Harry and his friends sat down for breakfast the day after the first task of the Triwizard tournament. Angelina still felt invincible from facing the dragon the day before. But Harry gave her little time to rest. As the party in the Griffindor tower had begun to wind down after the first task, he had told her to meet him later on today on the seventh floor and to bring some swimwear. Angelina had come to realize that Harry was quite the taskmaster to those he trained, but he was no Oliver wood.

At 8 am the mail began to stream in, as it does every other morning. And with another day came another issue of The Daily Prophet. As the students picked up their copies, hoping to find more information on the second task, but what was on the front page had nothing to do with the tournament at all. Harry picked up his copy and sighed. "For fuck sake."

The secret Weasley-Black blood feud!

By Rita Skeeter.

My dear readers, during my time at Hogwarts I have made a shocking discovery. During their time at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, Heiress Nymphadora Black and Mister Charlie Weasley became intimate with one another during their final year. The young heiress was tricked into believing that the Weasley held genuine affection for her. When in truth he simply wanted her to sate his physical desires, undoubtedly because of her metamorphic powers.

At the end of their final year, he quickly and callously broke it off on the Hogwarts express. His excuse? He wanted to go to Romania to study dragons at their reserve. But I can not help but see this as a thinly veiled excuse when in truth he was running away from the Blacks and the connected families, a heartbroken young woman, and possibly an unborn child.

That last sentence almost made Harry choke on his own spite. Before that, it was fairly tame for something written by Skeeter, but there was no child! And even if there was he doubted Tonks would have opted for an abortion! The rest of the article showed her "proof" that such a feud existed. going into accounts of both Harry, Capella, and even Draco butting heads with members of the Weasley (mainly Ron and Ginny) as well as a photo from the day before of him and Charlie glaring at one another, as well as Harry's sabotage on Charlie's portkey travel. She said it was all retaliation for the defilement of their cousin, and besmirching the honor of house Black.

Harry looked up to the teachers' table and couldn't see either Tonks or his farther, but he could see Sirius, who was also had his own copy of The Prophet. Harry got up from his seat and went over to his godfather.

Sirius saw Harry approach and spoke up. "Yes?" He asked.

"I think one of us should give Tonks a heads up." Harry answered as he pointed to Sirius' copy of The Prophet.

"Well right now she's probably sleeping, but I'll make sure she's given a heads up." Sirius answered.

Harry nodded. "See you around Pa-professor." He responded, quickly correcting himself, to which Sirius grinned. While behind closed doors they would still greet each other casually, in front of other students and professors they were forced to keep it formal.

"See you around Mister Potter."

Meanwhile.

Amber Flemmel was sat next to Luna Lovegood as both girls ate their breakfast. The girls took one glance at The Prophet before putting it down. "Skeeter must have a more severe Wrackspurt infestation than I thought. She forgot why she came to Hogwarts in the first place." Luna announced.

"She's definitely suffering from a severe something." Amber agreed. "I can see this coming back to bite her."

"You think Harry might kill her?" Luna questioned.

Amber shook her head. "No, that's never been Harry's style. But he will make her regret publishing that. How he will do it I don't know." Amber noticed Luna looking behind her, so she turned around and saw Fleur Delcour walking towards her with a sour expression. "I guess injuring yourself because you walked to close to a sleeping dragon knocked some humility into you." She thought to herself.

Fleur sat down next to Amber, who merely raised an eyebrow in response. "You win." Fleur gritted out in French. Maxime had chastised her for being so reckless and losing points because of it.

"Does that mean you are accepting my offer?" Amber asked calmly.

"Yes." Fleur answered begrudgingly.

"Well, in that case, let me get rid of that listening charm Angelina put on your shoe." Amber responded, reverting back to English. Fleur's eyes widened in shock while Amber calmly flicked her wand out of her wrist holster and a quick flick of the wrist dispelled the charm. "Welcome to the big leagues Fluer. Watch your back." Amber spoke ominously.

Later.

Harry stood alone in the Room of Requirement. The room Harry had asked for was a small room, made of white limestone roughly cut and put together, and had a pensive in the middle. Harry took a vial out of his pocket. The memory was Katie's of her entire time spent in the tent after Angelina completed the first task. "For Skeeter to have gotten that photo me and Charlie she must have been in the room with them or had a contact who was." Harry thought to himself. Harry poured his girlfriend's memory into the pensive and dived in. The eyes saw more than most could remember, only focusing on one point at a time. The pensive helps solve that issue, by allowing them to review a memory over and over.

Harry moved to the corner and watched the scene play out. He continually watched both of the entrances for signs of anyone sneaking in under an invisibility cloak or dissolution and notice-me-not charms. But his attention was caught when a water beetle flew in. Wizarding tents had bug-repelling charms as standard to stop flys, wasps, and mosquitos from bothering anyone inside, which meant this was no ordinary bug. Harry walked closer to the beetle as it landed on the roof behind Alica's head and noticed that it appeared to be wearing glasses. A big giveaway when it came to animagi. Harry paused the memory and fished a camera out of his pocket and took a photo. Harry had to admit, he was impressed.

The Potter heir exited the memory and took out his communication book and wrote a quick warning. Skeeter's a beetle animagus. HP

Well that explains a lot. BP

Do you have proof? AB

Not enough to put her away. HP

Send me what you do have anyway. AB

Ok. HP

With that sorted Harry placed the book back in his pocket and withdrew the memory from the pensive, placing it back in the vial. After that, he closed his eyes and focused on the room changing. When he opened his eyes he saw that he was now stood in a tiled room with a large swimming pool in front of him and three changing rooms by the door. Once that was done Harry sat down and meditated. Inside his mind, he focused on the summoning coins, trying to figure out how he could make them work.

