Chapter 21

The Unexpected Task

"Young love may not always last, but that does not make it any less valuable. To find companionship and affection in a friend, for however long a time, is not often a decision one comes to regret."

General (ret.) Jigme Dorji Wengshuk

Harriet was in such a hurry to open the lid to her jewellery box that it took her three tries. It was four in the morning now. The party had lasted until three before Professor McGonagall finally arrived to send them all to bed.

"Sirius?!" she asked, unable to keep her voice down as the lid fully opened.

"Ahh, there you are," came the sleepy voice of her godfather and his shaggy head came into view in the mirror. "So, dragon dealt with I see?"

"Yes!" Harriet replied excitedly. "Guess what?!"

"What? What?!" Sirius asked, his grin growing as though he guessed.

"I'm in first place! By one point!"

"That's my girl!" Sirius cheered. "How'd you do it? Did you use the Conjunctivitis Hex like I said? How about your broomstick? Summoning Charm worked alright, did it?"

"Yes!" Harriet gasped. "Both worked perfectly. I didn't even get a scratch! Well, I very nearly did, almost got skewered on the Longhorn's horns, oh that's the dragon I faced, the Romanian Longhorn, see?"

Harriet reached across the table, scooping up her little model of the Longhorn which had been sleeping. It flapped its wings irritably before curling up once again in her hands as she held it up for Sirius to see.

Harriet then went into the blow by blow of her performance. Sirius made for a very good audience. He listened intently, grinning the entire time.

"Krum apparently did almost the same as me. He hit his with the Conjunctivitis Hex too but it made the dragon panic and it trampled some of its own eggs. Apparently the handlers were really not happy about that."

"I can imagine."

"Yeah, he wasn't alone though. Aello apparently transfigured some of the rocks into like a line of soldiers Ronnie said. Hermione said it's called a phalanx. Anyway, they kept marching at her dragon and it couldn't scare them away but one of the soldier rock things apparently stepped on an egg so she lost points for that too. Cedric tried to distract his by turning a rock into a Labrador but the dragon was too smart and turned back on Cedric when it saw him near its nest. Emma was so upset about that, she carried on and on about it tonight."

Sirius chuckled shaking his head.

Fleur did pretty well I guess. She was just the victim of bad luck, cuz she put her dragon to sleep, but when she got near it snored and caught her jumpsuit on fire. She managed to put it out though and still got her egg."

Sirius seemed most impressed with how Kazunari had dealt with his dragon.

"You're going to want to keep an eye on that one," Sirius warned. "Sounds like he's good at tricking people into underestimating him. You say he put on that ruse from the moment he arrived? Days before he was even selected?"

"Yeah," Harriet confirmed.

"Yes, he's definitely not one to underestimate. If he was putting on the bumbling slap-stick ruse before anyone had even been picked, you can assume he's not just clever, but he's confident. He knows full-well how good he is, so he knew there was a damn good chance that his name was going to be the one to come out of the Goblet."

"Yeah, that's kinda what Professor Moody said," Harriet agreed. "I have to keep an eye on him.

Sirius chuckled. "Well, I wouldn't go as far as Mad-Eye probably did," he cautioned. "Look at your friend, Dora. Being clever and ambitious doesn't make one necessarily dangerous. But he will be a threat."

"Good point," Harriet agreed. "I only beat him by one point for first place. He would have beaten me if Bagman hadn't marked him low."

"Bagman?" Sirius asked. "Ludo Bagman?"

"Yeah, he's sort of overseeing the tournament. He offered to give me advice just before the task started."

"Hmmmm," Sirius muttered to himself, his brow furrowed deep in thought. "I don't know that I like that…"

"What do you mean?"

"Bagman… you say he marked Kazunari low? Artificially low, would you say?"

"Yeah, even I didn't really think it was fair."

"And what did he give you?"

"A perfect ten."

"Hmmmm," Sirius muttered more. "That is suspicious…"

"Well, I mean everyone else gave me a nine or a—"

"No, no no," Sirius said quickly. "Not that. But we know someone else put your name in the Goblet, correct?"

"Yeah?"

"And Bagman offered to give you help, whilst simultaneously he seemed to mark the only other champion to come close to your score low?"

"Are you saying Bagman put my name in the Goblet?"

"No, but it is damned suspicious. Damned suspicious indeed. I don't want you worrying about that just yet," Sirius said quickly. "I'll write to Daniel and Remus about it myself to pick their brains. All you have to focus on is the next task ahead of you."

"Well that won't be until February," Harriet said. "So I have time there."

"What's the clue, by the way?"

