Chapter 31

When Sirius retrieved her from the Gryffindor table on the morning of the first task she made certain to keep her expression straight and unaffected. Otherwise people might have believed that she was worried about Harry, which could put him at a disadvantage. And she was most certainly not going to do that.

It probably wouldn't matter for this particular task. But it had become common knowledge that she was training with Harry, and if she didn't think that he was capable, that spoke volumes. And a large part of their strategy was to always appear strong. Which was especially important, because if the tasks ever pitted the champions against each other, Harry's age alone already made him a target.

The weeks in the lead up to the first task had been a series of revelations, and not all good ones either: so many students didn't care that Dumbledore had declared Harry innocent, they still vilanized him. On the opposite end of the spectrum were those revered him in a way that was utterly disturbing to the muggleborn witch. Boy-who-lived and now Hogwarts champion, even though he wasn't Hogwarts champion and he'd yet to do anything to earn their praise, but Hermione was learning that logic was often very lacking in the magical world. Or perhaps it was just the world in general, given the way that Colin Creevey appeared to be ready to drop to Harry's feet in supplication at any given moment.

Their training, on the other hand, was interesting and fulfilling, or it would have been, if it hadn't been provided for such a terrible reason. But at least they got to see Sirius, and to a lesser extent Remus, on a regular basis. Harry had been disappointed that his godfather hadn't hired Remus as his full-time defense tutor, but it had been explained to him that Remus was simply too close to the situation to effectively educate Harry in the brutal way that would be necessary to prepare him to face the tournament's tasks.

After having been thoroughly educated on the history of the tournament by their new dueling tutor, Master Maslay, Hermione agreed completely. Harry needed a relentless taskmaster, not a favored uncle. Though, during their first lesson when the man had immediately begun to throw (low-powered) cutting curses at them just to see what they would do, she began to wonder if it wasn't worth the risk to sprite Harry away from all of this along with herself and Draco.

She'd almost completely broken down when she'd learned the nature of the first task. Draco had found her in the library, obsessively flipping through books on magical creatures, feeling almost maniacal as she did so.

"Leave it Mia, you need to eat." He said when he found her, "whatever you're doing can wait, you're no good to Potter if you work yourself into exhaustion. Don't think I missed the fact that you weren't at lunch."

She didn't look up, or even stop paging through the book as she spoke. "It's dragons."

There was a long pause. "Pardon me?"

"The first task is dragons," she looked up and met his eyes, "so, you see, I can't stop. I can't watch my best friend get eaten, Draco! I have to find a way to help him."

"Wow," he breathed, "this whole thing really is crazy. Dragons! What are they thinking? Does he have to kill it?" He asked, looking nauseated, which was probably the result of a combination of Draco's own reverence for the creature's and the thought of somebody their age facing such a daunting task.

"I don't think so, most dragons are endangered. I don't think they'd design a whole task with the sole purpose of killing them. And, besides that, the first task is traditionally some kind of clue retrieval."

"Clue retrieval?"

"Yes, they have to find a way to get a clue for the next task which is hidden or guarded in some way." Hermione shuddered, that seemed a little too reminiscent of the obstacle course guarding the philosopher's stone. "Sirius thinks he'll just have to get past the dragon," she let out a hysterical little laugh, "just get past it," she repeated, as it sunk in how ridiculous that sounded.

Hermione didn't know where Sirius was getting his information. She suspected that a lot of palms had been greased at the Ministry, and while that once may have bothered her, she hadn't since given it a second thought, she'd just asked him if he was sure about the dragons.

"Okay," Draco took a deep breath, "okay," he repeated. He reached over and pried the book from her hands, closed it with purpose, and then hauled her onto his lap.

"I think my point remains though, you're no good to Potter if you're running yourself into the ground, he needs you at top form. And you're not the only one working on this, right?"

"True, but-"

"Also, what kind of message do you think you're sending to Potter by either hiding yourself away researching or panicking? Come to dinner, be his friend, show him you believe in him."

She took several deep breaths, allowing Draco's familiar scent and the comfort of his arms around her to calm her down.

"That's my girl," he murmured, "and remember, you have a secret weapon."

"A secret weapon?"

"Yeah, me!"

"Draco, I know you said you would help but-"

"Do you doubt me? Do I really have to remind you that my name means dragon, I'm the wizard for this job. We've got this, okay?" He gently took her chin in one hand and forced her to face him, his eyes were serious, but he looked confident.

