Sirius had replied to Harry's letter, the owl had been waiting for him when he'd turned up in the dormitory after dinner. He had asked for a face to face meeting, two days before the first task. The fact that Sirius asked Harry to be by the fire made Skylar assume he was going to use the floo network to accomplish this.
"Though you'd think they'd be protected like the rest of the school." Skylar mumbled in thought. Hermione, Skylar and Harry spent a long time going over plans for forcing any stragglers out of the common room on the night in question. If the worst came to the worst, they were going to drop a bag of Dungbombs, but they hoped they wouldn't have to resort to that — Filch would skin them alive.
It turned out that when taken from Snape's potions class, Harry had gone to a Weighing of the Wands, where the champions' wands had been checked over for their conditions and assured to be worthy for the tasks ahead, and had no faults. Mr. Ollivander, a wand owner who owned a store in Dragon Alley, and who most of the Hogwarts students got their wands from, had done the tests. Also at this event, had been Rita Skeeter, and she'd taken photos and interviewed Harry. The article of which had been published. It was supposed to have been about the Triwizard Tournament, but had turned out to be not so much a report on the tournament as a highly coloured life story of Harry. Much of the front page had been given over to a picture of Harry; the article (continuing on pages two, six, and seven) had been all about Harry, the names of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions (misspelled) had been squashed into the last line of the article, and Cedric hadn't been mentioned at all.
Harry apparently had said very little apart from that he hadn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire, and yet Rita had a whole colourful paragraph quoting him.
I suppose I get my strength from my parents. I know they'd be very proud of me if they could see me now… Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I'm not ashamed to admit it… I know nothing will hurt me during the tournament, because they're watching over me…
She had interviewed other people about him too.
Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Skylar Rosenwald, a stunningly pretty pureblood girl who's father is the head of the Auror Office.
From the moment the article had appeared, Harry had had to endure people — Slytherins, mainly — quoting it at him as he passed and making sneering comments.
"Want a hanky, Potter, in case you start crying in Transfiguration?"
People had been teasing Skylar about it, but she didn't care, Rita Skeeter made almost all of her articles and interviews up as far as she was aware, and so the words didn't bother her.
It bothered Harry.
"Ignore it," Hermione said in a dignified voice. "Just ignore it, Harry."
But Harry was upset over more than just the article, Ron hadn't spoken to him at all since he had told him about Snape's detention after the interview. And even though they'd spent two hours in detention together, that hadn't helped anything either.
Hermione was furious with the pair of them; she went from one to the other, trying to force them to talk to each other, but Harry was adamant: He would talk to Ron again only if Ron admitted that Harry hadn't put his name in the Goblet of Fire and apologised for calling him a liar.
"I didn't start this," Harry said stubbornly. "It's his problem."
"You miss him!" Hermione said impatiently. "And I know he misses you —"
"Miss him?" said Harry. "I don't miss him…"
But this was a downright lie.
Skylar didn't bother with making the two boys make up and fix their friendship, nor did she go to Ron and try to convince him he was wrong, she knew them both too well and knew how stubborn they both were, she also knew there were several reasons why Harry missed Ron.
Hermione was a very good friend, but when you were Hermione's friend, it meant spending a lot of time hanging out in the library, and when that happened and Skylar went too, Stephen joined, which seemed to bother Harry even more. Unfortunately, he didn't have much choice, Harry still hadn't mastered Summoning Charms, he seemed to have developed something of a block about them, and Hermione insisted that learning the theory would help. They consequently spent a lot of time poring over books during their lunchtimes.
Viktor Krum was in the library an awful lot too. Hermione often complained about Krum being there — not that he ever bothered them — but because groups of giggling girls often turned up to spy on him from behind bookshelves, and Hermione found the noise distracting.
"He's not even good-looking!" she muttered angrily, glaring at Krum's sharp profile. "They only like him because he's famous! They wouldn't look twice at him if he couldn't do that Wonky-Faint thing —"
"Wronski Feint," said Harry, through gritted teeth.
"Come on Hermione, you've got a great memory, why can't you remember that?" Skylar asked.
"Wasn't she at the match?" Stephen asked, frowning at her. Skylar nodded.
