"You see anything yet, mate?" Ron called out to Harry.

"Hush, we don't want to be heard," Harry replied, softly enough to barely be heard over the wind rustling the leaves of the trees.

Flying over the Forbidden Forest was exhilarating for both of them, even though they were both riding on old school brooms. The plan had been simple. Sneak outside Hogwarts and go to the Quidditch Pitch. Break into the broom shed. Borrow a couple of brooms. Apply Disillusionment Charms. Fly around until they found where the dragons were hiding.

Sneaking out had been easy. They were both well versed in that art, and the Marauder's Map and Harry's invisibility cloak made it easy. Unlocking the broomshed was easy too - Harry's lockpick that he had bought on his date with Lavender had come in handy for that. It's not like the old used brooms were worth anything, so the broomshed wasn't exactly as secure as Gringotts.

The Disillusionment Charm was something else altogether. They, along with Hermione, had learned it in the previous week, and it was dreadfully difficult, for good reason. Spells like that weren't taught at Hogwarts, since they would likely only ever be used for nefarious purposes, such as Fred and George sneaking into the Slytherin common room to set off dung bombs. Or, in this case, Harry and Ron flying over the Forbidden Forest unseen.

Harry hadn't thought it to be a good idea for both of them to ride a single broom under his invisibility cloak, so they had to apply a bit of their training in applying the charm. Now, if it had been Lavender Brown, he might have made an exception and totally went for a passenger on his Firebolt.

Truthfully, they were both rubbish at the spell. In the darkness of the night, Harry could still sort of make out Ron's shimmering form, and Harry knew his wasn't much better. But the chances of someone actually spotting them flying in the nighttime sky was close to zero regardless.

As it was, they were flying stealthily all over the Hogwarts grounds, looking for where the alleged dragons were being kept. They were using one of the spells they had learned a few months back to keep track of other objects, in this case, each others broom, so they didn't get separated. The dragons had to be somewhere close by, but not so close as to be seen from the castle. And with only a few short days left until the Task, they had to be nearby on hand. That made sense, in theory.

The first place they had looked had been the Quidditch Pitch. It was an obvious choice, but the wooden stadium looked untouched. Dumbledore had suspended the inter-house Quidditch league in case they needed to use the stadium, but right now, it just looked disused. There had been some talk of hosting an international Quidditch game between the three schools, but so far, nothing had come of it.

If the dragons weren't at the pitch, that meant the only place they could be was somewhere in the Forbidden Forest. And the forest was large, very large. Hundreds upon hundreds of acres in all directions. Harry and Ron flew high up in the dark sky, peering down into the massive expanse of trees, searching any hints.

They would have thought it'd be easy, to find dragons. They're large creatures, breathe fire, and make a ton of noise. Not exactly subtle. But, wizards could be very good at hiding things, if they chose.

After an hour of searching, the two Gryffindors were ready to call it quits. If Hermione had been there, they likely would have found the hiding spot within minutes, but she wouldn't go near a broom, not even for a good cause.

Ron looked like was just starting to begin to doubt the veracity of his idea. Perhaps he had looked too far into his brother's letter. Perhaps his brother was just coming to watch the Tournament like so many others. They were going to meet after the task after all, not before it.

Just as doubt was beginning to set in Ron's mind, and with his fingers slowly turning numb from the cold weather, a flicker of light appeared out of the corner of his eyes. "There!" Ron shouted.

"Where?" Harry called back. "I can't see you."

"Face the moon… I thought I saw something flash briefly."

Harry stared out into the distance, looking for anything that might be out of the ordinary. Other than the treetops and leaves rustling in the wind, and the clouds gently passing overhead, the night was calm.

Until he saw it as well. It looked like a flash of flame, shooting out over the forest's canopy, before dispersing in the air. "Bloody hell," Harry said. "I was half hoping you were wrong."

"Well, let's go check it out, shall we?" Ron replied.

The dragon enclosure was fairly large, but there were no overt spells to hide them. Just the normal muggle repelling charms, but for a temporary structure, it would be difficult to get anything too advanced to stick in such a short time, not for something that would have upwards of a thousand people moving to and from.

There was a stadium partially built, extending out into the clearing like an old gladiatorial arena. From where they sat upon their brooms, about a hundred feet over the clearing, they could just barely make out the tallest tower of Hogwarts in the distance. They had to have been a good five miles away from the castle, and three miles from Hogsmeade. Not exactly close. Harry hoped that they wouldn't be expected to walk that distance.

"Blimey," Ron said in awe. "Look at those things!"

