Clara POV

"I want to do something for her, for Tuesday," Sandra had said during our detention. "Can you meet me in Greenhouse 1? Sprout said we could use it, I wanted to talk to you about an idea I had. Come with anyone you think is supportive."

"Supportive?"

"You know, like the way Tomasz's cousins have been treating Renee. Either indifferent or willing to step across House boundaries, willing to believe Renee and Harry, and willing to support people across houses. Openly."

"Just Hogwarts students?" I'd asked, thinking about Mikhail and Kat.

"Yeah, for now. I've got a few people, you can bring more."

I had agreed. Later, after Renee and I had finished talking, I pushed her to go Iris Message our parents and Thalia so I could meet Sandra. I know she thought it was so I could avoid the Bradleys' confrontation, but I also knew she'd never message Thalia with me there. So I was grateful when Sandra presented this option.

Sandra had brought Tomasz, Nolan, and Franklin, of course, but I was a little surprised to see Nolan and Franklin weren't the only non-Slytherins. Her sister Stacy was also there, and with her the Johnson sisters, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell. A second year whose name may have been Lacey sat with two people I recognized from Care of Magical Creatures, Tracey Davies and Lily Moon. I knew Lily had been incredibly supportive of Renee with the Skrewts, and with everything in general.

I stepped into the room, chatting with Kat, Lucy, and Emma. Hermione, Ginny, Nico, Neville, Luna, and Nico's classmates Hazel Levesque and Natalie McDonald filed in behind me.

As I shut the door, a final person made their way in. Then I blinked, realizing it wasn't a person at all, but a House Elf. I raised my eyebrows at Sandra.

The House Elf bowed low, its nose touching the ground. "Dobby has been hard at work, Miss," he said to Sandra. "The elves is making flagses for the gameses on Tuesday, we is. Yellow for Mister Cedric Diggory, green for Miss Renee Sanderson, and red for Harry Potter, Miss. Oh, Dobby does hope to see his dear friend Harry Potter, Miss." The elf bowed again.

"Dobby?" I asked. "Aren't you the elf who, uh, used to belong to the Malfoys?" I didn't want to let on that I knew how he had been freed, or by whom.

Dobby beamed. "Dobby is a free elf now," he proclaimed. "And you, Miss…" His eyes went wide. "You is surely Clarissa Bradley, dearest friend of Harry Potter and Renee Sanderson, Miss. And Dobby has come to work at Hogwarts, for Dobby is a free elf, Miss."

"Oh," I said, at a loss for words. "Well, it's nice to finally make your acquaintance, Dobby."

Dobby beamed again. Then he turned back to Sandra. "Yes, and studentses are encouraged to take one flag, or two flagses, or all three flagses, Miss, and there is enough for all students, Miss. We elves is busy making the flagses, Miss. And Dobby heard tell, Miss, that there are also teal flagses for Beauxbatons and maroon flagses for Durmstrang, Miss."

A small smile played on Sandra's lips. "Great," she said. "Dobby, how hard would it be to make, say, flags with the Hogwarts crest with three colored stripes in green, red, and yellow? In addition to all the other flags? We'd only need about…" she took a quick head count of everyone in attendance. "We'd only need about fifty or so, nowhere near as many as are needed for the other five. There's us, and then Terrence and Malinda Higgs, Adrian Pucey, and Cassius Warrington."

"It would be Dobby's pleasure, Miss," Dobby said, beaming again. "And does Miss want these flagses to say anything, Miss?"

Sandra turned to me. "Any ideas, Clara? Or any of you?"

"Sandra, you never told us what this was about," I reminded the Slytherin girl.

"We support a Hogwarts victory," Sandra said simply. "I mean, we support all three of our champions."

"What about, 'A Hogwarts Victory," somewhere on the flags, then?" Emma piped up next to me. "Like, maybe under the Hogwarts crest? And it could say, 'Support Cedric Diggory, Support Renee Sanderson, Support Harry Potter. A Hogwarts Victory.'" She glanced at Lucy as if looking for confirmation.

"I could also see it as kind of a triangle," Lucy added, nodding encouragingly at her roommate. "That puts Cedric on top, and Harry and Renee at equal footing."

