Chapter Ten
"So Black went to the forest and your scar hurt?" Hermione asked as she and Harry walked towards Snape's dungeon. Harry had told Hermione about Jack Black entering to the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night and when it seemed Jack's eyes met him, his scar hurt. Harry nodded.
"It could be a coincidence, I mean, maybe it isn't Black that's causing your scar to hurt." Hermione whispered, "Your scar hasn't hurt when you talk to Black few months."
It was true. Harry had talked and saw Jack few times after he first went to the forest. His scar hadn't hurt around him, especially when he was in the same room as him.
When he and Hermione arrived at Snape's dungeon after lunch, they found the Slytherins waiting outside, each and every one of them wearing a large badge on the front of his or her robes. Harry frowned when he read the message:
SUPPORT JACK BLACK—THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION!
"Like them, Potter?" said Malfoy loudly as Harry approached. "And this isn't all they do - look!"
He pressed his badge into his chest, and the message upon it vanished, to be replaced by another one, which glowed green: POTTER STINKS!
The Slytherins howled with laughter. Each of them pressed their badges too, until the message POTTER STINKS was shining brightly all around Harry. He felt the heat rise in his face and neck.
"Oh very funny," Hermione said sarcastically to Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherin girls, who were laughing harder than anyone, "really witty."
Ron was standing against the wall with Dean and Seamus. He wasn't laughing, but he wasn't sticking up for Harry either.
Some of the anger Harry had been feeling for days and days seemed to burst through a dam in his chest. He had reached for his wand before he'd thought what he was doing. People all around them scrambled out of the way, backing down the corridor.
"Harry!" Hermione said warningly.
"Go on, then, Potter," Malfoy said quietly, drawing out his own wand. "Moody's not here to look after you now - do it, if you've got the guts -"
For a split second, they looked into each other's eyes, then, at exactly the same time, both acted.
"Funnunculus!" Harry yelled.
"Densaugeo!" screamed Malfoy.
Jets of light shot from both wands, hit each other in midair, and ricocheted off at angles — Harry's hit Goyle in the face, and Malfoy's hit Hermione. Goyle bellowed and put his hands tohis nose, where great ugly boils were springing up - Hermione, whimpering in panic, was clutching her mouth.
"What is going on?!"
Harry looked up and saw Jack and his friends walking towards them. When Jack saw Hermione, he quickly went to her side, ignoring the gasps from the Slytherins and a glare from Ron. Harry noticed Hermione's front teeth were growing than an average size. She looked more like a beaver. She had tears in her eyes as she whimpered in pain.
"And what is all this noise about?" Snape demanded as he arrived. He looked around and pointed his finger at Malfoy. "Explain."
"Potter attacked me, sir -"
"We attacked each other at the same time!" Harry shouted.
"- and he hit Goyle - look -"
Snape examined Goyle, whose face now resembled something that would have been at home in a book on poisonous fungi.
"Hospital wing, Goyle," Snape said calmly.
"Malfoy got Hermione!" Ron said. "Look!"
"Sir, I should take her to the Hospital Wing." Jack said, looking up. Snape slowly nodded and Jack led Hermione to the Hospital Wing as Malfoy crossed his arms, glaring at the brunette Slytherin.
Harry entered in a small classroom; most of the desks had been pushed away to the back of the room, leaving a large space in the middle; three of them, however, had been placed end-to-end in front of the blackboard and covered with a long length of velvet. Five chairs had been set behind the velvet-covered desks, and Ludo Bagman was sitting in one of them, talking to a witch Harry had never seen before, who was wearing magenta robes.
Viktor Krum was standing moodily in a corner as usual and not talking to anybody. Jack and Fleur were in conversation. Fleur looked a good deal happier than Harry had seen her so far; she kept throwing back her head so that her long silvery hair caught the light. A paunchy man, holding a large black camera that was smoking slightly, was watching Fleur out of the corner of his eye.
Bagman suddenly spotted Harry, got up quickly, and bounded forward.
"Ah, here he is! Champion number four! In you come, Harry, in you come… nothing to worry about, it's just the wand weighing ceremony, the rest of the judges will be here in a moment -"
"Wand weighing?" Harry repeated nervously.
"We have to check that your wands are fully functional, no problems, you know, as they're your most important tools in the tasks ahead," said Bagman. "The expert's upstairs now with Dumbledore. And then there's going to be a little photoshoot. This is Rita Skeeter," he added, gesturing toward the witch in magenta robes. "She's doing a small piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet…"
"Maybe not that small, Ludo," said Rita Skeeter, her eyes on Harry.
