Chapter 7

The bright sun shone through the windows of Hogwarts. Harry troded purposefully down the hallway. He had been given a message inviting him for information regarding the Second Task. It had told him to bring the egg and not to be late.

The bespectacled boy stopped in front of the open door and looked inside. For once he was not last. Ludo Bagman and Albus Dumbledore sat at a large table while Cedric sat in a chair inspecting the egg.

He strode into the room and sat on a chair next to Cedric. The boy was wearing his Hogwarts robes and his hair looked ruffled. "Hey Cedric," Harry greeted the boy.

Cedric looked up from his egg and smiled at Harry, "Hey Harry, how are you?"

"Not to bad. What about you?" Harry asked.

"Pretty good." Cedric replied. A silence filled the room as both boys started looking elsewhere. The silence was interrupted by loud footsteps. Harry looked and found the other two champion at the door, making their way into the room. They were followed by the heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.

Viktor Krum gave him a nod before lowering himself onto a chair. As Harry turned his head to the head table he was surprised to find the french champion staring at him. Ignoring her he continued to focus on the judges.

Ludo Bagman stood up, his stomach slightly pushing the table away. Clearing his throat he started addressing the champions. "Welcome Champions, I would like to congratulate you all on passing the first task of the Triwizard Tournament." The ex-quidditch player as well as the heads of the school started clapping their hands politely.

Once the clapping died down, Ludo continued. "Now onto the matter at hand. The Second Task will measure shrewdness and ability to decipher clues. You shall be given a clue today which will help you in the first leg of the Second Task. As the task progresses you will be given more clues. These clues will help you get the end of the task. Points will be given based on how quickly you finish the task. Your first clue is the egg."

Harry immediately looked down at the egg. Slowly turning it in his hand, he inspected it with precision. There were markings on the egg decorating it. He turned it so that the bottom of the egg faced him. He was surprised to find a band twirling into the center. The band contained elegant writing. Harry brought it closer to his face and tried to read the writing.

Come to where the ground meets the sky

To start your journey before you fly

Something has been taken of your

Guarded by creatures of old lore

If the time comes to a stop

Perhaps its time to give it up

Harry was left confused by the clue. What did it mean? He looked to his left to find Cedric scratching his head in confusion. The boy turned to look at him, "What does it mean?" He mouthed.

Harry raised his shoulders as a sign of not knowing the meaning. Harry turned to Krum to find him still reading. Only Fleur seemed to be not confused. She looked out the window, smiling as if she already knew the meaning of the clue.

The silence of the champions as they contemplated the clue was broken by Ludo Bagman's rambling. "Now that you are aware of the clue, you can start working on it. The Second Task will take place on the twenty-fourth of February giving you plenty of time to decipher the clue." With that Ludo Bagman sat back down.

Dumbledore stood up from his seat, "Champions you are welcome to leave now and return to whatever you were doing." Dumbledore said looking at each individual champion.

Karkaroff and Madame Maxine got up from their chairs as the champions got up. They walked out of the room with their students following suit. Harry waved to Cedric before exiting the room quickly as he saw Ludo Bagman look at him. Dumbledore called after him but by then Harry had already left, leaving Dumbledore to think of another way to talk to Harry.


Harry strolled to his transfiguration class for the first time after a many days. Next to him his mentor and Charms Professor walked to his office. The short professor had stayed quiet for much of the walk, lost in his thoughts. "What happened Professor?" Harry asked worriedly. He had not seen his mentor like this.

"Nothing Mr. Potter," he said distractedly.

"Something must have happened, you haven't said a single word in the last little while."

Flitwick sighed, "It's nothing really, just thinking on somethings." Flitwick turned to his head to look at Harry. "Did you know that there is going to be a ball?"

Harry looked at Flitwick curiously and asked, "A ball? You mean like dancing and all?" Flitwick nodded at Harry's description. "Well what's the problem with that? Worried about having to start putting your dating game on again."

His mentor smiled, "That isn't the problem. It's during the Christmas Holidays."

