JAMES POTTER
And The Triwizard Champion

Chapter 10. Tea Party

"I thought Hugo was coming." Hagrid commented as he began to close the door behind his new guests.

"I'm here!" Someone shouted loudly from the grounds. Hugo rushed through the door and put his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Puzzled, Hagrid closed the door. Hugo's puffy brown hair was in disarray, pointing straight up and his robe was a bit ruffled. "Sorry," He gasped as he took a seat, "I fell asleep on my Muggle Studies book."

"You know, they make great pillows nowadays." Rose said dryly, earning herself a glare from her little brother.

"I had homework." He retorted.

"Of course you did." She rolled her eyes. Hagrid poured them all a cup of tea and produced some more rock cakes that no one dared to touch.

"So, I take it you're Ella." He addressed the second year. She jumped and nodded nervously. Hagrid then gave Millie a speculative look, "Then you must be Millie, the champion." Millie also nodded and Hagrid let loose a booming laugh, "Well, you don't look like much, I'll give you that. But who am I to question the Goblet?" Hagrid took his seat and looked across the table at Millie, who was blushing, "What about the other two champions, who are they?" Everyone looked expectantly at the shy seventh-year, she cleared her throat.

"Er, Adrien Depaul. From Beauxbatons. I haven't actually heard him say anything yet."

"Justine says that he's excited." Fiona interrupted.

"He sure doesn't show it." Albus muttered.

"And Sergei Stolojan." Millie continued as though they hadn't spoken, "He talks plenty. He's very confident that he'll win." She smiled slightly, "He's always talking about how easy it will be to beat us."

"Then why are you smiling?" Hugo asked.

"Because he's funny." Millie shrugged, "Professor Strathough said he's gifted but doesn't know how to use his potential. What he said what that you do surprisingly little right when you think you can do wrong."

"Quite a combination." Jame observed.

"When's the first task?" Hagrid asked.

"November 20th." The Champion answered promptly, "They won't tell us what it is."

"Then I guess all you can do for now is study your basics and hope it's enough." Hagrid sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"Hagrid, tell us about Romania." Lily begged, "Tell us about the Dragons."

"Well," The half-giant laughed, "They're interesting little buggers, I'll tell you. Owls and other animals won't go near them, when we contain them we have to feed them meat by the barrel-full. There are debates going on about how it isn't fair of us to deny them to hunt, but if we release them while we're studying them they'll end up hunting us. Living in a bunker for a year sure makes a man miss home." Hagrid looked around his tiny palace, "One of my favorite things was seeing these dragons at night. Some of them you could hardly see at all, some of them practically glowed. And you could see them all outlined against the darkness when they shot fire. I think that, unless they're hunting, Dragons aren't particularly fond of the dark, that's why they make their own light. When there were Dragons around there was never a minute of darkness. Beautiful creatures." He stared off hazily.

"How's Uncle Charlie?" Hugo asked.

"He's Charlie." Hagrid laughed, "He was stumbled upon an abandoned Dragon's nest in the mountains. From the marks on the rocks it appeared that the mother had gotten into a fight with another Dragon while protecting her eggs. The eggs were cold, showing us that the mother had not returned. Charlie brought them back to camp with the plan to keep them until they hatch, at which point we could find it a surrogate family and release them in the wild. One night, he had taken one of the eggs for individual study and it started to hatch. It broke out of it's shell right in front of him. Now, when Dragons hatch, they aren't exactly like chicken, who adopt their mother to be the first face they see. A Dragon's mother will be there at the hatching and force-feed it. Charlie, forgetting himself, fed it. We tried putting the little bloke back with it's siblings, but it always found it's way back to Charlie. Eventually, he had to accept it and it's been following him around ever since. He's having a lot more luck that people normally do with dragons. He's teaching it not to savage anything, or breath fire when near people. It's going well, he's named it Cludo."

"He's raising a Dragon?" Rose asked, appalled.

"In all fairness, it's what he does for a living." Hagrid shrugged, "This time it's just a bit more personal." His eye was caught by something on Rose's robes. "Merlin, Rose, what's that on your chest?" Rose looked down, alarmed but only saw her Quidditch Captains badge.

"My badge?"

"Your captian's badge." Hagrid clarified, with a glance at James he continued, "I'm once again surprised. Congratulations." James shifted uncomfortably as Rose beamed.

"Yup, I was surprised too. But since Ace graduated last year we needed a new captain. And without E.G we didn't have a captain. We were the first ones to hold tryouts. Margaret Creevey is our new Keeper and Alby Lennon is out new beater."

"You've got your new players already?" Hagrid was impressed, "You're way ahead of the game."

"I know." Rose nodded happily, "That's why Scorpius suggested...it..." She trailed off, her eyes wide. She made a gesture and opened her mouth, as though trying to get her last words to jump back in. Unfortunately the damage was done, everyone stared at her and she met Albus's quizzical gaze.

"When were you talking to Scorpius Malfoy?" He asked evenly.

"During Ancient Runes." Rose answered. Albus's eyebrows moved together. "We sit next to each other."

"Rose." Fiona said wearily. Rose looked her way and saw that Fiona and James were watching her encouragingly.

"He's a...friend of mine." Rose explained, turning back to Albus.

