Harry wasn't at breakfast the next morning. Violet queried Hermione if she knew where the boy was, but she had absolutely no idea. Mulling it over some pumpkin juice and cereal, Violet left the breakfast table quite abruptly and headed up to the seventh floor. Relief flooded through her when Harry was exactly where she suspected.

"I thought I might find you here…"

Violet had poked her head into the room that she and Harry had found the previous year, only there were a couple more additions. There was a training dummy in the centre of the room that Harry was currently practising hexes on. He wasn't at all shocked by her intrusion, but still said nothing. She sighed and walked in, opting to settle down over on one of the large bean bags and merely watch her friend vent his frustration.

As she watched him, Violet couldn't help but realise that he'd need a whole arsenal of spells to help him in this tournament, as all the other contestants were seventh years who knew magic far more advanced than he did.

"Stop looking at me like that," Harry muttered after he cast the Furnunculus Curse.

Now that took her aback. "Like what?"

"Like you're pitying me."

"I'm not. I was just thinking…"

"Thinking what?" He was tetchy as he turned to face her, still gripping his wand rather tightly. Violet held up her hands in surrender as she pointedly looked at the wand. Harry realised a couple of moments later why she was doing that, and pocketed it. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

Violet lowered her hands. "Thinking about all the extra work you're going to have to put into this Tournament."

He sighed and sank down to the floor. "Yeah. They're years ahead of me."

"And that's not your fault," she told him, heading over to sit down on the floor next to her friend. "I know you didn't put your name in there, Harry."

"Really?"

"Of course! You're the last person who'd want to participate in that tournament. You've got enough on your plate as it is," she reassured him.

"Ron doesn't believe me…" Harry murmured.

She frowned. "What?"

"I know," he sighed, leaning his head back against the wall and shutting his eyes in despair.

Violet's mind was racing. What could she possibly say? What could she possibly do, for that matter? The most dangerous game lay right out in front of Harry, everyone expecting him to abide by the rules and go through with it. She stared at her friend: a boy desperately trying to find a moment of peace somewhere, judging by the way he was resting against the wall and breathing shallowly. It tugged on her heart strings enough that before she could think it through logically she'd reached out and grabbed one of his hands in both of hers.

Harry's chin dropped down as his eyes snapped open at that moment of contact. She avoided holding his gaze and instead looked at his elbow, where he'd rolled up the sleeves of his fleece; it seemed a safer bet to look there. There was a fear in the back of her mind about what might happen if she looked him directly in the eye in that moment; fear that the spark might jump between them again, at a time that wasn't entirely appropriate.

"Look," she murmured. "It doesn't matter what anyone thinks. I know you're telling the truth - why would you lie about something like this when it's not even possible for you to do it in the first place?" There was an almost pleading tone in her voice. "I've got your back. I promise you that much."

"You do?"

"Of course I do! Don't - don't ever doubt that for a second." Finally, Violet looked him in the eye, offering him a tiny smile. "No matter what happens, okay? What are friends for?" She added, echoing a statement he made to her the previous year, which made him perk up.

Violet let go of his hand. "Now," she carried on, "are you going to hole up in here all day or do you want to… I don't know, head somewhere else?"

"Shall we find Hermione and go for a walk?" he said after a few moments. Violet nodded, and they both got to their feet.

They made their way back to the Gryffindor Tower quietly and quickly, relieved that nobody else had noticed their exit from the strange room. By the time they reached the portrait, Hermione was just about to head inside too. She had something wrapped up in a napkin, and smiled at the pair of them when they approached.

"Oh! You found him - where was he hiding?" she addressed Violet with the question.

Violet and Harry glanced at each other dubiously. Taking too long to answer, Hermione brushed it off and unfolded the napkin, presenting it to Harry: it was filled with toast.

"I thought I might bring this to you since you missed breakfast. Did you want to go on a walk?"

"Actually, we came looking for you to do just that," Harry replied, taking the toast out of Hermione's hands and beginning to munch on it gratefully. "Let's go."

"Did you ever hear back from Sirius?" Violet asked abruptly when they started to head downstairs to get out of the castle.

"I did, actually," Harry replied through a mouthful of toast. "Annoyingly - he's making his way up north to us. I wish I hadn't told him about my scar hurting - what if he gets caught?!"

"Well, you needed to - and he'll be able to take care of himself, I'm sure. If not, I'm sure I can get my parents or Remus-"

"No." Harry's tone was firm. "Don't get anyone else involved. Hermione, you see Ron this morning at all?"

"He was at breakfast…" Hermione replied uneasily. For once, Violet had been too preoccupied to take notice of Ron's presence or not - and now she didn't particularly care for it. "You know he's just jealous, right?"

Harry almost laughed. "I'm sorry - why would he be jealous?"

"You're his best friend! And he's always shunted to the side for you. He has brothers to compete with, and won't want to compete with you too! You've always got the spotlight on you, Harry…"

"Not that I want it," he mumbled, glancing at Violet; someone who could sink back into the shadows whenever she desired and never be bothered again. Sometimes he could use that, and the room was his only means of doing so. He could never pull it off like she could. He couldn't slip into the background so easily. "But if he's so jealous, he's welcome to swap places, he can take the scar-"

"Harry, that's not what Hermione meant and you know it," Violet piped up. "He'll come around."

