It had been a week since the failed ambush and a few things had changed. The first was that Harry was unable to go anywhere alone any longer, the second, much stranger thing was how a lot of students began to treat him differently, even Colin Creevey had tried to talk to him for the first time in a long time.
This wasn't all, though. To Harry's surprise, most of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were also showing him support, even Cedric and his friends had stopped wearing their badges almost entirely.
On the flip-side, he had half of Slytherin on his side and the other half were hostile to him. The shared Heirship between two rival house founders served to confirm the bias of most students towards him, if they hated him then they could use one of his heritages to validate their decision and vice-versa.
It felt like a repeat of the second year in a way, with the Heir of Slytherin status causing him problems.
/-_-^–_–^-^–_–/
At the end of January, Harry was sitting down in Professor Lupin's classroom, attempting to meditate on his Animagus form. In his meditations, he had been seeing a snake consistently, ever since that time meditating at the Owlery.
He had been able to bring the being into focus and clear the fog surrounding it. One thing that struck him as weird was the snake being submerged in water, returning to the surface every fifteen to thirty minutes or so. The snake was white with black stripes and a flat face.
As he watched the snake, it began to change into him and upon becoming him, it began to change back. As he watched himself shift, he felt the sensations of his limbs retracting into his body, which began to elongate, until finally, Harry opened his eyes, becoming a sea serpent at last.
"Brilliant, Harry. Now, can you change back?" Professor Lupin questioned the snake that was once Harry. In answer to his question Harry turned back into himself and alternated a few times, making sure he could do it at will.
"So… now to research what type of snake I am," Harry remarked, smiling at his accomplishment.
"I guess it's time for Theo, Neville, and I to figure ours out," Elias joked, before returning to his meditation with renewed purpose.
/-_-_-^_^/
The second weekend of February saw Victor Krum walk up to Harry, pulling him aside for a moment, and ask him if he had figured anything out about the egg.
"No, not yet. No matter what I try I can't get more than screeching out of the egg. Have you?" Harry answered the older boy's question, hoping for a solution.
"Yes, I have. It was entirely by accident. I was swimming in the lake, in between sessions of trying to figure it out, when the wind picked up and knocked the egg underwater. Once it sunk to the bottom and cracked open, there was no screeching, but beautiful music began to play. I copied my memory for you to watch in a Pensieve." Victor pulled out a small vial containing the neither liquid, solid, gassy, or plasma substance that was a memory, and handed it over to Harry.
"Thank you, Victor. I really appreciate this."
"You did the same for me, it is only fair," Victor remarked before leaving Harry to return to his friends.
/_-_-_-_/
Late that night Harry, Dudley, and Elias were out of bed and heading to the Library to view the memory that Victor had given him. They were going up a secret passageway to the Library, having left the Cloak and Map behind and only bothering with an Invisibility Charm. They moved silently, hiding every time they heard anything at all.
They had finally entered the Library and were trying to locate the Pensieve when something happened. A cat they all knew by name showed up, it was Mrs Norris, she meowed at them before running off, returning a moment later with Filch.
"What do we have here? Students out of bed," Filch began, stopping when he noticed Harry there.
"I'm going to look the other way this one time, don't let me catch you again." After staring at the trio, seemingly unsure of himself, he turned around and left.
Once the coast was clear, Elias had to ask.
"What the hell was that about? I could feel the boredom of detention for a moment there." Elias had never seen Filch let anyone go before.
"I kind of saved his life the other day. I didn't think it would have this effect."
Now on alert, the trio managed to retrieve the Pensieve and Harry placed the memory inside it.
/_-_-_-_-_/
There were only a handful of days left until the Second Task, which Harry was now more prepared for, and Harry was sat in DADA with Professor Moody. They were talking about how to avoid toxic fumes they might encounter in their lives, using the Bubble-Head Charm, and had been tasked with coming up with alternatives to the charm by their next lesson.
After the bell rang, Moody asked Harry to remain behind. Once the room was empty of all but the two of them, he began to question Harry.
"Your first performance was a shocking anti-climax, and yet you're in the lead. What does that tell you, eh Potter?"
"Flashy tricks may be more entertaining, but a competent wizard can get by without them."
"Is that all?" Moody pressed further, adding on after seeing Harry's blank look.
"If you want to succeed you need to stay alive. As stupid as that sounds at first, it just means you have to avoid throwing your life away with bravado. You know what the task is by now, right?"
