Chapter 13

Training begins

The next morning was Sunday, and even though Laurel could have slept in, she woke up before the sun was up, and couldn't get back to sleep. She was too anxious about Harry having to compete in the tournament. At 5am Laurel got up and decided it was now or never to start training with Harry. She quickly got dressed in comfortable track suit pants, a loose top and a jumper and did her hair up in a high ponytail. She put her want in her wand holster, grabbed her note book with her list of spells in it, and went to go wake Harry up.

Piper hummed at her softly as she walked past her nest, and Laurel whispered, "Go back to bed Piper", and waited to be sure that the little bird wouldn't follow. Sleepily, Piper closed her bright red eyes and went back to sleep.

It was quiet at this time of the morning Laurel thought as she crept up the stairs and went to the fourth year's boys dormitories.

She quietly opened the door, and tip toed in. Now the only problem was which bed was Harry's? All the curtains were shut, so Laurel couldn't see who was sleeping where. She knew where Ron slept from the other night and thought perhaps Harry would be next to him.

Looking at the trunk that was set at the end of the person's bed, Laurel opened the trunk quietly to see if anything would tell her it was Harry's, and found his potions textbook, with the name on the inside saying belongs to Harry Potter. Now that she was sure that this was in fact Harry's bed, Laurel drew the curtains back.

Harry woke up with the start, confused as to why he was being woken up.

"Laurel", Harry whispered, looking around. "What are you doing in here?"

"Come on get up Harry. And get dressed in something you can exercise in. I'll explain once you're down stairs, oh and bring your wand", Laurel whispered back before hurrying out of the room.

Laurel sat down in the common room while she waited for Harry to come down. The common room was back to its usual clean self. Not a pillow was out of place.

Harry came down soon after, dressed in a black and white Nike jacket, a gray shirt, track suit pants and jogging shoes. His was as messy as ever.

"What are we doing up so early," Harry mumbled as he walked over to her.

"We need to start training Harry. I couldn't sleep-"

"So you woke me up as well", Harry grumbled.

"No, let me finish. You need to start working on your endurance. So every morning, we'll be getting up and jogging around the Quidditch pitch. Then we'll practice you spell casting and dodging abilities and work on that in the morning all before breakfast", Laurel explained in a way to chirper voice for this early in the morning.

"Every morning..." Harry said.

"Yes. Look do you want to die in this tournament Harry", Laurel said seriously as she looked into his bright green eyes.

"No, but-"

"No buts Harry. Missing a couple more hours a sleep every morning is worth it if it helps you not get killed".

"Okay", Harry sighed.

"Good, now let's go", Laurel said, before marching out the door.

As they walked through the castle, it was eerily quiet, the halls echoed with their steps, while their voices carried ground the corridors. The painting yelled at them as they passed, annoyed at being woken up, while they ignored them.

Just as they were walking down the last flight of stairs they saw Professor McGonagall walking their way, with a contemplative look on her face. When she saw them coming her way, she stopped and looked at them in confusion.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Flamel, what are you doing up at this time of the morning?" The stern professor asked them.

"Oh, are we not allowed up at this time? I've never heard anything about not being allowed up this early?"

"Well, there's nothing against it. But it's highly usual Miss Flamel", Professor McGonagall said behind her glasses as she stared at them.

"You see Professor, after last night, and being a champion, we thought it would be a good idea to start training so that I don't make a fool out of myself", Harry said in embarrassment. Professor McGonagall looked at him in surprise.

"I'm sure you'll do fine Potter, but I can arrange for you to use a spare class room whenever you need it", the teacher said, with a softer look in her eyes.

"Thank you professor", Harry said. "Actually I was also wondering. I'm taking divination this year. And I mmm don't see myself being a seer anytime soon, and was wondering if I could drop it. I don't have to sit the exams anyway Professor and I would use the time to for my own personal study", harry said quickly as if he could convince Professor McGonagall if he presented his reasons before she said no.

"Well Potter, that's up to the headmaster, but I think it's a rather good idea, under the circumstances. I'll discuss it with the headmaster and give you an answer by this afternoon as the latest", Professor McGonagall said before letting them go.

