Author's Note: I own Alex and everything you don't recognize. All else belongs to the great and honorable J.K Rowling.

Chapter 12 The First Task is WHAT?

November had definitely arrived as the Gryffindors and Slytherins worked over their Potions, rubbing their frozen fingers over the fire. Alex had finished the potion and was warming up her numbed fingers so she could pick up the vial without having it slip and fall on the flagstone floor. Finally, feeling was restored and she put the vial on Snape's desk, wrapping herself in her cloak and sitting back at her table. Quickly as she could, she put away her ingredients but keeping the fire going.

A door opened and Colin Creevy came in. His smile, which he was accustomed to wearing whenever he was near Harry, was gone and he looked rather frightened.

"Excuse me Professor Snape, but I'm to take Harry to see Professor Dumbledore. He needs to go with the other champions, sir."

"I'm sure it can wait until after he has finished in my class, Mr. Creevy," said Snape, "What is so important that they are taking students away from their work?"

"I…I think it's an interview sir, so the public can learn about them," Colin said, his voice shaking, "Sir, I was sent to get him. He-"

"Very well," Snape said, his lip curling, "Have fun at your interview, Potter. You may finish your potion after dinner tonight."

Harry cleared his stuff and followed Colin. When the bell rang moments later, Alex and Hermione left to go see Hagrid. Bundled up tightly, they made their trek across the school grounds and arrived to the warmth of Hagrid's hut. Hagrid served them tea while humming an out of tune song Alex had never heard before.

"You seem…happy, Hagrid," said Hermione as Hagrid hit a note that made them cringe, "Is everything all right?"

"Yeh bet I'm fine!" Hagrid said jovially.

After they had finished their tea and were getting ready to leave, Hagrid called them back.

"Tell Harry to meet me here at eleven o' clock tonight. He'll need the cloak 'cause it's a secret."

When Harry came back from his interview, he was in a mood. Apparently, the interviewer, Rita Skeeter, had cornered him in a broom cupboard ("Nothing happened, Hermione!") and had asked him all about his past. He had managed to read some of her notes over her shoulder and she made him out to be this little crybaby boy.

"Well, Hagrid wants you to meet him tonight at eleven, maybe that'll cheer you up," said Hermione.

"Can I come too?" Alex asked pleadingly. Harry nodded and asked Hermione if she wanted to come too.

"I think I'll stay here," she said, "I'm not in the mood to go gallivanting around Hogwarts at night."

So at ten forty-five, after he finished his potion, Harry tapped Alex shoulder and they became invisible with only Hermione around. They crept outside and knocked on Hagrid's door. He opened it and Alex almost thought they had the wrong hut. Hagrid's normally wild and tangled hair was wet and less straggly, with comb teeth still lodged in it. He had a strange jacket on, not his normal animal skin one but an orange blazer-type. He reeked of cologne and had a large flower pinned to his jacket.

"Is tha' you, Harry?"

"Yeah," he whispered. They had decided to not let Hagrid know Alex was tagging along.

"Come on, we're going into the forest," he said and led the way. Alex gave Harry a look of confusion and fright. Her last visit wasn't very pleasant. Could centaurs see though invisibility necklaces?

They walked deep into the forest until they reached a fence. Standing there was an extremely large woman, Madame Maxime.

"Ah 'Agrid, I though you forgot abou' me," she said.

"I could never forget yeh," said Hagrid, turning red.

Alex put a finger to her mouth and pretended to vomit, causing Harry to cover his mouth as he fought from laughing. They followed the couple around the fence until they came to a tented area with four cages. In the cages, Alex saw in alarm, were dragons. Not baby ones like Norbert, but full-grown dragons. Alex could hear them shouting at the men who were running around the area, cursing them for putting them into cages.

There was a burst of heat and flames, causing Alex and Harry to jump back in alarm. One of the dragons, with pointed scales and a row of sharp edges on its tail, had breathed fire in its anger.

"Whoa there, Hagrid," a familiar voice said and Alex saw Charlie Weasley run over to them, "You better stand back, that Hungarian Horntail is a foul-tempered beast. Nearly set the entire crate on fire while she was coming here. Their upset because we messed with their eggs, poor things. What's she doing here?" He had noticed Hagrid's companion.

"Oh, she's a friend o' mine," said Hagrid sheepishly.

"Mmhm, just don't let her tell her student about this, it's supposed to be a secret for the first task," Charlie said with a knowing look.

"Vat must zey do with ze dragons?" Madame Maxime asked, staring at the Horntail in awe.