"A friend?" Albus repeated blankly, "Is that why you wouldn't drop the class?"

"Not the only reason..." Rose began.

"Scorpius Malfoy?" Albus continued, eyes flashing with anger.

"Wait, before you say anything about him-"

"Huh." Albus interrupted. Calmly, too calmly, he stood.

"Albus!" But Albus had already closed the door behind him. Rose rushed to the door and opened it, watching Albus stride across the darkening lawn to the castle. Slowly, she closed the door and took her seat. "He's mad." She muttered to herself, though everyone heard her, as she hid her face in her arms.

"Who's Scorpius?" Lily asked.

"A Malfoy." Hugo answered with his usual distracted manner, he was reading a text book under the table. He looked up from his book to narrow his eyes at Rose, "And Da's always told us about Malfoys."

"Don't go there." Rose's voice was muffled.

"I'm just saying he has a point." Hugo returned to his book. Rose's head snapped up.

"He doesn't!" She gasped, outraged, "Da's biased. He doesn't even know Scorpius. I do, and he's not so bad."

"And why are you taking his Quidditch advice?" Hugo retorted icily.

"Calm down, everyone." James stood, demanding everyone's attention. He looked from his cousins' restful glares to Lily and Ella's wide eyes. "Cool it, Hugo. Give Rose a little credit, she's a big girl and is perfectly able to pick her own friends. None of us can say anything about that. And we can't give any reason for her not to be friends with him, he hasn't done anything." He met Hugo's eyes until the younger boy looked down with a shrug, returning to his book.

"Thanks." Rose mumbled as James sat down again. Lily tugged on her cousin's sleeve. When Rose looked at her the younger girl grinned.

"Can I meet your new friend?" She asked eagerly.

"Sure." Rose answered, gratefully patting Lily's head.

"Will you talk to Albus?" Fiona whispered to James, who didn't look away from Rose and Hugo, who was no longer interested in the drama.

"I said I would, didn't I?" He replied. Fiona smiled and kissed his cheek.

James pointed his wand at a bit of earth behind the castle. As though lifted by an invisible shovel, dirt began to lift and deposit itself next to the hole the young wizard was digging. Fiona, next to him, was removing her now-heavy robe. While at Hagrid's the giant had insisted that each of his guests take some cakes for the road. Not wanting to be rude, they all filled their pockets. After leaving the hut, however, the cakes were given to Fiona and James, who would bury them behind the castle since they had nothing else to do with them. It was dark, Fiona squinted as she looked for James's robe, which was blending in with the dark ground. She set her robe on top of his and turned to look at her boyfriend, who had been digging silently for several minutes.

"What's the matter?" She asked as she stood next to him.

"Nothing." James answered halfheartedly. Fiona looped her arms around James's left and hugged it.

"Are you upset about Ablus?" She pressed.

"He'll come around." James's face was void of emotion, "Even if I didn't talk to him, he'd come around eventually."

"Then what's wrong?" Fiona watched carefully as James slowly lowered his wand, the dirt stopped its movement immediately.

"I feel disappointed." He answered at last.

"How so?"

"Or like I'm disappointing people." James folded himself on the ground, Fiona knelt on the soft earth next to him, "I mean, did you see the way Hagrid looked at me? I thought I was okay with not being Quidditch Captain and Hogwarts Champion. But people were expecting me to. I'm a Potter, my father is famous and I'm not doing anything extraordinary at all. Quidditch Captain went to my little cousin and the Goblet chose a timid muggle-born. Over the son of the great Harry Potter? It's like, if I can't be like him, if I can't be special, what good am I?"

"Oh, James." Fiona nuzzled her nose against his shoulder, "You are special."

"Not like my dad." Jame answered dubiously.

"No one can be special like your dad." Fiona informed him dryly, "He's a legend. I know you feel like you're letting people down, but everyone needs to stop comparing you to your father. That's all it is, you know. You can't expect to be like your dad, and you shouldn't worry about disappointing people. You can't control who's champion and who's captain. You can just be James."

"James." He repeated, "James was supposed to be great, like his dad. James was supposed to walk in his footsteps. James was supposed to be champion. I saw it in Hagrid's eyes, he expected me to be Champion."

"Stop this. You don't even want to be Champion, you have to work hard for your N.E.. You don't have to stand out, there's nothing wrong with being a regular person no matter who your dad is."

"I didn't expect to feel like this." James muttered, "And I do just want to be part of the crowd, I don't want to be extraordinary."

"You're extraordinary without even trying, whether you like it or not." Fiona laughed, "But this is something your father never had, for us this can just be a normal year." Reflexively, James pulled away.

"I wish everyone would stop with this 'normal year' business." He snapped, unnerved. He stood quickly, then sighed, "But you're right. I shouldn't feel bad."

"That's the spirit." Fiona jumped up next to him. She picked up their robes and emptied the contents of their pockets into the hole. Then James lifted his wand and pushed the dirt back into the hole, burying the rock cakes for good. Only when they were sure they'd left no evidence the two donned their robes and turned back to the castle, holding hands, like any regular couple, they went to bed.

Sorry for the delay, I've been really busy lately. So I give you a nice, one-day chapter. For some reason I picture Hugo with Goku hair.

Review!

l l
\ V /

v