"You're going to meet him then, aren't you?" I asked Harry the next morning. Apparently Harry had come back up to the Common Room shortly after I went to bed. He also, apparently, received a letter from Sirius who was planning on having a little meeting with Harry. Face to face. In a days time.
"Well, yea," Harry said, trying to suppress a smile. I could tell he was excited to talk to Sirius in person; I thought it was cute how excited he was.
"Do you know how you're going to meet?" I asked, scanning the letter again for any information.
"Er, no. He just said to be alone at one in the morning Sunday," Harry said taking the letter back and reading it over again. "I'm sure the alone part includes a plus one. I mean, if you wanted to stick around and hear what he's got to say."
"'What he's got to say'?" I repeated.
"I'm sure he's not risking his safety just to pop in and say hello. Hopefully he'll be able to give me some advice for Tuesday." Harry said, his face changing from excited to anxious. Not the excited kind of anxious, more like the anxious that anxiety attacks branch from. I reached over and grabbed his hand in attempts to lighten his mood.
"You'll be brilliant, I promise," I said giving his hand a squeeze. He squeezed back slightly sending a shiver up my arm. I don't know what it is, I feel fine whenever I touch him, but when he returns the touch it makes me smile. "Hey, it's a Hogsmeade weekend, do you want to go out with Hermione and I?"
"Won't Hermione want to go with Ron? They're still friends, aren't they?"
"Well, yes they are. But she suggested we, the four of us, meet up at the Three Broomsticks..."
"No," Harry said flatly.
"Come on, Harry, this is ridiculous-" I started.
"I'll go, but I won't meet with Ron, and I'm wearing my Invisibility Cloak. I don't want to know how people treat me after that article," Harry said shortly. I rolled my eyes and heaved a short sigh.
"Can't one of you be the bigger person and apologize? Just make up already? Yes, you somehow got entered into the Tournament. No, you didn't enter yourself. You honestly don't want this to happen to you," I said.
"Tell that to Ron. Not me. Trust me, I'd have a much funner time if I were hanging out with Ron right now," Harry said, looking at the table.
"Rather than with your girlfriend?" I asked accusingly.
"No, that's not-" Harry started, his eyes widening.
"'Not what I said'?" I finished. "Well how about this? You're sick of hanging out with me, you're girlfriend. You'd rather hang out with your best friend. Since you can't do that, you'd rather hide from us that be seen with us."
"Stephanie, that's n-"
"Just go. Wear your damn cloak, I don't care," I snapped standing up from our table. "Just go and get your cloak on. Hermione and I will be waiting for you down here."
"Stephanie, I-"
"Go. Get. Your. Cloak. If you're not with us soon we'll leave you," I said through gritted teeth. I turned back around and sat down on the couch with a huff, my face burning slightly. I heard Harry stomp up the stairs and shut his dormitory door behind him.
"What's on between the two of you?" Hermione asked, raising her eyebrows.
"I don't really know," I said a bit exasperated. "I'm just tired of how the two of them act to each other. I think I may have been a bit harsh."
"It's getting to be ridiculous," Hermione said in agreement. "And yes, you may have been a little harsh." The door to the boys dormitory opened and closed without any visible person exiting. I stood up and faced the door, waiting for Harry.
"Ready," his voice said quietly behind us. I started off, taking the lead. I wasn't really in the mood to interact with Harry right now. I'm not really sure why I was mad at him. Other peoples moods seem to affect me. He's angsty and mad, so I guess I picked up his mood and returned it back to him.
It was a pleasant change not having people glaring in my direction every second. It really was Harry that people had a major issue with. Sometimes, people annoy me; maybe the Sorting Hat should have put me in Slytherin.
"Ugh, look," Hermoine said once we had entered the village. I looked forward to where she was gesturing and noticed who she was talking about. Rita Skeeter. She was, I guess, the official correspondent for the Triwizard Tournament. Harry told me about her after we read her 'amazingly accurate' interviews with the champions. It turned out to mostly a complete life story of Harry, covering multiple pages. Fleur and Krum's names were misspelled, and Cedric wasn't mentioned at all. She was carrying a green crocodile skin bag and wore a similar jacket and skirt suit combo.
"Why don't we go have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks?" Hermione suggested. "It's a bit cold, isn't it. Why don't you take the cloak off. It'll be toastier inside."
"You don't have to talk to Ron," I said irritably, correctly interpreting the small silence. "You actually don't have to talk to anyone." Hermione made sure to follow in after I did, allowing Harry to walk in between us without causing much suspicion. I sat down at a table near the back as Hermione went to get our drinks. I felt Harry scoot in next to me and I automatically scooted away from him. I could hear him sigh with frustration. Maybe he was trying to make up for the little outburst.
