Chapter 18: Blackmail

Hermione, Ginny and I just stood there, watching Harry and Ron back and forth. I seriously hoped that Ron wouldn't be a dick right now. As he shuffled to the middle where Harry was, he glanced at me, silently sending me a desperate look with his eyes. Huh. The idiot was actually trying to apologize. I crossed my arms and glared at him in response, silently sending him an message to not mess things up. And let me tell you, that was the first gesture I've shown him all day.

"Come on, everyone," I heard Fred announce to the crowd. "This won't be pretty enough without you lot nosing in."

Some of the crowd separated but most stayed exactly where they were. Harry and Ron were now in a tense standoff, simply staring at each other. After a uncomfortable minute later, it was Ron who first spoke up.

"Uh...I reckon anyone must be barking mad to put their name in the cup." Ron was now looking down at his feet, quietly shuffling them.

"Have you now?" Harry answered sarcastically. "Took you long enough."

Another deadly silence hung in the air. Again, Ron was the first to speak. "Well...at least I warned you about the dragons."

Harry eyebrows scrunched into tiny wrinkles on his forehead in confusion. "Hagrid warned me about the dragons."

That's when I realized two things: a) the suspicion that Harry was with Hagrid last night was confirmed and b) Ron had already seen them and that with these two idiots standing before me weren't talking to each other, had used Hermione as an human owl to deliver the news. Jezz, no wonder she was fuming yesterday afternoon.

"No, no, I did," Ron protested. "I told Seamus to tell Dean, to tell Hermione that Hagrid was looking for you last night. Just thought that you know..." he shrugged in a not-so-casual way, the desperation clear the way he was standing, "...we'd be alright. Thought you could figure things out."

"Who - what - w-who could possibly figure that out?" Harry said, now smiling and I was sure as hell that he was going to start laughing in ten seconds but unfortunately it didn't happen. "It's completely mental."

Ron chuckled nervously. He scratched the back of his red hair awkwardly as they both silently made their peace with an handshake and a pat on each other's shoulder.

I sighed in relief. Beside me, Hermione looked like someone had given her headache medicine. But even then, she had an air of frustration around her as she whispered with utter disbelief in her tone, "Boys! They are utter idiots..."

Ginny and I shared a wary look. I raised both of my eyebrows, sending a quick message that said, Yeeeah I kinda agree with her. Ginny rolled her eyes and nodded. Which in her case, I guess she knew what she was talking about. She's lived with six boys her entire life.

Life at Hogwarts did not get any simpler. I figured it's better to say simpler than easier because the easy route is so not an option anymore. Ginny and I continued to put the secret enchantments into the alongside the one already protecting Hogwarts. It used to be so easy. But now it drained nearly all of our strength and unable to function half the time during school. And besides, with the tournament lasting the entire year, the last thing we needed was Princess Morbucks. But it's only a matter of time before the professors find out, and I think Dumbledore knew about the extra spells and curses that we put up but he hadn't said anything that might hint that he knew. But this is Dumbledore we're talking about. I would honestly be shocked if he didn't have a clue about what we were doing. With that said, the professors announced a "Yule Ball," so we can socialize with the other two schools. Meaning: we had to get actual dates for the dance or risk going alone.

Just great. At least I had a dorky Zack as my date.

And that brings us to the all too familiar portal to Fairy Tail. By keeping that portal open, me and Hermione broke legitimately every single rule of messing with time there was, one of the more obvious, which I think was: Don't mess with time? And yet...during History of Magic with Binns teaching us about Fairy Tail at random moments on the clock, nothing had changed in the textbooks. By the way, when I meant teach, I meant that while Binns was writing on the chalkboard, almost all of us went to sleep out of boredom. Even me for that matter, which is why I've been getting majority of my history notes from Hermione since second year.

So what in the world was that titbit of info supposed to mean? Answer: I dunno. As I'm saying this, all I was hoping for was that Hermione and I didn't get our arses kicked into detention by McGonagall because again, the portal was not supposed to exist.

As I'm making my way to the portal one day, which was hidden behind Hagrid's hut and in the bushes, I heard twigs snapping behind me. The minute I stopped running, the sound stopped and I turned around to see if anyone was there.

"Huh," I muttered to myself. "Nobody."

I turned around again and ran towards the hut. However, I heard the crunching of twigs again and froze. This was bad. I was halfway to the hut but if I ran the person behind would surely follow me. Great.

I took out my wand out of my bag and waited. I bid my time. I took two steps and as soon as I heard the crunching sound of twigs, I shouted as quickly as I turned, "Immobulus!"

Breathing heavily, I saw the pale complexion of Draco Malfoy. His eyes were bulging out in panic as I folded my arms across my chest and examined the situation. His body was frozen in the same creeping position that I caught him in.

"Well, well," I said rather neutrally, which surprised even me because part of me wanted to roast him alive over a nice little campfire. "What do you want, Draco? A death wish?"

Draco couldn't open his mouth to speak, so with a flick of my wand, I unfroze his face. Flexing his jaw, he retorted, "To see your little face smashed into a rock."

"Yeah...I don't think that's going to work." I plastered a fake smile on my face and took a step towards him, my face about two inches away from his. "You see, part of me wants to chop you into bits." I formed a water sword into my right hand and pointed it at his throat. "Part of me wants to burn you alive and another part wants to leave you hear like this for eternity."

I felt a tiny pull in my gut as a thin layer of ice formed around him. Malfoy was now grunting, trying to escape to no avail. But I wasn't going to risk the wrath of McGonagall when she finds out that I was going to freeze him, let alone roast him into a tasty marshmellow. So I willed the ice to recede and my sword disappeared.

