Chapter 20: FireTalk

Sirius wasn't angry. Not at all…

He was beyond furious!

How could they have let this happen? Butterflies of worry churn inside him and he felt terrified for his godson. He paced the small rock covering that he and Buckbeak were hiding out in on their way back to Hogwarts. While he didn't want to admit it, he had heard many disturbing rumors that foul play had been happening lately. He did his best to ignore them, but he couldn't ignore this.

His godson, Harry Potter, was now forced to compete in the TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT!

This had to be a bad joke, it had to be. This couldn't be a plot to get him killed could it? He read about the disaster at the Quidditch World Cup with the Dark Mark, and he spent the rest of the summer worried sick if Harry and his friends had been caught up in that mess. He also knows that that foul, cowardly Pettigrew escaped just months ago, and he's sickened to know that his former friend was probably with Voldemort right now. It makes him feel nauseated, because he knew that they would try to target Harry, no matter what Sirius did to try to protect him.

It had been a relief when he had received a letter from Harry he got before Halloween. He pulled the crumpled piece of parchment from his pocket and re-read the letter.

Dear Sirius,

I reckon I just imagined my scar hurting,

I was half asleep when I wrote to you last time. There's no point coming back, everything's fine here. Don't worry about me, my head feels completely normal.

Harry

Sirius rolled his eyes. Did he really think he would fall for that? It almost made him want to laugh. Really, Harry you can do better than that. He was writing to a Marauder for crying out loud.

He sent back a letter right away, letting him know that he was just fine and not to worry. He had a feeling that his godson would try and come up with something like that to keep him safe. Though to be honest, he was actually quite hurt that Harry was trying to trick him like that. He had always wanted to be a person that Harry could trust… someone who he would feel comfortable enough to tell him when something was bothering him. While he was touched that he care so much for him, Sirius almost insulted at the same time that he would think that he fall for such a horrible lie.

Of course, that all changed once he got the second letter just after Halloween… one that had changed everything. It felt as if it had been a Howler just begging him to help him. He never felt more scared or worthless before in his life. He sighed as he pulled the second letter out and re-read it for what felt the millionth time in the last few hours.

Dear Sirius,

You told me to keep you posted on what's happening at Hogwarts, so here goes – I don't know if you've heard, but the Triwizard Tournament's happening this year and on Saturday night I got picked as a fourth champion. I don't who put my name in the Goblet of Fire, because I didn't. The other Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory, from Hufflepuff.

Hope you're okay, and Buckbeak –

Harry

Sirius felt the need to bash his head against the wall. Now, what a way to end a letter… 'I'm in a life-threatening tournament, and someone is planning to kill me. Hope you're well.' Jeez, Harry…

When Sirius learnt that his precious godson had been chosen to be champion for the Triwizard Tournament, he had been absolutely petrified—and he still was. He thought that there had been an age line to stop such a thing from happening, so what's going on here?

Sirius felt a torrent of anger on Harry's behalf towards the ones who planned this whole thing. And while he knew that if the Triwizard Tournament had been going on while he had still been in school, he would've tried his best to get his name in despite the age line. But Harry had enough trouble without risking his life again! He was too young for this!

He blinked before he shook his head. He suddenly had a good idea to how Mrs. Potter, James's mother, felt when they had been getting into so much trouble at school.

But he pushed that all away. It wasn't his safety that mattered now. He looked out at the rising moon through the dark clouds. He had a plan in mind. And while he knew that what he was risking could cost him his life—and his freedom… he had to try. Even if he was risking getting sent back to Azkaban, he had to see Harry with his own eyes.

And he wrote back a quick message.

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

That was when he set off after that, looking for a house that he would be able to use. While he travelled, he found an old copy of the Daily Prophet, which talked about the tournament. Sirius hissed as he read the whole thing—while he might not have spent much time with his godson, he knew that these words were things he never would've said.

He did his best to skip over all of it, but after he had done that, there was hardly anything else… except for the interesting bit about the Durmstrang student. He frowned… now he really needed to see Harry before it was too late.

He had found the perfect house—the wizarding family who were going out for the weekend—thus leaving the house empty. He had waited patiently for them to leave—continuing to count the minutes until he would have to meet Harry.

Finally, at about a quarter to one in the morning, he slipped out from his hiding place under the house and crept up the steps as Padfoot. Really, people sure had let their guard down now that Voldemort was gone. Getting the door open and sneaking in wasn't any challenge at all. He sniffed cautiously around the house; good, there really wasn't anyone here.

He walked by the cupboards where he could smell some food within—he fought the cravings as he sniffed around for the fireplace. After about five minutes, he found it, and some Floo Powder on the mantle in a large snuffbox.

He pulled out a few sticks of Muggle matches that he stolen earlier and used a little bit of magic to cause the end to ignite. After that, getting a roaring fire going hadn't been difficult at all. He kept checking the coo-coo clock on the wall until it was exactly time. So taking a deep breath, he threw a handful of the powder into the fire which caused the flames to turn to the emerald green. That was when he took a deep breath and stuck his head in. "Gryffindor common room, Hogwarts!" he cried.