Hermione returned a few strained minutes later with three butterbeers. She handed one to me and slipped a second under the cloak to Harry. I took a sip of my drink and smiled as the sweet, hot beverage slid down my throat warming me up. I leaned back and looked around the pub full of cheerful and relaxed people. Wouldn't it be nice to be one of them? Not having to worry about not the Tournament. Sitting here with Ron, Hermione, and Harry, not under the Invisibility Cloak, just hanging out. Not worrying about your best friend, let alone your boyfriend, facing the unknown, and according to some people certain death, in three days. Instead of sitting in the stands and watching Harry fight for his life, just being able to sit in the stands and cheer on the other champions.
I took another sip of my butterbeer and gripped the glass, feeling my anger fade away. Why exactly had I gotten so mad? I knew that he didn't mean he didn't want to spend time with me. Even if I wasn't his girlfriend, he'd still be hanging out with me as one of his best friends. I really shouldn't speak without thinking first. Everything I said just made things worse and worse. I'd much rather be spending time with Sage and Alexa rather than us be fighting. God, I feel like such a jerk now; hopefully he's mad still.
"Look, it's Hagrid!" Hermione said pointing across the crowd of people. I looked to where she pointed and spotted his giant, no pun intended, mess of black hair. Next to him was Moody, drinking form his personal flask instead of a butterbeer glass. Hagrid and Moody? That's a weird pair to be hanging out. Harry stood up to wave at Hagrid but stopped, realizing he was still under the cloak. Moody's eye turned and focused on where Harry was. He tapped Hagrid's shoulder and pointed to where Hermione and I were, visibly, seen.
"All right, Hermione? Stephanie?" Hagrid said loudly.
"Hello," Hermione and I said together. Moody limped around the table and bent down to where Harry was and said, "Nice cloak, Potter."
"Can your eye- I mean can you-?"
"Yeah. It can see through Invisibility Cloak's," Moody said quietly. "And it comes in useful at times, I can tell you."
Hagrid was beaming down at Harry too. Hagrid can't possibly see him, so Moody must've told him he was there. He bent down slightly and whispered, "Harry, meet me at midnight at me cabin. Wear that cloak." He started to stand back up but stopped when he noticed me. He bent back down and whispered, "You can bring Stephanie with yeh if yeh like."
He straightened up full this time and said loudly, "Nice ter see yeh, Hermione. Stephanie," winked, and departed, Moody following. We left the Three Broomsticks and headed straight back towards the caste. Apparently our time spent there was enough in Hogsmeade. Once we were back inside Gryffindor Tower Harry shredded the Invisibility Cloak back in his dorm and sat by himself in front of the fireplace. Hermione, being the hermit she is, retreated back into the library. The common room was empty, seeing as most of the kids were still in Hogsmede or enjoying the empty castle. The air was slightly tense as I sat down next to Harry on the couch.
"Harry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get so heated with you earlier. I just spoke my first reactions without thinking," I said to him. He looked at me slowly, then put his arms around me and pulled me closer.
"I'm sorry. Of course I want to spend time with you. I love spending time with you. I never meant it to sound like I didn't." I leaned my head against his chest and sighed.
"I-" love you, my mind finished for me. Thank God I shut my mouth before I spoke the whole sentence. Brain,why can't you just wait until my heart decides if I really love him or not. Or is it the other way around? The only think I know is that I personally do not know or not know if I truly love him. I very well might love him. Maybe it's like last year, I just need that defining moment where my whole body knows 'I like him'. Well, 'I love him'. But I'd really rather not have to have his life jeopardized just so my mind and heart are clear.
"You what?" Harry asked. I searched my brain trying to think of a good cover up. I couldn't tell him what was really going on in my head, well at least not yet.
"I...I wonder what Hagrid wants to show you- us tonight. And could it make us late for Sirius?" I lied. Well, that technically was something I was wonder. Just not what I was talking about.
At half past eleven that evening, Harry and I crept down to Hagrid's hut under his Invisibility Cloak. The grounds were very dark; the lights were shining inside Hagrid's cabin, however. The inside of the enormous Beauxbatons carriage was also lit up; we could hear Madame Maxime's voice from inside of it as Harry knocked on the door to Hagrid's cabin.
"You there, Harry en Stephanie?" Hagrid whispered, opening the door and looking around.
"Yeah," the two of us replied as we slipped inside the cabin, Harry pulling the cloak down off our heads. "What's up?"
"Got summat ter show yeh," Hagrid said. "Come with me, keep quiet, an' keep yerself covered with that cloak. We won' take Fang, he won' like it..."
