Hey guys! Time for the first task of the Triwizard Tournament - I hope you enjoy!

(Disclaimer: See Chapter 35.)

Chapter 36:

Hey Dragon

"It was worse than Harry could ever have imagined, sitting there and listening. The crowd screamed...yelled...gasped like a single many-headed entity, as Cedric did whatever he was doing to get past the Swedish Short-Snout. Krum was still staring at the ground. Fleur had now taken to retracing Cedric's steps, around and around the tent. And Bagman's commentary made everything much, much worse...Horrible pictures formed in Harry's mind as he heard: 'Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow'...'He's taking risks, this one!'...'Clever move - pity it didn't work!'
And then, after about fifteen minutes, Harry heard the deafening roar that could mean only one thing: Cedric had gotten past his dragon and captured the golden egg."

"You sure I can't Accio my guitar like Darren Criss?" Molly said the next day.

"Positive," Mackenzie said. "You know what you should do?"

"What?" Molly asked.

"You know everything that's going to happen, and you know that nothing will be the same anymore," Mackenzie said. "Why not try to make the world a little better?"

"What do you mean?" Molly said.

"You can change things - little things, not enough to change history, but enough to make things a little better for a lot of people," Mackenzie said. "You can be confident, and kind, and courteous - you have a platform. You have the chance to make a difference. Use it."

Molly looked at her for a second, and then smiled.

"And learn how to fly like Harry Potter in a few weeks," she said.

"Easy peasy," Mackenzie said.

Immediately before Double Potions, Molly saw the pins for the first time. The "Cedric Diggory" side was the same, but the other message read "Evans Stinks."

"You're not going to want to show those to Snape," Molly quipped.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco said.

"It means I know something you don't know," Molly said. "And I'm not spilling the details."

She looked over at Mackenzie, who was standing near Hermione, Ron, and Harry, all watching with horror.

"What are you guys looking at?" she said. "I can take care of myself."

"Oh, you honestly think you'll need the help of Mr. Expelliarmus, blood-traitor Weasley, and two stupid Mudblood know-it-alls?" Draco said.

Before she knew what she was doing, Molly had drawn her wand.

"Draco," she whispered as quietly as she could manage. "This is not who you are."

"Who are you to say who I am?" Draco said, his voice heavy. "You cheater."

"Furnunculus!" Molly yelled.

"Densaugeo!" screamed Malfoy.

Molly watched the jet of light that streamed from Draco's wand as it hit hers and headed straight towards Mackenzie, who braced herself for impact - and then found herself on the ground.

She reached for her mouth, then found that nothing was happening to it. She looked up to see Hermione, clutching her suddenly-growing teeth with one hand, her other stretched out toward Mackenzie. She realized what Hermione had done.

"And what is all this noise about?" Snape said, walking into the hallway.

"Draco called me a Mudblood and a cheater, and we both attacked each other," Molly said. "Goyle and Hermione were hit."

Snape looked at Goyle, whose face was covered with boils as big as Molly's summer vacation bug bites, and Hermione, whose teeth were now stretching past her collar.

"Hospital wing for Goyle," Snape said. "As for Hermione…"

"She probably should go there, too," Molly interjected. "I'm sure Madam Pomfrey has a remedy for any and all ailments, especially those that cause a significant difference in appearance."

Mackenzie, still on the ground, breathed an audible sigh of relief. Hermione wasn't sure whether Molly's words were a compliment or not, but she figured it couldn't be worse than what Snape had to say and left before he could follow up. Snape looked at Molly as though trying desperately to figure her mind out.

"By the way, I think I need to do some stuff for the tournament for the next two periods," Molly said as the rest of the class filed into the dungeons.. "Do you mind if I just head upstairs?"

"Miss Evans," Snape said, his tone soft yet firm, "you have Double Potions this period. You can go upstairs when the class is finished."

"Oh, I've met Ludo Bagman - he never takes 'after class' for an answer," Molly said. "In fact, I bet someone's going to come to fetch me in three...two...one…"

"Professor, I'm supposed to take Molly Evans upstairs," Colin Creevey gasped, his face red, running down the stairs.

Molly looked at Snape and smiled. "And that's my cue," she said. "If you need me to make it up, I can come in over the weekend."

"How's tomorrow at 2:00?"

"Perfect."

"See you then."

She turned and followed an out-of-breath Colin back up the stairs and into a small classroom, where Ludo Bagman, Rita Skeeter, and the other champions were waiting, along with a cameraman.

"Here she is!" Bagman said. "Just in time for the wand weighing ceremony!"

"Good," Molly said, setting her bag down at the door. "Snape was holding me up a bit at Potions. I heard there's a photo shoot?"

"Let me introduce you to Rita Skeeter," Bagman said with a gesture. "She's doing a piece on the tournament for the Daily Prophet."