Harriet grunted as she leaned down and hoisted up the golden egg onto the table, setting it down with a hefty 'thunk."

Sirius whistled. "Any ideas as to what it means?"

"No idea," Harriet admitted. "I opened it and it just gave off a horrible screeching noise."

"Hmmm, so not a good idea to open it right now then, either," Sirius mused.

"Yeah, we'd wake half the castle for sure."

"Well, you have some good friends in your corner," Sirius said. "Speaking of which, I don't think I've had the chance to ask, but how's Erica doing?"

"Pretty well," Harriet said, smiling, "She and George are dating. He spent most of the afternoon gawping at her in the cheerleader costume she was wearing."

"You don't say?" Sirius chuckled.

"Yeah, they ended up being a pretty big hit. Even Rita Skeeter stopped to interview some of them."

"Did she now?" Sirius asked, sounding like he had after Harriet told him about Bagman.

"Yeah, Rachel said she just asked how long we'd all been friends."

"Yes, but you know as well as anyone that five words to Rita Skeeter quickly becomes five-hundred," Sirius cautioned.

He gave Harriet a very hard look now.

"I know that Howe has managed to coax Skeeter into reporting positively on my case, but don't trust her for a second, Harriet. I'm sure the only reason she's taken the stance she has on my case is because it's sensational, which means there's a horde of galleons to be made on it.

"Writing about how horrible I am won't get her anywhere; that's all anyone's thought I am for thirteen years. However, telling everyone that I'm innocent and the Ministry is at fault, that is going to make her some money for sure. That and… terrible though it was, her nearly being blown up by Kinney has made her even more eager to paint the Ministry in a bad light than usual. It's useful for now, but don't count on it always being there, and don't count on her extending that courtesy to anything outside of my case. The article she wrote about you just after your name came out of the Goblet is child's play compared to what she really could do."

Harriet nodded slowly, digesting what Sirius was telling her.

"So, it would be a good idea if you warn your friends to treat her with just as much caution."

"Yeah…" Harriet agreed, suddenly remembering. "Oh no…"

"What?"

"In the article after Kinney blew up the Daily Prophet," Harriet said. "Skeeter attacked the Americans because they were the reason Kinney came here. You think she might be trying to do the same thing?"

"More than likely," Sirius said, darkly. "She didn't try and talk to you at all, did she?"

"She tried," Harriet admitted, "but Daniel got in the way."

"Ah, of course he did," Sirius said chuckling once more. His lips tightened for a moment but then turned back into a smile. "Anyway, I just want you to know that I'm damn proud of you, Harriet. Now, sleep well, you've earned it."

"Thanks, Sirius," Harriet beamed.

Sirius' face vanished from the mirror and Harriet closed the lid. She put her little model Longhorn on her shoulder and headed off to bed.

Heh, Hagrid's right about you lot, isn't he? Harriet thought to herself as the little dragon gave a snore of tiny flames. You're not half bad, dragons.

Two days later, Harriet smiled as she sat down to the reply letter from Finn.

First off, sorry for the delay in getting back. It looks like your owl hit a rough spot of weather over the sea and got here a bit worse for wear. So we're letting her recuperate before flying on back. Hogwarts's gotta start using seabirds like we do here at Rathlin, way better for international correspondence.

Now to the task. Sounds like it was bloody brilliant! And you're first place! No one's gonna underestimate you now, dove. Knew there was something special about you.

Harriet blushed.

Though now I know you can outfox a dragon, my chances of pulling off anything dastardly villainous around you seems diminished. You don't even have to snoop anymore, just fly in on your broomstick, bash the door down and I'd be in serious trouble. I'll have to be my sneakiest yet.

You say that the egg just screams whenever you open it? That's a puzzler, but then again, the feck do I know about magic, eh? Well, I could ask my brother, Colm. But I suppose you've already asked your man Scott and your friend Hermione, eh? Well if you still want me to ask, just let me know.

Blimey, I feel bad that this letter's so short, compared to the one you sent. But I suppose you told me everything in the letter so I keep thinking of things to ask and every time I do I reread the letter and find myself going 'oh no, you answered that already.' I just really wish I could have been there.

Anyway, let me know if you want Colm's help with the egg or not, and hey keep me posted on life.

Harriet's blush did not diminish as she put the letter back in her bag. She'd sat down in one of the little alcoves with a suit of armour in it. She didn't want anyone else teasing her about the letter. She headed off to catch up with her friends, thinking about everything that had happened in the time since the first task.

