients and brewing time. Neville was exploring the ways to optimise the ingredients for the potion.

They hoped to brew two potions between the three of them. One with regular ingredients sourced from the students' potions supply, and another using the optimised ingredients Neville had procured from the school greenhouses and his own supply from home. They hoped to have notable differences, such as extending the time of the change.

The students' potions laboratory was the place where the majority of the mingling occurred. Normally under the supervision of a seventh year that was too busy with their own potion to care about the conversations taking place. As long as nothing blew up, you were left alone, which actually meant that there was less explosions as the students were normally prepared and more relaxed than in class.

Even the Slytherin's were somewhat friendly, though Harry suspected that Malfoy had been threatened by Greengrass if he didn't behave. She and Davis were even talking to Hermione on occasion, normally about Runes or Arithmancy, which curtailed any response from the more avid supporters of blood purity. It had become apparent that whatever the bloodlines, Hermione was a genius in certain subjects.

Other partnerships were less thriving.

It had taken Dean Thomas an age to involve Crabbe in the work, while Parkinson had rather browbeaten Seamus into submission. For all of that, they were working together, somewhat anyway. However they all were waiting for the inevitable confrontation with Ron that just never seemed to appear. Bulstrode did however, and after a few enquires, it was learnt that Ron just wasn't showing up for the practical's they, or rather she, had planned. He scarcely completed any written work, and what he did was sloppy, incorrect and late.

Hermione was rather outraged, until a rather pleased Millicent assured her that her grade would not suffer. After that Hermione was seen assisting Millie during the difficult stages where two sets of hands were needed. That in itself, helped a huge amount to the intermingling of the houses.

After hearing about the more peaceful relations, the Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaws had joined in. The majority of them had potions that could be put under stasis to allow for more flexible working times, and after seeing that the working environment was that much more pleasant, they timed their brewing slots with the others of their year. That is not to say that all moved freely across bloodlines, there was still a reserve, but there wasn't any nastiness to the atmosphere.

The partnerships that they encountered most often were Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones, and Su Li and Padma Patil. For the first time in their school careers, Harry Hermione and Neville were fully involved in the social aspect of studying. For different reasons they had always missed out on this in the past and during the lulls in brewing, conversations started up. Harry often saw Susan encouraging Hannah in the direction of Neville, and he tried to help as often as he could.

Hermione especially, found a friend in the sister of her ex roommate. Harry had sometimes wondered about the lack of female friends that Hermione had. Himself and Ron hadn't reached the point where socialising with girls wasn't fun yet, and she always seemed busy with her work.

Padma was rather upfront about how Parvati was considered the 'pretty' twin by their parents, though how that worked with identical twins Harry didn't know. So she excelled in her studies so that at least she could be considered the intelligent one, something which her sister quite often monopolised on, excusing bad grades as lack of talent rather than lack application. This was something Hermione could relate to and a solid friendship was born. That Padma and Su Li were also friends with Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis brought all of them into contact with Slytherins that, thanks to Malfoy and house prejudice, they had always avoided before.

This ceasing of hostilities eventually caused a reaction from some of the more die hard Gryffindors, and not only those who had supported the exclusion. Ron was the main instigator though and made a point of heckling those who participated with no success. After about a week of this behaviour the twins were fed up, as were quite a few of the older students.

They had finalised The Plan. It wasn't strictly a plan. More like a few guidelines they all thought they would want to follow. Most of which had already been enacted. After a while Gryffindor House would really feel the absence of the five of them. The points boost to the other houses would make it very difficult to get anywhere in the house cup.
It probably wasn't fair. Nowhere near it in fact, but they had all decided that payback directed at the entire Gryffindor house, while appropriate, wouldn't really affect certainpeople directly enough. The next day the three fourth years set about part two of their plan.

Ron suddenly found himself experiencing a string of bad luck. How much of this was coincidence, and how much was engineered by the twins would be hard to determine. One thing was certain, Ron Weasley's time at Hogwarts was soon becoming less than pleasant.

With Seamus and Dean also being drawn into the mixing between the houses and distancing themselves from Ron, he often found himself sleeping in and being late for classes, and what was worse, missing breakfast. And when he did arrive at class, he often found he had brought the wrong books or had forgotten his homework, even though he was sure he had checked his bag before leaving the tower. And if that wasn't bad enough, the castle seemed to be working against him, the stairs were always in the wrong position and only moved when he gave up and tried a different route.

Needless to say, the Professors' were less than amused. It seemed that without the controlling influence of Harry and Hermione, Ron Weasley was a disorganised mess. The missing influence of Hermione Granger to the boy's work was obvious. Before, while not excellent, his work before had at least been an Acceptable level. Now his essays were hardly legible and often were incomplete or off topic when they were given in at all. His behaviour, normally moderated by his friend was also becoming unmanageable, and a lot of his time was spent in detention with Filch. The trophy cabinet had never been so sparkling.

