Chapter 53

"I wonder where Hermione is," Harry said as everyone sat down in the drawing room.

After the Potters and Sirius had finished dinner, the Weasley family minus Percy, Charlie, and George showed up for 'Memory Night' as Lily had dubbed it. She had laughed after saying it, but noticed that no one else had gotten her joke she mumbled something about Muggles and movie night at her house when she was little. James smiled and gave her a squeeze which cheered her up quickly, her embarrassment gone.

"When we got back from the Cinema she said she had to finish something and that we should start without her. She'll show up at some point," Ron said. Harry nodded and looked over Hermione's meticulous time line that she had drawn up for him with all the main points and big events in his life. Fourth year was a biggie for main points and he had no idea where to start. He found a note about the World Cup and decided to start where all good stories start, the beginning.

"Okay, so before my fourth year the Weasley's invited me to join them at the 1994 Quidditch World Cup, Bulgaria versus Ireland…" Harry, accompanied with Ron and Ginny, told everyone about the World Cup, the Veela, the Leprechauns, and Krum. Harry finally got to the point after the game and the subsequent Death Eater raid. "Arthur told us to run into the woods and stay there until he, Bill, Percy, or Charlie came to get them. As we ran into the forest, I realized my wand was missing—"

"And your gold," Ron muttered. Harry rolled his eyes and continued.

"I had last seen it in the top box during the game and was kind of freaking out, hoping it had fallen out in the tent. After a while we all split up and lost each other, it was just Ron, Hermione, and I in one group and Fred, George, and Ginny in another. We found a clearing and decided to stay there when all of a sudden we heard an incantation and this green cloud shot into the air above us. We heard Apparition pops all around us and I realized a large group of Ministry workers were all pointing their wands at the three of us. I yelled 'duck!', and about a couple dozen Stunners flew within inches of our heads. That's when Arthur realized it was us.

"Soon Bartemius Crouch Sr. was accusing us of sending off the Dark Mark—"

"Dark Mark? You said it was a green cloud," Lily said.

"Well at the time I didn't know what a Dark Mark was; Hermione had to point that out to me. Anyway, Mr. Crouch was accusing us of setting it off and when we explained that it had come from the woods beyond the clearing, a couple people went off and found Mr. Crouch's own house elf Winky Stunned in the forest holding a wand. My wand," Harry added for emphasis. James and Lily both had wide eyes.

"How did a bloody house elf get your wand?" asked James.

"I didn't find out until the end of my fourth year, but I'll explain it now. Winky was supposed to keep someone hidden and that person was under the Imperius Curse, but had been throwing it off easier and easier, so while I initially met Winky in the top box, she told us she was saving a seat for Mr. Crouch and she was afraid of heights; she kept her hands over her eyes the whole time. The mystery person was sitting in the empty spot next to her under an Invisibility Cloak."

"It's probably a good thing Hermione isn't here right now, or she'd be ranting about spew," Ron joked. James and Lily gave him a confused look but Harry started talking again to stop their questions.

"My wand was actually taken by this mystery person, not Winky. When she heard the Death Eaters attacking she bound herself to this person and dragged him into the woods not knowing he had a wand. He sent off the Dark Mark with my wand, and because I'm Harry Potter no one would listen to Mr. Crouch when he tried to accuse me of throwing it into the woods after conjuring it. Instead when he realized it was his elf in the woods, the man she was guarding was probably there too and he gave her clothes and fired her. He said it was for disobeying him and leaving the tent, but we found out the real reason was for allowing the mystery man to escape their tent," Harry said.

"That's horrible! That poor elf," Lily cried.

"Yeah, well she's probably better off without them. She works at Hogwarts now for the school but she's got a bit of a Butterbeer addiction going on," Ron added.

"Butterbeer addiction?" asked Bill.

"Yeah, apparently Butterbeer is much stronger for elves than it is for us. She was quite depressed after getting fired and started drinking," Ron finished.

"Poor Winky," Ginny said.

"Anyway, on with the story, Harry," said James.

"Well, after we got back to the Burrow after the fiasco in the woods, a couple of days later we started school. We were introduced to our new Defence Professor retired Auror Mad-Eye Moody. One of the first things we saw him do was turn Draco Malfoy into a blonde ferret after he tried to curse me when my back was turned," Harry said. Ron had started staring off into the distance with a look of pure glee on his face.