If Harriet hadn't known any better over the past few days, she would have thought things at Hogwarts had gone totally back to normal. No one jeered at her in the hallways anymore; except for the Slytherins. However, as the majority of them always threw insults at Harriet and her friends regardless, so that was business as usual as well.

Yet, Harriet couldn't help but notice that things were definitely not entirely back to normal. The first change that Harriet noticed was that Kazunari had taken to sitting at the Hufflepuff table. At first Harriet thought that he was angry with her over her beating him in the tournament. However, Harriet had to throw that hypothesis out the window as Kazunari kept greeting her cheerfully in the corridors, and she noticed that he most often sat with the American Hufflepuff students who were all solidly supporting Harriet as far as she could tell.

The first change after the task was perhaps the most obvious, but the least consequential as far as Harriet could tell. For the first week after the tournament, it was impossible to go anywhere in the school without there being a raucous tweet and someone bursting into a giant canary. Fred and George were moving ahead with their Weasley's Wizard Wheezes plans, and had unleashed the terror of Canary Cremes upon the school. Eventually, the only food anyone trusted to eat now came exclusively from the kitchens.

The next change, and a far more important one to Harriet, was that boys seemed much friendlier to Harriet than usual. Some would hold doors for her even when Harriet was a half a corridor away. Boys she had never spoken to before in her life would say hello to her in passing. Boys would compliment her on her hair, even on days she put no more effort into it than putting it up in a ponytail. They would compliment her on how she looked, even when she was just wearing the same Hogwarts uniform she always wore.

The most conspicuous of the boys behaving in this way was Fred. Indeed, it felt as though almost everywhere Harriet went over the next couple of weeks, Fred was there. It was finally something that Harriet couldn't ignore.

"Of course he fancies you, Harriet," Hermione explained irritably as they studied together in the library. Hermione's annoyance wasn't at Harriet's question, fortunately; Viktor Krum was back, as was his usual flock of giggling fangirls.

"He's always fancied you, ever since he met you," Hermione went on, huffily.

"But, how do you know?" Harriet asked. She liked Fred plenty, but she didn't know why she couldn't bridge that gap in her mind.

Hermione sighed, giving Harriet a gentler look.

"Well, it was always obvious to me. But perhaps that was because I was always looking on the situation from the outside."

"But he's… Fred!" Harriet replied, trying to keep the exasperation down in her voice. "He's always been there like a… a…"

"Brother?" Hermione finished for her.

Harriet grimaced. That was how she'd assessed her feelings for Kieran too.

Hermione sighed again and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms and thinking.

"I don't know, Harriet, I'm… not going to pretend like I know everything about relationships. Maybe this is something you should ask Daniel about? Or Erica or Angelina? They have a bit more practical experience in this area," Hermione suggested.

"Yeah… that's a good idea," Harriet said. "Angelina always said if I need help in this area to ask her…"

"Well, there you are then," Hermione said with satisfaction. "Now let's get out of here before the rest of them show up."

They gathered up their books and headed out of the library. They returned to the Gryffindor common room and Harriet felt a sense of relief as she saw Angelina sitting with Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, and Erica.

"Angelina?" Harriet asked stepping up to the little group. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Angelina smiled. "What about?"

"Um, something in private," Harriet asked.

"Oh, alright," Angelina replied. She looked confused but smiled all the same as she rose and followed Harriet to a deserted corner.

"Something wrong?" Angelina asked. "More Slytherins giving you shit?"

"No, no," Harriet said. "Well yes, but that's normal. Anyway, remember how you once told me to ask you if I had any boy troubles?"

Angelina laughed. "Oh yeah, wow that was a while ago, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Harriet replied awkwardly.

"Lemme guess, boy problems?" Angelina said shrewdly.

"Uh, yeah," Harriet admitted.

"About that friend of yours, Kieran?" Angelina went on giving Harriet a teasing wink.

"Well, no actually, not exactly."

"Oh? Then who?" Angelina asked.

"It's um… it's Fred," Harriet finally admitted.

"Oh…" Angelina said, looking a little taken aback. "So, he um… he's started to get through to you, then?"

"I don't know!" Harriet said, starting to feel a sense of urgency. "That's just it! I don't know how to feel about him! He's always been really nice to me, and… I think I've known he likes me just… I don't know how to deal with stuff like that."

Angelina didn't respond right away. She wasn't looking at Harriet either. Instead, she was staring into the corner, with a distinctly frustrated look on her face.

"Well, look at it this way, Harriet," Angelina said. "You've known both Kieran and Fred for the same amount of time just about, right?"

"Yeah?"

"And well, you have three and a half more years or so to be here. So does Kieran. But Fred only has a year and a half."

