A/N: I know I lost a week. And to be honest, I almost didn't make this week. It's called life. I could explain but it always sounds like I'm making excuses. On the other hand, I had some free time yesterday. I was out of reach of my computer but there was a bookshelf. I amused myself by reading early Calvin and Hobbes. Picture this: Calvin is talking to his father and asked what would happen if he plugged his mouth and his nose just before he sneezed. Would it come out of his ears or would his head explode? Calvin then admits that, either way, he's too scared to try.

Chapter 25: As I Was Saying

Remus Lupin was the last person Draco expected help from. Nor was it the kind of help he expected. It began after the end of the second task. After everyone told him, he was stupid for taking the girl with him. Sirius Black said it best. "You Wally, if you brought her back, they would have given you points AND excused your time limit."

Albus Dumbledore, with Professor Karkaroff, Madame Maxime and Professor Duracam decided to ask a more pertinent question. How did a fourth year student obtain a portkey? Draco claimed that he had gotten it from Sirius Black. Black immediately denied it. Draco smirked as he pointed out that he never said the portkey was given to him. Professor Karkaroff asked if it was possible to take points away from his score.

It was the Saturday after the task. Draco was walking with Hermione and Dean to the Great Hall. They slowed as they reached the last staircase. Potter and Longbottom were standing at the bottom talking to Professor Lupin. Longbottom was nodding his head. When Lupin saw who was standing at the top of the stairs, the two boys with him turned to look.

Potter looked directly at Draco. Intense but without anger. Not a normal look. He said something to Lupin, causing the man to smile. Draco noticed that Longbottom looked surprised. The two walked off to the Great Hall in deep conversation.

"Mister Malfoy, could I have a word with you." Now it was Draco and Hermione standing at the bottom of the stairs with Dean watching out of curiosity. "Sirius Black told me about . . ."

". . . My lack of moral fiber. He told me all about it, too."

"Clever little girl. I heard tell that she thought on her own to take the Centaur with her."

Hermione and Dean smiled. Both had been there when Abby complained about how many points they gave Draco. She related to Professor Lupin how Draco told the girl they had to give him such a low score because she did most of the work.

"I even learned something," Draco admitted. "She made it all the way down the first gauntlet by simply shooting spells at everything in sight. Didn't even bother looking for the traps." He forced a smile. "The lesson is: shoot first and ask questions later."

"Video games," Dean said with authority. "Wager you she's an expert."

Hermione started to explain what a video game was, when Remus Lupin suggested it wait for another time, perhaps over tea. If they took too long in the hallway, they would miss breakfast completely.

"If you've the time free, Mister Malfoy, I give extra Defense lessons on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. Both my current students agreed that I should invite you to join." He added, needlessly, that it could help with the third task.

Dean was surprised to hear that Lupin gave private lessons. Hermione pointed out that Professor Snape did the same for her. And Draco. Draco pointed out that she was becoming the potions professor's favorite. He also agreed to have a go.

"You didn't ask to join," Draco said as he and Hermione entered the Great Hall. Dean suggested she would probably show up anyway. Hermione admitted she thought about it, but Professor Lupin gave Harry and Neville lessons for personal reasons. He was more interested in Draco's safety.


Professor Minerva Adrem was walking by as Justin said, loud enough to be heard from his table that Draco would figure a way to win. Potter, a few seats away, said just as loudly it was because Malfoy was box clever.

As Hermione muttered something about common courtesy, Professor Adrem paused. Draco had asked his friend if she wanted Potter to break his duck. Potter was beginning to stand up.

"Now, hold on to your britches, boy. What's got your dander up?" Professor Adrem wasn't smiling. "Seems to me both you boys are chugged full of sass, even if I don't cotton what either of you said."

Potter expressed the views of most of the students at the table. "What?"

Draco smiled. "Potter, she wants to know why you're mad. After all, we both had a fair crack at the whip."

"You understood her?" Dean Thomas asked.

"It was easy peasy," Draco replied.

