Chapter 24: Are Those Dragons?
Thanks for all the reviews.
I'm sorry it took so long. I've been sick for the last three days. I've been sleeping for the last two days. I'm still not 100%, I'm still a bit fuzzyheaded, but I figured I'd get this out.
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Harry was so relieved that his name didn't come out of The Goblet of Fire that he was walking on air for the last week. He went to class and did his homework and just generally was a regular teenager. He even got along with Draco Malfoy, who went out of his way to be a general pain in the arse. The other boy went about teasing and taunting him about not being in the Tournament. Harry didn't care. He was just glad he wasn't. He'd smile at the boy, just shake his hand, and say he was glad he wasn't.
"Harry, what's got you in such a good mood?" Hermione asked one day when they were headed towards Charms class. She was amazed that he was in such a good mood. He hadn't been all year. Since the beginning of this year, it'd been like a cloud was over his head, like he had expected something bad to happen.
"I'm just so glad that my name didn't come out of the Goblet of Fire," the dark-haired boy said, a megawatt smile on his face. The smile had not left his face since the day of the drawing. Absolutely nothing could bring his mood down.
"Was that even a choice?" she asked.
"Well, it was, there for a minute, I had thought," he said, thoughtfully.
"Why would you even think that?" she asked, concerned. It hadn't even crossed her mind that he would be drawn. Sure, they talked about it during dinner, but that had all been in jest, hadn't it? After all, the tournament was for seventeen and older, and Harry was only fourteen.
"You remember what I told you about Barty Crouch Junior, right?" he asked, looking at her like she had forgotten something. Which was very unusual. Hermione's mind was like a trap. Once information got in there, it never came out.
"Yes, I remember that," she said, giving him a considering look.
"Well, we thought for a minute there he was going to try and put my name in," he said with the tilt of his head.
"Why did you think that?" she said with a frown on her brow. That didn't make a lick of sense. What would the purpose be of entering an underage boy?
"Did I tell you about the dream I had this summer?" he asked with a matching frown.
"No, I don't think you did," she said, her frown still marring her brow.
"Oh well, I can't tell you about it now. I'll tell you about it later," he said as they approached the doors to the charm's classroom.
"Oh, alright," she said as she opened the door and took her seat. Though she was very put out that they could not continue their conversation in the classroom.
With that, the two of them got ready for class. Professor Flitwick was entertaining as usual. And the class went on. They learned the Accio charm today. It was the summoning charm. Something that they might need to know further down the road. For it was a very useful charm.
After class, Harry told her about his dream. And she got very concerned about what was going on with his scar. She decided to do some research but didn't come up with anything about cursed scars and dreams. Harry also wondered about what was going on with his scar and decided to talk to Sirius about what his godfather might have come up with.
"Sirius, what have you discovered about my scar?" Harry asked that night on the mirror. He would be forever grateful that Sirius came up with these mirrors. They were even better than the cellphones because he could see who he was talking to. He wondered if the muggles would ever catch up with something like this.
"Are you sure you want me to tell you about that?" his godfather asked, very concerned about this line of questioning. It wasn't something he wanted to discuss with the teenager.
"If you would, please," the teenager said, determined to find out what was going on with his scar. He'd been putting it off long enough. He wanted to know what's going on with it and he wanted to know now.
"Well, it's really dark magic, Harry, and I'm not sure that I can tell you in complete detail," Sirius said, really not wanting to get into this conversation.
"Why not?" Harry asked, not wanting to be treated as if he was a child.
"I don't want to scare you," the older man said, trying not to treat him as a child, but really not wanting to get into dark magic with somebody under the age of seventeen.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, not really understanding what was going on.
"This kind of stuff really needs to be understood when you're mature. And for that I mean when your magic is mature, not when you're mature. And that happens when you're seventeen, not when you're fourteen. It's kind of scary. And it could mean that you might have nightmares," his godfather said, trying to break it to him gently.
"I already have nightmares," Harry scoffed, though they had been less lately. Ever since he had been practicing his Occlumency.
"And I don't want to give you more," Sirius said, sincerely. The last thing he wanted was to give his godson more nightmares, and the stuff he was researching would do just that. Heck, they gave him nightmares.
"I guess I can see the logic in that. But is there a way you can get rid of it?" Harry finally conceded that he wasn't going to get any more information about the dark magic in his scar.
"I'm doing research on that now. I'm looking through my library and let me tell you, that's one of the last things I want to do, so you should consider yourself lucky. The stuff that I'm reading, is giving me nightmares," Sirius said, trying to give information without giving information. There were things that his family got into that even the Ministry didn't know about, and if they ever did, they'd burn his entire library.