"That's… that's true…" Harriet agreed.

"Exactly. So, I wouldn't worry about Fred too much. If I were to nudge you in a direction, I'd say you have someone pretty great in that Kieran. I don't think I've ever seen quite as level-headed a Gryffindor in my life. He's calm, cool, he obviously thinks the world of you—"

"But, I just don't know if I like him like that!" Harriet interjected, her sense of urgency rising. "Yeah he's been all those things but I've never thought of him as anything other than a best-friend or like a brother, or… I don't know."

Harriet sighed and plopped back into her seat.

"Well, okay," Angelina said. "The best advice I think I can give is, you've still got a lot of years left at Hogwarts, Harriet. You have plenty of time to worry about really getting a boy. And even then, I wouldn't worry about it much."

"Why not?"

Angelina laughed. "Because Harriet, almost no one ends up spending forever with the first person they date. I know my parents didn't. Your parents probably didn't, either. But that's not a bad thing!" Angelina said quickly seeing the look on Harriet's face. "It's just like, a thing. I mean, look at Professor Sinistra. She's freaking awesome, but clearly things didn't work out in her favour there…"

"No…" Harriet agreed, wondering how much Angelina really knew about Professor Sinistra's story.

"So, don't sweat it too much, okay?" Angelina said. "And don't get too wrapped up in looking for greener pastures when you've already got something pretty great right at your feet, yeah?"

"Yeah… that is a good point…" Harriet agreed again.

"Besides, you have waayyyy bigger things to worry about than that right now," Angelina went on.

"Yeah, that stupid egg," Harriet grumbled. She had been trying daily to work out what the egg meant, but so far all she'd managed to get were headaches from its screeching. Even Hermione and Scott were getting stumped.

"The egg?" Angelina said, confused. "Well yeah there's that, but that's not what I was talking about."

"What?"

"The Yule Ball," Angelina said seriously. "They haven't announced it yet, but we all know it's coming."

"Yule Ball?" Harriet asked.

"Yeah!" Angelina said excitedly. "No one's announced it yet, but the Yule Ball was one of the Tri-Wizard Tournament traditions. Every Christmas they would hold a massive ball for students. They're so going to do it again. If they're going to hold a Hallowe'en party for us then of course they're going to hold the Yule Ball again!"

Harriet felt her eyebrows rise high at the look of excitement on Angelina's face.

"You're excited about a ball?" Harriet asked. "You?"

"Hey," Angelina said shortly pointing a finger in Harriet's face only an inch from her nose. "I can be a badass and a girl and no one's going to tell me otherwise."

Harriet blushed brightly, crossing her eyes to keep the tip of Angelina's finger in view. "Sorry, sorry, I was just teasing!"

"I know," Angelina said, her scowl vanishing, quickly replaced by her usual smile. "Just making my point."

"Fair enough…" Harriet replied, rolling her eyes.

"So, I guess that's the other thing," Angelina said. "I wouldn't worry about any specific boy at the moment, because as soon as that announcement is made for real, your problem isn't going to be 'a boy,' it's going to be boys."

"Boys?" Harriet repeated.

"Yep. Mark my words, Harriet. You're going to have a serious 'boys' problem in the near future."

"But, why?"

Angelina rolled her eyes. "Harriet, you're Harriet Potter, every boy in the school is going to want to have you on his arm at the Ball. Every boy in the school is going to try and ask you to the Ball. And they will, because it's sort of expected that boys ask girls to balls and dances.

"Not that they have to. You can ask a boy if you want, and if you want to avoid being constantly bombarded by boys asking you, you're going to want to act on that quick-like."

Harriet grimaced. This year wasn't going to get any easier anytime soon after all, was it?

Harriet's prediction came true almost immediately. First of all, Sirius' worries about Skeeter's chat with the refugees had also come true.

Harriet Potter Playing for the Wrong Team?

As all but those who have been living under a rock in the middle of the Sahara Desert undoubtedly know by now, this year is the reopening of the infamous Tri-Wizard Tournament. Already, the Tournament was rocked with scandal when an underage student, none other than Harriet Potter, managed to get her name into the famed Goblet of Fire and was chosen as Hogwarts' champion.

Now, many have speculated as to how a girl of only fourteen was able to do so. Well, now I, Rita Skeeter, just might have found the source of this mystery. While reporting on the first task, I was unable to avoid notice of a large banner being held up by several students which declared: "GO HARRIET! OUR CHAMPION!"