"A piece of cake," Professor Adrem added.

"What's cotton mean?" Ron Weasley asked.

"Don't reckon I follow."

"Well," Ron clarified, "What did you mean by the word cotton when you said it?"

"I just told you, honey. By cotton I meant that I don't reckon I follow what you're saying."

"That clears things up," Hermione said with a smirk.

Potter decided to be gracious, "And I merely told Malfoy, he was smart enough to figure out how to win the tournament, regardless of what it took."

Draco couldn't help himself, "And Hermione thought I was getting it in the neck."

"Did not," Hermione retorted, then saw the curl of Draco's lips. "I knew Draco would do something in a tick. I was trying to stop him . . ." Draco was almost smiling ". . . but that's like flogging a dead horse."

One other person figured out what Draco was doing. It turned out to be Potter who added, "I was trying to compliment him but grabbed the nettle."

Professor Adrem was grinning. Draco mentally added that three people knew what he was doing. She proved it by saying, "such sweet talking things, I could butter you up and call Y'all biscuits."

"What?" Ron asked.

"We're with Draco," Dean told him. "It's whot."

"I don't care. I just want to know what she meant by calling us biscuits?"


Potter and Longbottom were dueling when Draco walked in. Professor Lupin explained that they were practicing shielding spells. He asked Draco what he had the most problems with in the second task.

"They had a rabbit snare right at the end. No magic at all."

"And the magic spells?"

Draco frowned. "No, but I think that was because of Abby." He tried to remember. Most of the spells had already been broken. The few that were left were off to one side. The second part of the trail was mostly animal attacks. And the centaurs. "I don't think they planned on anyone charging through."

Remus Lupin nodded thoughtfully. He admitted that he helped lay a few of the traps. They were designed to activate when the champion came near them. Then he laughed. The traps also had a failsafe. If someone who was not a champion came upon them, the spell would dissipate. That was why Draco's task was so easy. They didn't plan on a young girl walking the path out of curiosity.

"And you took her with you," Lupin pointed out. "She was your good luck charm in more ways than one."

And that was Draco's lesson. Lupin would duplicate something from the task and Draco would set it off. When he failed, Lupin would explain what happened, what he should have done and why what he did didn't work.

Most of them were fairly easy. A shield or a repulsion spell would solve the problem. When the desk exploded, sending pointed pieces of wood only in his direction, Draco cast the flame shield. He hit the cushioned wall some ten meters behind him. The wood did not burn when it hit the shield but passed through without damage. And the pointed pieces did not pierce him. They pushed him backward with great force.

Lupin told him that the wood did not burn because it was not wood. It pushed him backward because the wood pieces were actually directional force fields. Had he used Protego, he would have had the same results. The clues to watch were that the spell was directional and that the 'explosion' occurred before the splinters began to fly at him. A repulsion spell would have helped. The best would have been a dispelling charm to cause the pieces to go around him. On a final note, he could also have ducked.

That was the worst one Draco faced. As they progressed, Lupin had all three boys try their hands. Draco was glad when Potter failed at stopping one of the traps but it wasn't out of meanness. He was just happy that he wasn't the only one.

When Neville tried his hand, he was successful every time. That told Draco that this wasn't his first time. Lupin even commented that it was clear someone was practicing. Then he talked about how Potter failed. It was because he was trying a new tactic and it hadn't worked properly. Lupin explained carefully what he had done wrong. By the time he finished the explanation, Draco knew enough that he would be able to try, and probably succeed.

Lastly, the professor criticized Draco. The exploding desk was the best example. The boy was reacting to what he saw attacking him and not paying attention to how it came about. He was waiting for the attack without considering it might be a feint. As in the attacking plant. Draco tried to prevent the plant from reaching him. He should have remembered that plants have roots. In each case he defended himself from what he saw, or thought he saw. He never considered what he might not be seeing.

As they left, Neville told Draco he did well for a first lesson. When Draco only nodded, Potter told him that Neville was right. Potter had that look in his eye, again. Like there was something wrong and he needed to figure it out.