"I think they should all be at equal levels," I argued. "They're all the Hogwarts champion, whether their name was officially entered into the Goblet or not. They're all there now."

"Yeah, but Cedric's the official champion, you know," Kat pressed.

"We can take a vote," Natalie said in a small voice. "We all support the same thing, right? A Hogwarts victory?"

"She's right," Franklin praised the younger girl. "We should find a way to share our support. Dobby, will you count the votes?"

"It would be Dobby's honor, sir."

Franklin nodded. "Thank you, Dobby. Are we all good with a blind vote?"

Everyone nodded.

"Okay," Sandra said. "Eyes closed on three. One, two, three. All in favor of a triangle design, as Lucy Mason proposed?"

She paused and waited for Dobby to do a head count.

"Okay, you got that, Dobby?"

"Dobby does, Miss," the elf confirmed.

"Okay, thank you. All in favor of equal footing, as Clara Bradley proposed?"

Sandra paused again. "Alright, Miss," Dobby said once he had counted all the votes. "Open your eyes, sirs and misses."

Dobby bowed low again. "Sirs and misses, with a final total of nineteen and three, the design that wins is the equal spaced design. Dobby will make the flagses quite large, Miss." He nodded at Sandra.

I had a feeling that Lucy, Emma, and Kat were the only ones who'd voted for the triangle design.

"Thank you, Dobby. You may leave." Hermione frowned, but Neville glanced at her pointedly. Was she still concerned about the welfare of House Elves? I'd have to catch up with her on that later.

"So," Sandra said after Dobby had gone. "I imagine it'll look like Quidditch on Tuesday, with people sitting in semi-assigned House areas. But I think we should all sit together, right in the center."

At this, Hermione and Ginny exchanged a glance. "We can't," Hermione explained quickly. "Ron…"

Nico scowled but said nothing.

"We'll definitely have the flags, though," Ginny added. "Together for a Hogwarts victory." She put her hand out. "On three?"

I placed my hand on top of hers, and Sandra and Hermione were quick to follow. About half of the group looked at us strangely as Emma, Lucy, Natalie, and eventually even Nico followed suit.

"Is this some sort of ritual?" Neville asked finally.

"Oh," I gasped, blushing. "No, it's just a Muggle team solidarity thing. We all put our hands in the middle and say something encouraging, like, 'go team,' or whatever."

Neville laughed nervously. He put his hand on top of Nico's, and the younger boy flinched. I moved my hand from under Sandra's and placed it on top of Nico's instead, and he visibly relaxed. Neville put his on top of mine, and I felt myself blushing again.

Everyone else stacked their hand on the pile, and then Ginny counted down. "Three… two… one…"

"A Hogwarts victory!" twenty-two voices cheered.

Renee POV

At five minutes to midnight, I met Harry near the kitchens and slipped under the invisibility cloak with him.

When we reached the hut, Hagrid had an enormous air of excitement about him. He was wearing a flower that looked like an artichoke in his buttonhole and had attempted to comb his hair.

"Got summat to show yeh," he said happily. "Keep quiet, both of yeh, and stay hidden under that cloak."

Harry and I glanced at each other, but then Hagrid strode off across the grounds. He stopped at the Beauxbatons carriage. I knew most of the foreign students were staying in guest quarters at the castle, but Madame Maxime stepped out of the carriage. She was wearing a giant silk scarf wrapped around her massive shoulders.

"Ah, 'Agrid," she said. "Is it time?"

"Bong-sewer," Hagrid replied, holding out a hand to help her down the golden steps.

Harry glanced at me as if to ask what she was doing there, and I shrugged and put a finger to my lips.

They strode arm in arm, and Harry and I had to jog to keep up. I wished I had one of Clara's sunbeams. But then again, I didn't know where we were going, so that might not have helped much.

Hagrid led Madam Maxime all the way to the other side of the lake and near the far edge of the Forbidden Forest. Harry was frowning, and I hoped Hagrid hadn't asked us here to play witness to their date. But Madame Maxime seemed to be in for the same treat as us, because a moment later she said playfully, "Wair is it you are taking me, 'Agrid?"

"Yeh'll enjoy this," said Hagrid gruffly. "Worth seein', trust me." He paused a moment. "On'y… don' go tellin' anyone I showed yeh this. Strictly speakin', I wasn't supposed ter tell."