Thinking these were nothing more than simple Hogwarts students, I made my way over to them to gather their thoughts after the first task was over. I was surprised therefore to discover that these students were not in fact normal Hogwarts students. Instead, these students were more of the refugee Americans whom our government foolishly took in during the aftermath of the outbreak of the current American Wizarding Civil War. The same refugees who have brought the terror of Solomon Kinney to our shores, who just over a year ago destroyed the Daily Prophet central offices in Diagon Alley, and caused international political outrage when he took part in a riot at the Quidditch World Cup where he assassinated Igor Karkaroff, esteemed headmaster of Durmstrang Institute of Magic, which nearly caused the school to pull its participation in the aforementioned Tri-Wizard Tournament.

Now, what could these students have meant by calling Harriet Potter 'their champion?' While it is possible that these students have integrated themselves well enough into the school to consider themselves a part of the normal student body. However, this reporter also noted a much wider majority of the students wearing badges proclaiming: Support CEDRIC DIGGORY – the REAL Hogwarts Champion!

So, it seems as though Miss Potter is not truly supported as the champion at the school after all. And if she's not the school's champion, then whose is she? During my questioning of the students after the task, I came to discover that Miss Potter has gotten quite cosy with many of the refugee students following their arrival, particularly after clearing their name from the disastrous Chamber of Secrets incident two years ago. Could it be that Miss Potter is not in fact competing for her true home nation and school, but instead is now playing for the other team, competing in the name of these parasites who take advantage of our hospitality and protection while perfectly innocent men, women and children die in their stead. No longer satisfied with that, are they now trying to claim Magical Britain's chance at glory in the first Tri-Wizard Tournament in over a century?

Harriet couldn't read any more of the article past that. She was too disgusted. Fortunately, it seemed that the situation Skeeter had just thrown out dismissively, that the Americans had become part of the school, was true after all. However, while the other students didn't seem to pay much heed to the article, that didn't seem to have stopped the wider wizarding population of Britain at large. Hardly a day went by after the article came out without at least one howler being sent to the refugees at large, exploding in horrible diatribes and insults.

"Jeez, I see what they mean, Tyler," Harriet overheard fifth year Gryffindor boy, Cormac McLaggen taunting Kenley Tyler as she passed the pair in the corridor. "You and your friends are just nothing but trouble, aren't you?"

Harriet paused, her temper flaring immediately. She started over towards them but felt a hand on her arm. She looked back to see Hermione had stopped her. She had a rather wry smile and shook her head at Harriet before returning her attention to the scene.

Now that Harriet noticed, Kenley didn't look the least bit upset at Cormac's words. In fact, she was leaning back against a wall, and unless Harriet was much mistaken, there was a definite hint of a grin playing at the corners of Kenley's mouth. Harriet blinked. Were Kenley and Cormac flirting?

"Right, because you and Chris are innocent little lambs, aren't you?" Kenley retorted, her lips twitching more."

"You know, I thought the whole 'cheerleader' thing was a bit of a joke when it went up on the notices but I don't know, after that first task I might be changing my mind," McLaggen said, leaning a hand against the wall too looking down at Kenley almost hungrily. "Though I gotta say you'd probably look better in red."

"Oh-ho," Kenley laughed. "Watch it, tig—"

"Kenley."

Kenley jumped and turned. Harriet followed her gaze to see Draco walking up to the two. His expression was even harder to read than usual.

"Yeah, Draco?" Kenley asked.

"I, uh…" Draco fumbled for words. "I need to talk to you. Now."

Kenley raised her eyebrows. "About what?"

"Just, something important," Draco said.

"Well, that's nice, but the lady and I were talking," Cormac said, a tone of impatience in his voice.

In spite of the fact that Cormac was about a head taller than Draco was, Harriet was surprised to see Draco didn't back down. But he didn't look at Cormac either.

Kenley however didn't look all that impressed by Cormac's words either.

"Hey, Draco's my friend too and if he needs help, I'll help him. You want to talk, you know where to find me," she said, slipping out rather nimbly from Cormac's arm and heading off with Draco.

As they departed, Harriet noticed Draco turn and give Cormac a look of pure venom. Cormac meanwhile was looking dumbstruck as he watched the pair head off.

Harriet turned to look back at Hermione. Hermione looked just as bemused as Harriet felt.

"Well come on, we'll be late for Charms," Hermione said.

Harriet could only nod in agreement as the two headed off together.

Harriet's problems with Rita Skeeter did not end with the article about the Americans and the tournament, either. Her next run-in with Skeeter came at the next Care of Magical Creatures class. With the onset of winter, Hagrid had decided it would be a good idea to see if the Blast-Ended Skrewts hibernated. As it turns out (and as most the class had predicted) this was, in fact, a bad idea.