Her hair was set in elaborate and curiously rigid curls that contrasted oddly with her heavy-jawed face. She wore jeweled spectacles. The thick fingers clutching her crocodile-skin handbag ended in two-inch nails, painted crimson.
"I wonder if I could have a little word with Harry before we start?" she said to Bagman, but still gazing fixedly at Harry. "The youngest champion, you know… to add a bit of color?"
"Certainly!" cried Bagman. "That is - if Harry has no objection?"
"Er -" said Harry.
"Lovely," Rita Skeeter said as she steered Harry out of the room again and opening a nearby door.
"We don't want to be in there with all that noise," she said. "Let's see… ah, yes, this is nice and cozy."
It was a broom cupboard. Harry stared at her. "Come along, dear - that's right - lovely," said Rita Skeeter again, perching herself precariously upon an upturned bucket, pushing Harry down onto a cardboard box, and closing the door, throwing them into darkness. "Let's see now…"
Harry stormed out of the cupboard a few minutes later. If anyone took a look at his face they would know he didn't find the interview by Skeeter amusing nor fun. He looked up and saw the champions were now sitting in chairs near the door, and he sat down quickly next to Jack, hooking up at the velvet-covered table, where four of the five judges were now sitting - Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Mr. Crouch, and Ludo Bagman. Rita Skeeter settled herself down in a corner; Harry saw her slip the parchment out of her bag again, spread it on her knee, suck the end of the Quick-Quotes Quill, and place it once more on the parchment.
He still hadn't forgotten what Jack did yesterday.
"May I introduce Mr. Ollivander?" Dumbledore interrupted his thoughts as he took his place at the judges' table and talking to the champions. "He will be checking your wands to ensure that they are in good condition before the tournament."
Harry looked up and could see Mr. Ollivander standing there.
"Mademoiselle Delacour, could we have you first, please?" said Mr. Ollivander, stepping into the empty space in the middle of the room.
Fleur Delacour swept over to Mr. Olhivander and handed him her wand.
"Hmm…" he said.
He twirled the wand between his long fingers like a baton and it emitted a number of pink and gold sparks. Then he held it chose to his eyes and examined it carefully. "Yes," he said quietly, "nine and a half inches… inflexible… rosewood… and containing… dear me…"
"An 'air from ze 'ead of a veela," said Fleur. "One of my grandmuzzer's."
"Yes," said Mr. Ollivander, "yes, I've never used veela hair myself, of course. I find it makes for rather temperamental wands… however, to each his own, and if this suits you…"
Mr. Ollivander ran his fingers along the wand, apparently checking for scratches or bumps; then he muttered, "Orchideous!" and a bunch of flowers burst from the wand tip.
"Very well, very well, it's in fine working order," said Mr. Ollivander, scooping up the flowers and handing them to Fleur with her wand. "Mr. Black, you next." Fleur glided back to her seat, smiling at Jack as he passed her.
"Ah!" Mr. Ollivander said as Jack handed him his wand. "Yes, I remember this. A feather that came from the Phoenix…Dogwood. Thirteen and a half inches…and nice and flexible." Jack nodded politely. "Let's see shall we?" He gave it a wave and Harry saw a stream of blue sparks around the room from the tip of Jack's wand.
The wandmaker returned his wand back to Jack before he turned to Viktor. "Mr. Krum, if you please." After he checked Krum's wand satisfied, he turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter!"
Harry got to his feet and walked past Krum to Mr. Ollivander. He handed over his wand.
"Aaaah, yes," Mr. Ollivander nodded as he eyed Harry's wand. "Yes, yes, yes." He made a fountain of wine shoot out of it, and handed the wand back to Harry, announcing it was still in perfect condition.
Harry watched as Ron left the room before opening the letter.
Harry –
I can't say everything I would like to in a letter, it's too risky in case the owl is intercepted - we need to talk face-to-face. Can you ensure that you are alone by the fire in Gryffindor Tower at one o'clock in the morning on the 22nd of November?
I know better than anyone that you can look after yourself and while you're around Dumbledore and Moody I don't think anyone will be able to hurt you. However, someone seems to be having a good try. Entering you in that tournament would have been very risky, especially right under Dumbledore's nose.
Be on the watch, Harry. I still want to hear about anything unusual. Let me know about the 22nd of November as quickly as you can.