"That's a great idea Harry", Laurel mused.

"Well I got it from you. I just figured since I don't have to sit the exams then there's no point in going to the class if I'm dropping it next year".

"Good thinking. You can practice in a spare classroom during that class once Professor McGonagall books it", Laurel said excitedly as this new prospect.

They made their way to the Quidditch pitch uninterrupted after that. Looking at the oval pitch, Laurel had never noticed how big it was. Not wanting to leave Harry to run on his own, it seems unfair in a way, Laurel was going to have to try and run to.

"Ok, we can start off doing just the one lap until we can run the whole thing and then add in another in a week or so hopefully", Laurel said, unsure of if she'd ever be able to run a full lap.

They stretched out for a couple for minutes to warm up, before they set out. It only took a couple of minutes for Laurel to stop, gasping as her lungs burned from the cold and from working so hard. Ahead of her, Harry was still going, Laurel was impressed. She finally recovered enough to walk the rest of the lap, which took what felt like ages. Harry it seemed was able to run almost the full lap, before he had to stop and catch his breath, wiping the sweat off his brow.

Once Laurel caught up with him, they both sat down for a couple of minutes to recover. Laurel was sweaty and she didn't like it, but it somehow felt good in a way. She'd never been that active in years. She was going to be sore tomorrow. Laurel thought for a moment, was there some way to heal your muscles, making recovery time quicker? Laurel didn't know. She wrote a mental note to go to the library later and see, maybe Hermione could help her. She was also considering asking Hermione if she wanted to join them, Ron as well once he got over his issues.

"Ok, time for some duelling Harry", Laurel said as she got out her wand. Laurel, like other students her age, had not had much practice as duelling, so even though she was helping Harry, she'd also be improving her own skills, something that pleased her.

"Err, are you sure. I don't want to hurt you or anything", Harry muttered as he took out his wand.

"Bring it Potter", Laurel teased as she readied herself. "Nothing but stunners, disarming spells and shields alright, I just want to practice and see how we go", Laurel called as she got a distant between them.

Laurel had to admit, Harry was good. He had her wand after a couple of seconds and was teasing her that maybe she was the one that needed practice and not him. Angered, the second round lasted longer, with Laurel putting more effort into each spell. Laurel was quick, but harry had more practice at disarming, he seemed to favour relying on disarming spells and stunning spells, not really using any shields at all. After a while, Laurel realised, maybe he didn't know any shield charms.

Laurel called a stop and asked Harry, "Question. Do you know any shield charms Harry?"

Harry looked embarrassed as he answered, "no".

"Nothing to be embarrassed about. We only start learning them in fifth year I think. I've just read ahead. It's my fault for assuming you new it", Laurel said as she walked over to Harry.

"Ok this is your task for today, mastering the shield charm, Protego," Laurel said. She demonstrated the spell, and showed him the wand movement to perform it before watching him as he tried to cast the spell for the first time. They spend the next half hour seeing if Harry's shield charm was strong enough to withstand Laurel's constant assault of spells. Harry got it after a while; he was a natural at defence against the dark arts, so it was no surprise. Harry even looked like he was enjoying himself; his emerald green eyes were filled with achievement and excitement at having mastered the spell. Though once they headed back to the castle that changed. Harry became tenser with each step, keeping his head down.

There weren't many people up still at this time, so they decided to eat breakfast fast before leaving.

As they sat down at the Gryffindor table, the few students that were up at the table cheered at Harry and waved or came over to congratulate him. Laurel watched as Harry became more and more uncomfortable.

"Sorry Laurel, I need to get out of here," Harry muttered as another person came up.

"Thanks okay, I'll be in the library; I need to look into some things. If you see Hermione, can you tell her where I am? I might need her help", Laurel said.

"What are you looking into", Harry asked, curious.

"You'll see, hopefully. It's just something that might made things a little easier", Laurel replied smarty before going back to her toast.