"I have to see that!" Bill said with a chuckle. Harry laughed when Ron realized he could watch the memory again and started bouncing in his seat in excitement. The others laughed at Ron while Harry extracted the memory. Despite it being the fake Moody it was still a cherished memory for both boys. It's not every day that your enemy gets turned into a white ferret and bounced around the hallway.

When Harry was done he let everyone sink into the Pensieve and he followed. He had forgotten the fight before the event and was quickly reminded when he showed up that Malfoy had been reciting a Prophet article about Arthur and was insulting Molly's appearance and Harry was infinitely glad he skipped that part of the fight as Molly had joined them in the memory for the first time.

"You know your mother, Malfoy? That expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?" Harry saw the current Ron pale as he realized what had been discussed only moments before and he shot Harry a grateful look before Lily started in.

"Harry! I can't believe you just insulted someone's mother," she said sternly.

"Mum, I—"

"We'll discuss this later," she said with a disappointed frown. He sighed and Ginny squeezed his hand.

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter."

"Keep your fat mouth shut, then."

They watched as Harry turned and Malfoy got a mad flash in his eyes as he drew his wand and mouthed a curse. A sickly brownish light flew towards Harry and Bill gasped. Harry gave him a strange look before Bill said, "I'll tell you later."

"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!" shouted Moody. Everyone but Harry and Ron jumped at the loud shout. Ron, despite knowing who Moody really was, has a grin as wide as his face so that it almost looked cracked in half.

"LEAVE IT!" shouted Moody again and they could all see Crabbe who had tried to pick up Malfoy. James and Sirius were grinning as they watched Moody, who blasted the ferret into the air and let it fall to the ground.

"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned. Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do. Never—Do—That—Again—" he said as he bounced Malfoy with each word as an emphasis.

Everyone but Ron winced to some degree during each bounce and consequent squeak of pain from the little ferret. Molly and Lily both sighed in relief when they heard McGonagall shriek and change Malfoy back.

"Teach—Moody, is that a student?"

"Yep."

"No!"

Harry watched as Malfoy gingerly sat up after being changed back, groaning in pain, with his face bright red and a part of him felt a little bad for him.

"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"

"I'll do that then." Harry watched Moody's face as he heard Malfoy say the inevitable "my father" catch phrase. Moody looked incredibly menacing as he said, "Oh yeah? Well, I know your father of old, boy…You tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son…you tell him that from me…Now, your Head of House'll be Snape, will it? Another old friend," the disfigured old man growled with an evil glint to his eye.

Everyone watched as the trio started walking away and Harry chuckled.

"Don't talk to me," the memory Ron said. Everyone looked at him strangely.

"Why not?"

"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever. Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret…"

Everyone laughed as the memory ended and they returned to the drawing room.

"Well that was refreshing," Ron said with a grin. "I think I'll send Malfoy a present tomorrow. I wonder what the spell is to transfigure a ferret," he finished thoughtfully. Harry laughed with Ginny and then turned to Bill.

"You seemed to recognize that spell he tried to hit me with. What was it?" he asked.

"Well, I'm not one hundred percent on it, but I saw his lips move and heard a little part of the spell and if I'm correct, you're very, very lucky it didn't hit you," Bill said.

"What would it have done?" Ginny asked.

"Well, first, how a fourth year could even know that spell, let alone be able to cast it is beyond me. But Harry would never be able to father a child and…er, that part of him would be only good for a trip to the loo, if you catch my drift. Otherwise, it would useless," he finished with a grimace. Harry looked at him stunned.

"I—it—I…uh…" he stammered for a moment while everyone else caught on.

"That little bloody ferret!" James said emphatically.

"It didn't actually hit you right Harry?" Lily asked quickly.

"It didn't hit him. I would know," Ginny said before slapping her hand to her mouth. Harry's wide eyes turned to her.

"Yeah, you would know, Ginny," Ron said, oblivious to the reddening faces of Molly and Lily.

"RON!" Harry and Ginny said in unison. Ron realized what he said before looking over at the parents and his eyes widened at the forbidding looks on the two mother's faces.

"Er…oops?" he muttered as Lily and Molly both stood and grabbed Ginny and Harry and dragged them from the room, the two kids trying to walk and defend themselves at the same time.