"Of course not," Madame Maxime said with a smile.

Harry groaned, and I glanced at him. He shook his head and pointed to his watch. "We'll be late for Sirius," he mouthed. "I don't like – "

But he was cut short as we stepped into a clearing. Something roared, and all around us there were fires the size of the ones at camp on the most enthusiastic nights. Harry gasped at the same time Hagrid said, "Aren' they beautiful?"

Dragons, full-grown. Five of them stood in the clearing, rearing onto their hind legs and roaring and spewing fire fifty feet into the air. They were surrounded by seven or eight wizards apiece, who were trying to control them by pulling on the chains attached to their necks.

"Keep back there, Hagrid!" One of the wizards called out. "They can spew fire at a range of twenty feet. I've seen this Horntail do forty.

"It's no use," said another, who was attempting to restrain a smooth-scaled green dragon. "Stunning spells on three!"

Each of the thirty or so dragon keepers pulled out their wand. "Stupefy!" They shouted together.

The dragons teetered dangerously on their back legs, their nostrils still smoking. Several of the wizards backed up as the dragons fell slowly to the ground. They landed with a thud that made the ground shake.

"Wan' a closer look?" Hagrid asked, pulling Madam Maxime closer to the stunned dragons. Harry and I followed at a distance.

The wizard who had warned Hagrid to keep his distance turned to face us, and I recognized Charlie Weasley.

"All right there, Hagrid?" he called, walking towards them. "They should be okay now. We put them out with a Sleeping Draught on the way here, thought they'd be happier to wake up in the dark, but as you can see it didn't do much good."

Hagrid examined the dragons. He paused at a smaller, bright green dragon with black ridges on its back. "Is that… is that Norbert?" Hagrid asked giddily.

Charlie smiled. "We call her Norberta now. We weren't planning on bringing her, of course, but they need nesting mothers and with the extra two…" he looked darkly at Hagrid. "How's Harry?" he asked, his voice low. "And Renee? Mum about had a fit when she found out."

"Oh, he's fine," Hagrid said happily.

"Well, I hope he'll be fine when he gets through this lot," Charlie muttered darkly. "I don't envy the champion who gets that Horntail." He gestured to the lizard-like dragon with black spikes protruding from its tail. "The most vicious breed, she is."

I shuddered. I was definitely too young for this.

Charlie pointed out the others: The Swedish Short-Snout, a silvery blue one with long curling horns; a Common Welsh Green, the one I had noticed earlier; and a Chinese Fireball, which as bright red with an odd fringe of fine gold spikes around its face.

Harry glanced at me and pointed at his watch again. We had fifteen minutes to get back to the castle in time for Sirius.

We turned to go, and as we made our way around the forest and back the way we'd come, Harry stumbled into something.

"Who's there?" Karkaroff's voice barked.

I made my voice deep to match that of my house ghost. "The Bloody Baron doesn't take kindly to eavesdroppers," I said in perfect imitation. "Go back to your dark ship, Igor."

Harry stifled a laugh, but then I noticed a beam of light floating about ten feet in front of us. "Come on," I whispered. I couldn't believe Clara had actually come through, even without knowing where we were. It must have been her Apollo powers kicking in, her sixth sense.

We sunbeamed back to Gryffindor Tower and Harry muttered the password to a very annoyed Fat Lady. We arrived by the fire with minutes to spare.

I glanced at a pile of the badges on a nearby table. Instead of Potter STINKS or the horrible death threats my enemies had written, they read, Potter REALLY stinks! now. I raised my eyebrows.

"Colin and Dennis were trying to 'fix' them," Harry said, making air quotes around the word. He turned toward the fire and jumped backward.

Sirius's face appeared, clear as day. He was beaming, and he looked much younger and healthier even than when I'd last seen him, over the summer.

"Harry, Renee! How are you? Tell me everything, we don't have much time. I've broken into a wizard household for this, and I don't know when they'll be back."

"What about the drachmas?" I asked. "Didn't you have, like, seven?"

"I hadn't realized they would work at Hogwarts." He frowned. "There's so much security around the castle."