Sirius
Harry looked at the Marauder's map and noted that Jack wasn't in the grounds but at the Slytherin common room with his friend Theo. He shook his head and went to bed. Few days passed, Harry was getting nervous about the first task. He ignored the articles Rita wrote about him, and he was sure he didn't say those what was written in the papers!
Hermione still wasn't please that Harry and Ron refuse to talk to each other. She mostly spend her time in the library and sometimes had strange moods. Ron would say that she's in "the time of her month" which would make Hermione hex his ass till Friday.
For another few days passed Harry discovered what the first task was. Dragons. And it seemed Jack was the only champion who didn't know about it. He could bet that Viktor and Fleur knew but not Jack.
He walked to the deserted Gryffindor common room on November 22 night and pulled off his invisibility cloak. He took a seat and looked back into the flames. Sirius's head was sitting in the fire.
"Sirius, how're you doing?" Harry smiled as he crouched down by the hearth.
"Never mind me, how are you?" said Sirius seriously.
"I'm -" For a second, Harry tried to say "fine" - but he couldn't do it. Before he could stop himself, he was talking more than he'd talked in days - about how no one believed he hadn't entered the tournament of his own free will, how Rita Skeeter had lied about him in the Daily Prophet, how he couldn't walk down a corridor without being sneered at - and about Ron, Ron "… and now Hagrid's just shown me what's coming in the first task, and it's dragons, Sirius, and I'm a goner," he finished desperately.
"Dragons we can deal with, Harry, but we'll get to that in a minute - I haven't got long here… I've broken into a wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be back at any time. There are things I need to warn you about."
"What?" said Harry, feeling his spirits slip a further few notches… Surely there could be nothing worse than dragons coming?
"Karkaroff," said Sirius. "Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"
"Yes - he - what?"
"He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I'd bet everything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year – to keep an eye on him. Moody caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place."
"Karkaroff got released?" Harry said slowly. "Why did they release him?"
"He did a deal with the Ministry of Magic," said Sirius bitterly. "He said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names… he put a load of other people into Azkaban in his place… He's not very popular in there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who passes through that school of his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well."
"Okay," said Harry slowly. "But… are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the goblet? Because if he did, he's a really good actor. He seemed furious about it. He wanted to stop me from competing."
"We know he's a good actor," said Sirius, "because he convinced the Ministry of Magic to set him free, didn't he? Now, I've been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet, Harry…"
"- you and the rest of the world," said Harry bitterly.
"- and reading between the lines of that Skeeter woman's article last month, Moody was attacked the night before he started at Hogwarts. Yes, I know she says it was another false alarm," Sirius said hastily, seeing Harry about to speak, "but I don't think so, somehow. I think someone tried to stop him from getting to Hogwarts. I think someone knew their job would be a lot more difficult with him around. And no one's going to look into it too closely; Mad-Eye's heard intruders a bit too often. But that doesn't mean he can't still spot the real thing. Moody was the best Auror the Ministry ever had."
"So… what are you saying?" said Harry slowly. "Karkaroff's trying to kill me? But - why?"
Sirius hesitated.
"I've been hearing some very strange things," he said slowly. "The Death Eaters seem to be a bit more active than usual lately. They showed themselves at the Quidditch World Cup, didn't they? Someone set off the Dark Mark… and then - did you hear about that Ministry of Magic witch who's gone missing?"
"Bertha Jorkins?" said Harry.
"Exactly… she disappeared in Albania, and that's definitely where Voldemort was rumored to be last… and she would have known the Triwizard Tournament was coming up, wouldn't she?"
"Yeah, but… it's not very likely she'd have walked straight into Voldemort, is it?" said Harry.
"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins," said Sirius grimly. "She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It's not a good combination, Harry. I'd say she'd be very easy to lure into a trap."
"So… so Voldemort could have found out about the tournament?" said Harry. "Is that what you mean? You think Karkaroff might be here on his orders?"
"I don't know," said Sirius slowly, "I just don't know… Karkaroff doesn't strike me as the type who'd go back to Voldemort unless he knew Voldemort was powerful enough to protect him. But whoever put your name in that goblet did it for a reason, and I can't help thinking the tournament would be a very good way to attack you and make it hook like an accident."
"Looks hike a really good plan from where I'm standing," Harry said. Then he had a contemplative look on his face, "Hey Sirius."
"Hmm."
"Do you know Jack Black?"
"Jack Black?" Sirius frowned in confusion.
"He's a new student here. Do you by any chance are you related to him?"
"I don't know any Jack." Sirius frowned. "Of course, I've been in Azkaban for 12 years so I can't say for sure. Do you happen to know his parents name?"