Three dragons sat in cages on the outskirts of the enclosure, each in their own small clearing. There were a dozen handlers watching over them, and in particular, a bright blue and white dragon that was apparently spitting flames just for its own amusement.

Harry flew closer to where his tracking spell was telling him Ron was hovering. Carefully, he hovered right next to him. "Do you recognize what types of dragons those are?" he asked quietly.

"I'm not an expert, but I reckon that black one is a Hungarian Horntail. That's the second most dangerous dragon type in existence."

"What's the most dangerous?" Harry asked with a whisper.

"The Himalayan Hellkite," he replied. "They're red, but luckily I don't see one down there. I think that's a Chinese Fireball - they're distinctive enough. Don't know the blue one though."

"Do you see your brother down there?"

"Hard to tell, but I don't see anyone with our hair. I do see someone familiar though. Look near the Horntail cage. He's got a familiar friend as well..."

It was times like these when Harry wished he had better vision. One of the first things he had looked into when learning he was a wizard was to see if there was a way to fix his eyesight. There was, but the only way to do it was to regrow the eyes, and that could only be done when he had finished growing, otherwise they would quite likely just regrow back the same they were, or maybe even worse.

Even with his bad eyesight, there was no mistaking the giant forms of the two people. Nearly identical in height, Hagrid must have had at least twenty stone on Madame Maxime, who was there with him and observing the dragons.

Harry wasn't truly surprised to see Hagrid there. The first time Harry had ever met the man, he had admitted he wanted nothing more than to own a pet dragon. And he had done so, raising a baby Norwegian Ridgeback, in his small hut, only having to release it to Charlie and his co-workers to bring it to a preserve when it grew too large for his hut.

"You don't think you have to fight one, do you?" Ron asked in a worried voice.

"I hope not," Harry said. "They said they were making the tournament safer, right? It takes a dozen wizards of your brother's caliber just to handle one - there's no way I'd stand a chance if I actually had to fight it."

"So, it's just an obstacle then," Ron decided.

"I reckon so," replied Harry. "I guess we'll have to focus on methods for me to not get maimed and cooked by dragonfire."

"Yeah, we didn't exactly study for this sort of thing." said Ron. "They're several steps beyond anything that's been covered in Creatures or Defense."

"We'll have to go pick Hermione's brain then."

"It's true then?" Hermione asked with worry. "What Ron believed about his brother's letter?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid so," Harry said with a sigh. He plopped down onto the chair while Ron crashed for the night. He couldn't ask his best friend to pull a second all-nighter in a row, so it was Hermione's turn.

Harry was starting to feel the effects of sleep deprivation, but he wasn't all that unused to it. Growing up at the Dursley's hadn't been easy, and with the occasional Voldemort-fueled nightmare, he had had more than one sleepless night. Still, the bags around his eyes and general sluggishness were starting to wear him down, but he wouldn't rest until the first task was done and in the books.

Double-checking to make sure all their anti-eavesdropping measures were in place, Harry leaned forward to tell Hermione what he saw. "Three of them. Huge. A red one, a black one, and a blue one. Ron says there was a Chinese Fireball and a Hungarian Horntail, but he didn't know the blue one. I don't suppose you know anything about dragons?"

Hermione leveled Harry with a glare that said 'Don't you know who I am?'

"Right, right," Harry said. "Sorry. So, I'm assuming you went to the library on a hunch and have a bunch of books on dragons and how to beat them up."

"It's not that simple," Hermione said. "There's no book titled 'Dragonslaying for Dummies'. They are extremely resistant to magic, and only get more so the older they get."

"I know that. I doubt I have to actually kill the thing - that would be crazy."

"And highly illegal," Hermione replied. "The Triwizard Tournament is not exempt from the law, and is policed by the International Regulatory Committee, which oversees dueling as well, regulating the magic they can and can't use…"

"Yeah, I vaguely recall Mr. Crouch mentioning something like that at the first meeting," Harry said noncommittally. "We're not allowed to use any illegal magic either."

"Right, anyways, I do have several books, though the dragon section in the library did seem a bit light on reading… I think one of the other Champions must know about them and checked a few books out."

"Oh, well, I did see Madame Maxime there at the dragon pen," Harry said. "So undoubtedly Fleur Delacour knows. I wouldn't be surprised if Karkaroff told Krum about them as well - the Judges are surely aware of what the tasks are."

"That changes things then -"

"Does it? It's not like Dumbledore has pulled me aside to tell me about them and to how to get passed them."