As the classes continued, Lupin seemed to spend more time with Draco than the other two. He admitted he wanted him to catch up to speed. He was taught some new spells, variations on spells he knew and the beginnings of subvocalizing his spells. There weren't many advanced lessons as in learning what the later years did but they were shown how to do more with the spells they had. Draco commented that Professor Snape was doing the same thing for him with potions.

After his third special class, Draco realized two things. Potter had changed. Not in how he acted, but in his attitude. He still seemed arrogant, but he had lost the meanness. He even gave Draco a helping hand on occasion.

The second thing Draco noticed was that he was enjoying these extra classes.


It was true that few people liked Draco. Most were polite enough to him. And most of them had their suspicions. The one thing was that no one harassed him. No one said things to his face. In one sense, he had been accepted.

That he was attacked was a surprise. Unless one understood that it were the Durmstrang students. While Viktor Krum was always friendly, not everyone followed his lead. And Professor Karkaroff was one of them. He resented Draco as the extra chance for Hogwarts to steal the glory of winning the tournament.

Draco was on his perch overlooking the lake. The bushes behind him were tall enough that he was hidden from the school. It was one of the first warm days of the year. He had his guitar with him as usual. This time, however, he was alone. From one side of the bushes, five students in red robes appeared. They were all smiling. There was a time when Draco was walking to the home with Justin and they ran into Nigel. Nigel had the same smile. Until he recognized Draco.

He was thinking as fast as he could. He had few options. His guitar was in his lap, the strap over his neck. He would have to lift it out of the way if he needed to do anything. That would take time. His wand was in his pocket. He would have to reach behind the guitar in an awkward manner to get it. That could end up taking longer. He could try to run but first he would have to get up and the guitar could make that difficult, perhaps difficult enough. He could also jump but he wasn't on a cliff. It was more of a steep rocky incline. Doable but only if he had to.

In less than half a second, Draco knew they had him well trapped. All of his extra lessons would not help. His best hope would be to call Kreacher, but he ran the risk of giving the Durmstrang students an extra target. And two of them were already pulling out their wands as a third tried to distract him by asking if he had been playing for very long.

He decided to try taking the guitar off. It might even work as a shield. It was a slim chance but if he did nothing then he had no chance at all. They were watching him. Except for one who was the lookout. As they saw Draco move, they took that as the signal. Even the lookout was bringing out his wand.

What Draco did not expect was for the bushes to suddenly shake. He knew he wasn't the only one to look up the two meters to the top. And he would bet he wasn't the only one surprised to see a figure coming over the top.

It was Professor Duracam, the American Athletics Director. How she managed to get there unnoticed, he could only guess. It was also a guess as to why she decided to jump over the hedge. She was upside down in the air when the wand in her right hand cast a shielding spell. It blocked two hexes that had already been cast. It was the wand in her left hand that caught Draco's attention. It was shooting out spells like it was an automatic revolver.

Less than half a second later, the professor landed on her feet in front of Draco, blocking his view of the others. As she turned around, Draco did see one of them walking off. In a manner of speaking. Half his steps were not in the direction he was going.

A dog barked from directly behind. Draco jumped. A second later, Sirius Black was making a half-hearted apology.

"Impressed?" Professor Duracam asked.

"By that somersault, definitely," Sirius Black answered.

"Is that because you gave me a helping hand?"

"Well, Dolores, the second wand does give you an advantage." He was grinning. "That's something else I'm going to have to learn." Sirius gave a polite bow. "If you will excuse me, I have work to do."

Draco was standing now as Sirius walked over to four red-robed students who weren't. One was, but she wasn't moving. Two on the ground looked like they were stunned. Black had already cancelled the spell on the last one. Draco found he was correct about the two being stunned because Black cast the Rennervate spell on them. He cancelled the spell on the frozen girl and suggested they find their erratic friend before seeing the headmaster.

"Were you impressed?"