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Harry was annoyed at being pulled from Potions. It was funny, a month ago he would have been delighted. But now Snape was being somewhat fair, and the Slytherins were no longer sabotaging his work, Potions was actually fun. They only had one lesson a week and Harry had been looking forward to testing his antidote.

Hermione, Neville and himself had been working together well on the Polyjuice potion which they had already started brewing, and they had started studying together for the actual lessons. There was something about Neville's presence, or perhaps Harry was just paying better attention, but he could now follow Hermione thought process as she explained the difficult parts.

Harry smiled back at Colin as he entered the room the third year had led him to. The Gryffindor had been a lot less stalker-ish ever since Harry had been excluded. Harry pushed the door open and stepped in to find himself the object of three distinct groups of people.

Fleur, Cedric and Krum were grouped in the centre of the room and Harry was reminded of the last time he had seen them in the same pose, the night his name had come out of the Goblet. Things had changed now, and Fleur had even apologised for her 'little boy' comment, but Harry couldn't help but be reminded, seeing them grouped together as they were, that they were that much older and more experienced.

To the left was a woman vividly dressed in a sparkling lime green outfit, which seemed to accentuate the over feathered quill hovering beside her. Harry identified her as Rita Skeeter, the tournament press liaison. The day after he had been announced as the fourth champion, Rita had been the writer of the front page article. Considering that the announcements had been at dinner, Rita must have worked through the night to get the article ready for the early morning paper, and perhaps that was why it only had the main facts, with only a few sly comments inserted here and there.

At the time, with his upcoming announcement, he had paid little attention to it. That his fellow students were obviously
writing home about him wasn't exactly a revelation, though it was the first time his Hogwarts adventures had made its way to the front page. It had been rather amusing the next morning after news of his oath had made its way out of the castle, to see how much it had changed Rita's tone of reporting, almost as if the first article had never been written.

Next to Rita was a man shabbily dressed with a wizarding camera. Having too much experience with that piece of technology living in the dorms with the Creevey brothers, he quickly turned his attention to the final group. The three school heads, Crouch and Ollivander were waiting at the other end of the unused classroom. After a few seconds of staring, Harry was glad to hear Ollivander break the silence.

"Shall we start then?"

"But of course." Dumbledore seemed a little put out that the wand maker had spoken first, but the grandfatherly twinkle was still present. Before he could start speaking Crouch interrupted him.

"The Weighing of the Wand ceremony is the traditional first meeting of the tournament. Mr Ollivander will examine your wands to make sure they are in good working condition. It is also the first official press interview," Mr Crouch ended his brief speech with a nod to Rita and the photographer, who had moved forward with the champions to better hear what was said.

The next few minutes weren't terribly exciting, though Harry was interested in the art of making wands. It was obviously an exacting process, and Ollivander was the only British maker that Harry knew about. It was afterwards that the interesting part started.

Crouch had left as soon as possible, Harry was sure the man was ill, or under a lot of stress. His skin had an unhealthy grey shade that reminded Harry of porridge, and he twitched uncomfortably every time someone spoke.

Rita obviously wanted some juicy gossip to make her article that much more interesting, and her questions always seemed to insinuate something or leading off to other topics. Harry supposed that without the scandal of his entering himself illegally, she had to dig for something a little more. Of course there were also the additional trouble of having photos taken.

But it was as he was leaving Rita pounced.

"Harry, Harry, Harry…" It was her closeness that made him turn around, and the tone of her voice. Too late he realised that the others had already left, as the door magically shut before he could escape.

"Ms Skeeter." As much as he didn't like the woman, being impolite was just asking for trouble. He may have been dense about these things, but even he didn't need Hermione's help on this one.

"What would you say to a small interest piece, hmn? The boy behind the name… get your side of the story out there?"

"An intriguing proposal, but my name, as you well know, can be used for good, and bad. I wouldn't want to spill all my secrets only to find your editor made you put a more sinisterside to the story now would I?" Harry knew the woman wouldn't get away with outright lies, but telling the whole truth seemed to be very rare thing in the Wizarding World.

"Now Harry, I'm sure we can come to some… arrangement."

The woman was desperate. Had she really just tried a seductive voice? Harry mentally rolled his eyes, before formulating his response.

"Perhaps an interview would be a good idea. But I wouldn't want to overshadow the three truechampions. They should have all the glory, you understand."

"But of course." The sickly smile was back.

"And you would have to make sure the interview was portrayed honestly."