"Cheating is a time-honored tradition at the Tournament. There's a vast history of corruption and - "

"You don't say," Harry said dryly.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"So, how do I actually beat these things?"

"Well, presumably, you only have to beat one. Three dragons, three Champions. So, it's likely guarding an objective of some sort."

"Right, well, I don't suppose we could play it a bit of music and have it fall asleep like Fluffy?"

"If only," Hermione said. "Dragons are known for guarding hoards of treasure, so my guess is that you'll have to find something specific. So, let's pretend that you have to somehow subdue or distract a dragon long enough to recover the Holy Grail or something like that."

"Okay. So, I'm facing down a fifty foot tall fire-breathing monster of death and destruction. I need a way to not die from dragon flame."

"The best way is to not get hit," Hermione.

"So, constant vigilance?" Harry remarked. "Pretend I'm not Mad-eye Moody. How many flame-freezing charms will it take to not be dinner?"

"More than you can count, likely. Dragon's fire is one of the hottest substances known to man. A standard flame-freezing charm will do little against a direct hit, but if you layered them enough, you'd might be able to survive an indirect hit."

"Non-standard flame-freezing charms then? The one we learned in second year can't be the only one, or the most powerful."

"And you'd be right," Hermione said. "But that one is taught because it is the most effective one for how simple it is. There's a flame-suppressing charm, that can be used to put out fires after the fact, but won't do anything against the attack itself. Um, I think there's a thermal charm of some sort, I recall it being employed by blacksmiths in the dark ages… I can look into it."

"Alright," said Harry. "We'll make a list, but we don't have much time."

"I'm going to be honest, Harry. We may bit a bit out of our league here."

"You don't say," Harry said, shaking his head in exasperation.

"What I am saying, is that perhaps you need to get actual help. Not just from a textbook… from someone who actually knows something about these things."

"Why, Hermione, if I didn't know better, I'd almost think you're suggesting that I should cheat."

"Dumbledore won't help you, I know that, but perhaps Hagrid would?"

"Hagrid thinks dragons make for good pets. Like a cat, or a dog. I'm not sure he would be the best fountain of knowledge - remember, first year, he scrounged the library for material on dragons just like we're doing now."

"That's true," Hermione admitted. "Perhaps Sirius then?"

"Maybe…" said Harry.

"It's worth a shot, right?" Hermione continued. "What's the worse that can happen? Plus, it'll only take a couple minutes to write a letter."

"Okay, fine. I'll write him for help, but I still want a Plan A and Plan B. And preferably a Plan C as well."

"Let's keep going over the dragon's physiology then. They're very resistant to spells, but they do have weak spots. The eyes, inside the mouth, around the anus -"

"Hold on one bloody second," Harry said with a laugh. "You expect me to shoot this thing in the arse?"

"Well, no, but it's good to know what you're options are, right?"

"Right. Okay, continue."

"So, I was thinking," Hermione said, drawing it out a bit. "If you can blind it and restrict its sense of smell, you probably can get by it."

"What about its hearing? You think I should play a flute to distract it?"

"McGonagall has taught us some basic animation spells - perhaps a bunch of drums to make a lot of noise."

"I was only joking, you know."

"I'm not," Hermione retorted. "This is serious. I think your best bet is to increase your own mobility with a lightness charm, and then hamper the dragons senses to at least neutralize its effectiveness at killing you, albeit temporarily. As for the specific spells… well, that's going to require more research."

"Well, the night is still young."

"It's early morning, actually," Hermione corrected.

"Whatever."

Crazy. That's the word Harry used to describe the whole world around him. Having to fight dragons, his godfather telling him to be in the common room at 11 PM so they could talk… He used his Revelation Revealer on the letter three times just to make sure it wasn't actually a prank and that his godfather was actually serious.

Harry didn't know how either of those things were going to happen, not without a bunch of luck. But, both Ron and Hermione were more than willing to help him get it done. Somehow, they managed to get everyone out of the common room with five minutes to spare, and Harry knew better than to ask how they had done it. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. It probably involved Hermione rattling her SPEW collection tin under everyone's noses.

Unsure of exactly how Sirius was going to meet him, Harry prepared for the worst. It seemed unlikely that Sirius would use his animagus form to sneak into the castle, but it wouldn't be the first time.

So, when Sirius's head popped up in the roaring fire in the common room, Harry was genuinely surprised. If he hadn't seen Cedric Diggory's father do the exact same thing several months prior, he might have freaked out completely. "Whoa, hey there Sirius!"

"Hey, Harry, it's good to see you," his godfather replied, giving him a grin.