"No." Harry admitted. Then he frowned, "I heard from Moody that Jack's family has a dark connection to Voldemort."
"Could be." Sirius nodded. "But maybe he's distantly related. There are no male Black except for me. I'm the only Black left."
Harry wasn't sure what to think about it. He had been a little suspicious of Jack ever since he felt his scar hurt. "Well, Sirius…" He started to tell him about Jack and how his scar hurt and Jack went to the forest.
"Hmm…Could be a coincidence and curiosity. Now, let's talk about dragons. There's a way, Harry. Don't be tempted to try a Stunning Spell - dragons are strong and too powerfully magical to be knocked out by a single Stunner, you need about half a dozen wizards at a time to overcome a dragon -"
"Yeah, I know, I just saw." Harry nodded.
"But you can do it alone," said Sirius. "There is away, and a simple spell's all you need. Just -"
But Harry held up a hand to silence him when he heard footsteps coming down the spiral staircase behind him. "Go!" He hissed at Sirius. "Go! There's someone coming!"
Harry entered the Great Hall in the morning. He sat next to Hermione at the Gryffindor table and noticed most of the groups were huddled and whispering something.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"Didn't you hear? Brena Lozen is missing." Dean said.
"Who's Brena?"
"A Ravenclaw, third-year. She was last seen when she left late at night."
Harry frowned when a memory hit him. He recalled just a few days ago someone asking where Brena was. His eyes glanced at Jack, who was talking to Daphne. He started to wonder if maybe Jack was connected to this. He probably was or maybe Karkaroff had something to do with it.
He told Hermione his suspicion, dragons, and what Sirius said. Hermione looked doubtful. She shook her head, telling him the first task was more important at the moment.
Tomorrow was the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Tomorrow. Dragons.
Author's Note: More reviews and I might consider giving you a bit of Jack's POV and especially the first task since I could tell you want to know how Jack will handle it. I actually had an idea but wasn't planning to write it since I'm more focused on the mystery rather than the Triwizard Tournament. But let's just say my brother convinced me otherwise to write it so...next chapter, The First Task! Dragons!
Anyway, yes I had taken upon myself to learn all types of wood and wand cores around November 2014 since I had plotted the Hidden Spirit very early (months ago). There was so many that could fit Jack's description but I had settled with dogwood, the most obvious one. Really. Choosing the wood type is VERY hard and especially to fit Jack's persona. The Phoenix…well, it seemed to fit for him even though he does seem to have an "icy" personality. The length, well, I couldn't recall if it was a conscious choice or I had somehow use the length of my wand according to the Pottermore. Especially my wand is nice and flexible…I think or I had just randomly chose it from the books. I admit I am leaning towards yew and holly and others much.
Anyway, this is the last update before I head to school :( I dunno when I'll update but it won't be fast anymore. And right now, I am going to talk with my beta-reader and fix the couple of chapters that are not betaed. Especially the futures ones.
NEWS: I might consider writing a spin-off of the Hidden Spirit where it will focus on the Slytherin's POV, but not likely Jack much. Alternately on each chapter we'll focus on one of the Slytherin's POV. It would switch from Draco Malfoy's POV, to Daphne, to Theo, to Pansy and other Slytherin students that are mention in the books. BUT I won't have Jack's POV, much. Jack won't be the main character of the spin-off but rather a minor character where he is briefly mentioned and make small appearance but nothing more. It will be filled with school drama like crush, Quidditch bet, some crazy "My father will hear from this!" said Draco, Pansy painting her nails, Daphne reading fashion magazine, Goyle helping Crabbe to get a girlfriend in Hufflepuff. So what do you guys think? Should I write the spin-off of the Hidden Spirit where it will focus on SLYTHERIN'S POV in the Hidden Spirit (NOT JACK'S POV). Plz tell me what you think. I have a poll open up in my profile. Tell me what u think? Should I write one?
Reply to Reviews
Natekleh - *shrugs* I hope u live.
WEast - *winks playfully* Good question and observation. Next chapter is Jack's POV or Slytherins that I could assure you. Though I honestly think it is the last one we'll see a Jack Chapter.
Infinityworlds –*looks amuse* Evil!Jack? Well that's got to be the first. Especially controlled!Jack. We'll see.
Chiara Dello – Hahaha. Not even the whole students could deny Jack has a *rolls eye* a charming look.
Reviews: 34
Favourite: 18
Follows: 41
Created Date: 4/17/15
Finished Date: 4/18/15 (10:57AM)