"Oh, I'm sorry you have to put yourself through that. And I thank you for it. Are you sure you want to do that for me?" Harry asked, very concerned about what his godfather was putting himself through after going through years of Azkaban. Those years had been tormenting enough.
"Harry, I'd do anything for you. Besides, I'm learning a lot of stuff I should have learned a long time ago. But I do want you to practice your Occlumency," the other man said, making sure that the boy understood that he needed to practice that mind magic.
"Well, I very much appreciate it. I will practice my Occlumency every night," the dark-haired team promised. He knew better than not to go a night without practicing mind magic. The nightmares would be kept at bay if he did.
"Well, I better let you go. I'm almost on the verge of figuring out what to do with your scar," Sirius said, picking up a book that he had laid to the side. He was very close to getting rid of the horcrux in his godson's head. That, and if there were more out there, he knew how to get rid of them too. He just had to find the right spell. And if there were the right one, it would be in this library. He just had to find it.
"Yeah, I better go to. It's getting late and I've got classes in the morning," Harry said, yawning.
"Goodnight, Harry."
"Goodnight, Sirius."
And with that, the two disconnected the mirrors. Harry made sure to meditate before he went to sleep because he wanted to make sure that he cleared his mind. He went to sleep; he started dreaming about what was going on with his scar. It was obviously more than just a regular scar. Then his dreams turned to normal dreams for a teenage boy of his age, girls, girls, and more girls.
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Time went by and the contenders did normal things for the Triwizard Tournament. There was the Weighing of the Wands and a newspaper article in the Daily Prophet. Rita Skeeter did her normal thing. And there she was, not nice to the contenders. She was actually quite mean to Fluer Delacour. She called her a vapid whore, and Viktor an antisocial bastard. Though she did have nothing but nice things to say about Cedric. So, you could tell she was very biased.
The two foreign schools were up in arms about the article, and they didn't have very many nice things to say about the British or Hogwarts. As the cold fraction brewing among the three schools. And what could anybody say about it? Rita Skeeter had drawn the lines. Harry was once again glad that he had not been drawn into the middle of this Cold War.
It came time for the Hogsmeade weekend and Hagrid seemed to be wary about something. He came up to Harry out of the blue as Harry and his friends were headed to Hogsmeade. He drew him off to the side.
"'Arry, come and see me with your invisibility cloak after curfew today," Hagrid told him on the sly.
"Why do you want to see me after curfew, Hagrid?" Harry asked, cautiously. He didn't understand why the gentle giant wanted to see him of all people. He hadn't really talked to the man this year. The other man seemed to be too smitten with Madame Maxime. Hagrid spent most of his time with the giant headmistress and her horses.
"I wanna show you somethin'," Hagrid said, his eyes shifting from side to side as if he was trying to keep a secret and doing it very badly. He never was one to keep a secret well.
"Oh, okay," said Harry, giving in. Knowing that he would do it anyway because Hagrid was his friend.
And with that, Harry went and enjoyed his Hogsmeade weekend with Millie and his friends. They spent most of their time in Millie's Shop and at the Joke Shop and at Honeydukes. They had a great time spending money they didn't have on things they didn't need, but that's what most teenagers did. There was a great deal of flirting and ribbing. It was starting to show that the group was starting to couple off.
Even the little blonde friend of Ginny's was part of the group now. Luna Lovegood. She was a joy to have around. Hermione didn't get along with her very well, but Harry did. Millie thought she was a breath of fresh air and delighted in her company. Ginny, on the other hand, was somebody that Millie didn't like particularly well at all. Still, she tolerated her for the sake of peace.
Everybody had a great time at Hogsmeade and soon they tripped their way up to the castle full of sweets and ladened with gifts for Yule. This way they'd be stocked up for the rest of the year. Everybody was laughing, playing, and flirting. As teenagers were wont to do.
After curfew that night, Harry went to see Hagrid with his invisibility cloak.
Hagrid looked like he was trying to dress up for a date and doing a bad job of it. He was dressed in his finest fur coat and his hair had attempted to be combed. The comb had broken and was still in his hair. There was a large flower attached to his coat. And he smelled of what could be an aftershave. It was hard to tell over the odor of his coat. All in all, Harry could tell that he tried very hard to be presentable.
The two greeted each other, then Hagrid had him hide under the cloak. Madame Maxime showed up and after some flirting, Hagrid and she started strolling through the Forbidden Forest, Harry following behind.
