Time seemed to skip towards the first task and it began looming over them. Skylar and Harry had taken to researching dragons in the library, mostly when Hermione was busy. They knew they could use her help, but Harry had decided that, for the moment, he didn't want to worry her.
"She's already worried about the task, and about…" Harry trailed off. Skylar knew he was thinking about Ron and his fight.
"Now who's keeping unnecessary secrets? She's going to kill us when she finds out we kept this from her."
"It'll save her the worry though." Harry thought.
"Doubtful. She'll be more frightened when she appears as a spectator and learns you're fighting a dragon with no knowledge of one."
"I don't think she really wants to think about the task much."
"Are you speaking for Hermione, or you?"
"You know we don't really know if this is the first task, we're just going off guesses and assumptions." Harry said.
"I thought my guesses and assumptions were rather educated thanks." Skylar huffed.
Harry didn't argue and Skylar decided as thanks, not to push him to talk to Hermione.
"She's still going to kill us though." She added.
Harry rolled his eyes.
On the Saturday before the first task, all students in the third year and above were permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade.
"We should go and get a Butterbeer, take your mind off things for a minute." Skylar offered to Harry. He didn't need much persuasion and Hermione said she'd go with them.
"What about Ron, though?" he said when Hermione agreed. "Don't you want to go with him?"
"Oh… well…" Hermione went slightly pink. "I thought we might meet up with him in the Three Broomsticks…"
"No," said Harry flatly.
"Oh Harry, this is so stupid —"
"I'll come, but I'm not meeting Ron, and I'm wearing my Invisibility Cloak."
Skylar wanted to protest, but with all the looks Harry got within the castle it was easy to imagine what he'd get while outside of it. "It's the first time you actually have permission to be in Hogsmeade too. You don't even have to hide." Harry had been to Hogsmeade illegally last year, when he didn't have permission from a guardian to attend. Sirius had given him a signed note while they'd been going on the train home at the end of last term which granted him permission this year.
"Oh all right then…" Hermione snapped, "but I hate talking to you in that cloak, I never know if I'm looking at you or not."
"Guess you'll just have to settle with looking at me then." Skylar shrugged. Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled slightly.
So Harry put on his Invisibility Cloak in the dormitory, went downstairs wearing it, and together he, Skylar and Hermione set off for Hogsmeade.
They happily went into Honeydukes sweet shop, Hermione looking at Skylar when talking to Harry, feeling self-conscious looking like she was talking to herself. Skylar didn't mind as much, people were too busy enjoying their day. Hermione still didn't like it.
"Come on, please just take off your cloak for a bit, no one's going to bother you here."
"Oh yeah?" said Harry. "Look behind you."
Skylar groaned.
Rita Skeeter and her photographer friend had just emerged from the Three Broomsticks pub. Talking in low voices, they passed right by Skylar and Hermione without looking at them. Harry backed into the wall of Honeydukes to stop Rita Skeeter from hitting him with her crocodile-skin handbag. When they were gone, Harry said, "She's staying in the village. I bet she's coming to watch the first task."
Skylar glanced at where Harry was beneath the cloak as he began to feel nauseous at the idea. Hermione ignored the comment.
"She's gone," said Hermione, looking right through Harry toward the end of the street. "Why don't we go and have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, it's a bit cold, isn't it? You don't have to talk to Ron!" she added irritably, correctly interpreting his silence.
"Besides, who wants to pass up the opportunity for a butterbeer?" Skylar smiled.
The Three Broomsticks was packed, mainly with Hogwarts students enjoying their free afternoon, but also with a variety of magical people rarely seen anywhere else. It was not much of a surprise given that Hogsmeade was the only all-wizard village in Britain, it was a bit of a haven for creatures like hags, who were not as adept as wizards at disguising themselves.
Skylar reached back behind her and Harry grabbed her hands as she moved through the three broomsticks. It was very hard to move through crowds in the Invisibility Cloak, in case you accidentally trod on someone, which tended to lead to awkward questions, so Skylar cleared a path, pulling Harry along close behind her, while Hermione went to buy drinks. They moved for a spare table in the corner, sitting down. On their way through the pub, they passed Ron, who was sitting with Fred, George, Nick, and Lee Jordan. Nick gave his sister a greeting nod and she released one of Harry's hands to wave back, before she sat down at the table and Harry sat at the other chair.
Hermione joined them a moment later and slipped him a butterbeer under his cloak. Skylar pulled her straw out of her robes, blowing on it, before putting it in the bottle. She whacked out at Harry as he chuckled at her and her hand collided with his shoulder, to which he complained.