On Tuesdays, runes were his final lesson of the day so he would stay for an extra hour and a half, and try and complete the runic array and enchantments along with Professors Babbling and Vector. So far progress has been slow, with them all coming to the conclusion that the platinum simply couldn't hold the stably hold the enchantments. When Harry asked if simply using more platinum would fix the problem, Harry was given a quick lesson given that was part of both Ancient Runes and Arithmancy masteries. The size didn't really matter apart from space to etch runes. As the more space just meant that they would have to put more power into the enchantments so it covers the whole surface area, rather than give more space to hold extra magic. But few materials could hold magic better than platinum. A ward stone could but there was a reason they were the size of a head at least and multiple was used in creating wards. They could easily be chipped or cracked when engraving into them, neutralizing the array being engraved into them, and sometimes causing it to detonate. So one that could sit comfortably into someone's pocket was out of the question. But then Harry remembered he had a suitable material, but not enough to make two coins.

Harry's eyes snapped open as he heard the doors open behind him. Harry was surprised to see the entire Gryffindor quidditch team as only Katie and Angelina had been informed about this meeting. Harry gave Angelina a questioning glance to which she replied. "They were with us when we were going to set off, and wanted to come with."

"Alright. Now, everyone hold still while I check you for charms" Harry instructed. Find out Amber was now helping Fleur both excited Harry and made him far more paranoid. Amber was taught many of the same principles that he had been taught, 'Stalk like a panther, fight like a honey badger' among them. Harry did indeed find a listening charm on Alica. "Cute Amber, real cute." He spoke up before removing the charm.

Once more changing rooms were made they all got changed and dived into the water with the golden egg and opened it.

Come seek us where our voices sound. We cannot sing above the ground. And while you're searching ponder this. We've taken what you'll sorely miss. An hour long you'll have to look. And recover what we took. But past an hour, the prospect's black. Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.

At the end of the final verse, they all shot up for air. "Well. That was ominous." Harry commented.

"Sounds like they're going to take someone rather than something." Alicia commented.

Both Harry and Angelina looked at each other wide-eyed. "Could they?" She asked.

"I'll look into it. In the meantime, you should practice your swimming, while we find the best way for you to get through this." Harry answered.

...

Over the next few days, things fell back into a routine for the group. Harry managed to confirm that hostages were used in past tournaments and after cornering Dumbledore (as he couldn't reach any of the other judges) he had confirmed that they would be used again now. He had tried to glean more information from the headmaster but ha only managed to find out that the hostages would be guarded, and returned at the end of the trial if they weren't collected.

Angelina now spent most of her free time in the room of requirement in its pool configuration, testing, and perfecting various methods of completing the task, with Harry joining her once a week to check her progress.

Tonks was given the warning about The Prophet when she woke up and spent the rest of the week disguised as another female Auror.

Amelia started putting together a plan with Sirius, James, Tonks, and Aroura to catch Skeeter in her animagus form so they could charge her, without revealing Harry's involvement. Everyone agreed it was best to hide Harry's true potential until Voldemort was dead for real.

Speaking of which the black ops group tasked with that duty managed to locate Hufflepuff's goblet, in the Lestrange vault through mind probing the brothers, and were now trying to pry it out of goblin hands.

The hand from the quidditch world cup was confirmed to belong to Lord Bulstrode, but he had quickly fleed to a holiday home in Spain after the incident and allowed his son to take the mantle of head of house. Detaining him was proving to be a nightmare. Especially since Fudge was in no hurry to actually do his job.

When December came and the Yule Ball was officially announced, the school gossip mill went into overdrive. So much so Laender dedicated a page to each champion going into as much detail as she could, digging up every little detail she could find on them including; history, personality, likes, dislike, and even their heights and weights! No one was quite sure how she got a hold of the last two. All there champions were single so it was anyone's guess on who they would take.

As soon as the ball was announced Harry looked to Katie and before Harry could utter a syllable, Katie nodded and said yes. Harry was surprised, but wasn't going to complain.

When the seasonal Hogsmead weekend came around every third year and above was clamoring to leave the castle, and with the Beauxbatons and Durmstrange delegations as well as the upcoming yule ball, it was more chaotic than it usually was. The entire main hall was packed with students dress in winter wear and talking about anything and everything. Thankfully the Gryffindor quidditch team were early risers thanks to their training under Oliver and managed to get near the front. Harry was most grateful for this as he would be picking up a few things for his sister as well as himself, Susan would be doing the same her little cousin, and Astoria mentioned that Daphne would be doing the same for her as well when Harry asked if he wanted him to do the same for her.

The six of them enter one of the thestral pulled carriages and sat down as the creature set off.

"So where should we go first?" Alicia asked.

"Hollydukes?" Harry suggested. It was a tradition among the Gryffindor quidditch team for them to buy each other their favorite sweet for Yule that dated back to over a century ago. "I mean, I'll have to break off at some point to get Katie's real present."

They ultimately decided to go to Hollydukes first, followed by picking up restocking on quills, parchment, and ink at Scrivenshaft's, followed by potion ingredients at Greenfields (yes it's owned by the Greengrass'), before splitting off to pick up individual gifts for other members of the group that they were closer to than just friends. After that, they regrouped at The Three Broomsticks for lunch. While there Harry saw that the Carrow twins were with Blaise, Tracey, and Daphne. Susan was with her friends from Hufflepuff. And Amber had Taken to showing Luna and Fleur around. Amber had officially made the bet between the two of them a few days ago and doubted she'd be dumb enough to talk about their plans in a crowded pub, and so opted to lay off casting a listening charm. After that, they finished their shopping and talked to a few friends before heading back. As much as Harry enjoyed the day out, he couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched the entire time, but he never caught sight of anything or anyone being overly suspicious.