Sirius was in the enormous training room of his manor and standing in front of a wall on which a series of runes were drawn with some space between them. Every rune had a distinct function and Sirius had enlisted Remus's help in making them work. The runes were sketched with special ink and needed a touch of magic every time Sirius required to use them.
The runes were designed so that Sirius could measure various aspects of his body like his speed, strength, and other physical attributes. And the reason he needed them was that he found out that, as he became adept at controlling his half-grim form, he gradually got stronger and faster with time. So he felt that he needed them to take notes every now and then to keep track of his progress and figure out what worked and what didn't.
"Here goes nothing—" Sirius said while taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, standing in front of one of the first runes. He accessed his inner place and found two glowing orbs hanging there each representing his animagus forms. He gravitated toward the bigger one and gently stirred up his Beerus form.
Sirius felt his bones and muscles strengthen as his body grew more streamlined and buff and he felt himself brimming with power. He remained calm, resisting the temptation to revel in his newfound strength and the moment he felt his nails growing and hairs lengthening on his arms; he utilized extreme control to halt the transformation at that exact point.
He opened his eyes and holding onto that form punched with all his might at the rune on the wall, and he felt his knuckle hit with a loud sound but he felt no pain as if he was hitting the wall but the wall wasn't hitting him back (Magic was even subverting newton's law here).
The last time he had measured his attributes was about ten days ago and he had obtained very satisfying results with his strength being five times as much as a peak human and his explosive speed being three times as much so he was looking forward to finding out how much he had improved in the last one and a half weeks.
As he was looking at the rune calculating the number, he heard a familiar popping sound from behind him before he turned around and found Kreacher standing there, "Master, someone is at the door," the elf announced
"Who?" Sirius asked puzzled, as he knew that it was too early for Remus to be home and no one knew about this place except for him and Dumbledore and he knew that Headmaster is too polite to arrive unannounced.
"It's a witch and she is asking for White,"
"A witch?" Sirius was alarmed now, as he knew that it couldn't be a neighbor since no one lived around for miles and miles, and more importantly "White," was the name he used when he used the disguise with glamour on his face which meant that it was someone he didn't want knowing his real name. And the one thing that disturbed him the most was that the ward around the home didn't even alert him about someone entering the perimeter.
His mind was coming up with various possibilities from horrible ones like Aurors standing at the doors to take him to Azkaban to delightful ones like a group of college girls being stranded on their vacation. With his senses now alert and heightened Sirius left the training room holding his wand tightly in his hand and went toward the living room.
The moment he looked at the person standing on his doorstep through the one-way glass on his door, he reflexively hid his face back immediately.
The one standing outside his house was the last person he expected as he knew that he would never give her his home address. Sirius took another peek and saw that she was still standing outside but he saw that she was quickly getting impatient and Sirius knew that she wasn't the kind of person who go back if no one came out. Instead, she was the kind to break into the house to check if someone's home or if they were pretending.
After brainstorming for a few moments, and concluding that the only thing he could do was face the problem head-on, Sirius took a deep breath and went toward the door. Of course, he didn't forget to apply glamour on his face first before going out toward the door.
"I thought you were never going to open the door," Celine said with a smirk the moment he opened the door. She was standing there wearing muggle clothes which were the height of fashion in the 90s.
"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked with a frown and continued before she could get a word in, "No! More importantly, How in Merlin's name did you even find my place?"
Ever since the incident where they had both been tied up upside down due to Beth's ward, Sirius didn't have much interaction with her at all. Every time she saw him when he went to Beth's house for his lessons she would grit her teeth and mutter curses under her breath.
And then Eventually, unable to bear his presence, she would silently slip out of the room after a while of watching what he was learning. And Sirius was very busy planning his trip to Herpo's tomb, so he didn't bother with her either and instead focused on learning as much as possible from Beth.
"Shouldn't you welcome me inside first," Celine asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow before ignoring his questions and entering through the door rudely, "Don't you know its impolite to keep your guest standing at your door,"
"It's also impolite to come to people's houses uninvited," Sirius asked, with his eyebrow twitching, while looking at the woman moving in his living room and looking around curiously without care, "And don't ignore my question. How did you even find this place?"