Hermione huffed.
"And, if you want him, and them, to go away, stop coming into the library, he's only here to watch you." Skylar admitted.
Harry, Stephen and Hermione all stared at her.
"What?"
"You heard me."
"Why would he want to watch Hermione?" Harry questioned.
Skylar sighed but Hermione had gone slightly pink. Stephen looked between the two girls before turning in Krum's direction thoughtfully.
"Honestly Harry, why do you tend to watch Cho so often?"
Harry blushed too and Skylar rolled her eyes.
Skylar had only gone through half of her month of holding the mandrake leaf in her mouth, and every week, Professor McGonagall had been checking on her progress. Skylar had managed so far not to swallow the thing and was actually rather proud of herself. One way she'd accomplished it was by fiddling with it, it reminded her it was there and also became a distraction for a lot of other things that occurred lately.
"You know," Skylar said as she and Harry left Hermione in the library to head to the common room. "The weather isn't half bad, and with no Quidditch, the pitch is completely deserted." She offered. "Want me to steal Leon's broom and we can have some actual fun?" She grinned. She wanted to help Harry and remove some of his misery. He had less fun without Ron around. "You haven't flown since the summer, and I know you love it up there, it clears your mind. And Quidditch is one of the things you miss about Ron."
"I don't miss Ron."
"Harry, you can't lie to me." Skylar said, her arms crossed stubbornly. "I literally know what you're thinking."
"And it's annoying." He grumbled. But he didn't really think that and Skylar knew it.
She smiled at him and he turned to her, noticing. "What?"
"You love it." She said nudging him. "Though the fact you think we're such good friends, just because I know what you're thinking is hurtful." She said in mock disappointment. "Honestly, the others can't read your mind but they're your good friends, why am I so different?"
Harry chuckled at her and she winked at him.
She paused however and Harry looked at her surprised. "It's Hedwig." She said and he turned to see Hedwig was indeed at the window. Skylar moved forwards, opened the pane, and Hedwig outstretched her leg to show the letter; it was addressed for Skylar.
"Must be from my parents."
She gave Hedwig a stroke and the bird took off without even a glance at Harry. He sighed.
"They'll come around." Skylar assured, speaking of both Hedwig and Ron, as she opened the letter.
Skylar,
I hope you're all alright, especially Harry, none of this can be easy. We did hear about what's been happening, even after your letter, and we saw Rita's Article, tell Harry that he really shouldn't talk to her, your father is furious.
We also heard from Sirius, and we know about all that's been going on, we're keeping an eye on things and are in contact with a few people to keep an eye on it all, including Dumbledore.
As for Harry's dream, let me know if something happens again, I do agree that there is something starting afoot, all these incidents cannot be singular and are likely connected, including what happened at the Quidditch Cup.
Be extra careful Skylar, Harry too. And remember Charlie.
Stay safe,
Your mother,
Dominique.
"You told her about my dream?" Harry asked.
"Yes. I was terrified." Skylar said obviously.
Harry found this hard to be mad at.
"What does she mean, remember Charlie?" Harry asked.
Skylar reread the words before she gapped. She turned to Harry. "Dragons."
"What?"
"Dragons Harry! Charlie is bringing dragons for the tournament."
"How do you know?" He asked.
She gave him a deadpanned look.
"Right…" He mumbled.
"Not only that but Charlie said he'd see us soon, and Hagrid was overly excited, remember, only dragons get him like that."
"But how's that going to help?"
"Mum can't tell you what the tasks are, it goes against the rules and would get her, and us, in trouble. You're not supposed to have help."
"I'm still lost." Harry said.
Skylar sighed. "Harry, the first task in November will involve a dragon, now considering they're ferocious beasts and the Task is about your courage and daring, it's likely you're going to have to fight a dragon."
Harry stared at her.
"Fight a dragon!?" He demanded.
Skylar shushed him as he raised his voice. She glanced around the corridor but it was empty.
"Skylar, how can I fight a dragon?"
"You don't know the full extent of the task, and besides, we can use this knowledge to our advantage and prepare. It must be a possible task, or they wouldn't have set it, they've designed the Tournament to not be as fatal, remember."