Harry felt his smile fade, "Well it can't be mandatory. There's no way parents are going to like the idea of their children having to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas as well."

"It shouldn't be, the thing that worries me is that after the headmaster announced the ball and let all the staff members go. He made Minerva and Pomona stay behind to talk to them." Harry looked at the professor curiously, "The only reason he would talk to Minerva and Pomona and not include either Severus nor I would be something involving the Champions."

"Well there isn't much I can do about that and the ball itself hasn't been announced yet." Harry reasoned, hoping that the ball did not complicate his Christmas plans. Both Harry and Flitwick stopped in front of the Charms classroom.

"I think it will be announced in the coming days," Flitwick said before asking Harry a question. "What made you decide to go to classes?"

Harry paused at the sudden change of topic. "Well the first taskk is over so I thought it was time to go back to classes."

"It didn't stop you from coming to Charms. Even though we already had went over the fourth year Charms syllabus during our lesson." Flitwick said smiling at having trapped him in a corner. Harry was reminded of his talk with Moody a few days back which had made him change his decision of going to classes.

"Mr. Potter!" Harry heard somebody call out in a gruff voice. Turning around he was surprised to find the Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher, Alastor Moody in front of him.

"Good morning sir." Harry greeted, unsure of why the ex-auror wanted to talk to him.

"Good morning to you too," Moody said. "It is quite rare to see you at Hogwarts nowadays." Harry felt all the blood rush to his face with embarrassment. Was he talking about him not attending classes? No other teacher had come to talk to him. "Now while champions are not required to take exam, may I remind you that you are in fourth year and the others are in seventh. While the others will graduate, you will need to take the O.W.L's next year without which you cannot take certain classes."

O.W.L's? What were those? Harry put his questions aside to review at a later time. "Sorry Professor, it had totally slipped my mind. Now that the First Task is over I will start attending again."

Moody grinned at him with his scar filled face. "Speaking of the First Task, I also wanted to congratulate you on your performance. While I personally thought you would have tried to do something else, you still performed admirably."

Harry smiled awkwardly at the praise. Something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Thank you Professor. If that's all I have to get going."

As Harry turned around he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "Also Mr. Potter if you require anysort of assistance in the upcoming task do feel free to let me know." Harry felt the hand lift off his shoulder as Moody turned around and limped in the other difrection.

Harry shivered slightly, there was something wrong with Moody and he would have to get to the bottom of it.

"So you had a talk with Alastor and you decided it was time to go to Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration again?" Flitwick asked,.

"Well I was already planning to go to Transfiguration as I am not nearly as proficient as I would like to be. Defense is another matter. I remember hearing about Moody and was told that he was one who was hard to impress." What Harry hid from Flitwick was that he had not actually heard it from someone but had read it in the journals of his parents.

Flitwick couldn't help but nod at Harry's statement in agreement, he had heard similar things. "I have noticed that he does seem a little different but a man can change."

"I guess," Harry said.

"Well you should get going to class if you want to make it on time."

"Merlin! McGonagall's going to skin me." Harry turned around and took off down the hallway, hoping he wouldn't be late for class.


The grounds were painted white as snow gently floated down to the ground from the sky. The temperature had dropped drastically but the always lit fires of Hogwarts never failed to keep the castle warm. In a rarely used part of the castle Harry double checked his trunk.

It was the first day of Christmas Holidays. McGonagal had announced the ball not too soon after his mentor had informed him about it. What had been a surrise was that McGonagal had not pulled him aside to tell him if the ball was mandatory. He had debated if it would be worth asking her but in the end decided not too.

The fact that she had not told him meant that he wasn't required to go. Harry looked at his packed trunk which sat on the bed. He had considered bringing books with him to read but had decided against it, as he wanted to spend Chrismtas relaxing with his godfather.

Once he felt ready he performed a quick shrinking charm that Professor Flitwick had taught him. Picking up te trunk, now the size of his palm, he shoved it into his pockets before looking back at the room one more time. After making sure he had not forgotten anything Harry walked over to the door before pulling the big doors.

