I own nothing. J.K.R Owns everything :(
Chapter 27: Fourth Year (Part 15)
17th August, Tuesday, 1998...
Everyone had just finished breakfast and were waiting on the Longbottom's and Luna arriving when Minerva and Kingsley walked in.
"Hello." Kingsley replied to the called greetings, "I have something for you lot." he pulled out an envelope, "It's the names of the escaped Death Eater's. I know it was supposed to come yesterday but-"
"Kingsley it's fine. You were busy." Arthur smiled.
Kingsley nodded, "Right the following people escaped:
Lucius Malfoy, you knew about him anyway, Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe Sr, Gregory Goyle Sr, Gregory Goyle Jr, Partculous Nott, Antonin Dolohov, And... You're really not going to like this one." he warned.
"We can handle it." Harry assured him as everyone else nodded, "Just tell us."
"Fenrir Greyback. His cell was checked later that day and it was empty with no sign of him." Kingsley sighed gloomily, "We know who it was who helped them." he added.
"Who?" Remus growled.
"The other Death Eater's." he said, "They had put almost every guard at Azkaban under the Imperious. There were only two guard's that weren't under it."
"Do you know why they left those two guards alone?" Harry frowned, "Doesn't seem like the Death Eater just to leave two."
"Yes, they were patrolling the cell's when it happened. All of Azkaban's prisoners were moved last night. They're in the holding cell's at the ministry, as are the guards that were on duty that night, they're getting re-checked and treated." he explained.
"And thanks to the Death Eater's Remus, Dora and Fred's killer's are on the loose again." Draco muttered.
"He's right. I never thought of that." Dora growled, "Stupid Dolohov." she added.
"Who was it who killed me?" Fred asked.
"How could you not know?" Regulus asked.
"I was killed by a wall." he explained. "Better than being killed by a curtain." he added with a shrug upon noticing Sirius's amused look.
"It was Augustus Rookwood." Cissy frowned, "He got impatient and decided to blow up the wall."
"Never would have guessed that." Fred winced, "After all I only had said wall collapse on me." he joked.
"Fred don't." George winced. "Don't joke about it." he pleaded.
Fred cocked his head to the side in confusion but nodded, "I won't, for now at least, we'll discuss this later." the other nodded.
"It wasn't Dolohov that killed me." Remus put in.
"Who was it then?" Harry asked.
"Bellatrix." he said simply, "She got me when Dora fell to Dolohov, I was distracted by Dolohov trying to hit me as well when she hit me."
"We were originally standing back to back." Dora nodded, "When I was killed it left Remus with no protection from behind him."
"Didn't help that I was fairly pissed off either." Remus muttered, "I was trying to kill Dolohov and got killed by Bellatrix instead."
"She was determined to kill both of us but she ordered Dolohov to just kill me, so he did." Dora added.
There was a short silence as they all processed this information.
"That's all who escaped then?" James asked.
"Yes, thankfully it wasn't more." Kingsley nodded.
"Are you two staying for today's memories?" Hermione asked while picking up Teddy's milk bottle, which he had dropped.
"If you don't have a problem with it then why not." Minerva smiled, "Heavens know's I need a break from paperwork."
Kingsley nodded, "I never want to see paperwork again." he muttered. "I thought being an Auror had enough paperwork." he chuckled.
"If it's more than what we had in the last few weeks of Fudge being minister then I feel sorry for you." Dora winced, the Longbottom's and Luna walked in as she said this.
"What's going on?" Luna asked. "All of your colours look odd... Like you're upset."
Ginny explained it to them while Harry filled Minerva and Kingsley in on what they had missed the day before.
When they had finished explaining it was 10.30 so everyone went through to the living room, Ron looking nervous, Hermione frowning and Harry looking reluctant.
"There's something you need to know." Harry told them, "In the next memory Ron and I have our first fall out where we didn't talk to each other for a while..."
"And I started it." Ron sighed, "I'll admit I was being stupid."
"And I'll ask you to please not hex Ron because I've already forgiven him and it's in the past." Harry finished, he put the memory in the pensive after everyone agreed not to hex Ron.
"Where are we continuing?" Ginny asked.
"From when I got to the tower, so just skipping a few depressing thought's."