"Well, that was…enlightening," Arthur said to James. All the guys in the room sniggered to themselves. Ten minutes later Molly and Lily returned followed by two humbled red faced teenagers watching their feet.

"Thanks a lot, Ron," Harry said as he aimed what would have been a playful punch had it not been so forcefully hard it was painful. Ron rubbed his shoulder and gave Harry his best sheepish look.

"Sorry," he mumbled. Harry rolled his eyes and sat back down. The mums had stipulated that he and Ginny weren't allowed to sit next to each other anymore that night as they were both grounded. His mum had barely given him a chance to say he and Ginny had only snogged and nothing beyond that, but she wouldn't listen. So he was stuck staring at Ginny from across the whole room it felt for another several hours. He sighed and looked back up at the group of people.

"Where was I?" he asked.

"You were about to tell them about the Tri-Wizard announcement," Ron said helpfully trying to make up for his mistake. Harry still glared at him for a moment before turning back.

"Dumbledore announced at the Opening Feast that the Inter-House Quidditch Tournament was cancelled for the year as Hogwarts was hosting two other schools and holding the Tri-Wizard Tournament that year," he said.

"Could you explain what the tournament actually is, I've never heard about it before last night when Fleur mentioned it," Lily said.

"You don't know what it is?" James asked incredulously.

"No, you do?" she asked.

"Of course I do! So does Sirius," he said. Sirius nodded his head.

"I think this might be one of those we-were-raised-in-the-Wizarding-world kinds of things though. I know that's the only reason I know what the Tri-Wizard is," Sirius added. "It's not like they talked about it while we were at school, they had kind of banned it because of the death toll nearly a century ago."

"Death toll?" Lily said worriedly. Harry suddenly had a flashback to Hermione saying the same thing with the same tone and nearly chuckled before he remembered he was mad at his mum.

"Anyway, come the thirtieth of October, the other two schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrived. Beauxbatons arrived in a flying carriage pulled by a dozen Abraxan horses. Durmstrang arrived in a ship in the middle of the lake. Everyone went inside and had a grand feast and then after dessert Dumbledore announced how the three champions would be picked. The Goblet of Fire was a charmed object that the students would put their name and school on a slip of parchment and put the parchment into the Goblet of Fire before the feast the next night on Halloween. On Halloween, it would spit out three champions, one from each school, and those three people were placed into a binding magical contract to compete until the end of the tournament. Dumbledore had created an age line around the Goblet so no one under the age of seventeen, who he believed had enough magical training to be able to compete, could enter their names," Harry took a breath and a sip of water.

"Wouldn't a younger kid who wanted to enter be able to just ask an older kid to submit their name for them?" asked Lily. The others stared at her. "What?" she asked.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Ron asked quietly.

"You know, it's probably a good thing wizards aren't known for their logical thinking," Bill said with a chuckle.

"Psh, you're a wizard too, Bill," Ginny said with a snort.

"Yes, but I've been trained to think logically for my job. Most wizards do things the hard, old fashioned way while doing the easy, monotonous things with magic. Why do you think the Muggles are so much more advanced than us? Take the Goblet for example. How many under-age witches and wizards do you think wanted to put their names in the Goblet? The younger ones who really wanted to be champion came up with ways to try and fool the Goblet with Aging-Potions, or levitation charms, and all of them ended up with beards, like Fred and George. The fact that all three of the real champions were of-age should tell you that not many magical people would have thought to just ask an older person.

"As such, the fact that a wizard as great as Dumbledore didn't think of that little glitch should tell you that wizards aren't a logical group of people. If we were, I'm sure Harry here wouldn't have been included as a fourth champion because Dumbledore would have countered the possibility of bewitching the Goblet or tricking it with and older person," Bill finished with a satisfied grin.

"Fourth champion?" James said.

"I was getting to that point. Halloween night after the feast Dumbledore started the ceremony naming the champions. Fleur Delacour was chosen from Beauxbatons," Harry said nodding to his part Veela friend, who smiled back at him. "Viktor Krum was chosen for Durmstrang and Cedric…Diggory was chosen for Hogwarts." Harry's voice broke when saying Cedric's name but he continued as if nothing had happened. "Once the three of them had left the Great Hall and into a small chamber off to the side to learn about their first task the Goblet flared once more and my name came out as a fourth champion."