Draco looked up at the professor. "Surprised. It was over before it ever started." He paused. "Why jump over the hedge? All you had to do was walk up and say, 'what's all this, then'."

This time the professor paused. "I guess it's the same reason you took Abby with you instead of taking her back. It gave me a chance to show off."

"Didn't take her with me to show off," Draco told her. "If I took her back, I'd been carrying her."

Professor Duracam shrugged her shoulders. "I'll take your word for it. I was still trying to show off. It may not have worked on you but I bet those five will never forget."

Draco watched as she waved her wand in the air. A silencing spell

"I planned on talking to you later but now is as good a time as any. Mildred sent me an owl." Her humour was gone. "The answer to your question is the sacrifice of an enemy." She leaned into Draco. "I know all about you, you little chiseler, and this con game you're playing. My guess is that someone else wants you to win."

"I knew that," Draco said snidely. "I needed to know why."

"And why do you need to know?"

Draco laughed wryly. "I know I'm going to win. I want to survive my victory."


Surprisingly, it was Professor Lupin who had the solution. He happened upon Draco as the boy sat in an empty classroom with his friends. He was attracted by the noise of Draco hitting his hand against the desk and shouting, "BUT WHY?"

"But why what?" Lupin asked from the doorway.

"Uh," Justin answered helpfully, "it's homework."

"With no books?"

"It's Professor Snape, Sir," Hermione explained. "He presented us with a logic problem." She smiled at Draco and said to him, "he does teach Defense. He would be a good person to ask."

Draco told her to go ahead. She was always better at phrasing things. Hopefully, she wouldn't give too much away. And she explained the problem beautifully.

The problem pertained to the Dark Lord's return. It is assumed he has the means to restore himself but he is rumored to have kidnaped someone. Why would he do this and reveal his plan?

"A logic problem? It seems farfetched. Perhaps if you explained the context." He smiled softly as the three watched him. "I am good at keeping secrets."

Draco's first thought was which secret he was keeping best. He played a hunch. "Do you mean that you're a werewolf?"

The smile became sad. "I assume Professor Snape told you."

"Just about. He gave me a book on magical monsters. He strongly urged me to read the section on werewolves, that it was very informative. He casually mentioned there was going to be a full moon, then mentioned he would be teaching your class for you."

"He taught us about werewolves," Hermione noted.

"Our class, too," Justin added.

"Does everyone know?"

Draco shrugged his shoulders. No one talked about it. At least, not in public. Everyone could know.

Remus walked over and sat at one of the desks. "Let's review your problem, then. According to what Sirius Black told me, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is planning to restore himself shortly before the third task and use the occasion for a demonstration of power." He reached over and patted Hermione's hand when she showed surprise. "Don't worry. I told you I'm very good at keeping secrets." His eyes turned to Draco. "For example, I asked you to join my special classes because Harry Potter asked me to. I thought his reasons to be excellent and I have honoured his request not to tell anyone why."

"Potter?" Draco was stunned. "Why him?"

"That is a secret. For now. Even his father doesn't know the reason."

Justin nodded his head. Hermione did the same. They agreed it was the best chance they had to solve this final problem and it was worth the risk to trust the Professor.

Draco began by telling Lupin of the prophecy of the cups. That it was prophesied that if he won the cup then Voldemort would be restored. It was also known that the tournament cup would be made into a portkey. It would take the winning champion to Voldemort and the restored Dark Lord would use it to return to Hogwarts with his minions, presumably to launch a surprise attack. The question was this: Why bring a champion to him? He had someone inside the school. Why not simply gain access that way?

"Professor Duracam suggested it could be as a sacrifice."

Remus Lupin looked surprised and had to admit why. Draco referred to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as the "Dark Lord". Only his followers used that term. Also, if Draco was right, then that meant that one of the teachers was a Death Eater. The only two new teachers were the DADA professors.

Draco gave a rare smile. "We know it's not you and that Junior hates Daddy." His smile dropped. "And that can't be revealed until after the third task."