Within minutes, the entire grounds were a mess. Hagrid had provided ten pillow-lined boxes for the remaining Skrewts, all of which had been reduced to kindling and singed feathers that now scattered the ground outside Hagrid's cabin; into which the majority of the class had now retreated.

"Don't frighten 'em now!" Hagrid cautioned as Harriet and her friends began herding the last of the Skrewts towards its cage, using jets of sparks and flames.

"Just try and slip a rope 'round his sting, so he won't hurt the others!" Hagrid advised as the Skrewt neared the others.

"Oh yeah, that'd be right ruddy awful, wouldn't it!" Ronnie shouted as she dodged a jab from the Skrewt's sting.

This time, Hagrid might have picked up on Ronnie's sarcasm, as he didn't try to give any more 'helpful tips' as they managed to back the Skrewt up to its crate.

"Well, doesn't this look delightful."

The sound of the voice sent a chill up Harriet's spine. It wasn't just that she recognized it at once as being Rita Skeeter. It was the sneer that she could hear in the voice without even looking, and the obvious hunger it contained, like a big cat preparing to pounce.

Rita Skeeter was leaning on the fence, watching with obvious amusement as Hagrid pounced and landed hard on the last Skrewt, causing it to blast out a jet of flame that withered one of his nearby pumpkin plants. She had her usual crocodile-skin handbag with her, and was wearing a magenta cloak with a thick furry collar.

"Who're you?" Hagrid asked, distracted as he tied down the Skrewt's sting.

"Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter," Skeeter replied, beaming.

"Rita Skeeter?" Hagrid repeated, rising up off the Skrewt and forcing it into its cage. "Thought Perfesser Dumbledore said you weren't allowed inside the school no more?"

Harriet and the others exchanged glances. So at least Professor Dumbledore was on to Rita Skeeter's malice. Skeeter however acted as though she had not heard what Hagrid said.

"What are these fascinating creatures?" she asked, looking over the Skrewts.

"Blast-Ended Skrewts," Hagrid explained.

"Really?" Rita said, so convincingly even Harriet thought there was a chance her interest was genuine. "I've never heard of them before. Where do they come from?"

What little of Hagrid's face that was visible through his tangled mass of beard and hair went very red. Harriet felt her heart sink, and judging by the looks on the rest of her friends' faces, they were all wondering the same thing. Where had Hagrid got the Skrewts from?

"Well, they are very interesting, aren't they?" Jackson said, nudging Seamus in the ribs.

"Oh yeah, they're a right treasure they are," Seamus said sarcastically.

Dean scowled at Seamus before swatting him upside the back of his head when Skeeter looked away.

The moment Harriet dreaded the most happened next. Rita Skeeter's eyes finally found her.

"Oh Harriet!" Rita Skeeter said. "Lovely to see you again. So, how do you enjoy Care of Magical Creatures? One of your favourite lessons?"

"Yes," Harriet said, sniffing impatiently.

Hagrid beamed.

"Lovely," Rita Skeeter replied, "Really lovely. Have you been teaching here long?" she asked Hagrid.

Harriet glowered as she saw Skeeter look over Lavender Brown's singed robes, Damien Mallory of Slytherin nursing a burn on his friend Thomas Wright's arm, Dean who was pressing a wad of cloth to a deep cut on his cheek, and the window of Hagrid's cabin, where the bulk of the class (mostly Slytherins) were peering out to see if the coast was clear yet.

"Uh, year and a half now," Hagrid replied.

"Lovely… I don't suppose you'd like to give an interview, would you? Share some of your experience with magical creatures with the wider wizarding world? The Prophet does a zoological column every Wednesday, as I'm sure you know. We could feature these—er—Bang-Ended Scoots."

"Blast-Ended Skrewts," Hagrid corrected, enthusiastically.

"Well, close enough," Ronnie muttered.

"Er—yeah, why not?"

Harriet knew there could be nothing good about this. Trouble was, there was no way to convey to Hagrid the danger he was facing without Rita Skeeter noticing. Harriet simply had to stand by and glare as Rita Skeeter and Hagrid set up an appointment to meet at the Three Broomsticks later that week. Harriet wanted to warn Hagrid when the bell rang, signalling the end of classes. As Harriet and Ronnie's next class was Divination all the way in North Tower, she didn't have time to linger.

"She's going to twist everything he says!" Harriet declared angrily as they as she stomped off towards the castle.

"Well, just as long as he didn't import the Skrewts illegally or something…" Hermione said without much conviction.

"Or breed them illegally…" Marcus added, darkly.

