Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter Eighty-Two

Triwizard Tournament

Harry spent the rest of the summer vacation at the Weasleys just like he planned. It was true that Remus had come over more times that he thought necessary, but with all the chaos incurred as a result of the Dark Mark he didn't really mind all that much. He was just glad that he had more time to spend with his friends where they were able to play Quidditch and transform into their Animagi forms (well away for any of the windows in the Burrow so Mrs. Weasley wouldn't catch them) and work out how well they related to each other. Harry had found it easiest to understand George and he found that Ron was relatively easy to understand … or at least he was compared to Hermione and Fred. Ginny didn't find the experiments all that entertaining so she would spend most of that time glaring at all the animals around her. After a few days, Harry said they had learned all they could and Animagus training stopped.

Harry was really grateful that he had been able to spend the summer at the Weasleys because he was sure that if he had gone back home after the Quidditch match he would have dwell on the Dark Mark and the dream he had a few days before that. Yes, it was true that he thought about the Death Eaters, their mark and the creepy dream he had, but that was only at night and usually he only had a few minutes to think about it before he fell asleep. However, now that he was packing his bag on the last night before going back to Hogwarts, he couldn't help but fear what was going to come next.

"What's on your mind, Harry?" Ron asked his eyebrows furrowed in concern. He was supposed to be packing his own bag too, but after putting his school books in it he had sat down to take a break and hadn't gotten up since. Harry wondered how long his friend had been staring at him.

"Nothing," Harry shrugged.

"Mione sa …" Ron started to say but Harry turned around to look at his friend with an raised eyebrow.

"Mione?"

"Er … Hermione," Ron said blushing; he had not meant to say that name out loud. He was not encouraged to say it again anytime soon seeing as Harry was sniggering, though thankfully his friend wouldn't tease him like his siblings liked to do. "Anyway, she said that it was odd that you haven't tried talking about what happened … you know, at the camp … she reckons you're holding it in and that's not good for you."

"Oh she does, does she?" Harry grumbled. "And you're doing her dirty work for her … asking me about it."

Ron grimaced. "Not exactly. I told her that it was your business if you wanted to talk or not."

"Right?" Harry raised his eyebrows, "and we're talking about this because …?"

"You just looked …" Ron started, trying to find the right word and then said, "worried. It's just weird to see you that way."

Harry grimaced at his friend, he didn't want to talk about this, didn't want to admit that he was worried about some unknown event happening in the future. Something that he wasn't sure he could avoid.

"You don't have to say anything … sorry I asked," Ron sighed, getting up and moving to his dresser and finally started to put his clothes in his bag. Harry could tell his friend was just doing this so that Ron didn't have to look at him.

"Have you realized that my life had been threatened at least once a year since I've started going to Hogwarts," Harry said his thought out loud. "I wonder why I love the castle so much when that's the case."

"Because it's amazing," Ron answered with a shrugged. "My life has been threatened almost as much but there have also been a lot of good things that happened there. Think about it, we never would have met if it wasn't for Hogwarts … I think that's worth a few dangerous situations."

"You do realize that if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have been in any of those dangerous situations," Harry frowned as he said this.

"Yeah," Ron chuckled as Harry pouted at him.

"You were supposed to defend me or something," he grumbled.

"But it's true," Ron shrugged. "I would have a normal, danger free life. I would be best mates with Dean and Seamus and we would get in normal trouble. You know the kind that doesn't involve saving the wizarding world from the most powerful madman in existence."

"Sorry," Harry sighed.

"Why?" Ron said making a face. "That sounds so boring. I would never have become an Animagus. I never would have believed that I could actually do well in school. I would probably still be jealous of my brothers for being better than me …"

"They're not better than you," Harry said.

"Maybe," Ron shrugged. "But it doesn't really matter if they are. I mean, yeah Bill's smarter than I am, but that doesn't mean I can't beat him in every chess match we play now. It doesn't mean that I don't have some qualities about me that I'm better than him at. Heck I was the first out of all of us to transform … I never would have imaged that would have happened. And I never would have even tried to do that if it wasn't for you, Harry. So don't worry about the danger you put me in. It's all worth it."

Harry looked at his friend and smiled. Ron had changed in many ways from the boy he was on their first train ride to Hogwarts. The boy that was afraid of being overshadowed by his brothers. He had change even more in the last few weeks. Ron really had gained a lot of confidence in himself after being the first one of their group to transform.

"Thanks mate," Harry smiled at his friend. Sure he was still worried about what was going to come, but he was glad that his friend(s) were going to be by his side to help him with whatever it is.

Ron, however, wasn't listening to him as he looked at the navy blue robe in his hand. It was obviously old, though it looked as if it had been well made at one point. "What is this?"

"Huh?" Harry said moving so he could see what Ron was looking at. "I think it might be a dress robe?'

"Dress robe? Why would I need a dress robe?" Ron questioned.

"Don't know," Harry shrugged and then looked on his bed and noticed that he had one of his own. "But it looks like I have one too."

"I don't like this Harry," Ron said looking at the dress robe as if it was going to attack.

"Er … it's not so bad … I mean it's a little old but …" Harry started to say.