"How is that even possible? The Tournament has always only been three students," James said with confusion.

"He'll explain it eventually, James, stop interrupting," Sirius said.

"Thanks Sirius. Anyway, Hermione pushed me towards the head table where I was directed to the side chamber. It was there that I was asked if I had entered my name and after denying any attempt to enter the other school's Heads sort of attacked me and Dumbledore and accused Dumbledore of cheating. Moody interrupted them and said that a powerful wizard could have hoodwinked the Goblet, and after a lot more arguing, Crouch announced that since my name came out of the Goblet, I had to compete. It was a magically binding contract.

"Once everyone reluctantly came to terms with my involvement we were told that the first task would 'test our daring and courage in the face of the unknown' so we weren't allowed to know what the assignment involved. We would find out right before the task. So we went on our way and for the next month I was shunned by three fourths of the school and almost all of my friends believed that I had entered myself. Even Ron wouldn't talk to me," Harry gave Ron a look as if to say he was sorry that he was telling this to everyone.

"It's okay mate, I was an incredibly stupid kid then. I was also more jealous of you than I've ever been of anyone. I learned eventually after the dra…er, first task that no one in their right mind would enter that contest, especially someone our age. I don't blame you for being mad at me for acting like the world's biggest prat," Ron said with a grin.

"I wouldn't say 'the world's biggest prat,' Malfoy was definitely the bigger prat with those Potter Stinks buttons," Harry said with a laugh.

"Did Colin and Denis ever fix some up for you? I remember them working on trying to change what they said," Ginny added.

"Nope, they only succeeded in making them say Potter Really Stinks," Ron said with a laugh. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, back to the story. One day Hagrid had hinted to me about what the first task would be, and with some indirect help from Moody, I had managed to think of a plan.

Harry had been slowly adding memories as he spoke and he placed the last one in and turned to Ron.

"Could you put in your memory of actual task for all four of us champions? I don't think my memories are all too clear. I can't remember any of the commentating from when I was in the enclosure," he asked Ron who stood up and added his memories. Harry stood next to the bowl and the others followed suit to get ready to enter the memories.

"Collect the golden egg…"

The next memory was of Harry and the other champions pulling out a miniature representation of the dragon they would face.

They all watched as the memory faded and a whistle blew. They then found themselves next to a younger Ron and watched as Cedric walked towards the enclosure. The dragon he was to face was seething and blowing smoke out of her nose waiting for something to happen. She was a beautiful blue-green colour with a cream coloured belly and under-wings. The low bumps on her back rolling down her spine were a deep cobalt blue and ended at her tail with was fairly short compared to other breeds.

"AAAANNND here is our first champion of the day Mr. Cedric Diggory! Mr. Diggory is to face the forty-three year old Swedish Short-Snout, named Freyja, from our friends in the Swedish Dragon Reserve. Now the object of this task is to get past the nesting mother and collect the golden egg from her nest. Points will be taken off if any eggs are broken, the champion is injured, or the contestant needs to be rescued from the enclosure at any time. The eggs cannot be summoned unless the summoner is within ten feet of the nest.

"It looks as if Mr. Diggory is scoping out the arena and getting his bearings. OH! Marvellous idea, marvellous, I just hope it works! He's sending it into the area…SHE'S TAKING THE BAIT! He's sneaking in… And there he goes! Look at him run! Amazing leap over that stone quarry! He's running! Running! Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow! He's taking risks, this one! He's retreated to a hiding place and waiting…waiting… There he goes darting out towards the nest! Come on! Oooh, that's got to hurt! Put it out! Quick! And he's GOT THE EGG! Clever move—pity it didn't work! Good job! Very good indeed! And now the marks from the judges!"

Harry and the others watched as Cedric entered the arena, transfigured a medium sized boulder into a golden coloured dog and directed it into the pit with the dragon. The Hufflepuff then ran into the pit while the dragon's back was turned and hid behind a very large boulder several yards from the nest. He had to wait several minutes before he decided to just run for it, and hope he was quick enough.

Unfortunately, that particular mother was keeping a close eye on her nest and saw Cedric dart out and start running for the nest. She turned abruptly and shot her flames at Cedric who was only quick enough to dive to the ground, five feet from the nest. It was his bad luck that the flames he had seen coming at him missed nearly his whole body and had found the left side of his face. His hair and skin had burst into flames and he quickly doused himself with water before seeing the Swedish Short-Snout taking another breath as she ambled toward her nest and the 'attacker' putting her precious babies in harm.