After Harry hurried back to the tower, Laurel soon left the Great Hall after quickly finishing her breakfast. As she made her way out, she passed Ron, who had apparently gotten up early. Laurel was surprised; usually he didn't get up until the last possible moment. She turned her head as he came past, not wanting to see him as she made her way to the library. Ron made a noise as if to stop her, but she didn't look back. She wouldn't talk to him until he apologised for the way he had been acting.

Laurel spent the better part of the morning in the Library, looking up potion books, anything that referenced nutritional potions, or potions to help with muscle pain and exercise. She found a few useful potions, one to take every day to boost your health and metabolism, another to take after every work out that would help with soreness and muscle pain, and a nutritional potion that would help to maintain a healthy weight. All of these would be useful for Harry to take, and maybe Laurel could take the one for soreness, she was already starting to feel the effects of her exercise, even if it hadn't been much of a work out.

Gathering the textbooks with the marked pages she needed, she headed off to the potions lap where she could brew them.

Hermione found her a couple of hours later, as she finished up two of the potions and was bottling them. They would last about two weeks Laurel counted, as she marked the bottles with dates and labels.

"What are you working on Laurel?" Hermione asked as walked into the class room. Laurel looked up and smiled.

"Hey Hermione. Just some stuff that should help Harry. Did you see him at all", Laurel asked and she arranged her ingredients for the last potion.

"Yes, only just an hour or so, I went looking for you in the library but I couldn't find you so I thought you'd be here. What is all this?"

"Well, I decided that with the tournament, Harry needs as much help as he can get. So I got him up early this morning and we worked on his endurance and duelling skills. Then I got to thinking, there must be potions to help things along", Laurel said. Hermione looked at her sternly.

"Are you helping Harry to cheat," Hermione asked in surprise.

"No," Laurel laughed. "I'm making him a couple of different potions to help him with recovery time from his endurance training and things. This one's a nutritional potion, I thought Harry could use it to help his body get all the nutrition's it needs as well as it helps a body restore itself to a healthy weight. This one helps to heal sore muscles and stuff", Laurel said as she touched the bright orange bottle.

"Oh, that's really actually smart. I didn't even know there were potions for that type of stuff. Do you need any help with the last one", Hermione asked as she looked through the instructions.

"Sure, it shouldn't take more than an hour", Laurel said as she cleaned her caldron out with a spell and got it ready on the fire.

Once they were finished, they bottled up all the potions, spelling them to become unbreakable, and headed off to the tower to store the potions away.

They pasted Ron again as they went up to the girls dorms and Laurel again walked past him.

"So, Ron's still not forgiven is he", Hermione said up in their room.

"No, not until he apologies for what he said and realizes that Harry didn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire. He's so thick that boy", Laurel said crossly.

"I know, but maybe for Ron it's just too much. He's always pushed to the background, with his brothers, and Harry, and he's just jealous", Hermione said sensibly.

"I can understand that but Harry's his best friend and we can see that Harry didn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire," Laurel said slowly. "But he said some things that hurt me to".

"Like what," Hermione asked.

"Nothing, it doesn't matter," Laurel muttered as she put the bottles under her bed.

The rest of the night Laurel spent with Harry in the common room. He hadn't wanted to go down for dinner, so instead, Laurel went down and bought a few things back up for Harry once she was finished. They went through their plans for the week, and decided to try and get up early each morning for an hour of practical training, including running, and then duelling after. Hermione agreed to come down as well and help, as well as practicing an hour or so after classes each day in a spare class room.

Professor McGonagall had come into the common room later that night, since Harry hadn't come down for dinner, to let him know that Dumbledore was fine with Harry dropping divination as long as he used the time wisely.

~O~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~O~

The next day was Monday, and Laurel had thought by then the hostility from the other houses would have died down, they didn't. It seemed the other houses all thought Harry had entered his name into the Goblet of fire. Unlike the Gryffindors, however, they did not seem impressed.

The Hufflepuffs, who were usually on excellent terms with the Gryffindors, had turned remarkably cold toward the whole lot of them. One Herbology lesson was enough to demonstrate this. It was plain that the Hufflepuffs felt that Harry had stolen their champion's glory; a feeling exacerbated, perhaps, by the fact that Hufflepuff House very rarely got any glory, and that Cedric was one of the few who had ever given them any, having beaten Gryffindor once at Quidditch.

Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch Fletchley, with whom Harry normally got on very well, did not talk to him even though they were repotting Bouncing Bulbs at the same tray - though they did laugh rather unpleasantly when one of the Bouncing Bulbs wriggled free from Harry's grip and smacked him hard in the face.

Laurel had glared at them across the table while she worked with Neville. Neville had been one of the kindest towards Harry after becoming a champion. He didn't badger Laurel for information, nor did he expect information. Laurel had gotten better at Herbology because of Neville's help, and was now above average in the class. Though she had to cancel her study sessions with him and Professor Sprout for the time being, she was rather getting good at working with plants. She could see how Neville loved Herbology. It was satisfying watching something grow and blossom from your care.

Ron still hadn't apologised to Laurel, and he was still not talking to Harry. Hermione sat between them, making very forced conversation, but though both answered her normally, they avoided making eye contact with each other. Laurel didn't understand what Hermione was trying to do, forcing them together wasn't going to magically make them friends again.

And while it was easy to ignore the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw houses, ignoring the Slytherins wasn't so easy. They had Care of Magical Creatures next with the Slytherins,

Predictably, Malfoy arrived at Hagrid's cabin with his familiar sneer firmly in place.

"Ah, look, boys, it's the champion," he said to Crabbe and Goyle the moment he got within earshot of Harry. "Got your autograph books? Better get a signature now, because I doubt he's going to be around much longer...Half the Triwizard champions have died...how long d'you reckon you're going to last, Potter? Ten minutes into the first task's my bet."

Crabbe and Goyle guffawed sycophantically, but Malfoy had to stop there, because Hagrid emerged from the back of his cabin balancing a teetering tower of crates, each containing a very large Blast-Ended Skrewt.

And on the torment went. Laurel was worried that Harry would retaliate one day and lose it, but it seemed Harry was ignoring most of it. With their extra training and studying sessions, both Laurel and Harry were tired and barely had time to pay attention to Malfoy, they had more important things to do.

But even though they were tired, the potions had been helping immensely, and the energy potions were helping as well.

Meanwhile, Harry had started to become more focused in classes, and along with Hermione and Laurel, Harry was able to produce a perfect summoning charm, all of them being awarded five points each for their success. That had made Harry's day, he normally didn't get points for charms.

But his mood came crashing down once they got to the dungeons.

When Harry, Laurel, 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. Laurel looked at them to see what they said, and saw that they all bore the same message, in luminous red letters that burnt brightly in the dimly lit underground passage:

SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY-
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.

"Oh very funny," Hermione said sarcastically to Pansy Parkinson and her gang of Slytherin girls, who were laughing harder than anyone, "really witty."

"What a great use of magic Malfoy, I hope your fathers proud that you can do a simple changing charm. First years could have achieved that", Laurel sneered.

Ron was standing against the wall with Dean and Seamus. He wasn't laughing, but he wasn't sticking up for Harry either.

"Want one, Flamel?" said Malfoy, holding out a badge to her. "I've got loads. You should be supporting the real champion".

"Sure Malfoy", Laurel said sweetly as she took a badge from him. "Thanks", she said before taking her wand out and performing a perfect banishing charm on the badge that Professor McGonagall would have been proud of.

"Let me know if you need any help disposing of the rest", Laurel said tauntingly as she went inside. She'd just sat down and put her potions book on her table when she heard a commotion outside and walked back out to see what was happening.

Ron was standing next to Hermione and pulled her hands away from her face. Hermione's front teeth - already larger than average - were now growing at an alarming rate; she was looking more and more like a beaver as her teeth elongated, past her bottom lip, toward her chin - panic-stricken, she felt them and let out a terrified cry.

Laurel ran over to Hermione, trying to comfort her.

"And what is all this noise about?" said a soft, deadly voice.

