Chapter 7

Dragons

The next morning I set out to find my brother to ask what had happened after I left the feast last night. As I wandered the Great Hall, my thoughts were going back and forth between worrying about Harry and wondering why Draco wanted to make up and be friends again. What exactly was happening that made him want to reach out to me?

Finally I found Harry eating his breakfast with Hermione, Ron was nowhere in sight. I walked up and sat down, much to the annoyance of the other Gryffindors.

"Harry, what happened?" I asked quietly. "How did you become a champion?"

"I don't know, it just happened." He answered with a small glance at me.

"And they are making you compete? How can they do that? I thought only seventeen year olds could enter."

"Apparently, there is a magical contract that requires me to compete." He gave me a small sigh. "Can we talk about this later? I'm tired of answering questions." He bowed his head and ate a couple bites of food.

I glanced at Hermione with a worried expression on my face. She gave me a sad look and said we could meet up at the end of the day. I left for the Slytherin table to get myself some breakfast before the first class of the day.

"Morning," said Pansy as I sat down next to her. "Did you find out how your brother was able to enter the tournament?" At her question, every Slytherin near us looked at me.

"No, he said he didn't know how it happened." I answer quietly. People around me started saying that he was lying and that he just wanted to increase his fame and wealth. I ignored them and ate my food. Draco didn't say anything; he just gave me a concerned look and finished his food.

Classes went by excruciatingly slow, and all I could think about was Harry. Occasionally Draco would glance at me, but he didn't say anything. I wondered if last night he meant anything he said. For wanting to make up and be friends again he wasn't doing a good job showing it.

As soon as dinner was over I searched for Harry. I found him with Hermione, again Ron was nowhere in sight. I thought this was odd as the three of them were almost always together. Hermione saw me first and gave me a small smile. She nudged Harry and he looked up and also gave me a small smile.

"Hey, we were about to go looking for you." he said as I approached. "I am writing a letter to Sirius to tell him what happened."

"Oh? That's a good idea. He'll know what to do." I said. "Where is Ron?" At my question Harry frowned and looked upset. "What happened?" I pressed.

"Ron didn't believe me when I said that I didn't enter the tournament." Harry answered softly.

"That asshole, I'll go tell him off." I said furiously. While I didn't like Ron, I knew he meant a lot to my brother. He was Harry's first friend, and I understand the hurt of having a friend not trusting you. I lost my friend over trust and hiding secrets. My trail of thoughts shifted over to Draco, and my anger towards Ron increased.

"That'll make things worse." Harry said "He won't listen to reason."

"Who said I would make him listen with reason? There are other ways to make someone listen." I answered quickly. My thoughts turned towards the unforgivable curses and the pleasure of possibly using Imperio on Ron.

"He'll come 'round. I'm sure of it." Hermione interjected. "Besides, we should be more concerned about finding out who put Harry's name in the Goblet. Any ideas?"

"Well, who wants you dead?" I asked. Silence. The obvious answer was of course Voldemort, but how could he have put Harry's name in? It's not like he has a physical body.

"Let's wait and see what Sirius has to say. I am sure he'll have an idea of who it was, and what we should do." Harry said with a small nod as if he was trying to reassure himself.

"Alright, I'm going to head to my dorm." I said. I gave both of them a quick hug and headed towards the dungeons.

As I entered the common room, I noticed Pansy and Draco chatting by the fireside. I made the quick decision to head over and sit with them.

"There you are!" Pansy exclaimed with a smile. "We were wondering where you were."

"You were?" I asked while looking at Draco. He gave me a small nod, and I felt my heart skip a beat.

"Of course we were!" Pansy answered. "Actually we were hoping you were getting more information from your brother."

"Oh? Now why would you care about that?" I asked suspiciously.

"Well, we want to know how he cheated." She said nonchalantly with a small shrug.

"As far as I know, he didn't put his name in." I said defensively. "And Harry wouldn't lie to me." I added when I saw her disbelieving face. I stood up, annoyed with the two of them, and headed off to bed without another word.

As the days went by, more and more people asked me about my brother as if I would have all the answers. I started to ignore any questions concerning him and eventually they stopped nagging me. While I understood why everyone thought it was unfair of Harry to be able to participate, it seemed as if no one wanted to hear his side of the story. Even Draco showed his dislike of the matter by making "Potter Stinks" badges and handing them out to all the Slytherins. I didn't say anything because people deal with their frustrations in different ways, and who am I to tell them how to express their feelings?