"Oh, they work alright," I assured him. "But now that we're here, let's just get on with it."

Sirius nodded. "So, what's been going on?"

Before I could speak, Harry started telling Sirius everything. From nobody believing us to the badges to Rita Skeeter's lies. "And Ron's acting like a stuck-up, jealous, bloody – "

"Harry," I cut him off with a warning. That wasn't the most important part right now. I turned to the fire. "The point is, it's been difficult. And now we know what we're facing as well. The first task is dragons, and we have to get past them or something. Also, Thalia, my best friend from Camp Half Blood, thinks that Harry and I should approach this separately. And – "

Sirius frowned. "We'll get to the dragons in a minute," he said. "But I need to warn you. Dragons, we can deal with, but this is serious."

"What could be more serious than dragons?" Harry muttered, but Sirius persisted.

"Karkaroff," he said. "He's a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"

"Yes – he – what?" Harry spluttered.

"He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I'd bet anything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at the school this year, to keep an eye on him. Moody caught Karkaroff, put him in Azkaban in the first place."

"Oh," I remembered. "Mikhail Lebidinsky told us about Karkaroff. He's a Durmstrang student, Karkaroff killed his dad's cousin when they were in school. Because he was passing information to Voldemort, and Katarina found out about something he knew."

Sirius looked stricken, and Harry turned to me sharply. "And you never thought to share any of this?" he demanded.

"I only found out on Halloween, and then, well, you know what happened. I guess I'd forgotten with everything else." I turned back to Sirius. "So you think he entered us? But he was furious when our names came out of the Goblet."

"Well, we know he's a good actor, he convinced the Ministry to set him free," Sirius countered. "Now, I've been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet – "

"You and the rest of the world," Harry said bitterly.

" – and reading between the lines of that Skeeter woman's article last month. Moody was attacked just before the school year started – "

"But it was a false alarm," I said.

Sirius shook his head. "Surely you don't believe Skeeter on that? She's a terrible journalist, never gets all the facts. Your brothers should observe her writing for what not to do. Somehow, I don't think it was a false alarm. I think someone wanted to prevent him from coming to Hogwarts; knew their job would be a lot more difficult with him around. But nobody's going to look into it too closely; they all say he's paranoid. But that doesn't mean he can't still spot the real thing. He was the best Auror the ministry's ever had."

"If Karkaroff's trying to kill us, why doesn't he just take us into the woods and off us like he did with Katarina Zellinsky?" I argued.

"That was more than thirty years ago," Sirius said slowly. "I've been hearing some very strange things. The Death Eaters seem to be a little more active than usual. They were at the World Cup, weren't they? Someone had to have set off the Dark Mark. And then… did you hear about that ministry witch who's gone missing?"

"Bertha Jorkins?" Harry asked.

"Exactly. She disappeared in Albania, and that's definitely where Voldemort was rumored to be last… and she would have known the Triwizard Tournament was coming up at Hogwarts, wouldn't she?"

"Yeah…" Harry said. "But it's not very likely she would have walked straight into Voldemort, would she?"

"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins," Sirius said grimly. "She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. She's the type who would be very easy to lure into a trap."

"So Voldemort found out about the Tournament from her, and then Karkaroff is here on his orders?" I asked. "That's your theory?" Something clicked in my head, something I hadn't realized before, and I knew I needed to go to Dumbledore in the morning.

"I don't know…" Sirius said slowly. "I just don't know. Karkaroff didn't seem like the type to go back to Voldemort unless he knew he was strong enough to protect him. But whoever entered the two of you in that goblet did it for a reason, and I can't help thinking the Tournament is a good way of attacking you and making it look like an accident."

"Yeah, they'll just have to sit back and let the dragons do their stuff," Harry muttered darkly.

"Right, the dragons. Don't be fooled by a stunning spell, as you need at least six trained wizards to get through dragon hide, but there's a simple way to do it on your own, a simple spell really – "

"Someone's coming!" Harry gasped. He snatched up the invisibility cloak and threw it over me, and Sirius disappeared from view.

Harry and I watched the spiral staircase, Harry moving to hide the fire. We couldn't have Sirius's face seen within the walls of the school, that was for sure. And I couldn't be linked to him, not when the Ministry of Magic knew we were related. Who had decided to go for a stroll at one o'clock in the morning, interrupting the strategy Sirius was about to tell us for the dragons?