Stepping out Harry strolled down to the main entrance. The halls were quiet as most students had not woken up yet. For once Harry did not need to worry about others staring at him or persistant irritation of having to hide from Ron and Hermione. While both had started to realize Harry did not want to talk to them, they still tried to get him to talk.

Taking longer than usual Harry reached to find a handfull of the younger students lingering around. While most of the older students had decided to stay, many of the younger students had been forced to go as they could not attend the ball. Harry tried his best to ignore the whispers. As soon as he had walked in all had stared at him. Quickening his pace he reached a carriage and jumped onto it.

Harry could not control the giddy feeling in his stomache. He was finally getting to spend time with his godfather. While he had wanted to live with him, the hearing had taken up much of his godfather's time during the summer. Charms around the carriage prevented Harry from feeling the cold and let him watch the scenery go by.

The beauty of Hogwarts left him speechless much like the first time he had seen the castle while on a boat. The snow just increased the beauty. It made even the Whomping Willow look good.

Before Harry knew it he had reached the station, the trip had gone by fast as he admired the grounds. Harry stepped off and treaded to the steps of the station. The Hogwarts Express stood still on the tracks, black billows of smoke coming out of it. He walked to the middle of the train and stepped into it. He was hit by sudden warmth. Younger students ran down the hall, Harry stepped into the carriage he usually sat in and was surprised to find a blonde haired ravenclaw seated there.

"I'm sorry," Harry said as he stepped out the carriage but stopped as the Ravenclaw's started speaking.

"You can sit here if you like Harry Potter." The girl said as Harry seated himself in the carriage. The girl interested him, she seemed to always have a far off look. He was surprised that he had never seen her in the castle before.

The girl went back to reading her magazine. "I'm Harry by the way," Harry said as he broke the silence.

"Oh I know," she said as she continued to read. Harry was astounded, the girl did not seem to be interested in talking to him. Taking that as the end of the conversation Harry looked out the window, as the train started moving.

Time passed slowly, as Harry watched the surroundings pass. After what felt like an eternity, the train reached Kings Cross station. Harry quickly got up and exited the carrriage, wanting to avoid talking to the strange girl.

He stepped off the train and was greeted by the sight of parents waiting for their children. Harry looked around hoping Sirius had got his owl telling him the time of his arrival. "Harry!" A voice called out. Harry looked to where the voice came from and was relieved to find his godfather standing waiting for him.

Harry rushed to his godfather and hugged him once he reached him. "No hug for me?" Someone asked from behind Sirius. Harry stepped back and was surprised to find his old Defence Against The Dark Arts Professor, Remus Lupin.

"Moony," Harry said happily, before hugging him as well. Sirius looked at Harry and was happy to find him smiling again. His godson had been through a lot in the year. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, just been spending some time with Sirius to make up for lost time. How are you doing now?" Remus asked in return.

Before Harry could speak, Sirius started complaining. "Enough of these formalities, we can talk to each other at the house. In front of warm fire where I won't be losing my fingers to a frostbite."

Harry smiled as he saw Remus roll his eyes, "Come on then let's go. How are we getting to your house?"

At this Sirius could not help but smile, "Have you heard of Apparition?" Both Sirius and Remus started laughing at the look of Harry's face.

While Harry happily talked to Sirius and Remus, a certain french champion searched for Harry throughout the castle to no success.


AN: Hey guys, I know that it's another short chapter but after getting 200 favourites and 400 followers I wanted to post something up. Unfortunately this will be the last chapter until December. I'm really busy with school. For this chapter I had about half dome before school started and after I tried to write whenever I could. I felt as if that took its toll on the chapter. It originally started as something else but at the end the product was totally different then I expected. Because of this I will only create outlines for future chapters and not write till I get a large break.

AN2: Now a little about the story. We are more than a third of the way though 4th year. In the next couple of chapters there will be a confrontation between Dumbledore and Harry as well as Harry and Ron and Hermione. Hopefully you guys liked this chapter and please read and review. Thank you and I'd like to apologize in advance for the wait for the next installment. Thanks again!