It was dark in the Forbidden Forest and Harry had a hard time keeping up with the two half giants. Because their strides were much longer than his. It took a while, but eventually they wound up where the dragons were. Why Hagrid was showing Harry this, he didn't know. But as soon as he saw the dragons, he hotfooted it out of there. He got on the mirror with Millie, and even though it was really late at night, she answered.
"Hagrid just showed me the dragons in the Forbidden Forest. I don't know why," he told her, worrying his blanket something fierce because he had no idea why. It wasn't like he was a contender in the Triwizard Tournament.
"That's weird. Why would he show you that?" Millie asked, dressed in her nightwear. She had been asleep, but the mirror had woken her up with its chiming. She is always super sensitive to when Harry needed her.
"I don't know. Maybe he wants me to tell Cedric? I don't know why he wouldn't tell him himself," Harry said. He didn't know Cedric very well. He didn't know whether Hagrid knew Cedric at all.
"Because he considers you a friend and not Cedric, yeah," she said, echoing his thoughts. "I don't know. Maybe he thinks Cedric would rat him out. If I were you, I would go ahead and tell Cedric what you saw. Did you see anybody else out there?" she asked, having a thought that maybe the other schools were cheating. She wouldn't put it past them.
"I saw both Headmaster Karkaroff and Headmistress Maxime," Harry said, confirming her thoughts. "Hagrid was actually on a date with the headmistress," he told her with some pride.
"Well, good on him, yeah," Millie said, smiling in joy for the groundskeeper. "Anyway, you know that both the other competing schools know of the dragons," she said, tapping her fingers on her chin in thought.
"Yes, they both know," the teenage boy said, thinking that it wasn't fair play.
"Then it won't be cheating if you tell Cedric, yeah," Millie said, giving him a very bright smile.
"I guess not," Harry said with a big sigh. He didn't like it, but he guessed she was right. She had never steered him wrong before. That, and he knew if it was him, he wouldn't want to have to face the dragon unawares.
"Then I don't see any problem with you telling him," she finished. She could see in his face that he wasn't 100% certain that this was the right thing to do, but she could also see that he wanted to do it anyway. She was sure it was the correct thing to do.
"Alright, I'll tell him in the morning. I guess I better get to bed then," he said, giving a huge yawn. It had been a long day.
"Goodnight, sweetie," Millie said, giving her own yawn.
"Goodnight, Millie."
And with that, they disconnected. Harry tried his very best to go to sleep, but he was very concerned over the contenders having to face dragons of all things and once again he was very glad that he did not have to compete in this stupid tournament.
The next morning, Harry hunted down Cedric and waved him away from his friends.
"Hey Cedric, um I know you don't know me, but I, uh have a clue for the first task that I need to give you," Harry said after he dragged the handsome boy away from his friends. He dragged him to a vacant spot in the courtyard. There were still people milling around, but there wasn't anybody close enough to them to hear. He wished he knew a silencing spell, but those weren't taught until sixth year.
"You're Harry Potter, aren't you?" Cedric asked, looking him up and down as if he hadn't seen him before. Yet he had, everyone knew the boy in passing.
"Yeah, um, so, I was out in the Forbidden Forest the other day and I noticed that they have, um, three dragons out there," Harry said, trying to sound as nonchalant as he possibly could. As if it were perfectly normal to be flying around in the Forbidden Forest.
"Dragons?" Cedric asked, completely dumbfounded. That was the last thing on his mind. He thought of many things, but nothing close to dragons.
"Yeah, three of them, one for each of you," Harry said, looking at the other boy's face. The other boy looked to be in complete shock.
"Dragons?"
"Yes, dragons," Harry repeated. Again, looking at the boy's face, seeing that he was completely in shock.
"Are you sure you saw dragons?" Cedric asked, coming out of his shock just a little bit. And was now in complete disbelief.
"Yes, I saw three dragons," Harry said, a bit firmer this time. He wanted to make sure that the boy got it through his head that he would be facing dragons on the first task.
"What were you doing in the Forbidden Forest?" Cedric asked with skepticism.
"Oh, flying," Harry said lamely.
"Why were you flying in the Forbidden Forest?" Cedric asked again with suspicion.
"Practicing for quidditch," said Harry. "Works great for seekers. You know weaving in and out of trees and avoiding the spiders, and such."
"You know what? Never mind. Are you sure you saw dragons?" the other boy asked, making gestures with his hands as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Oh, for the love of Merlin. Yes, for the last time I saw dragons," Harry said, throwing his hands in the air, as if he couldn't believe he was saying this for the 5th time.