Hermione however had pulled out a notebook in which she had been keeping a record of S.P.E.W. members. Skylar, Harry and Ron's names were at the top of the very short list.
"You know, maybe I should try and get some of the villagers involved in S.P.E.W.," Hermione said thoughtfully, looking around the pub.
"Yeah, right," said Harry. He took a swig of butterbeer under his cloak. "Hermione, when are you going to give up on this spew stuff?"
"When house-elves have decent wages and working conditions!" she hissed back. "You know, I'm starting to think it's time for more direct action. I wonder how you get into the school kitchens?"
"No idea, ask Fred and George," said Harry.
Hermione lapsed into thoughtful silence, and Skylar scowled at her before redirecting her gaze. She noticed Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbot were swapping Chocolate Frog cards at a nearby table; both of them sporting Support Cedric Diggory! badges on their cloaks. Right over by the door was Cho Chang and a large group of her Ravenclaw friends. Cho always seemed to be surrounded by her friends.
"Look, it's Hagrid!" said Hermione.
The back of Hagrid's enormous shaggy head — he had mercifully abandoned his bunches — emerged over the crowd. It seemed like he'd been bending over and talking to Professor Moody, who was also there with him. Hagrid had his usual enormous tankard in front of him, but Moody was drinking from his hip flask. Madam Rosmerta, the pretty landlady, didn't seem to think much of this; she was looking askance at Moody as she collected glasses from tables around them. Perhaps she thought it was an insult to her mulled mead. Moody had, however, told them all during their last Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson that he preferred to prepare his own food and drink at all times, as it was so easy for Dark wizards to poison an unattended cup.
The two of them got up to leave before Moody paused, his magical eye on the corner where Harry was. He tapped Hagrid in the small of the back (being unable to reach his shoulder), muttered something to him, and then the pair of them made their way back across the pub toward Skylar, Harry and Hermione's table.
"All right, Hermione? Skylar?" said Hagrid loudly.
"Hello," said Hermione, smiling back.
Moody limped around the table and bent down beside Skylar and Harry, looking like he was reading the S.P.E.W. notebook, before he muttered, "Nice cloak, Potter."
Skylar looked surprised.
"Can your eye — I mean, can you — ?" Harry's voice sounded from under the cloak.
"Yeah, it can see through Invisibility Cloaks," Moody said quietly. "And it's come in useful at times, I can tell you."
Hagrid was beaming down at Harry too. Hagrid couldn't see Harry like Moody apparently could, but it seemed Moody had admitted he was there. Hagrid now bent down on the pretext of reading the S.P.E.W. notebook as well. Skylar saw his lips move slightly with his shaggy beard, and didn't hear what he said but knew he invited Harry to see him at midnight.
Straightening up, Hagrid said loudly, "Nice ter see yeh, Skylar, Hermione," he winked, and departed. Moody followed him.
"Why does Hagrid want me to meet him at midnight?" Harry said, very surprised.
"Does he?" said Hermione, looking startled. "I wonder what he's up to? I don't know whether you should go, Harry…" She looked nervously around and hissed, "It might make you late for Sirius."
"I think you need to go. Don't worry, I'll wait by the fire in case you're late." Skylar smiled.
"Why should I go?"
"Cause Hagrid's got something important to show you and then you'll know I made a very educated guess." Harry looked surprised under the invisibility cloak while Hermione looked confused.
"What would you talk to Sirius about?" She asked Skylar.
Skylar ran her tongue around her mouth with the leaf on it. "I'm sure I'll find something."
Harry agreed to go and see Hagrid and so Skylar and Hermione planned with him to get him out of the Common Room unnoticed.
Harry pretended to go to bed early before he crept back down under the invisibility cloak. Skylar was sitting by the fire, there were still quite a few people in the common room with her, despite it being half eleven. The Creevey brothers had managed to get hold of a stack of Support Cedric Diggory! badges and were trying to bewitch them to make them say Support Harry Potter! instead. So far, however, all they had managed to do was get the badges stuck on POTTER STINKS. Although she couldn't see him, Skylar knew Harry was there. Hermione was on the other side of the portrait hole where she would open it for him so it didn't look suspicious, to anyone in the common room, or the Fat Lady, that an invisible person left the room.
"Think he'll be alright?" Hermione asked quietly as she joined Skylar. The two were to wait up for a while and get people out of the common room if necessary, then Hermione was going to head to bed.
"He's wandered the castle enough times at night. I'm sure he's fine." Skylar assured.
Hermione and Skylar stayed in the common room as everyone else filtered out, the Creevy brothers being the last too, having abandoned their task of changing the badges which now read POTTER REALLY STINKS and finally Hermione wished Skylar good night and left as well.