And, as sometimes happened around him, she was hit by a wave of love for him that almost overwhelmed her, but she held onto him, and, as always, he kept her steady and she started to believe his words too.

And sure enough, when she called him on their mirrors for their nightly chat just a few hours later he answered with a proud smile. He then proceeded to remind her- as they'd all discovered, especially Draco himself, during Lockhart's failed dueling club Second Year- that Harry was a parselmouth, and if ever there was a time to use that ability, it was now.

It was something she'd honestly forgotten about, it had been big talk for a few days afterward, but then when Harry hadn't immediately morphed into Voldemort reincarnate, the speculation had quickly died down and the rumor mill had moved onto the next thing. She'd had no cause to think of it since. It was also something which she was fairly certain that neither Sirius nor Remus were aware of. And so, their plan blossomed from there.

"Relax," Sirius murmured, drawing her back to the present, "you're stiff as a board. He'll be fine, we have a good plan." She wasn't sure if he was trying to convince her or himself.

They did have a good plan, because her boyfriend was a genius. She knew that she was biased on that matter, but it was beyond dispute that he'd provided them with all the key information. She wondered what Harry would do if he knew of Draco's involvement, she hoped that someday in the future she could use it to convince him that Draco was a good man whom he should give a chance. Yes, he'd helped for her sake, but he'd also done it because he didn't think that what was happening to Harry was fair and wanted to help him survive it.

Hermione and Sirius had paused in the Entrance Hall and activated the Marauder's Map when Hermione thought of something.

"Won't this look suspicious, us bent over a piece of parchment as we walk?"

He smirked at her. "The map has a notice-me-not feature."

"You boys really did think of everything, didn't you?" She chuckled. "But why not make it permanent? I can't think of a situation where that wouldn't be helpful."

"We discovered that when all four of us were trying to look at it at the same time with the notice-me-not active, one or two of us found it hard to concentrate, and when we simply dialed it down it was ineffective."

"Fascinating," she marveled, reminding herself to ask Sirius for details later.

"Alright Kitten, if you see a name you don't recognize point it out and I'll do the same."

Unfortunately, they still didn't know what Barty Crouch Jr.'s plan had been. He'd been interrogated everyday for two weeks by aurors and unspeakables without giving up a single piece of information, and he was practically immune to legilimency, which made sense given that he was able to break out of an Imperius Curse he'd been under for a decade. He would have to have incredibly strong mental shields in order to do so. And so, out of desperation they'd given him veritaserum and the very first question they'd asked him had triggered an unbreakable vow and he was dead before even one word had left his mouth- which is why veritaserum was only used as a last resort.

Meanwhile, Barty Crouch Sr. had the tables turned on him and had been under his son's Imperius Curse since late summer. And while he had almost certainly been privy to the details of Junior's plan, and acted as an unwitting accomplice to it at some point, given his access to both the Ministry and Hogwarts, he had no memory of it. So, he'd been shoved somewhere deep into the bowels of Azkaban for his crimes, but he was useless to them.

So, she and Sirius would be scanning the map looking for anything suspicious or out of place, and Remus was already inside the arena where the task was to take place using his enhanced lupine senses to do the same, as the arena itself was out of the map's range. They strolled slowly across the grounds, allowing as many people as possible to pass by them.

They were also on the lookout for Rita Skeeter whom, Lucius had warned them, was an animagus with a beetle form, and because the tournament was big news, was sure to be hanging about looking for a scoop. Sirius had simply wanted to turn her in for her illegal activity, but Lucius had convinced him that she could be useful, which told Hermione that the woman had been useful to him in that past. So, they were keeping an eye out for her lest she overhear something they didn't want her to. Harry had already met the woman at the Weighing of the Wands Ceremony and reported that she'd seemed awful - she'd even tried to corner Harry for an interview, but Sirius had quickly put a stop to that.

"I don't often get the chance to talk to you alone," Sirius said, out of the blue.

"Is something the matter?"

"No, at least not beyond everything," he gestured around them demonstratively.

She giggled. "Point taken, I should have asked if anything else was wrong."

He chuckled along with her. "Draco's a good kid."

She hummed in agreement.

"I already knew that," Sirius continued to explain, "but he's really impressed me these past few weeks especially. Did you know that he had his parents pack up his entire collection of books on the subject of dragons and send them to me?"

"I didn't know that," she answered, surprised. It was unlike Draco to pass up an opportunity to brag or ask for an award for a job well done. Then again, she could tell he'd been making a concerted effort since Halloween to keep her mind off of Harry's ordeal and make the very limited amount of time they were able to spend together just about them and their relationship.