Snape had arrived. The Slytherins clamored to give their explanations; Snape pointed a long yellow finger at Malfoy and said, "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!"

He forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth - she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar. Pansy Parkinson and the other Slytherin girls were doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Hermione from behind Snape's back.

Snape looked coldly at Hermione, then said, "I see no difference."

Hermione let out a whimper; her eyes filled with tears, she turned on her heel and ran all the way up the corridor and out of sight.

"Hermione," Laurel called after her, but didn't follow her friend.

Laurel turned on Harry and Ron as they started shouting. Once they saw her expression they stopped.

"Don't, leave it to me", Laurel said quietly as she looked at them.

No one, Laurel thought, no one deserved to be treated like that, especially by a teacher. She was fuming inside as she took her seat.

"Antidotes!" said Snape, looking around at them all, his cold black eyes glittering unpleasantly. "You should all have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be selecting someone on whom to test one..."

A knock on the dungeon door interrupted Laurel as got out her antidote instructions.

It was Colin Creevey; he edged into the room, beaming at Harry, and walked up to Snape's desk at the front of the room.

"Yes?" said Snape curtly.

"Please, sir, I'm supposed to take Harry Potter upstairs." Snape stared down his hooked nose at Colin, whose smile faded from his eager face.

"Potter has another hour of Potions to complete," said Snape coldly. "He will come upstairs when this class is finished."

Colin went pink.

"Sir - sir, Mr. Bagman wants him," he said nervously. "All the champions have got to go, I think they want to take photographs..."

"Very well, very well," Snape snapped. "Potter, leave your things here, I want you back down here later to test your antidote."

"Please, sir - he's got to take his things with him," squeaked Cohn. "All the champions..."

"Very well!" said Snape. "Potter - take your bag and get out of my sight!"

Harry swung his bag over his shoulder, nodded at Laurel, got up, and headed for the door.

Laurel worked through her antidote silently next to Ron. She looked around the room, watching everyone as she went. She noticed that Malfoy had added eel skin too early, and knew that if you added dragon liver, it would create a terrible reaction, depending on the other ingredients and what else Malfoy had messed up. Acting as if she needed more ingredients, Laurel walked over to the storage cupboard and found what she needed, along with some other ingredients as a cover.

As she walked past Malfoys caldron, she accidently tripped, spilling her items on the ground, as her hand smoothly dropped the dragon liver in his caldron. It wouldn't react straight away, since dragon liver took a couple of minutes to dissolve in a potion.

The Slytherins laughed as she bent down to pick up her fallen ingredients, while Professor Snape didn't look up from his desk.

Laurel went back to her table, and continued making her antidote silently as she waiting in anticipation. It didn't take long as she heard Malfoy muttering something about his potion acting strange, before long everyone stopped what they were doing to watch as his potion started to bubble and turned a thick black colour.

"What is going on", Professor Snape said as he got up to see what you the commotion was about. He walked over to Malfoy.

"What is the meaning of this. What did to put in your antidote Mr. Malfoy", Professor Snape snapped as he looked at the potion, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Nothing Sir. It just started to bubble and changed colour", Malfoy replied as he tried to stir the potion. Big mistake, the movement against the fragile potion sped up the reaction and suddenly it exploded, covering Professor Snape, Malfoy and most of the Slytherins in a tar like substance. And then it started to fizz against their skin, and welts the size of grapes started to bubble onto their skin. Laurel couldn't have timed it better herself.

Laurel had never seen Professor Snape look so angry.

"Everyone out! Class is over. Anyone that touched the potion to the hospital wing immediately", he called as he tried to wipe the slim off his face and arms, which only resulted in him gasping in pain from the contact. The Slytherins all rushed out as fast as they could to get to the hospital wing, while the Gryffindors walked out casually as they discussed what just happened. Laurel was sure she saw Malfoy crying as he ran out.

Laurel smiled as she walked out, hopefully Malfoy will have lost some house points and serve detention.

"Laurel", Ron called as she walked out, "Did you do that?" he asked quietly down the corridor once everyone was out of sight.

"Maybe," Laurel said finally as she looked at Ron.