"Haven't a clue, we're just the delivery boys. Gotta run Hagrid, don't get too close. Oy Henry, get some water on that tent for Merlin's sake!" Charlie ran off and Madame Maxime went around, finding another view. Harry pulled the hood off his head and looked at Hagrid.

"Dragons?" he hissed, "We need to fight dragons? Are they mad?"

"You'll be fine Harry," Hagrid said, waving his hand and following his "friend".

Harry stood there, his head floating in space. He pulled his hood up and stared at the dragons. Alex placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's get out of here before Hagrid starts making out," she whispered in an attempt to cheer her friend up.

They arrived in the common room and saw Hermione with Monty on a table. He had a letter at his feet with Sirius' handwriting on the envelope.

"It's from my dad!" said Alex happily and opened it. Her face fell when she saw there were only four words and a time.

Gryffindor common room, tomorrow, 11:30.

"What does that mean?" Harry asked, reading the letter over Alex's shoulder, "He's not going to come up to the castle, is he?"

"I don't know," said Alex, "But I hope to Merlin he won't."

…...

The next night, the three waited for the common room to empty. While they were waiting, they talked about how to fight a mother dragon.

"Maybe I could stun it," said Harry as the girls poured over books.

"One, you'd need a hell of a lot more people stunning at the same time to make a difference," said Alex "And two, spells bounce off their armor except for their stomach. If I were you, I'd stay clear of the feet."

"Maybe he could knock it out like Ron did to the troll in our first year," said Hermione.

"I'm not doing anything that Ron thought was good," said Harry icily.

Finally, the place was empty. The clock sounded eleven…eleven fifteen…eleven thirty. Alex was staring into the fireplace while Hermione and Harry were debating about using rocks to hold it down, when she screamed and knelt by the fire.

"What's up, Alex?" Harry and Hermione asked together.

"I just saw my dad…in the fire."

"Alex, you're just…Sirius?" Harry asked as his godfather's face floated above the flames.

"Surprised you, didn't I?" he said with a laugh, "Alex, you should've seen you face when you saw me! I thought you were going to wet yourself, you were so surprised."

"Yeah well, I'm not used to seeing my dad's head engulfed in flames," laughed Alex, "It's great to see you, Dad."

"I just wish I could see you in person. Now I got your letter, Alex," Sirius said in a business-like tone, "Someone in school did this, someone who wants both you and Harry dead."

"But who?" Hermione asked, "Surely the Hogwarts staff wouldn't do that? Dumbledore trusts them."

Alex made a sneeze that sounded a lot like "Snape".

"No, I don't think Snape would try anything right under Dumbledore's nose," Sirius mulled over, "Dumbledore knows how much he hates you two. There are other schools at Hogwarts this year, with teachers who are less than friendly. Do you know Igor Karkaroff?"

"Yeah, he's the head of Durmstrang," said Alex, "Why?"

"He was a Death Eater who supposedly works for us now," Sirius said scathingly, "He sold out others to save his rotten self. But remember this, people who go over to Voldemort of their own accord never change. People say that they learned the error of their ways, but that's a lie. When I was in Azkaban, I heard them shouting for Voldemort to save them, to take them away. They were insane of course, but they are bonded to him for life. Becoming a Death Eater isn't a decision made lightly, once a servant of Voldemort, always a servant of Voldemort."

"The first task in this tournament is fighting a dragon," said Harry, "How am I supposed to take on a full-grown mother dragon with only my wand?"

"Harry, the others in this tournament may be older and more experienced than you, but have more determination than anyone I know. I know you will find a way to win and you have the smartest witches alive helping you."

He smiled at Hermione and Alex. Harry opened his mouth to ask another question but stopped. Footsteps were coming down the stairs.

"Someone's coming!" Alex whispered. She stood in front of the fire so as to hide the floating head of Sirius Black. She heard a pop and knew her father was gone. The footsteps continued and Ron appeared. He stopped when he saw the three of them sitting by the fire.

"I thought I heard something," he said, looking at them, "I thought there were four of you down here."

"Nope, only us," Alex said.

"Must've been practicing for your next interview, sorry to disturb," said Ron icily.

"Ron!" said Hermione but he ignored her and went up the stairs. She sighed and went up to her dormitory, looking very sad.

…...

The next day, Professor Moody kept Harry back for a few minutes after class. Harry found the girls in the library and sat down with them, very happy.

"I think I know how to get past the dragon," he whispered excitedly, "But I'm going to need your help if I'm going to do it next Friday."

He told them about Moody saying to play his strengths and how he could summon his Firebolt from the castle. Alex listened with a smile.

"That's genius! Why didn't we think of that? It's so simple!"