"It's designed for people of age, Skylar." He reminded her, clearly worried now.
"And you know what else? None of those three have been through nearly as much as you, you were almost killed by You-Know-Who twice, survived a giant as Basilisk, and its venom, and we even avoided a werewolf last year. You have more experience in surviving death than any of them."
"Skylar, that was just luck."
"It was partly luck, some of it was wit, adrenaline and courage as well, all of which you'd have in the tasks too. Not only that, but you're not alone, you never have been." Skylar reminded him.
He looked at her and took a deep breath as she nodded encouragingly.
"You might not be able to ask teachers for help, but I'm pretty sure Hermione is the next best thing, she knows so many things after all." Skylar assured.
"What? You're no help?" Harry mumbled.
"I'm not Hermione." She confessed.
"Skylar, that doesn't make you useless."
"I know, but for this particular task, I can only really lend my research skills." She shrugged. "What I know about dragons is that they're virtually impervious to magic."
Harry gaped at her.
"Which I really shouldn't have told you about right now." Skylar added, biting her lip. "Sorry."
"Sky, I can't do this."
"Yes, you can. I know you can." She assured him.
"How?"
"Because, you're not a coward, and you're not stupid, you're actually rather smart."
Harry scoffed.
"So you're not book smart like Hermione, you're what they call street smart."
"Did you just use a muggle term?" Harry asked, smirking slightly.
"You were the one thinking it." She shrugged.
Harry however had paused and was staring at her. She raised a confused eyebrow before her cheeks turned red. He raised an eyebrow at her, questionably.
"It's a long story." She confessed. Harry had noticed the green leaf in her mouth as she'd moved it, something she did to keep from swallowing it.
"Right…" he muttered. "More secrets? Didn't we make a promise?"
Skylar frowned. "That was about you and your family." Skylar had promised Harry, after keeping Sirius' relationship with Harry a secret from him, that she'd never do such a thing ever again.
"Sky, what's going on?" He asked.
She huffed. "Fine. It's a mandrake leaf."
"Why?" He asked, looking puzzled.
"It's part of the process to become an animagus. You have to keep a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month."
"You're trying to become an animagus?" Harry asked, shocked.
"I just thought I'd give it a try." She muttered. "It wasn't a spur of the moment idea either… I've been considering it for a while."
"You know for someone who knows everything about everyone, you're terrible at letting people know you. I never knew you wanted to be an animagus."
"Well, I was never really sure if I should actually do it." She admitted. "I forced myself to knock on Professor McGonagall's door and she said she thought I had it in me, and Dumbledore agreed, so, I figured, why not."
"How long has this been going on for?"
"I knocked on her door the first day back."
"And you didn't tell anyone?"
"Well, I wasn't sure if I could do it, I figured if I could get past the hurdle of not swallowing a mandrake leaf for a month, then it'd be more concrete."
"And then you were going to tell us?"
"Depending on the whole tournament situation, being as that kind of came out of nowhere." She reminded him. "It's not really what's important, I think your dragon deserves more attention."
"It just annoys me that you don't tell me things, I can't read your mind remember Skylar." He said it a bit more harshly than he intended and Skylar frowned.
"I know… suppose after living with two brothers who always knew what I was thinking, I still haven't grasped the concept of speaking my mind. Although, it's not really the same as keeping from your friends the fact that You-Know-Who was planning on killing you while you were at Hogwarts this year."
Harry went to retort before he paused. Right, he'd left that detail out when telling them all. He paused and looked at her. "You knew about that, but didn't say anything?"
"I knew you didn't want to worry anyone." She shrugged.
He looked annoyed, here she was being considerate again and he still couldn't be, or supportive, because she wouldn't let him.
"I know, I'm sorry, I'm still learning okay." She returned. "I may be a legilimens but I'm not perfect." She grumbled.
"Well, not in all ways…" he added. And then he seemed to have realised what he'd said. His face reddened slightly. Skylar however smiled.
"Aww, shucks." She nudged him, before slipping her arm through his. "Don't you just know how to make a girl feel better."
He shrugged at her as they continued off down the corridor.
"By the way, do you really have to carry that leaf in your mouth for a month?"
"You're not going to let this go, are you?" She muttered.