"You have my word." This was the first time Harry had seen an actual reporter underneath the outer mask. Maybe Rita was tired of puff pieces and digging up scandal.

"Then I think we can come to a mutually beneficial agreement." Who knew, an impartial reporter would be a good investment down the line.

"So what's first?"

Although then again, the predatory gleam in her eyes was rather disconcerting.

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The first task was a week away when the twins rushed into the common room looking for Harry. Thrusting a letter into his hands they shushed the questions from Hermione and Neville.

Knowing from their pale faces it wasn't going to be good, he quickly skimmed the letter. It was from their elder brother Charlie, after skipping the paragraphs of outrage regarding Ron's behaviour regarding the exclusion, pleasure that the twins had backed him up, there was an additional note believing in Harry's integrity. Not finding anything remotely worrying just yet his eyes were drawn to the postscript.

PS. I've been told that when we get to Hogwarts, that's me and my team, we can't tell anyone about the fact that each champion has to remove a golden egg from nesting mothers for the first task. We won't even be allowed contact with family members until the task is over. Just wanted to let you know, if you somehow happen to find out I'm on school grounds, why I won't be visiting.

"Huh, nesting dragons. Well I didn't think it was going to be easy."

Handing off the letter to Hermione who had been trying to read over his shoulder, he sat down and stared into the fire.

Dragons. Huh, nestingdragons.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he realised he had gone into shock. Since there was no immediate danger, Harry let himself go. He thought he was rather entitled to go into shock thank you very much.

"He won't get into trouble will he?"

For a moment Harry thought Hermione was talking about him. Of course he was going to get into trouble. It was dragons.

"I doubt it,"

"...there were secrecy charms all over it,"

"…yeah, Bill taught us all some really obscure ones,"

"... anyway, he says he was warned that they couldn't tell anyone oncethey got to Hogwarts,"

"... we had to learn to be sneaky someone."

"…even born genius' need a little tutoring now and then."

Harry noted that they had switched back into twin-speak. He absently noted that they did that when they were stressed, or when they wanted to confuse or annoy people.

"How do dragon handlers subdue dragons?"

Well Neville actually had a point there. Turning to the twins who hopefully would be able to tell him, he saw that they were looking nervous. Well of course, if they knew how he could subdue a dragon they wouldn't have been worried in the first place.

"An overpowered stupefy."

Well that was simple enough they had already covered that spell in their weekly training.

Wait for it...

"It normally takes a group of handlers, about eight to ten to affect a full grown dragon."

Well there went that plan.

"What about potions?" That was from Hermione.

Harry interrupted the twins before they could answer, he didn't want to get his hopes up.

"I'm only allowed my wand."

"But what if you summon something during the task?"

Neville, again with a good point.

"That could work I suppose, I'd have to look at the rules."

Hermione snorted, "Or you could just summon the damn egg."

It was a flippant unprocessed thought. And from Hermione it was unheard of.

There was a pause where everyone considered it.

"Forget it, they'll have put anti-summoning charms on it. Summoning the egg would be the most logical thing to do, they'll have thought of it."

"When are wizards everlogical?"

This was from Harry to Hermione. It was one of their shared frustrations. Because magic broke the laws of physics every day, logic and common sense was often lacking in the magical world.

"So first things first, I'll summon the egg. Plan B?"

"Summon your broom?"

"You want me to out fly a dragon?"

"Nesting mothers don't like leaving their eggs,"

"…perhaps you could distract it and then fly around it?"

"Flying would beat running around on foot."

"You'll be much quicker too."

Harry was nodding; most of what was being said made a lot of sense. Hermione as was her wont was jotting everything down.

"What about using your cloak?"

Harry winced. As much as it might help, he could see the charred remains in his head. Shaking his head, that was a last resort.

"The Disillusionment Charm?"

Neville was really on a roll.

"You think I can learn it in time?"

"Well you always perform better with pressure."

Hermione was spending way too much time with the twins if she thought that was funny, but she did have a point. He remembered learning the Patronus charm. The threat of dementors really pushed him into learning faster.

"The Disillusionment Charm, followed by a distraction, then Summoning Charm. Egg, broom, whatever."

It had dawned on him that he needed a distraction when he summoned the egg, to stop him from being eaten and/or incinerated in the intervening seconds. If he was to learn the Disillusionment Charm in a week, he didn't have time to worry about learning any new transfiguration or charms to distract the dragon. And the reminder of third year had given him an idea.

"So the Disillusionment Charm..." He said looking to Hermione.

"Right, the Disillusionment Charm is a form of camouflage..."

This will work, Harry said to himself. This will work. It had become his new mantra, and he would be saying it a lot over the next couple of days.