About a week after Harry sent the letter to Sirius, he got a response back saying that he was going to visit Harry via the fireplace in his common room. Unfortunately, I would not be able to be there because other house students aren't allowed in different dormitories. Harry promised to tell me everything they talked about.

My life had gotten dreadfully boring, and my poor brother had to deal with people whispering behind his back once again. Rita Skeeter had published an article that was supposed to be about the tournament but really was all about Harry and how he was sad that our parents were dead. I wasn't even mentioned in the article, which shouldn't have bothered me as I am used to living in Harry's shadow. However, you'd think that being his twin sister I would get a sentence or two.

During one of the days I was sulking, due to jealousy of my brother, Draco asked me if I would take a walk around the school grounds with him. Since the night he said he wanted to work on our friendship there really hadn't been a time for us to talk privately. Pansy was almost always at his side, and I had started to self isolate from everyone. Being the forgotten twin had its effects on my mental state. It seemed that Draco took notice and wanted to do something about it.

That evening, we ate dinner as usual and left the table together. Pansy tried to follow, but Draco told her to leave us alone. She huffed as she sat back down and gave me a small glare. She was probably jealous that I was going to spend time with Draco without her.

Once we got outside, and down towards the greenhouse Draco asked, "How have you been?"

"I've been… alright." I answered without meeting his gaze.

"You know, you can tell me the truth." He responded encouragingly.

"Can I?" I asked slightly annoyed. "It's been weeks since you said you wanted to work on our friendship and this is the first time we have been together alone."

"I'm sorry Chloe, between school work and Pansy following me everywhere it's been hard to find time."

"Sounds like a good excuse to not make time." I retorted angrily. I was upset that no one, not even my brother, could put me as a top priority in their lives. Harry was busy worrying about the first task, and his best friend being an ass to him, that he hadn't been able to find time for me either. Hermione was playing the mediator between Ron and Harry so much that she also was unable to spend time with me. Once again, I was the forgotten Potter twin.

"Chloe, I really am sorry. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about making amends with you." He confessed. I looked up to meet his gaze and he truly did look sorry.

"Why would you be nervous? This was your idea."

"Well, it's been two years since we really had any sort of conversation, and you've hung out with your brother and his friends for so long that I don't know if you're the same person anymore."

"Not talking for two years was really your fault, you know."

"I was wrong." I stopped walking at those words.

"What?" I asked in disbelief. Was he really admitting to being wrong?

"I shouldn't have stopped being your friend. I realize now that you were only doing what you thought was right. That you had made a promise you intended to keep with someone else. I was jealous, and I let it consume me." He bowed his head, and couldn't make eye contact with me.

"You were jealous?" I took his hand and he looked up at me. His gray eyes were full of remorse.

"I wanted to be your… well I'm not exactly sure, but I didn't want you to be friends with people who are not like us."

"Not like us?"

"Your brother and his friends are different, you know that. You and I, we are similar. We'd do anything to achieve our goals, regardless of how we accomplish them." He had a point there. I didn't mind playing the bad guy to get what I wanted. Harry was always looking to do things the right way, like a hero. I was not a hero.

We started walking again, in silence. I let his words stew in my head as I tried to understand where he was coming from. We didn't say anything until we were close to Hagrid's cabin.

"Draco?" I asked softly.

"Yeah?"

"Can you promise me something?"

"Promise what?"

"Promise me that instead of hiding your feelings from me, that you will talk to me about them. Especially if it's something that I am doing that is having an affect on you. It was never my intention to hurt you by keeping secrets. I only wanted to uphold my end of a promise to someone else. And I might have to do that again sometime. I don't know when, but if it does happen, and there is something I can't tell you, I need you to trust me that I can take care of myself."

"I will do my best to tell you what I am feeling. After seeing what you've gone through the last two years, I know you can take care of yourself. Again, I am sorry I was such a jerk to you."

"I wasn't exactly the best to you either." I gave him a half smile. "I think we both can be better at communicating what's going through our heads."

"Agreed." He gave me a full smile and eyes looked like they were twinkling.

"Chloe?" A gruff voice said in the darkness.

I turned around and saw Hagrid. We had reached his hut without realizing it.

"Hagrid! How are you?" I asked with a smile. He gave Draco an untrusting look before turning back to me.

"Do me a favor will ya?" He asked.

"Sure, what do you need?"

"Tell ya brother to come find me tomorrow night 'round midnight. There's something I need to show him." He wouldn't go into more detail, I assume because Draco was with me. I told him I would let Harry know in the morning to come see him after dinner tomorrow night. I waved goodbye as Draco and I turned to head back to the castle.