"Cool!" Molly said through clenched teeth. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," Rita said. "I actually was wondering - you being the youngest champion - if I could have a word with you before the photo shoot."

"Great!" Molly said, honestly interested to see what crazy story would come out of an interview with the Rita Skeeter. "Oh, and Cedric," she said quickly. "I have something important to tell you after all this - about the first task."

Rita opened a door into a broom closet, and Moly followed her inside.

"Let me test my Quick-Quotes Quill," Rita said. She said something about herself, and the quill wrote down a much grander description of her.

"Perfect," she said, ripping off the page. "So, Molly...what made you decide to enter the Triwizard Tournament?"

"I didn't," Molly said. "I didn't put it in, and I didn't ask anyone else to do it for me. I don't know how it got in there."

"Oh, come on, there's no need to be scared of getting into trouble. Our readers love a rebel."

"I don't love the idea of being one," Molly said.

"How do you feel about the tasks?"

"Nervous, but an excited nervous," Molly said. "Like when a teacher says they're going to hand back a test, and you're nervous about your grade, but you're also excited to see how you did."

"What about the champions who have died in the past?"

"They say it'll be safer this year, and I've been taught well by my teachers here," Molly said.

"You've been pretty safe within Hogwarts, though," Rita said. "Your friends, on the other hand - what about your friend who died at the hands of dark magic?"

"Oh, Madison?" Molly said. "She's great. We hang out in the bathroom all the time. We actually started a book club."

She snuck a peek at the Quick-Quotes Quill: "Although she tries to hide it, Evans's eyes glisten with the ghosts of her past, some of which still haunt Hogwarts to this day."

"Put down that we started a book club."

"And how old are you again?" Rita asked. "Twelve?"

"I'm flattered, but I actually turned fourteen over the summer," Molly said. "My mom always did say I look younger than I really am - I guess that would be good if I ever got into acting."

I should get into acting, Molly thought to herself. I'm killing this.

"And what about your famous classmate, Harry Potter? The Boy Who Lived?" Rita asked. "Do you think any of this has to do with you trying to create your own light to even rival a boy who has brought chaos to Hogwarts every year since he arrived?"

"Oh, Harry and I are good friends," Molly said. "Except for the one time in second year when he and Ron Weasley flew in on a Ford Anglia and I called him out for it in the Gryffindor common room. But we're fine, so get that down."

She looked at the quill: "A bitter rivalry has formed - but 'we're fine,' Evans said, an obvious lie."

"Would I lie to you, Skeeter?" Molly said. Yes, I would, she thought to herself.

Rita looked taken aback. "Tell me about your family."

"Oh, you wouldn't be interested in them," Molly said. "They're Muggles, but they're great. My mom and I actually write songs together during the summer. She loves Mary Chapin Carpenter."

The quill: "She has a bile fascination with Muggle culture, a desperate attempt to connect with her non-magical parents."

"Oh, you haven't seen my mom writing lyrics," Molly said. "The way she can make perfect rhymes seem natural? Definitely magical."

"What about your social life?" Rita asked. "Any special someone in your life?"

Oh, now I can DEFINITELY lie to Skeeter, Molly thought. "I'm actually with Fred Weasley."

"The troublemaker Gryffindor twin?" Rita asked. Even her quill stopped. "I thought you said you weren't a rebel."

"I'm not," Molly said simply.

"But you're with one of the biggest pranksters this side of the Greenwich line?" Rita asked.

"One: if you don't believe me, ask George Weasley," Molly said. "Two: the Greenwich line thing - is that a thing people say? Because I love that."

"I have no idea," Rita said. Her quill finally started writing again, and as Molly looked at it, its words were surprisingly accurate.

The door opened to reveal Dumbledore.

"Oh, it's probably time for the wand weighing," Molly said, standing up. "Nice talking with you, Rita."

She held her hand out for a shake. Rita took it, with a bewildered look on her face.

When the article was released, she gathered with Fred and the time-travellers in Fred's bedroom to read it.

"The Triwizard Tournament has returned to Hogwarts after centuries, and trying to grab the spotlight is Molly Evans, a twelve-year-old Gryffindor with a grudge," Jonah read. "She says she's not a rebel, but a mischievous spark hides behind those dull blue eyes of hers, glistening with the ghosts of her past - oh, thank GOD they got that line in there."

"I mean, I'm friends with a ghost, it makes sense," Molly said.

"She says that her rivalry with the Boy who Lived himself, Mr. Harry Potter, has ebbed and flowed over the years, reaching a peak after he and a friend flew into school on a Ford Anglia and she confronted them about it. However, that friend may end up being her brother-in-law eventually; his older brother, Fred Weasley, is Evans's beau. 'If you don't believe me, just ask [his brother] George,' she said."