Everyone exchanged worried looks. Both of those were exactly the kinds of things Hagrid would do.

"Well, Hagrid's been in trouble loads of times before," Ronnie said, sounding more cheerful. "And Dumbledore's never sacked him. I mean what's the worst that'd happen, really? Probably just a bit of a slap on the wrist from the Ministry and he'll have to get rid of the Skrewts."

"Actually, I think that's a candidate for the best thing to happen," Dora chimed in.

"Van Der Lakk, Lee, will you pay attention!"

It was the end of Transfiguration, and Professor McGonagall was glaring dangerously at Marcus and Jackson Lee, who were having a sword fight at the back of the class with a pair of Fred and George's fake wands. Marcus' had now turned into a stuffed squirrel, and Jackson's into a feather-duster.

Harriet wasn't sure what the fuss was about, class was over after all. They'd already put the guinea-fowl they'd been turning into guinea-pigs. The bell was due to ring at any moment.

"Now that Van Der Lakk and Lee are acting their age, I have a very important announcement to make," Professor McGonagall said. As she looked away, Jackson surreptitiously waggled his feather-duster in Rachel's ear, causing her to jump and glare at him.

Harriet meanwhile had felt her sense of attention become riveted to Professor McGonagall. This is it, she thought, just like Angelina said, she's going to announce the Yule Ball.

"One of the great traditions of the Tri-Wizard Tournament is coming up: the Yule Ball."

Bingo, Harriet thought.

"It is an essential part of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and is another chance for students from the various schools to mix and mingle. The Ball is open to those fourth year and above, however, younger students may attend if invited by a student of proper age."

Lavender Brown giggled shrilly. Parvati elbowed Lavender hard in the ribs, though by the look on her face, she was trying very hard not to giggle out loud herself. They both turned and gave Kieran very significant looks and he went very red indeed. Harriet sniffed, suddenly feeling a bit irritable.

"Boys are to wear proper dress robes, while ladies shall wear dresses. The Ball will be held in the Great Hall, starting at eight, and finishing at midnight."

Harriet felt her attention drifting. Now that the Ball was being announced officially, would Angelina's other premonition come true? Would Harriet be hounded by boys wherever she went? They were already being much nicer to her than normal. And if they were, did that have anything to do with her? Or was it just because she was famous, or a school champion?

Harriet was brought back to her senses by the bell ringing. At once the class broke into conversation as every began gossiping about the Ball. Harriet began putting away her books when Professor McGonagall's voice called her name.

"Potter, a word with you, if you please."

Harriet finished putting away her books and made her way to Professor McGonagall's desk. Professor McGonagall waited until the rest of the class had left before speaking.

"Potter, by tradition, the champions and their partners are expected to open the Yule Ball."

Harriet felt her stomach knot up.

"O-open the Ball?" she asked.

"Yes, Potter. You and the other champions and their dance partners traditionally have the first dance of the Ball. So be sure that you get a partner, Potter. Not that I have much worry in that regard, but this is tradition, and as always, the honour of the school is at stake."

"Yes, Professor…" Harriet said, miserably.

Unfortunately, both Angelina and Professor McGonagall's predictions about boys asking her to the ball proved true within hours. They were on their way to History of Magic when a sixth year Ravenclaw boy who towered over Harriet, and she'd never spoken to before, asked her to the Ball. Harriet was so taken aback she said "no" without thinking, and then felt a bit guilty as she saw the boy return to his group of friends, all of whom were teasing him mercilessly as they made their way down the hall in the opposite direction.

The next person to ask Harriet to the Ball was Dennis Creevey. He looked put out, but somehow Harriet didn't feel quite so bad about saying no, there.

"He's a first year!" Harriet said as Ronnie and Marcus both doubled up with laughter.

"Well, Angelina's right, Harriet," Hermione said, giving the two her usual disapproving look. "You are going to be bombarded with people asking you unless you either say yes to one as fast as you can, or you ask one yourself."

"Assuming whoever that is says yes," Harriet retorted, resting her forehead on the table top, starting to feel despair.

"Well, is there anyone you'd like to go with?" Hermione asked.

"I… I don't know," Harriet said. "I haven't really thought about it… I've kinda had a lot of other stuff on my mind, and the Ball was only made official today!"

"That's fair," Marcus agreed.

Harriet sighed. "Why does everything in life have to be so complicated?"

"Well, it's not if you don't want it to be," said Fred as he pulled up a seat next to them, spinning it around and sitting in it backwards, propping his elbows on the back.

"Yeah, why worry about what you don't have to?" George chimed in, hopping up to sit on the table itself between Kieran and Marcus.