"Oh that," She answered airily while unreservedly taking a seat on the sofa, "I left a little tracker on you the last time you were at my granny's place,"
"What?! When did you—" Sirius asked alarmed. He quickly waved his wand over his body with a revealing spell and found an impossibly faint spell on his shirt which he removed immediately, he didn't stop there and searched vigorously for if there were any more, "Why would you do something like this and not just ask for the address like a normal person," he asked frustratedly.
"Where's the fun in that," Celine said smugly before looking at him still searching, and said, "Don't worry, I only put one tracker on you. By the way nice place, you got here. I never took you for the type of person to live on such an empty island,"
Sirius took a deep breath and stopped himself from saying the first thing that came to his mind and instead asked with forced politeness, "Do you mind telling me how you bypassed my wards?"
"That was very easy," Celine said with a smirk, "Your ward has an exception for animals interweaved in it so I just had to use that loophole for it to consider me an animal. It was a neat little trick that works most of the time for the old wards,"
"That is..." Sirius was disturbed, while he knew that as a famous Cursebreaker's granddaughter, Celine was talented, he was still perturbed at how easily she was able to break in. Sirius decided that the first thing he would do after he chased the problem away would be to upgrade them, "Why are you here?"
"Oh! Finally, you ask the most important question," Celine said with a smile and clapped her hands excitedly, "I gathered over the weeks that you are training under my grandmother to prepare for a trip to a dangerous tomb and it has to be an important one if granny's teaching you so seriously,"
"What does it matter to you?" Sirius asked, taking a seat in front of her, not denying anything as he knew that it was pointless since she could find out about it anytime from Beth.
"Well, I was supposed to go on a trip to an assignment for a few months but it got canceled at the last moment due to some reasons," She said waving her hand away before her face brightened up, "So I am free for a few months and I thought that since you don't look like someone who has any experience with these things, I decided to help you out,"
"And why in Merlin's name would you help me?" Sirius asked skeptically.
"Of course, for the Commission! What else?" Celine said with a raised eyebrow as if he was asking a stupid question, "Whatever we find I get 70% of that no matter if it's gold, ancient artifacts, or forgotten magic,"
"What! 70%!" Sirius said in a high-pitched voice while standing up abruptly, "Why the hell would I even agree to that ridiculous price?"
"Why are you getting your knickers in the twist for," Celine said tilting her head calmly, "It's not ridiculous at all in fact It's the standard price we get to take and protect an amateur into dangerous ruins or tombs,"
"I am not an amateur!" Sirius said indignantly, "And not that I am agreeing to anything, even if I was I am the one who actually knows where the tomb is so No Thanks! I don't want your 30%. Instead, I will just learn from Beth like I was before and go on my own as I was going to,"
"As if! At the pace you are learning right now it will be a miracle if you become competent enough before a couple of years have passed," Celine scoffed before she leaned forward and said consideringly, "You are my granny's student so I can consider giving you an acquaintance discount and only take 60%,"
The amount of time she said stopped Sirius in his tracks for a moment and he started thinking about her proposal seriously. He didn't want to wait that long before going on that journey as a lot of things could seriously go wrong.
After considering the pros and cons of the situation for a while Sirius decided that it would be better for him and for Harry to go to the tomb as soon as possible.
"How about this?" Sirius said after a while, "If we find any artifacts and gold we divide it according to your specification but all the books and scrolls of knowledge we find go to me, No questions asked," Sirius had enough money in his vault that he had no need for anymore so he prioritized the things he needed at the moment.
"Deal!" Celine said immediately, she was ready to haggle a lot more so she was happy that he agreed at that ridiculous that was more appropriate for a team of curse-breakers instead of a lone one so she agreed before he could take it back.
"So?" Celine asked excitedly, "Where is it? Whose is it?"
Sirius looked into her eyes seriously and said in a grave tone, "Have you heard of the Greek guy "Herpo the Foul," Celine's eyes immediately widened at the name of the legendary Ancient Dark wizard.
...
"Stop pacing around so much," Ron said, following Harry with his head left and right, "You're going to make me dizzy,"
Both of them were in the Gryffindor dormitory at the moment but just a few hours earlier shit had hit the ceiling when Harry's name had flown out of the Goblet of Fire. Everything had flown past him so quickly that it was only now that the realization hit him like a ton of bricks, and he felt a wave of panic wash over him as he struggled to come to terms with the gravity of the situation
"Dizzy! Dizzy! You say!" Harry's voice rose with each word, "I am on the verge of passing out here and you're worried about getting dizzy," Harry shouted with wide eyes before he went back to pacing, "Shit! Why did it have to happen this year? I knew everything was going far too smoothly and something just had to give sooner or later but... I had just hoped for once..."