A moment later, Ron appeared. Dressed in his maroon paisley pajamas, he stopped dead facing Harry across the room and looked around.

"Who were you talking to?" he demanded. "Don't tell me you snuck your idiot Slytherin girlfriend in here again."

"She's not my girlfriend, and she's definitely not an idiot!" Harry retorted. "What are you doing out here this time of night? Thought you'd come nosing around, did you?"

I could tell this was going to turn ugly, and I didn't want to see it. While Ron was distracted, I snuck out the portrait hole under the cloak.

I went straight to the owlery and wrote a note for Harry. I detailed what Thalia had said and why, since Sirius hadn't been able to tell us what to do about the dragons, I thought it would be best to approach the next two days without each other's help. That way, we couldn't be accused of cheating, even though we kind of had. I found a package, put the invisibility cloak in, and sent Hedwig back to Harry with the cloak and the note. He would understand in the morning.

I sent Dusk to Clara with another note letting her know that we needed to talk ASAP the next day, and to meet me in the library after breakfast. Then I snuck back into the Slytherin dorms and went to bed.

"Dragons?" Clara gasped the next morning as we walked in the library. "And so you have to fight them or something?"

"Charlie said get past them. Nesting mothers, so they'll be protecting their eggs."

"Wait, eggs? I had a dream about eggs."

I raised my eyebrows. "Any details. And, was Percy in it?"

"No, it was more like a prophecy, except even more complicated and with fewer words. There was a pile of eggs, and then my hair was there floating on water on a sunbeam, and then everything went dark. So maybe you have to do something about the eggs? Have any previous Triwizard tasks utilized dragons or eggs before?"

"Not that I can think of. There was one that included cutting off horns in a way that would ensure they grow back. But competitors were given time to brew a potion, and that doesn't seem right, somehow. Not the same as this. I've only read ones from the last 200 years, though, there could be more."

"Hmm." She nodded hello to Hermione and Harry, who were surrounded by dragon books. She made to sit down next to them, but I shook my head.

"Thalia mentioned that we might want to dissociate for a little while, until the First Task is over. Said that it would look less suspicious if we discover our own methods of figuring things out."

"Oh." Clara's face fell, and I could tell she was thinking about something, but not what.

"So, Sirius said it would be a simple spell, right? What about a flame-freezing spell, that could – "

"No, but that's still five tons of mama dragon to contend with. But if the eggs can float, then some sort of water spell, maybe something to maximize the effect of Aguamenti."

"And don't forget your Protego."

We went back and forth like this for a few more minutes with Clara dutifully writing everything down.

"Oh no, he's back again, why can't he read on his stupid ship, or the guest quarters?" I heard Hermione mutter a short while later. I glanced up to see who she was talking about as Viktor Krum slouched in. He cast a surly glance at their table, and then at ours, before settling himself in a distant corner with a pile of books.

As Hermione and Harry gathered up their things and left the library, Hermione muttering something about Krum's fan club, I glanced over at Krum's pile of books. I recalled that Karkaroff snuck off to see the dragons, and a sinking feeling swelled in the pit of my stomach. Krum and Fleur would likely know about the dragons. And that meant Cedric might be the only one of us going in unprepared.

I took a deep breath. When I was twelve, I had faced a basilisk. A hydra. Circe. A whole ship of monsters attempting to send me to the underworld. But each time, I'd had friends by my side. Even Artemis, when we held up the sun last winter. Even Tony, when I went into the labyrinth over the summer. But this time, I'd be on my own.

"Can you send a…" I glanced over at Krum and the girls who had followed him in, twittering amongst themselves. I scowled to see that Avery Bunter, Philippa Blake, and Rachel Samson were among them, as well as quite a few Ravenclaws, Gryffindors, and Hufflepuffs I didn't know. "A you-know-what from the stands? It should be bright and sunny, so you can probably hide it."

"Renee, this has to be you," Clara countered. "Let's see what Harry and Hermione discarded."

We walked over to their table. I glanced at some of the titles. Men Who Love Dragons Too Much and How to Train Your Dragon were ones that jumped out at me. "These are no good, they're probably for nutters like Hagrid who want to keep them as pets. Harry and Hermione probably took all the good ones."