"Well right now I'm right in the middle of a tournament that hasn't been held in like two hundred years because despite being under-age, someone put my name in to be chosen and now I've got to compete or I'll go insane. So sorry if I'm just a wee bit tetchy," Harriet grumbled.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Fred laughed, holding up his hands. "Not saying life doesn't happen, just saying don't take it so seriously. I can give you pointers there on the way."

"The way where?" Harriet asked.

"The Owlery," Fred said.

"Why am I going to the Owlery?"

"Because you're so very nice and are going to let me borrow Hedwig to send a letter," Fred said, grinning.

"Well you could use Widgy if—oof."

Ronnie had started to offer Pigwidgeon, but Hermione elbowed her hard in the ribs.

"Well, yeah you can use her," Harriet said.

"Well think it'd really be better if you came with," Fred said, still smiling his casual smile.

"Um, well, okay then," Harriet finally consented.

Fred's smile grew and he led her away to the portrait hole. As they left, Harriet chanced a glance back at her friends. Hermione was focusing on her homework again, but had an ear to ear smile on her face. Kieran was ferreting through his bag and Harriet couldn't see his face. Marcus and Scott were smiling after them, while Ronnie was looking bemused. Dora, however, was giving them both a look of pure venom.

"So, how's your year been going?" Fred asked as he opened the portrait hole for them. "I mean besides the obvious. Don't get to talk to you much with the tournament and all."

"Eh, pretty much just the tournament," Harriet said dismally as she climbed out after him. "I mean, if I'd entered myself that'd be one thing."

"Yeah, no one likes being out of control," Fred said, sagely.

Harriet snorted. "You? You and George are like chaos made human."

"Hey!" Fred laughed. "We're not chaos, we cause chaos!"

Harriet actually laughed. "I really miss hanging out with the Quidditch team all the time."

"Me too," Fred said, scuffing at a spot on the stone floor with his shoe as they walked. "Quidditch makes everything simpler. Just you, a broomstick, some balls, and your mates."

"Heh, yeah…" Harriet admitted. "Just like… all I have to do is catch the Snitch… that's it… now I have to figure out this stupid egg, and after that, I gotta figure out how to do whatever crazy task they've dreamed up…"

"Hey, you did pretty amazing in the last one," Fred said.

Harriet actually stopped walking. Fred's tone was so stark and not like himself it caught her completely off guard.

"Sorry," Fred said and started walking again. "Just don't like hearing you talk bad about yourself."

"Kinda the only way I know how to talk about myself," Harriet grumbled.

"Well, we need to fix that," Fred said.

"What? You think I'm broken," Harriet said. She didn't know why she was putting up her guard so much. It was just Fred.

"No! No!" Fred said, backpedalling quickly. "But you deserve to be happy, Harriet. You deserve to look in the mirror and be happy with who you see."

Harriet felt her cheeks reddening. She was about to say something when she stopped, looking around.

"Wait… we're nowhere near the owlery," Harriet said.

"Yeah… about that," Fred said awkwardly, rubbing his neck with his hand, rather reminiscent of how Mr Weasley would rub his bald-patch. "I may have fibbed just a little bit in the interest of finally getting to talk to you on your own."

Harriet raised her eyebrows.

"But, all for a good cause in the end," Fred said, hopefully.

"And what cause is that?" Harriet asked.

"You saying yes to me asking you to go to the Ball?"

Harriet's eyes went wide. Even now, she was kicking herself over having not seen it coming the moment Fred asked her to go somewhere alone.

And yet, as Harriet looked up into the older boy's face, the gears in her head began turning very rapidly.

Fred had always been there for her when she needed him. He'd helped her with the guard at King's Cross. He'd flown the car to Privet Drive to save her from the Dursleys. He'd carried her to safety after the Daily Prophet bombing. He gave her the Marauder's Map. He gave her the bracelet.

She thought almost involuntarily about Cedric now. Had he asked anyone? Or had anyone asked him? Was she doing this too soon?

Harriet looked back up at Fred again. Well, Cedric was handsome, but Fred certainly wasn't unattractive. Indeed, as she looked up at him, she found had to admit that his face did have rather clean lines, and quite symmetrical (apart from the freckles). She suddenly found herself wondering how she'd never noticed before.

What's more, it was just a Ball, wasn't it? What was the harm in that? Just a big dance and dinner and pomp and circumstance.

Harriet felt her lips curl into a smile all on their own. The smile on her face revitalised Fred's own smile, which had started to falter in Harriet's hesitation.

"Okay. Yes, I will go to the Ball with you."

Fred beamed.