Harry got a shock to find himself facing the Fat Lady already. He had barely noticed where his feet were carrying him. It was also a surprise to see that she was not alone in her frame. The wizened witch who had flitted into her neighbor's painting when he had joined the champions downstairs was now sitting smugly beside the Fat Lady. She must have dashed through every picture lining seven staircases to reach here before him. Both she and the Fat Lady were looking down at him with the keenest interest.
"Well, well, well," said the Fat Lady, "Violet's just told me everything. Who's just been chosen as school champion, then?"
"Balderdash," said Harry dully.
"It most certainly isn't!" said the pale witch indignantly.
"No, no, Vi, it's the password," said the Fat Lady soothingly, and she swung forward on her hinges to let Harry into the common room.
The blast of noise that met Harry's ears when the portrait opened almost knocked him backward. Next thing he knew, he was being wrenched inside the common room by about a dozen pairs of hands, and was facing the whole of Gryffindor House, all of whom were screaming, applauding, and whistling.
"Wow." Lily said, "I don't think I've ever heard the common room that loud."
"Neither have I. Albus and I actually heard that burst of noise from his office." Minerva chuckled.
"We heard it in our common room as well." Luna nodded.
"You should've told us you'd entered!" bellowed Fred; he looked half annoyed, half deeply impressed.
"How did you do it without getting a beard? Brilliant!" roared George.
"I didn't," Harry said. "I don't know how -"
"Sorry Harry. We should have listened to you." the twins apologised in unison. Harry waved the apology off.
But Angelina had now swooped down upon him; "Oh if it couldn't be me, at least it's a Gryffindor -"
"You'll be able to pay back Diggory for that last Quidditch match, Harry!" shrieked Katie Bell, another of the Gryffindor Chasers.
"We've got food, Harry, come and have some -"
"I'm not hungry, I had enough at the feast -"
But nobody wanted to hear that he wasn't hungry; nobody wanted to hear that he hadn't put his name in the goblet; not one single person seemed to have noticed that he wasn't at all in the mood to celebrate... Lee Jordan had unearthed a Gryffindor banner from somewhere, and he insisted on draping it around Harry like a cloak. Harry couldn't get away;
"Which is all you wanted to do." Hermione sighed, "I saw it on your face." she explained.
whenever he tried to sidle over to the staircase up to the dormitories, the crowd around him closed ranks, forcing another butterbeer on him, stuffing crisps and peanuts into his hands... Everyone wanted to know how he had done it, how he had tricked Dumbledore's Age Line and managed to get his name into the goblet...
"I didn't," he said, over and over again, "I don't know how it happened."
But for all the notice anyone took, he might just as well not have answered at all.
"I'm tired!" he bellowed finally, after nearly half an hour. "No, seriously, George - I'm going to bed -"
"I've just realised something George."
"Yes o' twin of mine?"
"Harry's been telling us apart since just before the summer of his 3rd year."
"Oh yeah..."
"I told you I figured your secret out." Harry said smugly.
He wanted more than anything to find Ron and Hermione, to find a bit of sanity, but neither of them seemed to be in the common room. Insisting that he needed to sleep, and almost flattening the little Creevey brothers as they attempted to waylay him at the foot of the stairs, Harry managed to shake everyone off and climb up to the dormitory as fast as he could.
To his great relief, he found Ron was lying on his bed in the otherwise empty dormitory, still fully dressed. He looked up when Harry slammed the door behind him.
"Where've you been?" Harry said.
"Oh hello," said Ron.
He was grinning, but it was a very odd, strained sort of grin. Harry suddenly became aware that he was still wearing the scarlet Gryffindor banner that Lee had tied around him. He hastened to take it off, but it was knotted very tightly. Ron lay on the bed without moving, watching Harry struggle to remove it.
"So," he said, when Harry had finally removed the banner and thrown it into a corner. "Congratulations."
"What d'you mean, congratulations?" said Harry, staring at Ron. There was definitely something wrong with the way Ron was smiling: It was more like a grimace.
"What's wrong with you?" Sirius asked Ron.
Ron gave him a sheepish expression.
"Well... no one else got across the Age Line," said Ron. "Not even Fred and George. What did you use - the Invisibility Cloak?"
"That wouldn't have worked." Remus said.
"The Invisibility Cloak wouldn't have got me over that line," said Harry slowly.
"Oh right," said Ron. "I thought you might've told me if it was the cloak... because it would've covered both of us, wouldn't it? But you found another way, did you?"