"It's got me thinking, there's an offer I wanted to make to him, but I wanted to discuss it with you first."

"Why me?"

"Because it will have a big effect on you as well, I already know what his reaction will be, I don't need to ask him first. But I know something about what a burden this could be on you, and I care very much for you, so if you're dead set against it I'll keep quiet."

"What is it?"

"When Draco comes of age and this war it over, I'd like to make him Head of House Black."

Hermione inhaled sharply and immediately understood why he'd come to her first. This would mean the world to Narcissa, who longed to rebuild the honor of the House she'd been born into. Lucius would also be thrilled, this would bring his son and his family considerably more power and prestige. And while Draco would respect and appreciate his parents points of views, she knew he'd also be touched on a more personal level that Sirius would entrust him with this.

But for her, she would be tossed into the deep end of a pool that she was supposed to have decades to wade into and learn how to swim effectively in (because she didn't believe for a minute that stubborn Lucius was going to die and make her Lady Malfoy sooner than that). It also meant that she'd have to have not one, but two sons in order to pass the Black name onto the second boy, or the Black line would go extinct. Because a wizard with a different last name couldn't hold the title for more than one generation. Given that the Malfoys hadn't produced more than one son in a generation in more centuries than she cared to count, that was a stressful burden.

She was a muggleborn. She had great hopes that that would change things for the future of House Malfoy. She knew Draco and his parents felt the same. But she didn't know how she felt about this offer, it might be asking just a little too much.

'I wouldn't even ask, Kitten," he sighed, "but the fact is that I'm tired, and once this war is over I know I'm just going to be even more exhausted. I'm trying to do my best by Harry, but Azkaban isn't an experience you can just shed, and I can't imagine a time when I'll feel ready to get married and have a family of my own. I'm bitter, and much older than my years, and I just don't think I have it in me to restore our House. You and Draco, I truly believe that you'd make me proud to be a Black again."

Hermione didn't know what to say to that, his voice had taken on a weary quality that- despite knowing what he'd been through- she never would have expected from the usually upbeat wizard and it was deeply disturbing to her. She'd grown used to his almost manic cheerfulness, something she now realized that she should have seen through months ago. Of course he was damaged, how could he not be?

"I don't expect you to answer me right now, in fact, you should think it through fully," he continued. "It's not urgent, but it was something that I wanted to address. I know that Lucius has most likely been educating Draco for his future duties since he learned to talk, but if you agree, I'd like to start informing him about some issues that are unique to House Black so that when the time comes, he's prepared."

"I'll think about it," she said quietly, squeezing his arm. "And on Draco's behalf, thank you for thinking so well of him."

"That's all I ask. And you don't have to thank me for that."

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, they reached the arena without spotting anything out of place. When they entered the arena Hermione took a moment to take it all in. It reminded her of the Roman colosseum, which seemed an accurate comparison given what was about to happen here. At its center, where the action would take place, there was what looked like a desolate rocky landscape, with very few places to run or hide, and Hermione felt her anxiety ratchet up another notch. Sirius inhaled sharply beside her and she looked up at him to see that his eyes were also locked on the place where his godson would soon see himself in mortal danger.

In an effort to calm herself she looked around to see if she could spot some familiar faces. There was an entire section where it looked like almost all of Gryffindor had gathered, a few notable exceptions who weren't supporting Harry were seated elsewhere, their red and gold scarves sticking out amongst the colors of the other houses. She spotted Ron's red head with the large crowd and thought that he had a lot of nerve.

After Dumbledore's announcement Ron had quickly changed his tune about believing Harry, and he just seemed to think that they could go back to the way things had been without actually offering any kind of apology. He'd then proceeded to grow more offended by the day when Harry was only coldly polite to him and he'd been visibly angry when he'd learned that Harry and Hermione were getting extra training that hadn't been offered to him, but apparently had enough sense not to irritate Harry any further by saying anything about it. Harry was so busy he was hardly ever in the Common Room regardless and Hermione couldn't remember the last time she'd seen them exchange more than two words - Harry himself admitted that the tension in his dorm room was palpable and he'd begun avoiding spending any time there except to sleep.

She took a deep breath and continued to search the crowd. Draco was with the Slytherins, but he'd obviously been waiting for her to look for him because he was already staring at her when she caught his eye. He immediately lifted one hand to touch his finger to the side of his nose, their secret sign and she hastened to return the gesture, finding more comfort in it than she would have thought possible.