"Probably when I've broken my neck or something-"

"Harry!" Both girls were affronted by that statement as they made their way through to the Clocktower Courtyard.

"As much as I hate to say it, he might have a point," Violet replied quietly after getting over the initial shock of his bold statement. "Ron's stubborn enough that he probably won't come to his senses until Harry's in some serious trouble."

"Then he's not only stubborn, but foolish too," Hermione remarked.

"Yeah, you got that right…" Harry mumbled in agreement.

For a moment the conversation died down and they walked in silence out across the grounds and towards the Black Lake. There was an air of awkwardness surrounding the three teens as they settled down on one of the larger boulders - something about it just being the three of them without Ron didn't feel quite right. If it had been any other situation whereby he was unavailable, it would have been fine. Knowing that Ron had fallen out with his best friend, however, made his absence more difficult to swallow.

"Was there any mention of when the first task will be?" Violet asked after a few minutes of them just staring out over the lake.

"Towards the end of November," Harry replied. "We'll get more exact details soon, I expect…"

"You're really going to have to brush up on everything you know plus some extra," Hermione pointed out. Harry glanced at her, as if to say 'like I don't already know that?'

"Violet mentioned it earlier," he said a little stiffly. That tone of voice alone made Hermione gulp a little nervously. "So I know. I know what I need to do."

"We'll both help you," she carried on. "You're not going to be on your own through all of this, okay?"

"So you know I didn't put my name in the Goblet of Fire?"

"Of course I know that! Someone else must have done it - and they didn't have very good intentions, Harry."

"She's right - whoever did this wants to see you get hurt," Violet added. "So we'll help you however we can, because the rest have three years more experience over you. But… Hermione and I both know you're a powerful wizard. Personally, I don't think Cedric was able to produce a fully corporeal Patronus at the age of thirteen. You've been in genuinely dangerous situations, which while unfortunate, means the tasks are probably going to be nothing to you."

He contemplated her words for a moment. "Somehow, that did actually make me feel a bit better. Even if it did start off poorly…" He smirked at Violet and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Write to Sirius about this as well, before it goes completely public and he finds out elsewhere," she then said.

Harry nodded, but didn't say anything, knowing that she was right, of course. He was definitely grateful for the fact he had become close with Violet over the past few months alone, because it made school less of a nightmare to deal with from that point onwards. Hermione kept bouncing back and forth between them and Ron, which Harry understood, but he was glad for Violet's permanent presence. It also probably helped him that her crude nickname was still circulating around the school, so a few people would keep their distance and any whispers and dirty looks were thrown from so far that he barely noticed them.

The Gryffindors were very open in their support, but didn't believe Harry when he said he hadn't put his name in the Goblet. Eventually he stopped trying to convince them otherwise, but it didn't mean he enjoyed whatever attention they gave him.

He and Violet ended up retreating to that room more and more often. She'd teach him new spells that might be useful, or they'd practice any they'd been given for homework in a place where they wouldn't get caught by teachers. It was a small, safe space away from prying eyes and hateful whispers, where they could both just be themselves and left alone from the outside world for a short while.

Try as they might to keep their heads down, avoid Ron, and get on with it, things came to a head one day when the pair of them were down by the lake with Neville. The latter was standing about a good foot deep in the water, trying to find various plants and identifying them and their properties. Meanwhile, Violet had climbed up a tree while Harry sat underneath the branch she was on.

For all that had been going on, it had been a pretty relaxed afternoon, just the three of them that Saturday. Although Neville did keep talking to himself. Violet managed to tune it out, but Harry wasn't entirely able to.

"Amazing… amazing!"

"Neville?" Harry called out to him. "You're doing it again."

"Oh! Right, sorry…" he said as he turned around.

At this point, Harry picked up a book that was with Neville's belongings. "Magical Mediterranean Water-Plants and Their Properties?" he read out the title.

"I've heard of that - not had a chance to read it," Violet said. "Is it any good, Neville?"

"Yeah it's alright! Moody gave it to me - that day we had tea." He was clearly pleased with himself that he'd been given a wonderful by their teacher. He then waved off into the distance, causing Harry and Violet to follow his eye line to see Ron, Hermione, and Ginny walking towards them.

Ron and Hermione appeared to be having some form of hushed argument, so Harry stood up to speak to them, which was when his female approached him cautiously.

"Ronald… would like me to tell you… that Seamus told him… that Dean was told by Parvati that…" she seemed so unsure of what she was saying, that VIolet eventually came back down the tree to the ground, curious about what was going on. "Hagrid's looking for you."

"You can-" Harry was about to retort, but stopped short. "What?"

"Um…" Hermione headed back over to Ron.

Violet, on the other hand, had come up to Harry and was deconstructing the message. "Honestly, I think she's trying to tell you to go to Hagrid."

"Really?" Harry whispered back to her.

"Yeah, I mean… I don't think it matters who told who, so just take it as Hagrid is looking for you, so go talk to him."

"You sure?"

"Of course!"

By that point, Hermione was coming back to them, which was when Harry spoke up.

"Actually - it's fine. I think I get it. Don't worry," he told her.

"Erm… alright…" she replied uneasily, turning on her heel and beckoning the Weasleys to leave with her.

Harry sighed in relief as he turned to Violet.

"I think that just stopped an awkward conversation. I'll sort out when it's okay to see Hagrid."

Shorter chapter, but I hope everyone's enjoying!

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-OL.