Cedric reached up and scrambled towards the nest, grabbing the golden egg and was hastily grabbed from the air and carried to a safe zone by a safety wizard who was one of several flying around the arena ready to dive into the fray and save the champion. The Dragon Keepers all rushed in shooting their synchronized Stunners at Freyja, who bellowed one final roar before falling to the ground in silence.

Cedric had been brought to the hospital tent and was being pasted up with Burn paste by Madam Pomfrey before his scores were sent up. From Madam Maxime he received a seven, Crouch gave him an eight, Dumbledore a nine, a seven from Bagman, and he got a seven from Karkaroff.

"Seven? Bastard!" cried Harry as the crowd around him cheered for Cedric's thirty-seven points. The others gave him a look. "What? I only knew the final scores, not who gave what to whom. That prat gave me a four!"

"Really? That's so unfair," James said.

"Eef I remember right, 'e only gave me a five az well," Fleur said with a frown.

The whistle blew again and Fleur walked out into the arena. She quickly took cover and slowly but surely made her way closer to the new dragon that had been revived inside the arena only moments before. The Welsh Green was roaring and flapping her wings in anger. She was a beautiful, leaf green colour with a metallic sheen to her scales which caused them to flash in the sunlight. She had a sleek, reptilian head that was a deep emerald colour and with short brown horns atop her head.

Fleur slowly inched her way forward around boulders and through slim gaps, working slowly toward her goal. She was within thirty feet of the nest and Disgleirio, as the dragon had been named, when she stuck her wand between a crack in the rocks and sent a spell out. She watched as the spell caught Disgleirio off guard and hit her in the side. The dragon turned and started moving rapidly towards the rocky outcrop that Fleur was hiding in.

Harry was on the edge of his seat as he watched Fleur brace herself instead of running and hold her wand steady. Just as the mother dragon reached the outcrop, Fleur jumped out and shot the spell directly into the eyes of the dragon, which had come within five feet of stampeding Fleur into the arena. The dragon, who had been preparing a blast of fire, nodded her head and fell to the ground slowly. Fleur stepped away and, knowing a spell only cast by one person would wear off shortly, began to walk towards Disgleirio to sneak around her to the nest.

As Fleur was slowly but surely tiptoeing past the face, the dragon snorted in her sleep and shot a blast of intense heat out of her snout and caught Fleur's robes on fire. She quickly doused them and saw that the dragon was slowly waking up she decided to drop all pretence of caution and ran towards the nest, grabbing the egg and then finding herself whisked off to the safe zone by the safety wizards.

"Well done Fleur!"

"That was so amazing how you just jumped out and shot her with your spell like that!"

"You are so brave! Good job!"

The crowd, especially the French section, was going wild. Fleur had taken a bit longer than Cedric, but she had barely had her robes singed so to the crowd she had to be in the running after Cedric's injury. They watched the scores shown.

Madam Maxime gave her student a ten, Crouch gave an eight, Dumbledore a nine, Bagman gave a seven and Karkaroff just gave her a five for a total of thirty-nine points.

"I can't believe he gave you a five!" said Bill indignantly.

"You did really well! So much better than Diggory and Krum!" said Ron.

"Not az good az 'Arry, though," said Fleur in good humour. Harry smiled and nodded his thanks to her.

The whistle blew again and out walked Krum.

"And here comes Mr. Krum!"

Everyone could see the new, golden-red dragon. It was the Chinese Fireball, and it looked like a long, snake-like reptile. Unlike the other dragons, this one had no wings, but was instead nearly forty feet long. She also had an outcropping of golden hair around her face and a fringe of golden horns on top of her head. Her four legs ended in five long fingers each equipped with razor sharp talons.

She moved slowly at first, acquainting herself with the area. The eggs stayed near her body as she never left the nest. Dilóng looked around her and slowly curled herself around her nest waiting for the danger she could sense coming.

Krum slowly entered the ring and found himself under the immediate attention of Dilóng. But she didn't rush towards him as everyone thought she would. She waited, watching him with suspicious eyes. Krum stood stock still waiting for her to run at him but after several minutes of both not moving her slowly lifted his foot and stepped forward. Slowly, he made his way forward towards a large rock where he hid behind out of Dilóng's sight.