Skylar yawned as she glanced at her watch and saw one o'clock coming closer, if Harry didn't hurry, he really would miss Sirius, and she knew that would completely upset him.
It was five minutes to one and Skylar was getting a little worried before suddenly the portrait hole opened. She sat up just as Harry pulled off the invisibility cloak. She looked him over before she gaped.
"Shit!"
"They're massive!" He snapped as he sat beside her. Hagrid had taken Harry around the edge of the forest, away from the school only for him to see four dragons, each a different breed. Charlie had been there, talking to Hagrid, and so had Madam Maxime, who Hagrid had also taken.
"And you have to get past it?" She asked. He nodded. "Hm… nesting mother's, maybe you have to get to the eggs or something?"
"How? You didn't see them!"
"I can see them remember." She knocked his forehead.
There was a cough and both of them jumped before turning to the fire. Sirius' head was sticking out of it, as did happen when one only used the floo network halfway.
"Do not do that!" Skylar snapped, having been startled.
Harry however grinned, the first one Skylar had seen in days on his face, before he scrambled out of his chair and down by the hearth.
"Sirius — how're you doing?"
Sirius was different to even the last time Skylar saw him, who out of the two, was the last to see him. Her mother had cleaned him up, but his face was now fuller, and he looked younger. Clearly he'd been eating properly now.
"Never mind me, how are you?" said Sirius seriously.
"I'm —" and he paused.
"Completely and utterly freaking out and dreading life." Skylar said.
Harry turned to glare at her and she shrugged. "Well you're not fine."
Harry turned back to Sirius and began to tell him everything — about how no one believed he hadn't entered the tournament of his own free will, how Rita Skeeter had lied about him in the Daily Prophet, how he couldn't walk down a corridor without being sneered at — and about Ron, Ron not believing him, Ron's jealousy…
"… and now Hagrid's just shown me what's coming in the first task, and it's dragons, Sirius, and I'm a goner," he finished desperately.
Sirius looked at him, eyes full of concern, eyes that had not yet lost the look that Azkaban had given them — that deadened, haunted look. He had let Harry talk himself into silence without interruption, but now he said, "Dragons we can deal with, Harry, but we'll get to that in a minute — I haven't got long here… I've broken into a wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be back at any time."
"Why didn't you go to my house?" Skylar grumbled.
"There are things I need to warn you about."
"What?" said Harry, feeling his spirits slip a further few notches… Surely there could be nothing worse than dragons coming?
"Karkaroff," said Sirius.
"He was a Death Eater." Harry and Skylar chorused. Sirius looked surprised.
"My parents are Aurors, remember." Skylar said. "They attended the hearing where he was released."
"I'd bet everything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year — to keep an eye on him. Moody caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place."
"And he was released for making a deal right?" Skylar asked. Sirius nodded.
"He said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names… he put a load of other people into Azkaban in his place… He's not very popular in there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who passes through that school of his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well."
"Okay," said Harry slowly. "But… are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the goblet? Because if he did, he's a really good actor. He seemed furious about it. He wanted to stop me from competing."
"I'm also not sure Karkaroff would go anywhere near You-Know-Who if he betrayed him like that." Skylar muttered, climbing out of her chair to join Harry on the floor.
"We know he's a good actor," said Sirius, "because he convinced the Ministry of Magic to set him free, didn't he? Now, I've been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet, Harry —"
"— you and the rest of the world," said Harry bitterly.
"— and reading between the lines of that Skeeter woman's article last month, Moody was attacked the night before he started at Hogwarts. Yes, I know she says it was another false alarm," Sirius said hastily, seeing Harry about to speak, "but I don't think so, somehow. I think someone tried to stop him from getting to Hogwarts. I think someone knew their job would be a lot more difficult with him around. And no one's going to look into it too closely; Mad-Eye's heard intruders a bit too often. But that doesn't mean he can't still spot the real thing. Moody was the best Auror the Ministry ever had."
"But they didn't succeed? Moody did come here." Skylar frowned.
"And what are you saying?" said Harry slowly. "Karkaroff's trying to kill me? But — why?"
Sirius hesitated.
"I've been hearing some very strange things," he said slowly. "The Death Eaters seem to be a bit more active than usual lately. They showed themselves at the Quidditch World Cup, didn't they? Someone set off the Dark Mark… and then — did you hear about that Ministry of Magic witch who's gone missing?"
"Bertha Jorkins?" said Harry.
"Exactly… she disappeared in Albania, and that's definitely where Voldemort was rumoured to be last… and she would have known the Triwizard Tournament was coming up, wouldn't she?"