"Oh! You don't have to be so dramatic about it," Ron said rolling his eyes, "It's not like this is the first time something like this had happened,"
"But it's not like the other times," Harry stressed, "Every other time at least I was given a choice, like in the first year, it was my choice for us to go to the third floor at the end of the year a-and it was our choice to go Myrtle's bathroom in the second year to save Ginny and so on but this time... I wasn't even given a chance. I didn't choose this," Harry said morosely while taking a seat on his bed while holding his head in his hands.
"You really didn't?" Ron asked hesitatingly.
"Of course not—" Harry said, looking up incredulously, "You don't think that I entered myself, Do you?"
"I mean i-it's not like I would mind if you did," Ron said, looking away and playing with the blanket in his hands.
Harry opened his mouth as he felt a surge of anger rising up in him but stopped at the last moment and took a deep breath before standing up and moving to sit directly in front of Ron.
"Ron," Harry said and quietly asked him, "What do you think you would get if you were the one who entered the tournament?"
"What?" Ron asked confusedly while turning his head toward Harry.
"What would you get if you entered and won the tournament?" Harry repeated his question calmly.
"Umm... A thousand gallons and E-Eternal glory and I would become famous I guess," Ron said shrugging, his eyes dilating and a smile appeared on his face as he thought about it.
"You are my best friend and the one who knows the most about me, Don't you?" Harry asked and continued after Ron nodded, "So tell me honestly, Do you think I need 1000 galleons?"
"No," Ron answered after a while, his face slowly turning red.
"What about fame? Do you think I need that?"
"No,"
"And Eternal Glory—"
"Alright! Alright!" Ron said exasperatedly raising his hands, "You don't need to make me feel so stupid. I was just asking..."
Harry immediately felt relief rush through his body when he saw that Ron had come back from the deep end. He had never been more thankful to Sirius than at that moment for teaching him occlumency and he was glad that the training was actually working.
The art had not only made his nights more bearable without any unpleasant dreams. They also left his mind uncluttered and it left him with the feeling as if he always had infinite time to think before doing or saying anything.
If it was him from before he knew that he would have either been too sullen to calmly assess the situation or too indignant to understand that it was just Ron having a momentary bout of jealousy.
Harry knew all too well about jealousy from his childhood years; watching Dudley receive all kinds of gifts and love from him while all he received was a list of chores was difficult, so he could easily relate with his best friend. Growing up as a seventh child in the Weasely family, who were not too well financially meant there would be some things that were inevitable.
"So what do you think I should do," Harry asked after a few minutes of silence while going back to his bed and lying down.
"I don't know," Ron said shrugging, "Ask Sirius. He always knows what to do,"
"I can't," Harry said sighing, "He said that he's going on some kind of trip to the mountains or forest or something and that I may not be able to contact him for a while,"
Ron offered a half-hearted smile. "Looks like you'll need to start working on your autobiography then, mate," he said. "At least I'll make a few Galleons from ghostwriting it."
Harry chuckled weakly, appreciating his friend's attempt at humor. But at that moment, he understood the metaphor "When it rains, it pours" all too well.
...
A few days later Ron and Harry were hurrying toward the library, their face contorted with panic.
"I've already told Hermione and she is already waiting for us in the library," Ron said without breaking his stride, "She's probably already deep into books about animals,"
"And you're sure that it's Dragon," Harry asked in a hushed voice, his eyes comically wide behind his glasses.
"Why else would my brother Charlie be here,"
Harry let out a despairing groan. "What in Merlin's name am I supposed to do in front of a dragon?"
Ron shook his head and shrugged. "Don't look at me," he said. "The only ray of hope you have is Hermione, so you better pray that your girlfriend's got some good ideas, otherwise if it was left to us you'll be dragon food before you know it."
Harry let out a mirthless laugh as they entered the library and scanned the rows of bookshelves. They finally spotted Hermione's unmistakable hair peeking out from behind a towering stack of books. "Let's go see what she's found," Harry said, a glimmer of hope in his voice.