"Look Laurel," Ron signed as he his ears turned pink. "I'm sorry for what I said the other day. I didn't mean it, I was just angry-"

"And jealous", Laurel added. Ron glared on her.

"Fine I was jealous, but you can't understand what it's like always being pushed aside. And everyone else has something but me", Ron said insecurely.

"What do you mean?' Laurel asked as she stared at him.

"Well... you know, Harry's famous and great at defence against the dark arts, Hermione and you are the smartest witches in our year. I've got nothing compared to you guys. And now Harry's a champion, and everyone is saying he'll be rubbish, but you know Harry, he always gets through these types of situations looking good. I just wish for once it was me", Ron said as he looked away.

"Ron," Laurel said as she stood next to him. "I accept your apology. But don't be an arse again or you'll regret it. But I don't see how you see yourself that way. Your amazing at strategy, no one can beat you in chest. And maybe you're not the best at one subject, but if you put a little more effort in. Look at Hermione and me. We're always in the library studying, that's why we don't have as much trouble as everyone else. I bet you, if you focused a little more on studying, you'll see a difference".

"You think," Ron asked shyly.

"Sure, I'd also invite you to come with Harry, Hermione and I in the mornings but... if you're still annoyed at Harry then there's no point".

"Fine I'll talk to Harry once he gets back from his photo shoot", Ron muttered.

Laurel beamed at him, "Great, we're all friends again".

"Now tell me, what did you do to Malfoy's caldron," Ron asked excitedly.

"Ohh," Laurel giggled evilly. "You know when I tripped. I threw some dragon liver in his caldron, which takes time to react to a potion, but when it does, it's best to steer clear".

"And here I was worrying about Snape. Image you when you're angry. Perfect little princess my arse", Ron said sarcastically.

"Why thank you", Laurel said sweetly.

"Should we go and visit Hermione and see if she's alright before dinner?" Ron asked.

"Yes, I hope Madame Pomfrey can fix her teeth", Laurel fritted.

"I'm sure she could. These things happen all the time," Ron assured her.

"Oh wait, on second thought, it's probably a bad idea to go other there right now with all the Slytherins", Laurel said.

"Oh yeah. I hope Malfoy got treated last, serves him right," Ron muttered angrily.

With that, they headed off to dinner, back to being friends.

Laurel sat down next to Harry once they got to the great hall, and Ron hesitantly sat down on Harry's other side. Harry turned and looked at Ron, waiting for him to say something. Ron became uncomfortable and for the second time that day his ears turned pink.

"Look Harry. I'm sorry I didn't believe for about putting your name in the tournament. I'm sorry", Ron muttered. It wasn't the best apology in the world, and far less of an explanation that what Ron had told her, but it some progress.

Harry stared at him for a moment before speaking, "Took you long enough".

"Yeah, well Laurel had a go at me and forced me to rethink my ways", Ron said as he grimaced at Laurel and Harry.

"Ugh?" Harry said looking between the two.

"Let's just say she can be scary when she wants to be Harry", Ron whispered to Harry and they both looked at her. "I'll tell you about it later".

In the meantime, life became even worse for Harry within the confines of the castle, for Rita Skeeter had published her piece about the Triwizard Tournament, and it had turned out to be not so much a report on the tournament as a highly colored life story of Harry. Much of the front page had been given over to a picture of Harry; the article (continuing on pages two, six, and seven) had been all about Harry, the names of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions (misspelled) had been squashed into the last line of the article, and Cedric hadn't been mentioned at all.

It had fuelled on the students that already held a grudge against Harry as a reminder of Cedric being pushed aside. Laurel had seen the article and even she had to admit it was a horrible piece of work that had no truth at all. She was worried about how Cedric would take it.

What was even worse was the comments Harry had apparently said, Laurel couldn't see Harry saying any of it. From the moment the article had appeared, Harry had had to endure people -Slytherins, mainly - quoting it at him as he passed and making sneering comments.

"Want a hanky, Potter, in case you start crying in Transfiguration?"

"Since when have you been one of the top students in the school, Potter? Or is this a school you and Longbottom have set up together?"