Remus had a lost look. He asked his next question. What was it that Draco was trying to do? This resulted in the three students telling in turn about the conversations with Doctor McCudgeon. It was concluded by Draco telling him that he was planning on refusing the prophecy, but. There was always a but. But he had to know exactly why he was going to meet Voldemort. He had to know what he was refusing.

Remus started to object. He said he couldn't . . . then he trailed off. He started again by saying he was unwilling . . . and he stopped. His eyes gleamed. He said softly, "I understand. He needs an enemy. The UNwilling sacrifice."

Draco insisted on asking if he was sure. Remus said he would stake his life on it. He smiled and said, "I would stake your life on it. And it wouldn't have to be you. Any of the champions qualify as an enemy. Both the Delacours and the Krums helped in the last war, in their own way. And Angelina Johnson is muggle born."

"It's going to be me." Draco smiled. "And I know exactly what to do."

"You can destroy him?" Remus asked. His disbelief was evident.

"No. But I can keep him from restoring himself." The smile was still there.

It was Hermione who asked. "How do you know what to do?"

"It's easy, 'mione. Walburga already explained the whole thing to me. I just didn't know it then."

He then told his plan and dared anyone to find fault with it.

No one did.


It was the final extra class before the third task. It was mostly a review for Draco. At the end of it, Potter asked a question. What exactly had Sirius Black and the American witch done? Black always laughed and said to ask Malfoy. So Potter did.

Draco asked if he knew the place overlooking the lake where he usually went to practice. The one hidden by the bushes. All three members of his audience admitted they did.

"Right. I'm playing my guitar and five Durmstrang students show. Black and Duracam sneak up. Black gives her a leg up and she somersaults over the hedge. While she's upside down, she pulls out one wand and casts a shielding spell to protect me. Then she pulls out a second wand and cast five hexes without saying a word. She lands on her feet in front of me and asks if I'm hurt. Meanwhile, Sirius Black sneaks up behind me, as a dog, and barks. I almost jumped over the hedge myself."

Potter and Longbottom looked at each other as they laughed. When they turned back, Neville asked, "Two wands?" Draco nodded and suggested he talk to Sirius Black. "He's planning on learning how to do that."


It was the night before the final task. Ludo Bagman was talking to each champion and their headmaster in turn. Sirius Black was with him. As he would be last, Draco knew he had time. He told Professor Duracam he was going to the loo. It was the one place she was sure not to follow him.

Professor Crouch was waiting for him as he walked in. His first sentence was they had to make it fast.

"It's very easy. The four tasks are on roles of parchment marked North, East, South and West. As you have the lowest score, you choose first. Choose the East parchment. It gives the directions. There is a charm so that the external defenders will be sluggish. You could even walk past them. Inside is another trap but don't worry about it. Float your token to the box in the center of the room and Accio the key when the box opens. Then get your arse back here as quick as you can."

He walked out the door, saying "and good luck, Mister Malfoy."

Draco nodded to himself. East parchment. Float the coin. Accio the key. And don't step into the room. He waited another minute then walked back to the room where he was to wait.

"Did I miss anything?"

Professor Duracam smiled. "Only Sirius Black asking where that scheming runt's gone off to."

Draco sat back down and waited. For twenty minutes. Bagman walked in and smiled. "Ah, Hello. I am here to give you the basics of the final task. I know you will appreciate this, Draco. You will be flying. And you will be permitted one flying companion such as a Thestrals or Hippogriff, which will be made available. You can also choose to ride them or use your own broom."

Bagman went on to explain about the parchments. East was actually South East, and so forth, to make sure there was equal distances. And that since Draco had the lowest score, he was the first to choose. In the morning, once all four champions had their parchments, they would be told the specific goals.

"You need to choose your flying companion," Bagman said. "It will be here, waiting, in the morning."

"I'll choose my own companion," Draco said his rehearsed line with bravado. "And she'll come to meet me when I call. I think everyone would prefer it that way."

Bagman's smile was genuine. "I hope she will return with you. I would love to meet a dragon."