"Listen, Hagrid, we can't stay long...I've got to be back up at the castle by one o'clock..." But Hagrid wasn't listening; he was opening the cabin door and striding off into the night. We hurried to follow behind his steps and were surprised to see him leading us to the Beauxbatons carriage.
"Hagrid, what-?"
"Shhh!" Hagrid said as he knocked on the door to the carriage.
"Ah, 'Agrid...it is time?" Madame Maxime asked stepping out of the door.
"Bong-sewer," Hagrid said, butchering his French. 'Bon soir'. What could Hagrid want to show us? Madame Maxime? We could see her any old time...she erm...not exactly hard to miss.
But it seemed she was in for the same treat as us, because after awhile she said playfully, "Wair is it you are taking me, 'Agrid?"
"Yeh'll enjoy this," Hagrid said gruffly, "worth seein', trsut me. On'y- don' go tellin' anyone I showed yeh, right? Yeh're not s'posed ter know."
"Of course not," Maxime said, fluttering her long black lashes. And we kept walking. Well, Harry and I sort of jogged in their giant, again no pun intended, strides. Hagrid let Maxime around a clump of trees and came to a halt. We hurried up alongside them – for a split second, I thought I saw bonfires, and men darting around them. I stopped dead in my tracks as my mouth fell open.
Dragons.
Four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing onto their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood. Torrents of fire were shooting into the dark sky from their open, fanged mouths, fifty feet about the ground. There was a silvery-blue one, a smooth-scaled green one, a red one with strange, gold fringe around its face, and a gigantic black one, more dinosaur looking than a dragon, which was closet to us.
"Keep back there, Hagrid! Yelled a wizard near the fence, straining on the chain he was holding. "They can shoot fire at a range of twenty feet, you know! I've seen this Horntail do forty."
"Wan' a closer look?" Hagrid asked Maxime excitedly. The pair of them moved right up to the fence and Harry and I followed slowly behind. As we moved, I noticed we were gripping onto each other for support, subconsciously more than likely. I suddenly remembered Harry's meeting and looked down at my watch quickly; a quarter til one. What? Where the heck had all the time gone? We must have walked all the way to Hungary, for all I know. If it'd taken us this long to walk into the forest, it would take just as long to walk back. I loosened my grip on Harry's arm only to tug on his sleeve.
"Harry. Harry, look at what time it is," I whispered showing him my watch. He squinted slightly to see the time, then gasped, slightly too audible.
"Twelve forty five? How did this happen?" he whispered harsly.
"Well, you see. There are sixty minutes in an hour, and sixty seconds in each of those minutes-" I started. He glared at me playfully before taking my arm again.
"We gotta go," he said as we started turning around. We made our way back up to the school as quickly and quietly as we could, reaching the Common Room with two minutes to spare. I sprawled out on the couch breathing heavily.
"Don't...don't ever make me run like...like that again," Harry said in between pants.
"The only time I run that fast is when I'm trying to beat my sisters to a bathroom or food," I said breathing heavily.
I laid back on the couch, letting myself catch my breath. Before I could get too relaxed, I felt several small pricks on my back. I sat up suddenly, turning around to see what has assaulted my body. I found a few buttons lying on their front so the pins were facing the unlucky body part of anyone who sat down. I picked one up and examined it; an old Support Cedric Diggory button someone had tried to turn in favor of Harry. Now all it said was Potter REALLY stinks. Brilliant.
I picked one up and tossed it into the dying embers, causing Harry to jump slightly.
"What? It's just a button," I said confused.
"No. Look!" Harry said pointing into the fire. I jumped off the couch at first when I saw the head resting in the fire. My eyes widened and my pulse slowed a bit as I recognized Sirius's face sitting in the fire. If I hadn't been in some kind of magical world, I would have probably fainted.
"Sirius - how're you doing?"
"Never mind me, how are you?" Sirius said seriously. Harry paused a second before replying. He didn't say he was fine. He didn't even say how he was. He suddenly jumped into talking about all that had happened so far. How no one believed he hadn't entered of his own free will, how Skeeter had written a wonder article filled with lies, how he couldn't walk down a corridor without being sneered at, how not even Ron was standing by his side...
"...and now Hagrid's just shown us what's coming in the first task, and it's dragons, Sirius, I'm a goner," he finished desperately. I swallowed hard remembering the four giant beasts breathing fire in the forest. Sirius looked at him, eyes full of concern, eyes that had not yet lost the look of Azkaban.
"Dragons we can deal with," Sirius began," but we'll get to that in a minute – I haven't got long here...I've broken into a wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be back at any time. There are things I need to warn you about."