Everyone wondered why the dragon was so non-responsive to Krum, but they cheered him on anyway. The stillness made it interesting, since they didn't know what would happen. It kept them all on the edge of their seats.

Krum made his way forward similar to the way Fleur did; slow and steady inching towards the nest; hidden from the dragon mother's view. But before he made it to the same area Fleur did he stepped out into view of the dragon. Dilóng turned suddenly towards the movement and hissed at the figure of the human near her. No steam escaped her mouth which was also a surprise to the audience.

Krum was thinking to himself that Dilóng had both not moved from her spot, nor had she breathed fire at him. Harry wondered if the Chinese dragon was perhaps the easiest one to get past and that's why Krum and he were tied after the first round.

Krum slowly made his way towards the red dragon. ("Very daring! That's some nerve he's showing!" cried Bagman.) When he was within twenty feet of her he raised his wand slowly. Dilóng made her first move then also. She ran at him with a surprising speed that no one imagined she possessed after being so still. Harry could see Krum falter for only a second.

"Conjunctiva!" Krum yelled. The spell shot out and hit Dilóng directly in her left eye. She reared up and bellowed in pain as she started stomping the ground near the nest. Krum could see the golden egg and he darted forward to within ten feet of the nest and shouted, "Accio Egg!" The golden egg flew towards him just before Dilóng crushed three of the six other eggs under foot.

Krum was pulled to safety and the Dragon Keepers rushed forward to save the eggs from the still rampaging Dilóng.

"That's going to cost out Quidditch star some points as there was not supposed to be damage done to the remaining eggs. Let's see the scores!"

Madam Maxime shot a seven into the air, Crouch a seven as well, Dumbledore awarded Krum an eight, Bagman also gave an eight and Karkaroff gave a ten.

"Bloody wanker! That's favouritism that is! He smashed half the eggs! That's got to lose him some points!" shouted James.

"What do you expect from a former Death Eater?" asked Sirius.

"He was a Death Eater? Why's he at the school? How can he be Head of a school after a past like that?" asked Lily.

"He sold out several of his fellows to the Ministry. It got him a one way ticket out of Azkaban," said Harry.

A whistle blew and they saw Harry as he entered, they also saw the Hungarian Horntail crouched by her nest. Her wings were half furled, her evil yellow eyes staring at Harry, a monstrous scaly black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail leaving yard long gouge marks on the hard ground. Bagman had called out her name as he'd done with the other three and Harry snorted when he heard her name was Nora.

"Nora? How is that terrifying beast named Nora! Did Hagrid name her?" Harry exclaimed.

Everyone chuckled as they watched Harry stand there and raise his wand and shout, "Accio Firebolt!"

"The youngest contestant, Mr. Harry Potter, has entered the enclosure! Why's he just standing there? Harry, do something! Oh! He's raised his wand and…Summoned a broom? I wonder if he realizes Dragons can fly too!"

The green, yellow, and blue parts of the crowd along with the foreign groups all laughed at the ridiculousness of the statement. All of Gryffindor and several other Quidditch fans of Hogwarts cheered, realizing that Harry was going to try and out fly a dragon. The other contestants were interesting, but Harry was an excellent flier and they were excited to see how he would do.

"Either you are insane or…nope, flying around a nesting mother dragon is pretty insane. There's no 'or' about it. My son is bloody insane!" James said with excitement. Lily rolled her eyes but despite her worry, she was getting caught up in the excitement as well and could help but laugh along with the others at her husbands' enthusiasm.

"And there's the broom, I sure hope the boy can fly or this could turn out bad! Mediwizards and Dragon Keepers keep a sharp watch on this one," cried Bagman.

"You know, I don't get why he wasn't caught for his blatant favouritism. After seeing the other three, it's so obvious that he was trying to help me win. He's so worried right now, but in reality he was just worrying about all the money he could lose after betting on me with the goblins," Harry said in annoyance.

"He made a bet on you? But he's a judge!" cried Molly.

"And with the goblins? He is an idiot," muttered Bill.

"He got what was coming to him. He bet that I'd win outright. You know what happened, you can guess how the goblins reacted to that," Harry laughed. Bill chuckled.

"No wonder he scarpered," the scarred man said with a snort.