Harry just kept walking, ignoring the comments. Laurel sighed in relief. Harry seemed to be able to ignore most of it thankfully.

Hermione had come into her fair share of unpleasantness too. Laurel had to give Hermione some credit, sherwas handling it all very well.

"Stunningly pretty? Her?" Pansy Parkinson had shrieked the first time she had come face-to-face with Hermione after Rita's article had appeared. "What was she judging against - a chipmunk?"

"As if she can talk," Laurel huffed. Laurel, who was the only one that had noticed Hermione front teeth, had to admit that without them in the way, Hermione had a beautiful smile. When Laurel had confronted Hermione about it, she'd just grinned and winked at her.

Viktor Krum was in the library an awful lot too, also sitting across from where Laurel and Hermione were sitting. Hermione often complained about Krum being there - not that he ever bothered them - but because groups of giggling girls often turned up to spy on him from behind bookshelves, and Hermione found the noise distracting. Laurel didn't mind too much, as long as they kept their distance.

"He's not even good-looking!" she muttered angrily at Laurel and Harry while they were studying in the library, glaring at Krum's sharp profile. "They only like him because he's famous! They wouldn't look twice at him if he couldn't do that Wonky-Faint thing -"

"Wronski Feint," said Harry, through gritted teeth. Laurel giggled.

Laurel wanted to talk to Cedric, she hadn't seen him in a while, and was worried that maybe he didn't want to be her friend anymore since Harry was her friend, and had taken all the publicity from him. Whenever she saw him, he was always with his Hufflepuff friends; she wanted to catch him alone.

So she was surprised, when one afternoon as she studied in the library, Cedric came up and sat beside her, no fan club in sight.

"Cedric," Laurel said smiling, looking up from her textbook. "How are you?"

"I'm doing well. Getting nervous", Cedric replied as he ran a hand through his blonde hair.

"I'm sure you'll do great. I've been meaning to talk to you. I felt so bad after reading that article about the tournament that said Harry was the only Hogwarts champion", Laurel said sadly.

Cedric waved off her concerns, "its fine. I mean, my dad had a huge rant about it, and wrote to the Daily Prophet about it, but at least I didn't have an article like Harry did about himself crying at night and his love life".

"I guess. I can't believe all those lies. Harry didn't say anything of the sort. That Skiter woman made up her own story just for views", Laurel said angrily.

"You know, Harry told me something on the night he was chosen, that he didn't actually put his name in the Goblet. Do you believe him?" Cedric asked, looking at her carefully.

"I do Cedric. Harry would never have put his name in. The professors even said a student couldn't have confused the Goblet like that. It was dark magic", Laurel said heatedly.

"Ok, sorry. I just wanted to make sure. With everything going on I wanted the truth", Cedric whispered as madam Pince looked at them.

"I'm sorry to. You do deserve the truth. But Harry is so worried about making a fool of himself. And people have died in the tournament before. I don't want that to happen to Harry, or you", Laurel said softly.

"I'm sure we'll be fine. Harry's tough, and I've noticed you guys training in the mornings", Laurel looked at him is surprise. "I've been doing my own training and studying as well", Cedric winked.

"Good, so are you nervous. I know I am and I'm not even competing. It's scary not knowing what you'll be facing", Laurel said tensely.

"I know. I don't know if anything I'm studying is going to be useful or not", Cedric mumbled as he flicked her textbook.

"I wonder if any of the history of the Triwizard tournament would have any clues. It might be worth a look to see what other champions have faced", Laurel suggested.

"You know, that's a good idea. I never thought of that," Cedric said excitedly. For the next couple of hours, Laurel and Cedric went over the history of the Triwizard tournament and the different tasks that each champion had to face. Some of it was quit gruesome. In one task, the champions had to hunt and kill a giant and bring back a foot.

That night, Laurel dreamed about Harry and Cedric battling giants and covered in blood. It was a restless night.

Authors note

Another chapter finished. I'm trying to move through the Goblet of Fire quickly and get onto the fifth book where I'll actually be changing major events.