"You think You-Know-Who…" Skylar paused. "With Wormtail with him, he'll be able to do things like torture her, wouldn't he?"
"Yeah, but… it's not very likely she'd have walked straight into Voldemort, is it?" said Harry.
"Listen, I knew Bertha Jorkins," said Sirius grimly. "She was at Hogwarts when I was, a few years above your dad and me. And she was an idiot. Very nosy, but no brains, none at all. It's not a good combination, Harry. I'd say she'd be very easy to lure into a trap."
"So… so Voldemort could have found out about the tournament?" said Harry. "Is that what you mean? You think Karkaroff might be here on his orders?"
"I don't know," said Sirius slowly, "I just don't know… Karkaroff doesn't strike me as the type who'd go back to Voldemort unless he knew Voldemort was powerful enough to protect him."
"But he wouldn't be protected, he'd be killed, wouldn't he?" Skylar said.
"It is more likely." Sirius agreed. "But whoever put your name in that goblet did it for a reason, and I can't help thinking the tournament would be a very good way to attack you and make it look like an accident."
"Looks like a really good plan from where I'm standing," said Harry grinning bleakly. "They'll just have to stand back and let the dragons do their stuff."
"Right — these dragons," said Sirius, speaking very quickly now. "There's a way, Harry. Don't be tempted to try a Stunning Spell — dragons are strong and too powerfully magical to be knocked out by a single Stunner, you need about half a dozen wizards at a time to overcome a dragon —"
"Yeah, I know, I just saw," said Harry.
"But you can do it alone," said Sirius. "There is a way, and a simple spell's all you need. Just —"
But Harry held up a hand to silence him, Skylar had also turned around. They could hear footsteps coming down the spiral staircase behind them.
"Go!" he hissed at Sirius. "Go! There's someone coming!"
"Take care." Skylar said quickly and both of them turned to the staircase. Skylar stumbled back into her chair while Harry scrambled to his feet, hiding the fire — if someone saw Sirius's face within the walls of Hogwarts, they would raise an almighty uproar — the Ministry would get dragged in — he, Harry, would be questioned about Sirius's whereabouts —
Harry heard a tiny pop! in the fire behind him and Skylar saw Sirius vanish. Both of them turned to the bottom of the spiral staircase. Who had decided to go for a stroll at one o'clock in the morning, and stopped Sirius from telling him how to get past a dragon?
It was Ron. Dressed in his maroon paisley pyjamas, Ron stopped dead facing Harry across the room, and looked from him to Skylar.
"Oh, it's you." Skylar muttered.
"What are you doing down here at this time of night?" Harry snarled.
"I just wondered where you —" Ron broke off, shrugging. "Nothing. I'm going back to bed."
"Just thought you'd come nosing around, did you?" Harry shouted.
Skylar looked at Harry surprised. She hadn't expected him to get that mad at Ron, but then, Ron had just interrupted Harry's possible only chance for easily getting past a dragon, and interrupted the first time Harry had really been able to talk to Sirius since he'd left the school last term.
"Sorry about that," said Ron, his face reddening with anger. "Should've realised you didn't want to be disturbed. I'll let you get on with practicing for your next interview in peace."
Harry seized one of the POTTER REALLY STINKS badges off the table and chucked it, as hard as he could, across the room. Skylar ducked in surprise before it hit Ron on the forehead and bounced off.
"Harry!" She exclaimed in surprise.
"There you go," Harry said. "Something for you to wear on Tuesday. You might even have a scar now, if you're lucky… That's what you want, isn't it?"
He strode across the room toward the stairs and vanished up them, Ron didn't even try to stop him.
When the dormitory door had slammed shut, Ron turned to Skylar. She looked at him, frowning and he did the same.
"I didn't mean it." Ron said. "I just…"
"Let your anger get the better of you. Yeah well, it was really shit timing." Skylar admitted, moving around the armchairs towards him. "There's nothing worse than having to face all the shit he's been through in the last month, then having to do it without his best friend. Don't take his anger just now personally, you didn't interrupt an interview." She rolled her eyes. "We were talking to Sirius."
"What?" Ron asked, surprised.
"He broke into a wizard's house to use the floo network." Skylar pointed to the fire. "He's more angry you interrupted that, and that if you'd been friends, it never would have happened."
Ron looked angry, but not at Harry, at himself. "You know all you have to do is say you were wrong, you know you were, just admit it. He's got a task in two days, he could use some relief."
Ron said nothing and Skylar knew it was because he was too stubborn to.
"Anyway, good night." She moved to the girls staircase and up it towards the dormitory.