She looked over to the Beauxbatons contingent next and spotted Claire straight away as the older witch was waving at them. Hermione waved back, albeit less enthusiastically, and Claire shot her a commiserating smile and blew her a kiss.

Nobody would find anything odd about their interactions. Since Lucius and Narcissa had effectively forbidden her from associating with Draco, Claire had started hanging out with Hermione instead. When she wasn't with her Beauxbatons friends they studied together and she usually ate at least one meal a day at the Gryffindor table. It had made Hermione very popular with her roommates who viewed Claire as an older, more experienced, fabulously fashionable witch - they weren't wrong. Harry just thought of her as the French girl Hermione had been writing to for years, he had no idea she was Draco's cousin. He had immediately accepted her as a friend, in fact, Hermione was quite certain that he was developing a crush on her.

They had just about reached the seats Remus had been saving for them when she spotted Lucius and Narcissa, who were sitting with the other school governors and their spouses. Thus far this tournament had been nothing but an embarrassment for Hogwarts and she knew both the governors and the Ministry were doubling down to make sure the rest of it ran smoothly. Neither of the elder Malfoys acknowledged her in any way, but she was sure that they'd seen her and she felt better just knowing they were here.

They got seated just before Ludo Bagman began to explain the nature of the task the champions would face. Hermione already knew, of course, as they'd had an advance scout, and so she tuned him out. She didn't want to hear it again. When they announced the order of the champions and which dragon each would face, Hermione clamped her hand around Sirius' forearm to keep from reacting in any other way. Because, just Harry's luck, he was to go last, and he'd drawn the most dangerous dragon: the Hungarian Horntail.

Diggory, Krum, and the Delacour all performed adequately and successfully retrieved their golden eggs, receiving only minor injuries in the process. Though Hermione's heart broke a little when Krum's conjunctivitis curse irritated the Chinese Fireball so badly that she stomped all over her own eggs. But she had very little room in her heart to care about anything other than Harry today.

Time passed at a snail's pace, but also very quickly, and then it was Harry's turn.

She was proud to see him walk out with his head held high. The specialty competition robes they'd had made for him were a deep red, almost a burgundy. A traditional color for House Potter, the robes were trimmed in mahogany brown with matching fitted brown trousers, and were much more sophisticated than the traditional Hogwarts uniform which most of the audience was used to seeing him wearing, and made him look older than he was.

He stopped just inside the arena and didn't hesitate to draw his wand.

"Expecto Patronum!" A brilliant shimmering stag, which Sirius and Remus swore up and down was the exact likeness of James Potter's animagus form, burst forth from his wand and immediately made a lap around the arena.

Hermione swelled with pride for him, and Sirius bumped his shoulder against hers in understanding. The crowd quieted. She could only imagine that it was a result of some combination of awe at Harry's impressive display of magic, and the calming nature of the presence of a patronus.

Hermione reflexively took a deep breath and allowed the comforting familiarity of Harry's magic to soothe her nerves. Relieved that Harry was slightly paranoid about dementors and had practically demanded that Remus teach him this charm over the summer. None of them had imagined he'd have the power or strength of mind to cast it, much less that it would ever actually be useful.

The dragon relaxed as the magic of the stag reached her as well. It was as they'd hoped, that even a nesting mother, chained up and surrounded by hundreds of humans wouldn't be able to resist slipping under the spell of such light magic. At the very least they'd hoped it would demonstrate that Harry bore her no ill will.

Prongs returned to Harry and though Hermione couldn't hear what he was saying, she knew that he was sending the patronus off with a message. After a few moments it flew off and Harry settled down behind a rock to wait.

Hermione knew that Hedwig was perched nearby and so it was only a matter of a minute or two before Hermione spotted the owl's familiar silhouette winging her way towards them, carrying the key to their whole plan in a small cylindrical basket clutched in her talons. She gave the dragon a wide berth as she approached Harry, gently deposited the basket in his lap, and then with an affectionate bark for her wizard, flew away again.

If Hermione hadn't known what was happening, she probably wouldn't have understood what she was seeing, but since she did, she watched avidly as Harry opened the basket and Holly poked her head out and immediately started to crawl up his arm. Holly was Harry's new familiar, a six month old boomslang, and she represented Draco's real stroke of genius.