"Right… Thank you… I need to go to the library," the older boy said as he turned around and then turned back again, then turned around and then turned back again. He then took Harry's hand and pumped it up and down two or three times, then turned around and then turned back again.
"You're welcome and good luck. And don't worry about the other contenders, they already know. I saw the other headmasters there, and I'm sure they told their contenders," Harry said, putting his hand on Cedric's shoulder to make him understand that he wasn't the only one who knew.
"Right. Well, thanks… and thank you… and I gotta go," Cedric said, finally turning around and rushing off to the library. Determined to figure out what he needed to know to get past a dragon.
Harry felt much better for having told Cedric what he needed to know. He was glad he had done what he needed to do to let the playing field be even. It made him feel so much better.
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The first task came, and the contenders were very entertaining. Millie and Sirius were able to come to the task and sat with Harry and his friends.
"It seems he knows what he's doing," she said as she watched Cedric transfigure some rocks into dogs and send them towards the dragon. Cedric, with his prior knowledge, was not as scared as he thought he would be.
"Yeah, it looks like," said Harry. He was even more glad now that he let Cedric know what was going on. He would have hated for the boy to face the unknown and had come out of nowhere to see the dragon.
"What are you two talking about?" asked Hermione, giving them an accusing look. As if they had done something wrong.
"Oh, nothing," said Harry. "It just looks like he knows what he's doing, that's all." Waving off her accusations as if they were nothing.
"I guess so," said Hermione. "I'd be scared to death if I didn't know what I was facing." She was gripping the rail so tightly that her knuckles were pure white.
"I'm just glad I was not down there," said Harry. The relief in his face was pure for anybody to see.
"I still don't understand why you think you would have been," said Hermione, giving him a quizzical look. Even after all this time, she just didn't understand how he thought he'd be down there.
"I can see why you wouldn't understand that, Hermione. Let's just say we have reason to believe that somebody is out to kill Harry. And that we think that they were going to use the tournament to do that, yeah," said Millie, giving her, her patented 'I know what I'm talking about' look.
"Why is somebody out to kill Harry?" asked Hermione, a bit alarmed and a bit disbelieving.
"Because he's the Boy Who Lived," said Ron as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Who invited you into this conversation?" inquired Millie, almost facepalming for having this conversation in a less than private area. She should know better than that. She was an adult now.
"If you didn't want everybody into the conversation, you wouldn't have it in public," said Ron, echoing her thoughts. Showing insight that he normally didn't show.
"He's got you there," smirked Dean, leaning over the redhead to look at Millie's face. It wasn't often that one of the teens got one over Millie.
"I guess so, yeah," she said, blushing a bit.
"Let's shelve this conversation for another time," said Sirius seriously. He really did not want to get into a conversation with a bunch of teenagers. Especially about Harry's unfortunate headhunting.
"Well, now that you've got it all out in the open, we all want to know who's out to kill Harry," said Seamus, looking at the two adults as if they just started to share a secret and, now they were clamming up, and that wasn't fair.
"Don't you worry about it, yeah," Millie said in the way of all adults when the subject was closed.
"Oh, it looks like Cedric got burned," said Dean, diverting everybody's attention away from Harry's impending doom to what was happening in the stadium.
The crowd roared in approval as Cedric got his egg and hotfooted it out of the stadium.
And then the bell chimed, and it was Fluer's turn. The crowd watched as she charmed the dragon to sleep, and as she walked past the dragon, she got burned from the dragon's snore. She got her egg and then exited the stadium.
Victor's turn came. And he blinded the dragon with a Conjunctivitis Curse. The dragon was so blinded that she smashed some of her eggs and he lost points. The crowd booed at the violence on the dragon and the poor eggs. He didn't care. He got his egg and left the stadium.
The points were Cedric 1st, Fluer 2nd, and Victor 3rd.
The crowd dissipated and everybody went about their way. Millie and Sirius went home. Harry and his group went back to Hogwarts. And the feast was held for the Champions. The next thing to come was going to be the Yule ball, but that wasn't going to be until Christmas.
Harry wasn't sure what he was going to do about that. That means he had to have a date. But at least he wasn't going to be in the spotlight, so there was that. He could just sit it out and watch everybody else make fools of themselves. Still, he was going to have to ask somebody. Maybe he'd talk to Millie and ask her what to do. Until then he was going to just be a teenager and dream of girls. Asking one for a date could wait.