"Listen," said Harry, "I didn't put my name in that goblet. Someone else must've done it."
Ron raised his eyebrows.
"What would they do that for?"
"I dunno," said Harry. He felt it would sound very melodramatic to say, "To kill me."
"No, that would have gotten me to listen." Ron said sadly.
Ron's eyebrows rose so high that they were in danger of disappearing into his hair.
"It's okay, you know, you can tell me the truth," he said. "If you don't want everyone else to know, fine, but I don't know why you're bothering to lie, you didn't get into trouble for it, did you? That friend of the Fat Lady's, that Violet, she's already told us all Dumbledore's letting you enter. A thousand Galleons prize money, eh? And you don't have to do end-of-year tests either..."
"Your jealous?" Petunia guessed. Ron nodded before putting his face in his hands.
"I didn't put my name in that goblet!" said Harry, starting to feel angry.
"Yeah, okay," said Ron, in exactly the same sceptical tone as Cedric. "Only you said this morning you'd have done it last night, and no one would've seen you... I'm not stupid, you know."
"You're doing a really good impression of it," Harry snapped.
"Yeah?" said Ron, and there was no trace of a grin, forced or otherwise, on his face now. "You want to get to bed, Harry. I expect you'll need to be up early tomorrow for a photo-call or something."
He wrenched the hangings shut around his four-poster, leaving Harry standing there by the door, staring at the dark red velvet curtains, now hiding one of the few people he had been sure would believe him.
"Sorry mate. That was uncalled for." Ron told Harry.
"I didn't help any." Harry shrugged, "Besides I already forgave you back then and I dont regret it in the slightest."
"How long did it take you to make up?" Charlie asked curiously.
"Three weeks and four days." Hermione frowned.
"That make's it the day of the first task." Lily said after doing some quick counting.
"Yep, we didn't talk again as friends until then." Ron nodded, "And I regret every minute I spent not believing Harry."
"Hermione knocked some sense into you a week after your fall out." Ginny frowned, "And I did the week before the task."
"And I'm stupid so I didn't listen at first." Ron grimaced.
"You listened eventually." Harry shrugged, "The next memory is the morning after." he added.
The prospect of going down into the Great Hall and facing the rest of the Gryffindors, all treating him like some sort of hero, was not inviting; it was that, however, or stay here and allow himself to be cornered by the Creevey brothers, who were both beckoning frantically to him to join them. He walked resolutely over to the portrait hole, pushed it open, climbed out of it, and found himself face-to-face with Hermione.
"Hello," she said, holding up a stack of toast, which she was carrying in a napkin. "I brought you this..."
"That was nice of you." Lily said gratefully.
"I knew he probably wouldnt want to go to the great hall." Hermione shrugged.
"And you were right as always." Harry grinned at her.
"Want to go for a walk?"
"Good idea," said Harry gratefully.
They went downstairs, crossed the entrance hall quickly without looking in at the Great Hall, and were soon striding across the lawn toward the lake, where the Durmstrang ship was moored, reflected blackly in the water. It was a chilly morning, and they kept moving, munching their toast, as Harry told Hermione exactly what had happened after he had left the Gryffindor table the night before.
To his immense relief, Hermione accepted his story without question.
"Well, of course I knew you hadn't entered yourself," she said when he'd finished telling her about the scene in the chamber off the Hall. "The look on your face when Dumbledore read out your name! But the question is, who did put it in? Because Moody's right, Harry... I don't think any student could have done it... they'd never be able to fool the Goblet, or get over Dumbledore's -"
"Have you seen Ron?" Harry interrupted.
Hermione hesitated.
"Erm... yes... he was at breakfast," she said.
"Does he still think I entered myself?"
"Well... no, I don't think so... not really," said Hermione awkwardly.
"What's that supposed to mean, 'not really'?"
"Oh Harry, isn't it obvious?" Hermione said despairingly. "He's jealous!"
"Was it really that easy to see?" Ron blushed.
"It was so easy even I could tell." Neville nodded, "So could Seamus and Dean." he added.
"Brilliant." he muttered.
"Jealous?" Harry said incredulously. "Jealous of what? He wants to make a prat of himself in front of the whole school, does he?"