"Sh! Pay attention!" said Ginny.

They watched Harry swoop and swerve, and dart back and forth in front of the dragon's face.

"Whoa! She just missed him with her flames! Great Scott, he can fly! Are you watching this Mr. Krum?"

Harry flew higher and higher and then tried to dive but was blocked by a horned tail slapping him in the shoulder. Lily, Molly, and the other adults who had not been present gasped loudly and in unison.

"Merlin! That looked like it hurt! That could lose Mr. Potter some points for that move, there. Oh! He's trying it again! Careful Mr. Potter, it didn't work the first time, don't make the same mistake twice!"

"'Ow unfair! 'E iz 'elping you! 'E did not do zat for anyone else," Fleur said indignantly.

"If it helps, Fleur, I hardly heard anything he was saying. I'll also add that he tried to help me several times, but I turned him down each time. Like I said earlier, he made a bet that I would win, and was determined to make sure I did. It's not fair and if I could I would go back and redo it with you all fairly," Harry said. She smiled at him.

"Eet iz not your fault 'Arry. I trust you enough to know zat you would never cheat like zat," she said. He smiled back at her and they both resumed watching the task.

Harry continued his annoying fly imitation and finally the great, black lizard spread her wings and shot into the air at him. But, as Lily, Molly, James, Sirius, and Bill all gasped, Harry dove and faster than they imagined he had grabbed the egg, and veered off over the crowd while the dragon was subdued.

"Look at that! Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds in Mr. Potter!" Bagman cried.

"I'll bet it did," Harry muttered as the memory faded to the scores.

"It marks out of ten from each one," said Ron.

The large group of people exited the bowl and several burst out talking at once.

"I can't believe you only got a 40! You were the best out of all the others; you should have gotten a higher score!" James said with righteous indignation on behalf of his son.

"Did that wound leave a scar?" asked Lily.

"No, Madam Pomfrey would never allow a scar to remain. She put dittany on it right away," replied Hermione from a chair across the room. She had a bundle in her arms and was smiling down at it peacefully.

"Hermione! We were wondering when you'd get here," said Ron.

"I just had a couple of things to get done. Harry, Andromeda arrived with Teddy while you were immersed in the memories, she had to leave and I said I could watch him until you came out," said the brunette. Harry smiled and wandered over to her and carefully picked his godson out of her arms. The little boy waved his chubby arm up and around and cooed at Harry.

"Thanks Hermione," he said.

"It was no problem. I enjoyed playing with him. But I think he may need a new nappy," she said with a giggle at Harry's face as he got a whiff of something gross.

"Phew! I swear bug, you're getting smellier and smellier. Every time I see you, you have a new smell," Harry said with a high pitched voice as he started towards the door. "I'm just going to run upstairs to the nursery. I'll be back in a few minutes after I put the little bug down to sleep and we can continue."

After Harry left the room, Ron and Ginny gathered near Hermione and begun to whisper about where she had been all evening.

A/N: Okay, I'm sorry for the long wait. I started school again last week and I've been getting back into the class/homework/living my life schedule, hopefully the long chapter will stay your rotten-fruit throwing arms for a while. Also keep in mind...I find the Memory chapters fairly tedious, so they don't hold my attention as well as the free-range chapters coming straight from my own grey matter up top. I try my hardest to keep the memory chapters up to par with the rest of the story, but...wow it's harder than it looks. And I had to split this chapter into 2 cuz it was too long! lol

I wanted to get this chapter out today to commemorate the date...Happy September 1st everyone! Oh I wish, I wish, I wish I were in London today...I could go to Kings Cross and stare longingly at the space between Platforms 9 and 10...

As always, you can see any updates on my blog/website which is located on my profile as my Homepage and as a link (I believe) so please check it out. I am also the new Head of Ravenclaw in my friend Spyridon's Harry Potter Rec Site forums. Here's the website, just remove the spaces... Join us there!

http :/ /caer-arianrhod. forummotion. com/ forum .htm

...what else...I forgot to add in the last chapter, the idea to have Kreacher follow Sirius and prank him was my beta Teufel1987's idea. Credit where it's due. Also, thanks to Teufel1987 for editing this beast of a chapter...and let me tell you, he's doing an awesome job! You all should go check out his new story that's he's been working on.

Adios for now! Please review! And Thanks!