"I wonder…" Clara trailed off. She cast an eye at the historical fiction section. "I'll be right back."

"Clara, it's not very likely," I called after her, but she didn't seem to hear me.

Two hours later, we'd found nothing, although Clara had insisted I check out a few mountain living memoirs by wizards who'd faced dragons and a historical fiction title called Up in the Green about a boy who befriended a Common Welsh Green living at a sanctuary in a mountain.

"I need to go see Dumbledore," I told her. "Sirius told me something last night quite apart from all this, and I need to check in with him about Bertha Jorkins."

"The ministry witch?" Clara said with a start. "What's she got to do with it?" She narrowed her eyes. "That's not who you asked Nico to look into at the World Cup, is it? Because you think she's dead?"

"You heard that?" I asked sharply.

"I came into the tent to get away from Crouch and their boring discussion. I just heard the tail end of it, but yeah."

"Yes," I sighed. "I thought about it then, but I hadn't remembered since. When I had that dream, with Harry, Voldemort mentioned her. I think he said he killed her. And last night Sirius said she definitely got to Albania. And that's where all the intelligence says Voldemort is, or at least was. He thinks Voldemort learned about the Triwizard Tournament from her, and used Karkaroff to enter us."

"Karkaroff?" Clara raised her eyebrows.

"Sirius said he was a Death Eater. Remember what Mikhail told us? He was in Voldemort's inner circle."

Clara nodded thoughtfully. "I'll go with you for Dumbledore. Let's stop at Hufflepuff first, I still need to give him Dede the diricawl."

"You still have her?" I ask, my eyes wide. "Why?"

Clara shrugged. "Never had time to turn her in, I guess. The girls like her. Well, liked, before, well, you know. But with the tensions with Rebecca, it's definitely time to pass her on.

I nodded absently. We made our way toward Hufflepuff, but Clara said, "you'd better wait at the kitchens. I don't know if you'll get the friendliest reception."

She gives me a small smile, and I nod.

Instead of going into the kitchens, I paced the hallway. Dragons, I wondered. A simple spell… could I transfigure a dragon? Or resize and distract one? "What about a flame-freezing spell?" I said out loud. "And then a… well, I don't know. I could…"

The portrait hole swung open. I stood up to meet Clara, but it wasn't her.

"Cedric," I gasped when I noticed the older boy. Had he heard me just then? He was the only one who didn't know about the dragons. "The task, Cedric – it's dragons, and we have to get past them," I blurted out.

"Why are you telling me this?" Cedric narrowed his eyes. "Are you trying to throw me off? That's just something a snake like you would do, isn't it?"

He brushed past me, leaving me confused. I'd thought Cedric didn't feel that way about us. But maybe now he was realizing that we were enemies in this. Or rivals, at least.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.

I glanced around as I heard Moody coming down the hallway from the opposite direction. Cedric turned a corner, and Moody stopped as he saw me. "Come with me, Sanderson."

Being alone with Moody was the last thing I wanted right now. "I'm supposed to meet Clara, sir, we were just going to talk to Professor Dumbledore."

He narrowed his eyebrows. "Miss Sanderson, I would expect you, as the youngest competitor, to be more sensible about this. Spending time with members of your opponent's house and telling your opponent directly what you know, I wouldn't consider that wise."

"Sir?" I gulped. It was bad enough that Moody knew I'd heard about the dragons, but I was surprised that he would question my affiliations and conversations.

"Miss Sanderson, as the youngest competitor, can I give you a word of advice?"

"Er," I said, because I wasn't sure what else to say.

"So, you've found out about the dragons. It's alright, though. Cheating's a natural part of the Triwizard Tournament, always has been. And as the youngest player, what can you do for an edge? What can you, an inexperienced witch, do that the others can't?"

"I heard there was a simple charm – " I said, resigned to the fact that I was trapped in this conversation.

"Ah yes, a charm," Moody prompts. "I hear you have no shortage of that, Sanderson."

"Sir?" I made a mental note to ask Sprout if Moody is on the safe list for demigod stuff.