It was one thing to have remembered that Harry was a parselmouth, and another to figure out how to use that fact. Dragons were reptiles, but they weren't snakes. And no matter how much research they did, they could not confirm or deny whether parseltongues could speak to dragons, it was just such a rare gift, there was no documentation either way. And even if they had been able to confirm it, they would still just have been sending Harry into the arena speaking parseltongue, hoping that the dragon would be willing to listen; a dubious prospect.

Dragons were distrustful creatures, especially of humans. And a dragon who lived in captivity would, in all likelihood, feel even more resentful of people. She would have been as likely to roast Harry alive as she was to listen to him.

But Dragons and snakes were natural allies. In exchange for protection in the dragon's territory, snakes often served as scouts and lookouts, because dragons were reluctant to stray from their territory, but given their protective nature, were also very keen to know if there was danger encroaching. Also, there was no doubt that dragons and snakes could communicate, and Harry could definitely talk to snakes. They considered having Harry just conjure a snake, but that was nearly as unlikely to work as simply allowing Harry to walk into the arena speaking parseltongue.

They had needed a snake who would be loyal to Harry and would be willing to intercede on his behalf. A snake who could help them lay the groundwork with the dragon long before Harry ever came face to face with it. And so, it had also been Draco who had suggested that Harry find a serpentine familiar, which provided a solution to all of these issues.

After a weekend scouring exotic pet stores with Sirius and Remus, Harry returned to Hogwarts with Holly, explaining to Hermione that he'd felt a pull towards her as soon as he'd entered the store. She could tell immediately that the pair already had a bond, and even surprised herself by how quickly she'd come to love the snake as well.

As soon as they received word that the dragons had arrived and were penned up inside the Forbidden Forest, Harry had sent Holly off to see if they were willing to negotiate with her. She'd ventured out five nights in a row and they had begun to worry that they would run out of time before she made any progress. But then the day before yesterday she'd reported to Harry that it was done.

But this was the real moment of truth.

Harry stood up, and Hermione noticed the moment people began to realize that he was holding a snake as not-so-quiet murmurings broke out all over the arena. But that meant little to her. She was concentrating on the dragon, and she could have sworn she saw the moment recognition dawned in the great beast's eyes. Harry cast a spell on Holly and then on himself- which she knew was to amplify both of their voices- and then he began to speak, and when he did so there was a collective gasp.

Harry had been incredibly reluctant to expose his parselmouth abilities in front of so many people, but they'd all agreed that he needed to prove to the dragon that he was the speaker that Holly had told her about. It was foolish to leave anything to chance just to appease other people's prejudices. They'd all just have to get over it again. It hadn't been that hard to convince Harry, he was a little too used to witnessing the Hogwarts population turn on him, and while he didn't relish it, it was infinitely preferable to risking his life.

Hermione was already used to listening to Harry speak to Holly, but he'd kept her hidden from the rest of the student population, so nobody else was prepared for what they were witnessing. Harry spoke to Holly, and then Holly spoke to the dragon. This went on for a couple of minutes, and while the dragon didn't appear to actually be saying anything, Harry didn't seem concerned either.

And, apropos of nothing, it appeared as if the dragon nodded. Harry pulled out his wand, cast a point-me charm to get his bearings, and then said, "accio Hungarian Horntail care package!" It spun him in the direction of the 'gifts' Sirius had arranged for whichever dragon Harry ended up with, in accordance with their requests to Holly.

Another minute passed and a wooden crate sailed into the arena. She watched Harry, his eyes narrowed in concentration, waiting for just the right moment, "arresto momentum!" He bellowed and the crate fell to the ground right in front of the dragon.

Harry quickly began to disassemble it to reveal at least a dozen whole roasted animals- if Hermione recalled correctly, for the Horntail they'd provided deer. She had just been relieved that they weren't alive, apparently the rather lazy creatures actually prefered for somebody else to do the work for them. Hermione made a mental note to ask Sirius if he'd told the Potter elves that they had been preparing four dragon feasts. If not, she'd have to remind him to inform them, they'd be delighted to have been so helpful to their master during his arduous task.

The dragon inhaled deeply and then exhaled, letting out a little burst of fire with what Hermione could only describe as satisfaction. She lowered her head in Harry's direction in a semblance of a bow, and then with apparent deliberateness, stood up and moved away from her nest. Harry bowed deeply in return and then quickly made his way past her.