"Umm... Hermione," Ron said tentatively, approaching the frazzled girl whose eyes were darting across the pages of a book. "I brought Harry."
"WHAT—" Hemione looked up; annoyed at getting disturbed while she was reading before she realized who it was, "Oh, Ron! Harry! Where were you? Did Ron tell you about the dragons? Are you scared?" Her words tumbled out in a rush. "Well, don't be. I'm sure we'll find a way to get you through this. And if we can't, we'll come up with a plan B. We could always hide you or maybe even have you stay with Sirius. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Or maybe..."
Harry cut in before Hermione could continue her rapid-fire suggestions. "I'm okay," he said, trying to sound reassuring. "Or I will be. I'm sure the three of us can come up with a solution."
"We will," Hermione said, nodding resolutely. "And speaking of which," she said, as she picked up a thin book from the stack, "Sirius sent me a few books for my birthday, and this one caught my attention. It's a muggle book that teaches effective problem-solving techniques."
Harry and Ron both looked at the book Hermione was excitedly talking about skeptically before Ron blurted out, "How in the bloody hell is a muggle book supposed to help us with a dragon,"
"It's not supposed to give us the answer. Instead, it's meant to give us a fresh perspective on the problem," Hermione explained, pausing when she saw the blank looks on Harry and Ron's faces. "But let's just give it a try."
She opened a fresh page in her notebook and wrote at the top, "Our main problem is a 'Dragon'." She looked up at Harry and Ron, encouraging them to speak their minds. "Now, we need to write down everything we know about the dragon's strengths and weaknesses. Anything that comes to your mind, let's start."
Hermione waited expectantly as Harry and Ron hesitated before finally, Harry said hesitatingly, "Um... How about its massive strength," just to get his girlfriend to stop staring at them.
Ron scoffed at the obvious answer but Hermione happily wrote it down, "No Ron! It's good. As I said you can say anything,"
"Oh! Then how about—It breathes fire," Ron said with a smirk, rolling his eyes.
"Good," Hermione wrote it down and looked up, "Anything else,"
"It can fly," "It's massive teeth," "It's magic resistant hide,"
Harry and Ron took turns coming up with more and more ridiculous things they could think of and made a game of it but before long, even their brains which had been trained by Trelawney's class to come up with ridiculous ideas ran out of things.
"Now," Hermione said taking her quill to the empty side of the page, "It's weakness,"
At that, all three of them were stumped, as it was really hard to think about the weakness of a huge magical beast like the dragon.
"How about its eyes," Ron said after a while, just to move things along.
"We would need a specific spell to exploit that," Hermione said frowning, still she wrote it down, "I guess it a start. Anything else,"
"Umm... How about cold," Harry said scratching his head.
"Maybe," Hermione said biting her lips, "I will have to check about that," she said while writing it down.
"How about breathing," Ron said absentmindedly.
Harry looked at Ron quizzically, "How is that supposed to be a weakness?"
"I mean it needs to breathe, Doesn't it," Ron said smirking, "So maybe we lather you up something like hippogriff shit and fill your pockets up with Fred and George's Stinkbombs. Then maybe the dragon will be so disgusted with you that it will leave you alone Pffft..." He burst out laughing at the ridiculous image he conjured in his head.
"Ha ha, Very funny," Harry said rolling his eyes, "You know, I don't even need to go that far. Just one of your old smelly socks will be enough to send any dragon running,"
While the boys were messing around with each other, behind them Hermione had gone into some kind of a trance, "Breathe... It needs to... Oxygen..." Hermione eyes were completely blank as she mumbled to herself incoherently and out of nowhere she suddenly jumped in her place with wide eyes and a blinding smile on her face, "That's absolutely brilliant, Ron," she exclaimed.
Without wasting a single moment, Hermione dashed off into the sea of bookshelves to see if her idea was feasible, leaving two stunned boys behind.
"Do you know what she's on about, Mate," Ron asked after Hermione had disappeared from their view.
"What are you asking me for?" Harry said incredulously, "It was your "brilliant" idea, after all,"
"Ah! Well," Ron shrugged, "I just thought you would have learned your girlfriend's secret language by now,"
"I don't think anyone can learn that..." Harry said with a wry smile on his face.
/
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