Chapter Eight

The First Approach

Lorena was in the library finishing an essay for McGonagall when she heard someone calling her name. She looked up and saw Abril walking towards her. When she was about to say something, Lorena interrupted her.

"What's that on your robe?"

Abril looked down at her robe and quickly tried to hide it, but Lorena had already seen it.

"Is that a "I Support Cedric Diggory!" pin?" she accused.

"Well, I am Hufflepuff after all"

"But you shouldn't be going for a side. You know it's not Harry's fault"

"I know that! Anyway, at least this pin doesn't change into "Potter Stinks""

Lorena snorted amused and looked down again at her essay.

Abril stared at her before pulling a chair and sitting down in front of her.

"Since when are you such a good student?" Abril asked.

Lorena laughed.

"You wound me," she said pretending to be offended, "You know that when I like something, I do it right. And I absolutely love being here, so I'm decided to have a good grade"

"You hate Herbology" Abril pointed out, "And Potions"

"Yes, well, in Herbology mostly because of Lorcan being my partner and everything, but also all those creepy plants kind of freak me out a bit. And I don't hate Potions. Just the part about chopping revolting ingredients while Snape sneers at you"

They stayed in silence for some time, the only sound in the library being the turning pages of the books and the writing of the quills. Abril scanned the library, bored, and wasn't too surprised to see Viktor Krum slouched in one of the couches, surrounded by books, and even less surprising, a group of girls "hiding" near, giggling as they watched the quidditch star. At last, Lorena sighed and put her quill down.

"I'm done," she said as she rolled her essay and tucked it into her bag, "Fancy taking a walk?"

"Yeah, why not" Abril said, and both girls stood up and exited the library.

"Why, but isn't it Saint Potter coming to bless us all, poor mortals!" Draco Malfoy mocked.

He and other Slytherins were hanging around in the courtyard, making fun of Harry when Lorena and Abril passed by.

"Sod off, Malfoy" Harry said angrily attempting to cross the courtyard, but the Slytherins blocked his way.

"Now, now, Potter. No need to get ill-mannered" Malfoy said snickering, "We only wanted you to sign us some autographs. That is, before you get yourself blown up in the first task."

The snakes burst out laughing and Harry turned red.

"I'm warning you, Malfoy…"

"Don't mind him, Harry" Lorena said suddenly, stepping into the quarrel, "Malfoy has nothing to do with his time but throw lame insults to anyone who crosses his way"

Malfoy scowled at both girls.

"Why you little…"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, blondie" Abril said. She and Lorena exchanged a look and nodded, and then grabbed Harry away from the courtyard.

"Well thanks" Abril whispered angrily at Lorena, "Now the love of my life hates me because I called him "blondie""

Lorena coughed to hide a giggle and then smiled at Harry, who was still walking awkwardly next to them.

"Um…thanks for that," Harry said.

"It was nothing," Abril said, "You shouldn't let anyone get into your nerves like that, though."

Harry snorted.

"Yeah, but he's not the only one. Almost everyone in the school dislikes me now" he said frowning, "I never asked for this"

"So, are you saying you didn't put your name in the goblet?" Lorena asked as they passed the Charms corridor.

"No" he answered, looking at the two girls.

"Well, if you say you didn't do it, there is no reason to think otherwise" Abril assured him, and then added: "It's obvious that you hate this new attention besides being who you are."

Harry stopped walking and gaped at them.

"You mean you believe me?"

"We do" both girls said in unison, and the Abril grabbed Lorena's arm.

"We must go to the library," she said, earning a strange look from Lorena, "but don't hesitate if you need someone to talk to, ok? And don't worry, Harry, I bet your going to be great"

For the first time, Harry smiled widely at them.

"Thanks. It's good to talk to someone who doesn't care about my fame"

"We just came from the library" Lorena said when Harry disappeared down the staircase, "And you let him go just like that when we had finally started a conversation with him!"

"We can't offer him our friendship and help just like that or he'll start to get suspicious. You know how he is, him and his "detective" tendencies." Abril said rolling her eyes, "No, we can't pressure him. The first task is still two weeks away. Slowly, we're going to get to know him until he trusts us, and then we'll help him as much as we can."

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody suddenly bellowed, making every single student in his class jump, some gasping and one Hufflepuff even falling from her chair.

Thankfully, it was the last class of that Friday afternoon, but right now, that didn't help the jumpy nerves of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw sixth year students who were currently having Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Moody stared at the class with his normal eye while the magical one moved wildly, stopping to look at every student. Finally, he straightened up and crossed his hands behind his back. He cleared his throat and continued talking.

"That is how you prevent being blown up into tiny pieces. Nerve, cunning, and CON…STANT…VI…GI…LANCE" he finished, scribbling furiously the last words on the blackboard.

He turned around abruptly.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Stand up and form two lines!" he growled, waving his wand and making the chairs and desks fly into the corners of the room, not waiting for the students who hadn't been quick enough to stand up.

After everyone had formed two lines, Moody surprised them as he laughed.

"Forget about the lines. We're going to play a little game." he said smiling, making some students gulp, "The game is called "The Last One to Survive""

For the looks on the students' faces, they didn't share Moody's enthusiasm.

Abril heard Sabine whimper, and she grasped her wand tighter.