"What?" Malfoy said smugly, "You too scared to kill me?"

"No, but I will rearrange your face if you want to, you filthy little scumbag."

That shut up Malfoy quick. He glared furiously at me. "So where's that portal of yours? I know you have it hidden inside the forest somewhere."

It felt as though a shard of glass was stabbed into my heart. My voice falttered. "What portal?" I said a little too quickly.

"You honestly thought that you and Granger escaped prying eyes? The two of you together are more suspicious than our previous Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers."

I couldn't find my voice. Holy fucking shit. The little creep had been actually following us. He knew. See, the thing is that it's often rumored that if people saw me and Hermione together, whether if it was sharing notes or even if we were just talking, it would be the end of the world. (Hell, even Erza and Lucy often mentioned it.) Sure, I never really shared a rivalry with her but ever since a troll incident our first year on Halloween involving her, Harry and Knucklehead himself, we never really talked outside of our respective group of friends until this year. I guess I couldn't argue with him in that sense.

"Give it up, Patel," Malfoy sneered. "What are you two hiding? Shoot or I reveal that you and Potter are related."

My insides froze and then melted at the same time. If I puched him, bye bye privacy for me. If I didn't and let him go, there's a chance he'll find out what we were really hiding.

"You wouldn't do that," I said with confidence. My brain was racing to think of something to throw him off track. "Not while I'm around."

"Oh yeah? Watch me."

I did some quick thinking. "Well...if you did, won't that mean that you would get killed?"

Malfoy's face went whiter than it already was. "W-what? You're bluffing."

"Oh no," I said. Putting my hand to my mouth in a dramatic gasp, I made a tsk sound, shaking my head and patting his shoulder. "It looks like no one told you. Assuming that your parents still - oh, I don't know, work for the Dark Lord - don't you think that once the news gets out, he'll realized that your family withheld info from him?"

"N-now I know you're-"

"I know what you're thinking," I whispered venomously, "but think: you really want Voldemort hunting you down once he comes back?"

Even while frozen, Malfoy was visibly shaking. I broke him out of his little prison just as I registered what I said and how that affected Malfoy. It was common knowledge that his parents used to be supporters of Voldemort. But...are they seriously still working for that bastard?!

But I didn't have time to ponder on it. Malfoy sprinted like mad away from me. Once he was about six feet away from me, he screamed, "I'LL GET YOU, YOU LITTLE BITCH! I'M GONNA MAKE YOU PAY!"

At that point, I realized that I didn't care about my little secret getting out. Keeping the portal to Fairy Tail away from sneaky bastards was and will always be my first and foremost priority.

Malfoy didn't get time to run further away. I mean, the idiot ran like a mouse. Fast, but not quick enough from my years of running around during fencing lessons. I caught up to him within fifty seconds and my fist met his face. As if on cue, two hexes flew out from both sides. Malfoy's face was now bubbling with boils that nearly made me want to puke. He then scrambled up to his feet and ran as if his life depended on it. Stealing a glance from my left and right sides, I found Cody and Ron respectively standing with their wands at their sides with their jaws on the ground.

"Bloody hell," Ron said, "no wonder you and Hermione get along so well."

"Hi, Knucklehead," I said as if this was the most normal thing in the world. Shaking my hand in the air, I asked, "What in the world are you and Cody doing here?"

"We found him going off after you," Cody said.

"You know a simple thank you is in order, Twit," said Ron.

In response, I stuck my tongue out at him. Ron rolled his eyes. I started to walked towards Hagrid's hut. The two tried to follow but I put up a Shield Charm behind me and continued walking. Behind the hut, there was the usual hiding place for the portal that was no longer safe. It was sad, really. Hermione and I always gave Hagrid a short visit before we headed off to the guild. He was the only person who knew about it and surprisingly kept shut about it from Harry and Ron. Eh, that might be Hermione's handiwork though. I don't know.

I pointed my wand at the portal and said, "Reducio."

The mirror like portal shrunk to the size of my hand. Picking it up, I went to where Nikki the Night Fury was.

"Hey girl," I said softly. I kneeled down to her height and gave her a scratch behind her ears. My toes eventually giving in, I sat down and let Nikki rest her head on my lap as I had my hand on top of it. "Oh, what the hell am I going to do?"

Nikki purred gently. "I mean," I scoffed, "putting around a barrier for Morbucks is one thing but..."

I sighed as Nikki got up from my lap and gave me a lick, which for some reason lifted my spirits as I laughed.

"Okay, girl, take it easy!" I continued laughing until my uniform was soaking wet. "T-take it easy."

Nikki was now staring at me innocently. That's when I got an idea. I got out my wand again, laid down the puny portal and said, "Engorio."

The portal grew back into its original size. Nikki sniffed the air as though there was yummy fish in the trees.

"Nikki," I said, "Can you guard this portal?"

The Night Fury tilted her head. Then about a minute later, she pounced to the entrance of the portal and growled. I smiled. "Now the only people you're allowed to enter are me, Hermione and Zack, if he finds out that is. Which, he inevitably will," I muttered under my breath. "...and anyone else me or Hermione bring with us. Got it?"

Once I got the dragon's understanding, I gave her a kiss on the top of her head and once I explain some more rules about guarding it (aka letting the guild members through in case of an emergency), I put a forest cloak on top of it so that it blended in with the forest and marched back to the castle.

A/N: Hey guess what?! IT'S TWO UPDATES AT THE SAME TIME DAY!

(Okay, I made that day up. Who cares XD).

Yup! You guys are getting two full written chapters on the same day! So hope you enjoy the next chapter. It's going to be a doozy. Sayonara everyone! :) Vote and/or comment if you liked it!