The next morning I found my brother right after breakfast and told him to meet Hagrid that evening. He asked me what it was about and I told him I didn't know. Giving me a nod, he asked if I would go with him, which I agreed to.

The day went by slowly, and it was a Hogsmead day. So I spent the day with Pansy Draco and Zabini in town. By the time dinner started I couldn't wait for it to be over with. Midnight couldn't have felt so far away. After dinner was finally over, I returned to the Slytherin common room where I impatiently worked on essays for various classes until everyone had gone to bed except for Draco and me. As I stood up to leave Draco and I locked eyes and I could tell he wanted to say something, but held his tongue. Time to put his trust to the test.

I met up with Harry by the doors and he asked if I was ready to go. Nodding, I opened the door and went through. On our way down Harry told me that tonight was the night he was supposed to meet Sirius in his commonroom. I reminded him that he needed to tell me everything they talked about. After a brisk walk in the cool air we arrived at Hagrid's cabin.

Hagrid greeted us enthusiastically and let us inside the cabin. He had, for some reason, put on cologne and attempted to brush out his massive beard.

"Hagrid, is everything alright?" I asked as I inspected his poorly brushed hair.

"Of course, of course. Just wanted to look me best." He replied as he smoothed out his jacket. "Quickly now, put on the cloak and we will head out."

"What did you want to show me?" Harry asked curiously.

"Come with me, keep quiet and keep yerselves covered with that cloak."

"Hagrid, I can't stay long, I need to be back in my dormitory by one." Harry said but it seemed like Hagrid didn't hear him. We put on the cloak again and followed Hagrid out the cabin.

Much to our surprise Hagrid headed towards the Beauxbaton carriage. Hagrid knocked three times on the door. Madam Maxime opened it, wearing a silk shawl over her shoulders. They exchanged a few words and he helped her down the steps. With her arm through his, they headed towards the Forbidden Forest. Quietly, Harry and I followed after exchanging confused looks.

Hagrid and Madam Maxine talked quietly, she was wondering where he was taking her, and he kept telling her she would really enjoy it. After a few minutes, when we could no longer see the castle through the trees we started to hear loud roars coming from the trees. We rounded a clump of trees to finally see what Hagrid wanted to show Harry. Dragons.

Four massive dragons held in large cages were shooting fire into the air as wizards around the area kept putting fires out. There was a silver one, a smooth scale green one, a red one with little gold spikes around its face, and a black one that looked more lizard-like than the others. Each dragon had seven to eight wizards trying to control them as they roared and spit fire out every few seconds.

The two of us locked eyes, fear clearly written on our faces. Charlie Weasley approached Hagrid telling him to keep back as they were having a hard time keeping the dragons contained. We watched as multiple wizards cast stupify to stun one of the dragons. Charlie turned towards Hagrid breathing heavily.

"Alright Hagrid?" He asked. "We put them to sleep with a sleeping draft to bring them over here. Thought it would be better for them to wake up in the dark and quiet, but like you saw they weren't happy. Not happy at all"

"What breeds ya got here?" Hagrid asked as he gazed upon the four fully grown dragons.

"This is a Hungarian Horntail," Charlie said pointing at the black dragon. "There is a common Welsh Green over there, a Swedish Short Snout, the silvery blue one, and a Chinese Fireball that's the red one."

Madam Maxine walked a bit closer to the dragons. "I didn't know you were bringing her. The champions aren't supposed to know and she's surely going to tell her student isn't she?" Charlie said, frowning.

"Just thought she'd like to see 'em." Hagrid brushed it off while still gazing at the dragons with longing. "What do they got to do?"

"I think they just need to get past them. They wanted brooding mothers, which makes them a bit more aggressive. I don't envy the champion that gets the Horntail." Charlie answered.

Harry and I made contact and he pointed at his watch. It was time to leave, and without saying goodbye, we turned silently away and headed back to the castle. Once out of the forest we started whispering to each other.

"Dragons!" I exclaimed. "I can't believe it. The first task is dragons."

"Tell me about it. What am I going to do?" He asked with a hint of fear in his voice.

"Good thing you're about to meet with Sirius, maybe he will know a spell that can help you."

Harry walked me over to the dungeon doors, gave me a quick hug, and headed off to see Sirius. I headed back to my dorm and off to bed. My dreams were filled with dragons and fire, I hardly got any rest.

AN: Oop it's been like a million years since updating this fic. Hadn't had a computer and well life is crazy. Hope you all enjoy it. Please leave a review!