"This is the best thing I've ever read," Fred said.

"And from the looks of it, it's the only thing she really quoted accurately," Molly said.

"Be quiet so I can keep reading this," Jonah said. "She also is fascinated with her parents' native Muggle culture - okay, this is problematic for so many reasons - specifying her shared love of Mary Chapin Carpenter with her mother, a struggling songwriter. Isn't your mom a teacher?"

"Yep," Molly said. "I mentioned we write songs - she ran with it."

"It looks like it's a lot of the same - a little interview with Draco Malfoy, who says you're going to bring your guitar to the first task and use it to win," Stella said, paging through the Daily Prophet. "I'm not sure why he thinks that's a bad thing, considering Darren Criss did it."

Molly and Mackenzie burst out laughing.

"I can't do that," Molly said. "The only way that would work is if the dragon was either too busy laughing to do anything or if it took pity on me and let me through because it felt sorry for me."

"If only we could get it to not hate you so much," Zoë said. "Then it would let you through."

Suddenly, Molly drew her wand and whispered "Lumos." The tip of it lit up, like a lightbulb.

"Is something wrong?" Ava asked.

"Nope, just dramatic effect," Molly said. "I have an idea."

The waiting was the worst part. Molly, like Harry, was the last one to go, and she paced the floor of the tent, practicing her Summoning Charm with anything in the room that she could find. A stool, a twig, a Hufflepuff-branded bag that Cedric had left…

And then the whistle blew, and she walked outside.

She saw the faces of friends, and enemies, and everyone in between. She looked over to see the Hungarian Horntail, crouched over her eggs. Molly looked between her legs to see a slight shimmer - the golden egg.

Her heart beating, she turned back to the crowd, and motioned for them to be quiet. Her eyes fixed on Fred, standing with a bottle in one hand and a boombox in the other.

"Accio Boombox!" she cried, her wand drawn. "Accio Amortentia!"

The two items flew from Fred's hands and into Molly's. She uncorked the bottle, thought "Well, here goes nothing," and threw it as hard as she could at the dragon. It burst right near its nose? Snout? Whatever Molly wanted to call it, it created a cloud of pink steam and dust underneath it. The dragon started coughing, and then stopped.

It looked at Molly.

She didn't know how, but somehow, that dragon smiled.

Molly nodded, then bent down to the boombox. "Track 7," she whispered, and she clicked play. A familiar tune came out of the boombox.

"What song is this again?" Fred asked Jonah.

"Married Life from Up," Jonah said. "Made everyone cry when it came out, because it's a Pixar movie so of course it did."

As the tune played, Molly saw the dragon get closer and closer, but not in a threatening way.

"You diluted it enough, right?" Jonah asked. "So it's just friendship and trust, and not forever love or whatever?"

"Oh, yeah," Fred said. "I think."

"He did," Stella piped up from the row behind them. "I made sure of it. I'm not going to have some false love and obsession - you know that's how Voldemort was born."

Molly smiled and walked peacefully towards the dragon, between its legs, under its tender belly. She reached up an arm to tickle it, and she could feel it sigh a bit. She watched carefully, wand still drawn, as she walked under its tail, which was swaying back and forth to the music - and then she got to the eggs.

"Wingardium Leviosa," she whispered, pointing her wand at the egg.

It lifted up and flew into her arms. Suddenly, the crowd, which had previously been silent, roared - and the dragon's trance was over. Molly realized, all of a sudden, the one flaw in her plan - she was directly under the dragon's tail, and it was angry.

She pointed her wand at herself. "Wingardium Leviosa," she cried - no need to whisper anymore. Her feet left the floor, and she was floating in midair. But how to get her to move?

She gritted her teeth. "Impedimenta," she called, and she was blasted back the way she had come. She looked behind her and waved her wand, and a cushion of air softened her fall. Dragon wranglers grabbed the Hungarian Horntail, and Molly slowly turned the music down until it couldn't be heard anymore.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she put down the egg and walked, then ran into the stands, giving her friends a hug.

"You really should be an actor," Stella said through nervous and happy tears. "You were great at improvising back there."

"Thanks," Molly said, turning back to watch the judges' marks.

Madame Maxine cast a spell - and a large nine formed in the sky.

"Nice!" Jonah said.

Barty Crouch also cast a nine, as well as Dumbledore. Ludo Bagman shot out a ten, because of course he did, Molly thought.

Karkaroff raised his wand - and out shot a large three.

"Three?" Stella bellowed. "You gave Krum ten and he killed half the babies!"

"Hey, I'm tied with Krum now, give me a break," Molly said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I got a meeting with Ludo Bagman that I really don't need."

She grabbed the egg and ran into the tent.

Molly had just gotten into her room and flopped onto her bed when Mackenzie ran in.