"Not really, actually," said Hermione, but she was happy that they had a game plan, "It'll take a lot of practice but we can spend all week and weekend working on it."

For the next week, Alex and Hermione spent hours working with Harry on his Summoning Charm. On Thursday evening, Alex left them early to go to her lesson with Snape. She entered the office and found Professor Dumbledore in there too.

"Good evening, Alex," the Headmaster said and Alex smiled nervously, "Professor Snape has told me you are afraid of entering a person's mind, am I right?"

"I'm not afraid to, sir," said Alex, "I just think someone's mind is private. Entering it is like reading a diary without permission, it's just not right."

"Many things we do in life are not what you call right," said Dumbledore sadly, "Killing, torturing, causing extra suffering. These things happen for a reason. It is important to understand Legilimency to learn how to defend yourself against it.

"I'll tell you what Alex, I will attempt to enter your mind and you will try to fight me off."

Alex nodded slowly and prepared herself. She felt pressure and saw in her mind's eye someone attempting to break down the doors to her mind. She fought to keep the Headmaster out with all her strength. Then, like someone letting go of a tug-of-war rope, there was no one to fight with and Alex was sent spiraling into Albus Dumbledore's mind.

She saw a young Dumbledore, not much older than she was, sitting in a class attempting to turn a rat into a snuff box. He was awarded ten points by the teacher, not Professor McGonagall, for having the nicest looking one. The scene changed and she watched as Dumbledore was appointed Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Suddenly, Alex found herself on her knees, panting and sweating. Dumbledore was at her side, helping her into a chair.

"Entering a mind is just as draining as having someone in yours," Dumbledore said kindly, "It takes practice so that you aren't as drained as your victim."

"You mean…I just went into your memories?" asked Alex, "Professor, I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry."

"No need to apologize, Alex," said Dumbledore with a smile, "In fact, I should be the one apologizing to you. I tricked you into entering my mind. I allowed your energy to build up to the point of no control and then let my guard down, forcing you to use your built up energy into entering my mind. I hope you can forgive me for that."

Alex nodded, still shaky. She listened as Dumbledore told her once a month, she would come to his office so they could practice legilimency together. He left her and Snape to continue their lessons.

"I've heard you've been practicing your technique," Snape said with a smirk.

"I haven't a clue what you're talking about," said Alex and she wasn't lying.

"So soon we forget. Your little duel with your housemate? The only reason I didn't tell Dumbledore that you used magic outside of classes was because you managed to beat your opponent. Let's see if you can do it again."

He raised his wand and they began dueling.

…...

Alex returned to the common room extremely late, but still found Hermione and Harry practicing. She slumped into a chair and began rubbing her aching muscles.

"Harry's really improving," said Hermione eagerly, "While you were gone, he managed to summon one of my textbooks from upstairs."

"That's great, Harry," said Alex, immediately perking up, "Wait until everyone sees what you're going to do!"

"Do you think the others know about the challenge?" Harry asked as he summoned another textbook from a room above.

"If Madame Maxime knows, she's bound to tell little miss sunshine so she'll have the upper hand," Alex said, "And I'll bet she'd tell Karkaroff so that Krum'll be able to beat Hogwarts. She must be upset about there being two Hogwarts champions."

"And Diggory?"

"Probably not," said Hermione with a shrug, "How could he?"

"I should tell him," said Harry, "He deserves to know, seeing as everyone else probably does."

"You sure about that, Harry?" asked Hermione, "It might give you an advantage."

"If that's how I have to win the competition, then I'd rather lose," said Harry, stretching, "It's better to lose and be honest than win and be a liar."

"That's very honorable of you, Harry," said Alex with a smile, "Now, show me how much you've improved."

Author's Note: Guess what? I finally am able to reply to reviews without getting an error code! If you reviewed the last chapter, would you please tell me if you actually received a reply from me? I want to make sure it actually works.

Peanut7890: For some reason, it wouldn't let me reply to yours so here I am! Alex's character expresses the thoughts and opinions I always had while reading the book except maybe a bit more…aggressive about it. :P Haha, I think Oliver would've had his hands full trying to deal with Alex. She's quite passionate about Quidditch so the two of them would always be in a heated discussion. Still, I love Oliver and I do regret not having much of him in the series. Oh well. Anyway, thank you very much for your review!

So what did you think of this chapter? I know it didn't have much action or adventure or romance in it, but hopefully it wasn't a completely and utter bore to read. Next chapter is the first task and I promise it will be fun. Thank you to all my amazing reviewers, favorite-ers, and alert-ers! Your support, as always, is appreciated and never ceases to put me in a merry mood. Remember, please let me know if you received a reply from me so I know if it's working. :D