"No, not that," Ron groaned. "Why the bloody hell do we need a dress robe? I don't like this at all."

"Oh," Harry said, realizing what Ron was trying to say and looking a little wary now. "I knew that something dreadful was coming for me … but this … how am I ever going to survive!"

Ron actually chuckled at that and through the robe in his trunk. "Come on, I'm sure dinner's almost ready, let's get downstairs."

"Okay," Harry nodded his head.

O

The next morning was chaotic to say the least, so much so that Harry and the others just barely got to the train station on time. As Harry sat down in one of the compartments he couldn't help but think about Amos Diggory's surprise Floo call saying that Mad-eye Moody had been setting off traps for what the ex-Auror had thought was an intruder. Harry could tell from Amos's comments that he didn't believe that Moody was really attacked and that he was just paranoid, but Harry couldn't help but be uneasy about his. The way that Tonks had talked about her mentor, Mad-Eye was definitely paranoid but he had good reason to be.

"Harry …?" Hermione started to ask, but Neville walked in then and everyone got up to greet their friend. It wasn't long after that that Luna wondered into the compartment looking as if it was an accident but was greeted just as warmly as Neville had been.

"So Nev, have you finish you're transformation yet?" Ron asked.

"Huh?" Neville looked confused and then shook his head. "Nah, I didn't even work on it over the summer. I figured that I'd be able to do it during term like I did last year. Why, did you transform?" he asked, looking at Hermione now.

"Yeah," Hermione said.

"Fred and George did too," Ginny added bitterly, the twins weren't in the compartment at the moment because they went to spend time with Lee Jordan and the other sixth years Gryffindors.

"That's cool, congratulations Hermione," Neville smiled, honestly happy for his friend and not really caring that much that he was the last of the now fourth years to transform. For him it was more about working towards the goal than it was about being the first to transform.

"So what have you been doing all summer," Harry said. "I just realized that this is the first summer that I haven't seen you."

"Yeah, that was a bit odd," Neville chuckled. "Still, we went on vacation to Ireland, Scotland, Whales and all around the British Isles."

"That sounds really fun," Hermione said, having gone to all of the places that Neville mentioned because her parents loved to travel, but she hadn't been there since knowing that she was a witch. She wondered how many things she could learn about the different wizarding communities if she could go now. She had already learned so much when she had gone to France the year before …

"Earth to Hermione … are you still with us?" Harry said snapping his finger in front of Hermione's face causing her to glare at him. "Sorry … you just seemed to have zoned out there for a minute."

"Did you go to the Quidditch World Cup?" Ron asked Neville.

"No," Neville said. "Dad couldn't get the tickets, but that's why we got to go on vacation so I guess it's okay."

"Right," Ron said in disbelieve, he wouldn't trade going on a hundred vacations for the chance to see the Quidditch World Cup … and that's even with everything that happened afterward.

"You guys were there right?" Neville said. "Tell me what happened."

Ron went into a long reenactment of the game, telling his friend every play that he could remember. Once he had exhausted that, Hermione told Neville about what happened afterwards with the Death Eaters and the Dark Mark. Harry was on the verge of telling Neville (as well as Ginny and Luna) about his dream, but before he got the chance Dean and Seamus came into the compartment and quickly got in a discussion with Ron about the Quidditch World Cup. The conversation soon had Harry and Ginny commenting about too, though Hermione pulled out one of her text books, rolling her eyes. She had quite enough of the constant Quidditch talk that happened the past few weeks.

All too quickly, they were pulling into the Hogsmeade station and getting on the horseless carriages heading for Hogwarts. The feast was just as good as always and soon Dumbledore was making his announcement. This announcement, however, wasn't like his normal ones, as it started off with him saying that the inter house Quidditch tournament at Hogwarts was canceled this year. Harry was outraged about that though before he could even come to terms with it, Mad-Eye Moody walked into the Great Hall and was announced to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

If Harry thought that announcement was shocking, it was nothing to when Dumbledore told them that the Triwazard Tournament was going to be held at Hogwarts this year. Naturally he had heard about the tournament before, Sirius had told him about the time that it had tried to be revived in the past when he was a first year. The tournament had been held at Beauxbatons that time and Sirius hadn't seen the task in person, but he heard about it. Of course, seeing as two of the champions had nearly been killed and one had spent years in the hospital after the final task, the tournament wasn't continued. It looked like they were about to try again however, something which had Harry smiling.

"That's not fair!" George hissed as Dumbledore said that only wizard of age could join the tournament. "We'll be of age in April."

Dumbledore didn't answer that, or any of the other protest to this new rule on the tournament in attempts to keep the death toll down. Noticing their Headmaster's lack of concern about what George had said, the twins put their heads together and started coming up with a plan to join the tournament anyways.

"What do you reckon Harry, do you think we should try and join too?" Ron asked him in a whisper.

"Of course not, we're not old enough to be part of this tournament," Hermione answered before Harry could. "It sounds really dangerous."

"It is really dangerous," Harry corrected. "And something tells me it won't be easy to get past Dumbledore."

Hermione nodded her head at that smiling at his caution.

"Which means were going to have to think of something good, if we're going to have a chance," Harry finished and Ron laughed as Hermione glared at them.