"I trust you know enough jinxes and hexes to survive?" Moody said.

"Wait a minute," Roger Davies said frowning, "What do you mean by that? We can't just use jinxes and hexes against us."

"Oh" Moody said mockingly, "and what else were you thinking on using?"

"Well…protective spells," Roger said suddenly uneasy, "right?"

Moody's grin made everyone widen their eyes in alarm. They weren't allowed to protect themselves.

Before anyone could say another thing, Moody gave the sign to start and the next thing they knew, they were all attacking each other and running for their lives, lights bursting from all directions and exploding against the walls.

Lorena ducked behind a desk just when a blue light was about to hit her, instead hitting a Ravenclaw who stumbled with a chair and fell backwards. Lorena peeked over the desk and fired a jinx at a Hufflepuff girl.

Abril saw Mariah falling, but she couldn't stay there as a burst of white light was fired towards her. She screamed and ducked, feeling when the light struck a mirror and hundreds of pieces crashed over her. Not worrying about the light cuts on her face and arms, she hurled to her right before anyone could hex her again.

Someone fell heavily over Lorena when she was trying to crawl across the classroom, leaving her without air. She gasped and suddenly covered her head with her arms as a chair went flying over her. She launched herself forward, but before she could do anything, she was thrown to the ground by a hex and struck her head against something, leaving her unconscious.

The dust in the room was too thick for anyone to see clearly, and Abril turned her head side to side, trying to figure out what was going on around her. She stumbled against something, or someone, and retreated to where she thought it was de back of the classroom, only to have her head banged against someone else's. She nursed her bruised forehead and she heard a barked laugh before she passed out with a moan.

The first thing to come to Lorena's mind when she woke up in the Hospital Wing was "I'm going to kill Moody". As she sat up, not without wincing, she saw that her whole DADA class was there. Some, like her, were sitting in the beds caring for their wounds, but a few were still unconscious. She scanned the room and saw with relief that Abril was awake and standing up, only with her forehead covered in bandages.

In that moment, Madame Pomfrey came out of her office with a murderous look, muttering something about incompetent professors. To Lorena's surprise, she gave Abril instructions, and both witches started administrating healing potions, ointments and plasters to the students.

When she was ready to go, Lorena waited for Abril at the door and together they exited the Hospital Wing.

"Pomfrey let me help her tend the students," Abril said excitedly, but her excitement quickly turned into annoyance, "What was he thinking in forcing us to attack each other like that? And without protective spells!"

Lorena was fuming.

"That bloody old bastard. I swear I would be more than happy to hex him whenever he wants"

"I would be careful if I were you, Miss Rodriguez" a deep voice suddenly said.

The girls whipped around and a chill ran through their backs when they spotted Moody standing just behind them.

"We don't want any other…" Moody pierced Lorena with both eyes, "innocent… student end up in the Hospital Wing, do we?"

Lorena gulped and looked down.

It wasn't until they heard Moody's wooden leg thump away that they finally let out the air they had been holding.

"We must be careful" was the only thing Abril said.

For a strange reason, the day was unusually bright and warm, and the students were taking advantage of the nice weather before the chills of winter struck the castle.

As usual, Lorena and Abril walked together through the corridors when Abril nudged Lorena's arm. She looked at what Abril had noticed and saw Moody stomping towards Harry, who was sitting under a tree near the lake, finishing some homework.

Before Lorena could think of something, Abril had already run towards Harry.

"Harry!" she yelled high enough for Moody to hear, "Oh Harry!"

Harry turned around confused and was gobsmacked when Abril threw herself into his arms.

"Oh Harry it's horrible!" she pouted against Harry's neck.

Lorena saw with the corner of her eye how Moody frowned and turned around, heading back to the castle.

"It is?" he asked, half amused, half confused.

"Cedric told me," Abril said, finally releasing him.

Lorena was about to snort when Abril pulled her down with such force she bumped against the grass.

"About what?" Harry said narrowing his eyes.

Abril made a motion to look around her, and when she saw no one was around, she whispered:

"Dragons"

"Oh, that" he said, his face suddenly paling, "Yeah, it's horrible"

Harry sighed and tucked his textbook and parchment inside his bag.

"Have you any ideas then?" Lorena asked leaning against the tree.

Harry passed a hand through his messy black hair, a look of guilt on his face.

"How about you ask Hagrid?" Abril suggested.

"Hagrid would probably tell me to sing while I pet him," he said snorting.

"Or you could use a charm against the dragon"

Harry shook his head.

"It takes at least ten people to control a dragon. And I'm just a fourth year student"

"Well…what are you good at, then?" Lorena asked.

"Good at?" he said surprised, "I'm not very good at anything. Except maybe flying"

"Oh! Then you could use that in your advantage" Abril said smiling.

Harry looked strangely at her.

"And what could I do? Hover over it?"

The girls gave him a significant look until he understood and his face brightened, but fell a second later.

"But we're not allowed to bring brooms"

"You could always summon it once you're there" Abril said with a mischievous look.

"I don't know the summoning charm"

"It's laughably easy" Lorena said, waving a hand.

Harry frowned, but then looked hopefully at them.

"Would you help me practice?"

Lorena and Abril exchanged a triumphant glance.

"Of course" they answered.