"Look," said Hermione patiently, "it's always you who gets all the attention, you know it is. I know it's not your fault," she added quickly, seeing Harry open his mouth furiously. "I know you don't ask for it... but - well - you know, Ron's got all those brothers to compete against at home, and you're his best friend, and you're really famous - he's always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I suppose this is just one time too many..."
"Great," said Harry bitterly. "Really great. Tell him from me I'll swap any time he wants. Tell him from me he's welcome to it... People gawping at my forehead everywhere I go..."
"I'm not telling him anything," Hermione said shortly. "Tell him yourself."
Everyone laughed and a few people nodded.
"It's the only way to sort this out."
"I'm not running around after him trying to make him grow up!"
Lily glared at Harry, who tried to ignore her and succeeded quite well.
Harry said, so loudly that several owls in a nearby tree took flight in alarm. "Maybe he'll believe I'm not enjoying myself once I've got my neck broken or -"
"That's not funny," said Hermione quietly. "That's not funny at all." She looked extremely anxious. "Harry, I've been thinking - you know what we've got to do, don't you? Straight away, the moment we get back to the castle?"
"Yeah, write to Mr Snuffles over there." Harry grinned. Sirius made a face at him.
"Write to Sirius. You've got to tell him what's happened. He asked you to keep him posted on everything that's going on at Hogwarts... It's almost as if he expected something like this to happen. I brought some parchment and a quill out with me -"
"Come off it," said Harry, looking around to check that they couldn't be overheard, but the grounds were quite deserted. "He came back to the country just because my scar twinged. He'll probably come bursting right into the castle if I tell him someone's entered me in the Triwizard Tournament -"
"I will not." Sirius huffed.
"He'd want you to tell him," said Hermione sternly. "He's going to find out anyway."
"How?"
"The Prophet, though they probably didn't print the truth about it." Kingsley mused.
"They didn't." Harry sighed.
"Harry, this isn't going to be kept quiet," said Hermione, very seriously. "This tournament's famous, and you're famous. I'll be really surprised if there isn't anything in the Daily Prophet about you competing... You're already in half the books about You-Know-Who, you know... and Sirius would rather hear it from you, I know he would."
"Okay, okay, I'll write to him," said Harry, throwing his last piece of toast into the lake. They both stood and watched it floating there for a moment, before a large tentacle rose out of the water and scooped it beneath the surface.
Then they returned to the castle.
"Whose owl am I going to use?" Harry said as they climbed the stairs. "He told me not to use Hedwig again."
"Ask Ron if you can borrow -"
"I'm not asking Ron for anything,"
"You're worse than Sirius and James when they fight." Remus said chuckling.
Ron and Harry looked at each other.
"I'm guessing it's because they're both way too stubborn to admit when they're wrong." Ginny chuckled.
Harry said flatly.
"Well, borrow one of the school owls, then, anyone can use them," said Hermione.
They went up to the Owlery. Hermione gave Harry a piece of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink, then strolled around the long lines of perches, looking at all the different owls, while Harry sat down against a wall and wrote his letter.
Dear Sirius,
"You really shouldn't call him 'Sirius' in the letters, just in case they're intercepted." James said.
"Later on Sirius tells us to call him Snuffles." Ron said.
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 know who put my name in the Goblet of Fire, because I didn't. The other Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory, from Hufflepuff.
He paused at this point, thinking. He had an urge to say something about the large weight of anxiety that seemed to have settled inside his chest since last night, but he couldn't think how to translate this into words, so he simply dipped his quill back into the ink bottle and wrote,
Hope you're okay, and Buckbeak -
Harry
"Finished," he told Hermione, getting to his feet and brushing straw off his robes. At this, Hedwig fluttered down onto his shoulder and held out her leg.
"I can't use you," Harry told her, looking around for the school owls. "I've got to use one of these."
Hedwig gave a very loud hoot and took off so suddenly that her talons cut into his shoulder.
"Ouch, maybe you should've explained why." Sirius said wincing.
She kept her back to Harry all the time he was tying his letter to the leg of a large barn owl. When the barn owl had flown off, Harry reached out to stroke Hedwig, but she clicked her beak furiously and soared up into the rafters out of reach.
"First Ron, then you," Harry said angrily. "This isn't my fault."
"You really do have the worst luck of any of the student's I've taught." Minerva sighed.
"Nah, thing's always go wrong for a while then there's a few weeks of good luck before it turns bad again." Harry shrugged, "Then it repeats. That was the end of that memory, let's move on."