"I don't play favorites, so I'm not going to tell you how to win," Moody said. "But I will say this: play to your strengths, even when unconventional. All your research isn't worth a damn if you can't win with it."

"My research, sir?" I thought back to the books and newspaper articles I'd been reading about the Tournament. How come I'd never thought to look there, at least for some idea of precedent?

"Don't be so quick to discard the unconventional, if that's what you plan to win with."

My head reeled as Moody dismissed me. Something compelled me to make my way toward the library again. The unconventional…

I walked quickly over to the back table where Clara and I had been studying an hour previously. Men Who Love Dragons Too Much caught my eye. It was a heavy volume with tiny print, and there was no way I was going to be able to read it, not with my dyslexia. Still, something Moody had said reminded me of something I thought I'd seen.

I opened to the table of contents. I ran my finger across the words, but nothing jumped out. I couldn't concentrate on the words jumping around on the page. I sighed and closed my eyes. I pictured Professor Sprout and Nico, and then I knew what I had to do.

"Graeca Transferendum," I muttered after glancing around to make sure nobody was listening.

I scanned the table of context again. Everything I had been missing jumped out at me. I flipped to "Chapter 3: Comfort and Reassurance of Dragons."

Alabamian-Welsh magilinguist and dragon dealer Esyllt Bugh first discovered the methodology most successful in persuading your dragon companions to trust you in 1932.

"I always kept Common Welsh Greens," Bugh claimed in an interview (translated). "Only ones I could find. They were always easy enough to train. Oh, they needed their rods and their ropes, but you could get there in the end. But then I had a friend from China, and he sent me a Chinese Fireball egg. What a devil to raise.

My friend from China, well, he came up, and he spoke to her, and he said, you know, Esyllt, them Common Welsh Greens, they can really do a number on you. And I said, no, it's these Chinese Fireballs that you can't tame. And that got me thinking, what if it's the language.

We moved into a secluded cabin together, us and four dragons. We had my Chinese Fireball, his Welsh, a Swedish Short Snout, and a Norwegian Ridgeback. And I said, by the time we move back to civilization, we're going to know how to talk to these dragons.

I rolled my eyes. This chapter might have been about a Welsh dragon dealer, but the Alabamian showed deep with the language used. I skimmed the page, hoping I'd find more direct information and less prattle. Even in Greek, my ADHD brain couldn't make heads or tails of this stuff with all the southern prattle.

I paged through the rest of the chapter, but most of it was more southern prattle, mixed in with dragon jargon. Still, I paid attention to any mentions of various languages.

I flipped back and forth through the chapter and then jotted down any useful notes.

Madam Pince, the librarian, walked over to me once. "Library closes in ten minutes. I want all this dragon junk cleaned up by then."

I glanced around at the other tables. Many of the books Harry and Hermione had been looking about were still strewn about. I groaned. "I didn't get these out," I protested.

Madam Pince just glared at me.

I sighed, picked up the books, and went to check out the one I had been reading. Madam Pince looked at it disdainfully but didn't comment.

As I left the library, I bumped into Clara. Her eyes went wide when she saw me.

"Where were you? I looked everywhere! I thought you'd gone up, so I decided to take Dede up, but you were nowhere there. I thought something bad had happened."

My heart sank. With the conversation with Moody, I'd forgotten all about Dumbledore's office.

"Can we go to the Hidden room?" I asked. "We need to talk. I completely blanked on our plans, and something came up. I'm starting to get an idea for how to beat the first task. But I need Sandra, or someone who doesn't have my same reading difficulties.

Clara frowned. "How could you just leave me hanging like that?"

I looked at the ground. "Moody," I mumbled.

"What?" Clara asked sharply.

"I tried to tell Cedric about the dragons when I saw him, and then he didn't believe me, but Moody overheard. And he pulled me aside and, well, I'm not sure why I forgot."

Clara glared. "The timing on that is almost too perfect, Wren. It's like he didn't want you to talk to Dumbledore. You didn't tell him what it was about, did you?"

I shook my head. "Why wouldn't he want me to talk to Dumbledore?"

"There's something weird about him, Wren. I don't like it. But come on, let's find Sandra or someone.