"What?" the two of us said together. I could hear Harry's spirits slip a few more notches in his voice, making my heart slip too. He was already positive he wasn't going to succeed , what could be worse to make him feel worse?
"Karkaroff. He was a Death Eater."
"He – what?"
"He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, be he got released. I'd bet everything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year – to keep an eye on him. Moody's the one who caught Karkaroff and put him in Azkaban in the first place.
"Karkaroff got released? Why in Merlin's name would they ever do that?" I asked slightly agitated. Karkaroff seemed shady and dark in the first place, but this just made things worse.
"He did a deal with the Ministry," Sirius said bitterly. "He said he's seen the error of his ways, and then he named names...he put a load of people into Azkaban in his place...He's not very popular in there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching Dark Arts to every student who passes through that school of his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well."
"Okay," Harry said slowly, taking this in. " But... are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the goblet? Because if he did, he's a really good actor. He seemed furious about it. He wanted to stop me from competing."
"We know he's a good actor," said Sirius, "Because he convinced the Ministry of Magic to set him free, didn't he?"
"Do...do you think Voldemort could have found out about the tournament? Is that what you mean? You think Karkaroff might be here on his orders?
"I don't know," Sirius said slowly," I just don't know. Karkaroff doesn't strike me as the type who'd go back to Voldemort doesn't strike me as the type who'd go back to Voldemort unless he knew Voldemort was powerful enough to protect him. But whoever put your name in the goblet did it for a reason, and I can't help thinking the tournament would be a very good way to attack you and make it look like an accident."
"Looks like a really good plan from where I'm standing," Harry said grinning bleakly. "They'll just have to stand back and let the dragons do their stuff."
"Harry," I said closing my eyes and grabbing for his hand. All this talk about him being put into this to be purposefully hurt made me sick to my stomach. The thought of someone getting a sick joy from watching a teenage boy, my boyfriend none the less, being mangled to death. I swallowed, tasting a sick bile in the back of my throat as I thought about these things.
"Right – these dragons," Sirius said, speaking very quickly. "There's a way, Harry. Don't be tempted to try a Stunning Spell – dragons are strong and too powerfully magical to be knocked out by a single Stunner, you need about half a dozen wizards at a time to overcome a dragon-"
"Yea, I know, we just saw," Harry said squeezing my hand slightly.
"But you can do it alone," Sirius said. "There is a way, and a simple spell's all you need. Just-"
But Harry suddenly held up a hand to silence him. I wasn't sure why he'd stopped him, until I could hear footsteps coming down the staircase.
"Go!" he hissed at Sirius. "Go! There's someone coming!"
Harry scrambled up to his feet pulling me up with him, hiding the fire – if someone saw Sirius's face within the wall of Hogwarts, they would raise an almighty uproar – the Ministry would get dragged in, Harry would probably be questioned about Sirius's whereabouts. He'd never tell, so they'd probably resort to... I didn't want to think about it.
There was a tiny pop from the fire and Sirius was gone. Who in their right mind decided to go on a stroll at one in the morning and inadvertently stopped Sirius from sharing the secret to stopping the dragon?
Of course, it was Ron. Dressed in his ever so lovely maroon paisley pajamas, Ron stopped dead facing the two of us, looking tired and...confused.
"Who were you talking to?"
"What's that got to do with you? Maybe Stephanie and I were just talking. Privately," Harry snarled. " What are you doing down here at this time of night?"
"I just wondered where you-" Ron broke off, shrugging. "Nothing. I'm going back to bed."
"Just thought you'd come nosing around, did you?" Harry shouted. He was mad. For no reason, I'm sure. Ron hadn't known what we were doing down here' he hadn't known what he walked into, but I'm sure Harry doesn't care.
"Sorry about that," Ron said, his face reddening with anger. "Should've realized the two of you didn't want to be disturbed. You're probably helping him practice for his next interview, aren't ya. I"ll let you get on in peace."
Harry seized one of the buttons off the couch and chucked it, as hard as he could, across the room. It hit Ron on the forehead and bounced off.
"There you go. Something for you to wear on Tuesday. You might even have a scar now, if you're lucky...That's what you want, isn't it?" I bit my lip to suppress a laugh, figuring it might only add fuel to the fire. I followed Harry as he strode across the room and up the stairs. I stopped at the door to the girls dorm to look back at Harry, come to find he was looking back at me too. I tried to think of something to make him feel better, but I couldn't. All I did was walk up to him and kiss him on the cheek, offering him a sheepish smile.
"Night," I whispered before returning to my dorm and shutting the door behind me. I stripped off my clothes I was still wearing from our outing with Hagrid and slipped into bed.