' "Potter the champions have to come down into the grounds now ... you have to get ready for the first task"

"OK" said Harry, standing up, his fork falling onto his plate with a clatter'

24th November 1994

"Good luck, Harry!" Hermione whispered as Harry stood up to follow Professor McGonagall out of the Great Hall "You'll be fine."

Hermione head Harry say "yeah," in a strangled voice before he walked away, the room filled with hissing whispers as he and the other champions left. Hermione looked down at her plate, not feeling at all like she wanted to eat anything on it when someone dropped into the seat Harry had just vacated. It was Ron.

"Alright?" he asked, looking at her concertedly

She nodded numbly "Are you coming to the First Task?" Hermione asked, not sure if he was so angry at Harry that he wouldn't even bother showing up.

"Yeah 'course I am," he said.

Hermione noticed something on his forehead, a small mark she hadn't seen before. She'd barely seen Ron at all the last few days, being so preoccupied in trying to help Harry learn the summoning charm.

"What's that on your forehead Ron?" she asked, reaching out as if to touch it then thinking better of herself and laying her hand back in her lap.

Ron's hand reached up to his forehead and smoothed his fringe nervously. "Oh it's nothing, nothing. I …" but he tailed of mumbling.

"What?" Hermione asked, staring at him.

He sighed heavily "I had a fight with Harry, a couple of nights ago," he gestured to his head "he threw something at me."

"He what?" Hermione asked, shocked. Harry had not mentioned this "Why, what did you start fighting about?"

Ron sighed again. "He hadn't come up to bed, Saturday night I think it was. I went down to the common room to see where he was, I was …" Ron looked annoyed at himself and mumbled "I was worried about him. Anyway I got down there and he just starts yelling at me. I said a couple of things back and he threw one of those stupid Cedric Diggory badges at my head and stormed off."

Hermione's brow furrowed "Did you say this was late Saturday night, as in early hours of Sunday?"

Ron nodded.

"Ron you idiot!" she burst out, smacking his arm.

"Hermione what the hell!" he shouted, annoyed at her "What did I do, you're acting like Harry did…"

She grabbed his arm and pulled him closer, hissing angrily "He wasn't just down in the common room randomly. He was speaking to Sirius in the fire. He would have had to cut him off when he heard you coming"

It made more sense now. Harry had told Hermione their talk got interrupted but hadn't told her by what. He'd seemed very angry the next morning. A look of horror was dawning on Ron's face.

"Oh Merlin," he breathed, shaking his head "I didn't think it could be that. I just went down to see…" he tailed off looking horror-struck.

Hermione immediately felt awful for calling him an idiot. It wasn't his fault. He'd had no idea Harry had been trying to talk to Sirius and he'd actually been going down to check if Harry was alright. Despite not speaking to Harry at the moment he still felt awful about what he'd accidentally done.

"It's alright, it wasn't your fault," Hermione said, also shaking her head "You couldn't have known, Anyway it ended up okay in the end, Harry's worked out a way to get past the…"

She stopped short, biting her lip.

Ron's eyes widened "Get past the what Hermione. Do you know what the first task is?" His voice had dropped to an urgent whisper.

Before she could reply Professor Flitwick was calling for them all to stand up and make their way down into the ground where they would find stands for them to sit in. There was a great scraping of chairs and everybody surged out. Hermione shot up, fear cleaving her stomach again as she thought of Harry facing the dragons. She thought she might be sick. She began to hurry out of the hall but Ron was hot on her heels.

"Hermione!" he hissed, catching her arm and dragging her away from the oak front floors to a corner. He dropped his voice to a low urgent whisper "You know don't you. What is it, what's Harry facing?"

Hermione looked nervously around her. Nobody was taking the slightest bit of notice of them.

"Dragons," she said, in a barely audible, shaky whisper.

Ron's face paled beneath his freckles and he looked faintly sick.

"Are you serious?" he asked, still holding her arm tightly.

Hermione nodded numbly "Yes, I was up all last night helping him with his plan to get past them."

Ron looked thunderstruck.

"They can't put students against dragons!" He spluttered "That's insane. It's a death-wish."

Hermione nodded, she could feel tears that were ready to brim over her eyes. Then Ron looked at her sharply.

"Is Harry's plan good, can he do it?"

Hermione felt helpless all of a sudden "I don't know," She said desperately "if he pulls off what we practiced then I think…" She took a deep breath "I think he could do it."

Ron gave a quick nod, his jaw set and his face still pale. They were alone in the entrance hall now.

"We need to go down to the grounds," Hermione said, trying to take deep breaths to steady her nerves.

Ron gave another nod and together they hurried out of the doors and towards the stands.