"Likewise. So, what exactly is your head doing in the fireplace?"

"I'm borrowing this fireplace, but the owner could be back at any second. It's not easy travelling when your face is plastered on wanted posters on every street in the entire nation."

"So, you're actually here then, in England?" Harry asked. He hadn't actually wanted to believe that it was true. "It's too dangerous!"

"Too dangerous?" Sirius laughed. "It's fun. But, speaking of dangerous, what is this I've heard about you being a Triwizard Champion and having to face down a dragon? James would be so proud! Especially of your breakup with that girl that was all over the Prophet."

Harry sighed. "One of these days, Rita Skeeter is going to get her comeuppance, I'm sure, but right now I really have to work on how to subdue a dragon, at least temporarily. We're at our wit's end here, looking for solutions, and the best we've come up with is to hamper its senses. Blind it, deafen it, and overcome its sense of smell. However, conjuring a blindfold and somehow putting it over the dragon's eyes seems like an impossible task."

"Right. It's a good plan. If it were the Marauders doing it, James would be the distraction while one of us snuck in. The Conjunctivitis Curse should be powerful enough to blind the dragon. You just have to hit it in the eyes with the spell, and it will cause a temporary blindness. It'll last five, maybe ten minutes. They have very sensitive sense of smell, so that should be easy - dungbombs or something to that effect should be more than ample. They don't have the best of hearing, so I suspect the noise from the crowd will be enough to confuse it."

Harry was furiously scribbling down Sirius's suggestions while Ron and Hermione kept a lookout. "Where can I find the Conjunctivitis Curse?" Harry asked.

"Hm. I think I found it in a Curse Compendium - I forget the exact volume. The library probably still has it. I'd help you learn it, but honestly, a dozen years in Azkaban have made my skills with a wand almost non-existent."

"We'll clear your name one day, Sirius," Harry said. "Well catch Wormtail and then you'll be free."

Sirius shook his head. "He's very good at hiding, especially from me. I've spent almost every waking moment searching for any signs of him, but the trail goes cold in Austria. He'll get what's coming to him, just not right now."

Suddenly, Sirius's head twitched and he jerked around.

"What's wrong?"

"I think someone's coming - Look, something strange is happening, so just keep an ear out, okay? Pettigrew's escape, your strange nightmares, Death Eaters at the World Cup - something doesn't add up. I've got to go now - we'll talk again soon! Just be careful!"

Before Harry could even reply, Sirius was gone. Harry let out a sigh and relaxed backwards on the couch. Ron and Hermione joined him, but not before reeling back their anti-eavesdropping charms.

"He's reckless," Hermione pointed out. "It's almost like he wants to get caught."

"I think he finds it exhilarating. Spending twelve years in Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit, with only Dementors and actual Death Eater psychopaths to keep him company… It's no wonder he's not insane."

Hermione and Ron both gave him a knowing look.

"Well, not completely insane," said Harry, correcting himself. "He means well. Being on the run can't be easy, not for so long."

"He'll have to settle down eventually," Hermione said. "I'm sure Dumbledore would help, if Sirius asked."

"That would be a treat, wouldn't it," Ron replied. "The most powerful wizard in England, harboring a known fugitive. If Rita Skeeter found out about that…"

"It could be a disaster," Harry agreed. "It still bothers me that I have no idea how she heard my conversation with Lavender."

"Invisibility cloak?" Ron asked. "Seems like a perfect tool for nosy reporter."

"Maybe," Harry replied. "I won't pretend that we had covered all possibilities, all we did was lock the door and put a silencing charm up. But it does beg the question of why Rita Skeeter was even at Hogwarts that day."

"She was fishing for stories, no doubt, and lucked across yours," said Hermione. "It's vile and deplorable, but I'm not sure what kind of recourse there is."

"I'd really rather not have to carry the Marauder's Map on me at all times," Harry commented. "But I will, if that's what it takes to catch her in the act."

"It's not a bad idea," Hermione said. "As long as you don't get caught and have it taken away."

"Yeah, Fred and George would never let you hear the end of it," Ron said with a smirk.

"It might be worth the risk," said Harry. "Catching that woman here after having been banned from the grounds by Dumbledore himself would make quite a story. And she doesn't seem like the type of person who would actually conform with the banning, not if she's sneaking in during normal school hours to find a story to begin with."

"We should focus on the task at hand though," Hermione said. "You've only got a few days."

"I know," Harry replied, stifling a yawn. "It can wait until tomorrow though. I'm absolutely knackered. There's no point in learning all of this stuff if I just fall asleep during the task and get eaten."