"I have to retrieve something that means a lot to me from the Black Lake, I had most of a plan sorted out before today, the Bubble-Head Charm may help with the last twenty percent of the plan."
"It was very good timing on my part then, wasn't it?"
"Yes Professor, I guess it was fate and nothing else," Harry joked with the Professor, who cracked a rare smile and answered.
"I assure you that I have no idea what you're insinuating."
"Merely an innocent observation, Professor."
The two laughed before Harry rose from his seat and headed into the corridor to meet his friends. Daphne greeted him with a kiss and the group headed to hang out during their free period.
/-_-^-^–_–/
The task was four days away and Harry wasn't even nervous about it anymore. He was currently sitting in Professor Flitwick's latest Advanced Charms lesson. They began with a recap of previous sessions, thankfully not the Acrophobia lesson, before beginning to move onto a slightly different lesson.
"I have been informed that two weeks after the Second Task there will be a dueling competition, nothing major, and I was hoping that you would enter it. You would do very well in it." Professor Flitwick announced excitedly.
"Of course, Professor. I've been training for something like this."
"Excellent, Harry. Now, let's have a practice duel."
The two wizards faced each other in an improvised arena. They drew their wands, bowed, and readied themselves.
Harry opened with an Impediment, followed by a Levicorpus, both of which were ineffective against the smaller man's shield. Flitwick returned by sending an orange curse at Harry, followed immediately by three sets of red sparks, and finishing with an Expelliarmus.
Harry rolled out of the way of the first curse, not knowing what it was, and used his Echani flight technique to get back on his feet. Unfortunately, he landed in the path of one of the red sparks, which knocked him back into the next, and the final one. He was thoroughly disorientated and so never stood a chance against the Expelliarmus.
Upon losing his wand, Harry decided to utilise his hidden weapon, and dropped one of his Hawthorn wands into his off-hand, before throwing it to his main and responding with a Confringo, followed by a Tarantella.
This caught the diminutive Professor off guard and he scrambled to avoid the Blasting Curse, ending up in the path of the Dancing Jinx. The Professor began a kind of frenzied mixture of tap dancing and a jig. Harry lowered his wand, believing himself victorious, but not a moment later a Stupify came flying at Harry, knocking him out.
/_-_^-^_-_/
Three days before the task Harry was going through his usual training regime and at this moment was going through his flight attempts.
He remembered yesterday's duel, and how easily he got back onto his feet using this very technique, attempting to use the experience to help direct his magic consciously. He rose into the air and flew a lap around the Vipers' Arena, then flew another, and then a third, fourth, and even fifth lap. He adjusted his posture while airborne, no longer standing so upright and rigid, and began to fully give himself over to the wonderful feeling of flight. He sped up, faster and faster, rolling and looping before he began to feel strain coming on. He brought himself to the floor and only then noticed that he had company.
"So… that's the sort of thing I could do if I keep studying those Echani dueling dances. I'm definitely keeping it up now," Elias exclaimed excitedly.
"Not exactly. I wouldn't have figured out how to do this without Blaise. I know that our sessions together were built on a ruse, but I managed to use it to do something that no wizard has ever done before. I can fly, without a broom, under my own power."
After hearing that Elias began to pester Blaise into sharing the same techniques that he had taught Harry with him.
/_-_^-^_-_/
Spending the last two days before the Second Task relaxing in the Vipers' Arena with all his friends was Harry, who had no concerns about his plan failing. Nothing could go wrong, as long as he stuck to the plan, and nothing would go wrong.
So convinced was he that there was no bad news to come that Harry boasted out loud that nothing could ruin his day.
Fate didn't like to be teased, neither did her twin Irony and so Harry was alerted to the presence of Hedwig landing inside the arena, bearing a letter. He opened it and removed the letter from within.
Dear Harry and Dudley,
I miss the two of you so very much, you simply have to come back for the Easter break, I realised the other day that we haven't got many pictures of the three of us as a family. I want that to change.
I know things haven't been easy over these last three years, Lord knows how hard things have been, but I know that it isn't too late to begin spending more time together as a family.
Speaking of family, I wanted to tell you two this sooner, but I've started dating someone. He has been here for me while the pair of you have been at school.
We can talk more about this in April.
Love, Petunia.
"That's good for her. I hope this guy doesn't hurt her," Harry remarked cheerfully, a sentiment echoed by Dudley.
/–_–^_^-_-/