It's nearly curfew when we get to the Slytherin common room. Since it's a Sunday, most people are already in their rooms. Sandra doesn't appear to be there, and neither are any of my friends. I do spot Draco studying in a corner. He's alone, which is unlike him, especially recently.

I try to avoid looking over at him, but he catches my eye and stands up. "Renee. And you brought Clara. What a pleasant surprise."

He puts down his book, and I glance briefly at it. It's the Standard Book of Spells: Year Four. I'm surprised, as I never saw him as the studious type.

"Figure out how to beat Potter on Tuesday yet?"

I'm about to retort, but Clara smiles. "Actually, we might have found a way. But we need some help. Is there anywhere private we can go?"

Draco smirks, then raises an eyebrow. "You're asking for my help? That's a low bar, Clarissa, even for a Hufflepuff like you."

A few people glance up at the word "Hufflepuff." Someone calls, "get out, traitor."

Draco stands up faster than I can think. Within seconds, he's crossed the room to Marcus Flint and Randy Gilmore and has his wand out. "You insult the Slytherin champion one more time and you'll get what's coming to you. Slytherin deserves all the glory on Tuesday. Let's go, Renee."

He storms out of the room, and Clara and I follow.

"What was that about?" I mutter.

Draco pulls us into an empty classroom. "A lot of them are torn," he seethes. "They don't know whether to support the Slytherin champion or the 'true Hogwarts champion' BS."

"The 'true Hogwarts champion BS' that you started?" I shoot back coolly.

Draco looks away. "What was it that you needed?" He asked, looking at Clara and not me. That might be the first time he's spoken directly to his sister instead of me.

Clara quickly explained about the dyslexia and ADHD. "You're pretty good at extracting information from a lot of text. You like historical fiction as an aide to History of Magic, right?"

Draco shrugged. Then he glanced at the book we had, and he sneered. "You're not thinking of pulling a Hagrid, are you?"

"What?" I thought back to something Harry told me yesterday. "No, not that. It's for the Tournament."

Draco glanced at the dragon on the cover as it let out a burst of flame. "They didn't," he muttered darkly.

Clara gave him a grim smile. "They did. She has to get past them, and get some kind of an egg. They're all nesting mothers. I had a dream about dragons and eggs. I think there's a special egg of some sort, and we need to figure out how to get past the dragon. Someone suggested Renee use – " she glanced around, and then lowered her voice to a whisper. "Charmspeak."

Draco nodded. "That makes more sense. I knew you were more sensible than the large oaf."

"Hey!" I protested at Draco's attitude toward Hagrid.

Draco ignored me. "Anyway, do you want me to read this and then give you some notes? I can get it back to you tomorrow morning before class."

"That'll be great," Clara said, beaming brighter than her sunbeams. But I frowned.

"Er, I was hoping for sooner, so I could start preparing. The task is less than two days away, I don't want to go in blind."

"You won't, Rebirth."

I rolled my eyes at Draco's silly nickname. With the way he'd been acting recently, it wasn't very fitting right now.

We walked back to the Slytherin common room, and I wished I could invite Clara to spend the night. But she ushered me inside. It took me a moment to realize Draco hadn't followed me when I entered the portrait hole.

Clara POV

"You said there's some tension, about which champion to support," I whispered. "Why not support both, or even all? Sandra's starting a movement for supporting 'A Hogwarts Victory.' The House Elves are busy making flags to support each champion, and we asked for AHV flags as well. We're all sitting in the middle of the Hogwarts section, to show our support for the whole school. You could join us in that."

Draco shook his head. "I have appearances to keep up, Clara. I have to pick a side." His shoulders slumped and he leaned in and lowered his voice. "My father doesn't want me associating with you. Publicly, I have to support the true Hogwarts champion. I'll have a tiny flag for Renee, but I can't go along with the 'A Hogwarts Victory' participation trophy BS."

I looked away. Of course appearances and his father's opinion would matter more to him. Of course they would.

I turned on my heel and stormed down the hallway toward Hufflepuff without a backwards glance.

A/N: Hey, I'm back. Hoping to write a bit more this summer. I really do want to continue with this, and I still have so many ideas for Clara and Renee. This is a promise, I will finish this. It might be in two years, it might be twenty, but I WILL finish Clara and Renee's trilogy and spinoffs.