"That was amazing!" she said, sweeping Molly up in a huge hug. "I'm definitely glad you've read the books."

"Me too," Molly said as the hug broke. "So the next task is the underwater thingy?"

Mackenzie nodded. "Did you play the egg for the other time-travellers?"

"Yeah, and Fred," Molly said. "The second I opened it, he started singing, 'On the outside, always looking in…' He said it sounded exactly like Percy in the shower."

"Oh, that's hilarious," Mackenzie said. "Hold on, I need some fresh air."

"We were just outside for so long. There's bound to be bugs," Molly said as Mackenzie went to the window and opened it. A warm autumn breeze blew in.

Mackenzie shrugged. "It's a little stuffy in here. It always is this time of year."

Molly couldn't help but agree. "So, for the underwater thingy, who do you think they're going to take? I mean, in the books, it was Ron, but that was only because it was Harry doing the deep dive."

"It'll probably be someone close to you," Mackenzie said. "Stella. Jonah. Me. Maybe Fred -"

"You think Fred and I are close?" Molly said.

"He's the only one from this timeline who knows the truth," Mackenzie said. "We have a secret with him that we can't share with anyone, and that automatically means he's closer to all eight of us time travelers than anyone else from the Harry Potter books."

Molly sat down on her bed with a dejected sigh. "Sometimes I wonder why."

"Why what?" Mackenzie said, sitting down next to her.

Molly turned to Mackenzie. "Why us? Why were we the ones who got letters from Delphi? Why did we end up going back in time, flying by the seats of our pants, trying to use fictional stories that were somehow nonfiction after all to keep them that way? Why are we the ones burdened with the knowledge of what's to come?"

Mackenzie looked down. "I honestly don't know," she said. "But maybe that's the point. That we don't know, that is. There are seven Harry Potter books, one for each year of his education at Hogwarts. Delphi sending us here is just us trying to make sure they stay that way. We must save the past if we want to protect the future. We're the guardians of Hogwarts."

"Ooh, that's a cool name!" Molly said. "We should call ourselves the Guardians."

"It's less syllables than 'time-travellers,'" Mackenzie agreed with a lilting laugh in her voice. "I'll let Stella know - she's good with the group's public image."

Molly smiled - just as Mackenzie shivered. "Now I'm cold," she said.

"I told you we should keep the window closed," Molly said, standing up and closing the window firmly.

Outside the window, unnoticed by the girls, a small bug - a beetle - got up from the spot where it had been crouching. Its legs were stiff, but it managed to crawl from the ledge, down the side of the building, and into the grass below. It crawled along aimlessly for a bit until it found a hand, bent into the grass. It pulled itself into the outstretched fingers, which then started to rise, quicker and quicker, a roller coaster, until it could see the hand's owner.

"Did you get anything?" he asked.

"Something major," she responded.

Draco smiled. "Thank you, Ms. Skeeter. I am looking forward to your next article in the Prophet."

Rita tipped her head - or, rather, an antenna. "And I am looking forward to it as well."

Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:

1) Starting out strong with the AVPM references! The dragon scene is one of my favorites in the trilogy, and I definitely wanted to give it a shoutout.

2) Much like Madison, Molly tries to use the knowledge of the future for good. Unlike Madison, she succeeds.

3) After the stress of the initial surprise wears off, there's a pretty crucial fact that helps Molly stay confident: she has a pretty clear blueprint for life as the fourth Triwizard champion. I loved writing her counting down Colin Creevey's entrance, and her playing around with Rita Skeeter - "Put down that we started a book club" is still hilarious to me.

4) Can someone tell me if the Greenwich line saying is a thing? I thought of it as an alternative to American expressions about "this side of the Mississippi River," and I would love it if it were real. It does come back, regardless, so...

5) Now that you've read the chapter, I'd highly recommend rereading the actual task with "Married Life" from Up playing in the background. It's great ambience music, and it creates a very humorous picture.

6) Right alongside "Put down that we started a book club" in my funny meter is "You gave Krum ten and he killed half the babies!"

7) I had to bring the Dear Evan Hansen joke back around from its first mention in Chapter 34. Again, I love the anachronisms that the time travelling allows to be a part of the story.

8) Calling them the Guardians is going to be SO much easier for my typing fingers than calling them the time-travellers - especially now that they're not the same group as they were at the beginning.

9) So now Rita knows the truth about the Guardians, and that they have a secret with Fred...dun, dun, DUNNNNNNN

Quick side note: I released the song that was inspired by the show Puffs on YouTube, so check it out! (My channel is Molly Jeanne Music.) I actually shared it with the cast and crew of the show on Twitter...and a lot of them saw it and responded! It was really sweet to get such great feedback from the people who inspired the song. Also, just as a warning, there will be a few spoilers for the show later on in the story, so I'd highly recommend watching it.

Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!