Hermione held her breath when he paused for the briefest of moments next to the nest to bend over and retrieve his egg. As he walked past the dragon again he held the egg up for her to inspect so that she could see that he hadn't absconded with any of hers and after a moment began to move again. Right before he exited the arena he turned back around and said something to Holly who related it to the dragon. And it was only when he turned again and walked out of view that Hermione finally exhaled.

And then, without really knowing what she was doing, she was on her feet screaming and applauding alongside Sirius and Remus. She didn't even notice the deafening silence from the rest of the crowd.

He was waiting outside of the champions tent for them twenty minutes later, the egg tucked under one arm and Holly wrapped around the opposite wrist. Madam Pomfrey was fussing over him, trying to convince him to let her check him out, but he was having none of it. Hermione started running as soon as she had him in her sights, pushing her way through the crowd, uncaring of anybody else. When she reached him she actually lept on him, hugging him around the neck and squeezing him to her, murmuring about how well he'd done, and how proud and happy she was that he was safe.

"Oof! Hermione!" He protested.

She jumped off of him immediately. "Oh, I'm sorry! Did I hurt you, or Holly?"

"It's fine, just knocked the wind out of me." He laughed and- still so hesitantly- wrapped the arm holding Holly around her.

Hermione let him hold her for a moment, thankful for the progress they'd made, then smiled up at him and took a step back, holding her hands out towards the snake who uncoiled herself from her wizard's wrist and slithered into them without hesitation.

"And just like that they've both forgotten me," she heard Harry gripe, but she ignored him, her eyes fixed on the beautiful creature in front of her. Harry had named her for her green and red scales which truly did bear a resemblance to a series of bursts of holly leaves and berries; and due to the fact that Sirius had informed him that it was a tradition in his mother's family to name girls after plants. Normal boomslangs didn't have red scales, but they believed they were indicative of her innate but unawakened magical nature- at least until she'd come into contact with Harry.

"You brilliant girl!" She praised, holding her up so they could make eye contact. "You did so well!"

Holly hissed something in a way that Hermione had come to recognize meant that she was actually 'speaking.'

"What did she say, Harry?" She asked without looking away from Holly.

"She agrees that she's brilliant," he explained, she could tell that he was trying to sound disgruntled but was actually amused.

They'd come to realize that while she didn't understand English, per se, and Harry had to switch to parseltongue to explain specifics, she had no trouble understanding the general meaning of what others were trying to communicate to her.

"And beautiful too!" She beamed and placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head and Holly preened.

"Kissing snakes now, Granger?" Came a familiar voice from behind her, she had to fight her immediate instinct to turn around and run into his arms. And then she processed his words.

Oh, he thought he was hilarious, didn't he?

She turned to face him. "Only brilliant and gorgeous ones like Holly here. Why, are you wanting a kiss Malfoy?" But he just smirked and she recognized that he'd understood the buried compliment. She should probably tone it down or he was going to be insufferable, but she was very happy with him right now and thought he deserved a little praise.

"You just wish," he retorted, suddenly turning to look at Harry with an expression on his face that even Hermione- who knew him so well- couldn't have described, "that was quite the interesting strategy, Potter."

Harry automatically opened his mouth to respond, but she could see when he realized that he hadn't actually been insulted and shut it again. Draco let out a derisive little laugh, spun on his heel, and walked away.

Hermione watched him for as long as she thought she could get away with.

By this time Sirius and Remus had reached them and offered their congratulations to Harry, and then heaped their own praise on Holly. Harry didn't even seem to care when they informed him that he'd tied for first place in the task (which was entirely unfair in and of itself, he'd been by far the most successful champion, the biased judging was atrocious) and was just happy that he'd gotten through it. But Hermione could tell that Remus and Sirius were as thrilled by this reaction as she was, because it meant that Harry most likely wouldn't be taking any reckless risks to win this tournament.

A raucous group of Gryffindors arrived to congratulate Harry and inform him that they were throwing a party in his honor.

"Go ahead if you like," he told the Weasley twins, who were clearly the instigators, all the while ignoring Ron, who was obviously trying to get his attention, "but I just want to spend some time with my family." And with that he took Hermione's arm and steered them back towards the castle.

Author's Note: I've been so excited to begin writing the tournament. But at the same time this kind of action is totally out of my comfort zone, so I hope you enjoyed it, and I would really appreciate some feedback. :) Thank you a million times over to Weestarmeggie for so many things, the least of which is beta-reading this chapter (which was no small task.) You are a rockstar! And thanks to you all for reading, seriously, I'm continually amazed by the response to this story, you guys are wonderful!