While it had been many years since he used the fire like this, he still wasn't used to it. His knees remained firm upon hard floor, and only his head hurtled through the emerald fire… before it stopped.

And there he was… he was looking out at the familiar common room—and there was his godson, sitting in the chair. His head turned and he jumped when he saw him, but quickly got over it as he got up and ran over to crouch down by the hearth, and said croakily, "Sirius - how're you doing?"

It was so good to see his face again. He gave him a gentle look before he said seriously, "Never mind me, how are you?" He needed to know how he had been doing all this.

"I'm -" Harry began but stopped, as if he wasn't sure how to answer him. And then suddenly he was talking.

"Terrible," he moaned out, "It's just been horrible here, Sirius. You see, anyone who wanted to enter the tournament had to put their name into the Goblet of Fire. But I swear, I didn't put my name in! I don't know how it happened! After it was set up in the hall, I went up to bed and that's it! And after my name came out, no one believed me! They kept asking how I got over Dumbledore's Age Line and tricked the Goblet… and no matter how many times I tell them, they just won't listen to me." He stopped here to take a breath and went on, "And then there was that article that Rita Skeeter wrote! I hardly said anything to her and put in all these lies in it… I can't even think about it without feeling sick. But everyone else believes it. And now things are just going from bad to worst. I can't even walk down a corridor without everyone sneering at me… and the worst part is Ron… he doesn't believe me. Hermione said it's because he's jealous…"

He went on like this for a time, and Sirius just let him talk. He couldn't help but wonder how long it had been since he had talked about any of this. This is good for him to get that all off his chest. Until finally, he ended by saying desperately, "… and now Hagrid's just shown me what's coming in the first task, and it's dragons, Sirius, and I'm a goner."

Once he stopped and was catching his breath, Sirius gave him a sad look. He could tell that he needed to say all that before he exploded. He also had wanted to draw their talk out for as long as possible before he was forced to leave again—after all it had been months since he had seen his godson, and knew that it would be several more months before they were able to meet face-to-face again.

He had gone through enough already, but… "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?" Harry asked, clearly looking like he couldn't believe that anything could be worse than dragons.

"Karkaroff," he said carefully. "Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"

Harry blinked before he stuttered out, "Yes - he - what?"

"He was caught," he told him, and he told him about how Karkaroff had been in Azkaban.

"Karkaroff got released?" Harry asked him. "Why did they release him?"

"He did a deal with the Ministry of Magic," he told him 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."

Well, of course he is. But then again, it doesn't take a good actor to fool the Ministry. But he thought better than to mention that to Harry at the moment. "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.

He gave him a sympathetic look before he went on, "- 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," he said quickly when he saw Harry open his mouth, "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."

Which was true… even after he had been captured and locked away, he never did lose respect for Mad-Eye for butting all those other Death Eaters in prison and away from innocent people. Harry shook his head, "So… what are you saying? Karkaroff's trying to kill me? But - why?"

Sirius hesitated, just wondering what on earth to tell him. truthfully, he thought yes. But then again, Karkaroff seemed too stupid to pull this off on his own.

"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?"

"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?" he asked him.

"Yeah, but… it's not very likely she'd have walked straight into Voldemort, is it?" Harry asked and Sirius had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. He wouldn't say that if he ever met Bertha in person.

"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins," said Sirius grimly, and he told him what he remembered of her from his own school days.

"So… so Voldemort could have found out about the tournament?" Harry asked once he was done. "Is that what you mean? You think Karkaroff might be here on his orders?"

"I don't know," said Sirius slowly, personally, he highly doubted it. After all, he betrayed far too many Death Eaters to just be welcomed back by Voldemort… then again, if Voldemort was desperate enough…? He shook his head. "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 look like an accident."

"Looks like a really good plan from where I'm standing," said Harry grinning bleakly, even though there wasn't anything to smile about. "They'll just have to stand back and let the dragons do their stuff."

"Right - these dragons," said Sirius, speaking very quickly now, knowing that he was pushing his luck by staying here. But he had an idea… it was to use a Conjunctivitus Curse—which would blind the dragon, since their eyes are always their weakest spot. "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," said Harry.

"But you can do it alone," said Sirius, his heart now beating painfully, knowing that he should tell him and leave. "There is away, and a simple spell's all you need. Just -"

But Harry held up a hand to silence him; but for a second, he wondered why he would stop him, at least until he realized that he could hear footsteps down the spiral staircase. Sirius felt his heart sink as Harry hissed, "Go! Go! There's someone coming!"

Harry scrambled to his feet, hiding the fire and Sirius, with a great wrench, pulled his head out of the fire. He stayed just long enough to steal a little food from the cupboards, and bolted out of that house—now now feeling that he let his godson down again.

However, it was only a few days later, just after the date of the First Task, that he got the letter.

Dear Sirius,

About those dragons…

(What do you think? I know I'm skipping over a lot of time, but it's becoming almost a chore to write these days, and I'm stuck studying for finals week. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this short chapter.)