I was never going to be part of 'The Golden Trio', and I was finally coming to terms with that. And to be perfectly honest, I didn't mind as long as I was still sort of included. Especially since, for the moment, 'The Golden Trio' was just a duo as Ron was still mad at Harry for putting his name in the goblet, even though - and I've told him this repeatedly - it wasn't Harry's fault.

So for the meantime, I've sort of become the third member of the group. Temporarily, of course. To be honest, I was just glad they were accepting me at all, being a Malfoy and everything. The rest of the school has also being accepting, although that might just be because they were too distracted by Harry being the forth champion.

I hated that Skeeter woman for printing that article of lies. She just made Harry and Hermione's life a living hell. And I was sure, if the opportunity presented itself, she wouldn't hesitate to twist my words too.

Not wanting to think about the events of last week anymore, I quickly brought my focus back to the present.

We were entering the Three Broomsticks. 'We', being myself and Hermione, plus Harry who was under his Invisibility Cloak which I hadn't even known he had until today.

"Let's go find a table," I whispered to the empty space beside me as Hermione walked off to get drinks. I led the way to an empty table in the corner and Hermione joined us a few seconds later with three butterbeers in her hands. She handed me one and slipped the other underneath Harry's cloak. Then, she took out her notebook which she had used to keep a record of S.P.E.W. members. Glancing over, I noticed my name at the top of the short list, Harry's and Ron's immediately after.

Admittedly, I'd only offered to buy a badge to prove I could be a good friend. But as I'd been the only person to buy one without her nagging, it seemed Hermione always turned to me for advice in this field.

"Yeah, right," Harry said after Hermione proposed the idea of getting some of the Hogsmeade villagers involved. "Hermione, when are you going to give up on this spew stuff?"

"When house-elves have decent wages and working conditions! You understand this, right Lean?"

"Aha..." I said vaguely, sipping my butterbeer and not really paying any attention to the conversation at hand.

"Lean!"

"Sorry, sorry," I said. For some reason, I had just been imaging what I might've been doing right now if I hadn't been sorted into Gryffindor, if I had stayed in Slytherin like I was supposed to. There was no way I'd be sitting beside 'The Chosen One', invisible or not. Probably, I'd be hanging out with my brother and his insufferable friends. Urgh... I'd be sharing a dorm with that pug-faced cow, Pansy Parkinson...

Suddenly, two familiar figures made their way across the pub to our table, one of them more welcome than the other.

"All right, Hermione? Lean?"

I smiled at Hagrid's use of my first name, immensely grateful he didn't call me 'Malfoy' anymore. Even happier than he used my nickname instead of, 'Leaena'. Over the last few weeks, I'd come to love the giant of a man. While his classes were often... painful (physically), he was a good man and I'd visited his hut more than once this year, sometimes with Harry, Ron or Hermione, but also just by myself. He was good company.

But he was accompanied by someone I despised.

Moody limped around the table and bent down as if to read Hermione's S.P.E.W. notebook. That's what I thought, until I heard him mutter, "Nice Cloak, Potter."

Hermione and I shared startled looks as Harry said, "Can your eye - I mean, can you -?"

"Yeah, it can see through Invisibility Cloaks and it's come in useful many times, I can tell you."

Hagrid bent down and whispered something to Harry, something I couldn't quite catch though I did hear the words, 'tonight', 'midnight' and 'cloak' and put it all together.

"I'm coming too, Harry," I said as soon as the adults left the table.

"Where?" Hermione asked and Harry quickly explained to her what Hagrid had told him.

"I don't know whether you should go, Harry..." she said her voice trailing off as her eyes darted from the place where Harry was sitting to me and then back to Harry. Just another one of their little secrets, I thought to myself while taking another sip of butterbeer and pretending that I hadn't noticed the little exchange.

Whatever feelings I had for not being included only made me more determined want to join Harry later that evening after he decided to go.

"Hagrid didn't say to bring friends," Harry told me later that night.

"Yeah, well, he didn't say not to either," I retorted.

"But -"

"No buts. I'm going with you whether you like it or not."

Harry sighed but reluctantly agreed. So at eleven thirty that night, we both disappeared under the Invisibility Cloak and made our way through the silent castle, down to the small cabin at the edge of the forest.

"You there Harry?" Hagrid asked in a whispered voice, opening the door after we'd knocked.

"Yeah." Harry said. "And so's Lean."

"Surprise," I said with a grin when Harry and I stepped into the cabin and threw the cloak off ourselves.

If Hagrid minded that I'd joined him, he didn't say anything about it. In fact he didn't say anything at all, despite all Harry and my questions.

Giving us instructions to follow in the Invisibility Cloak, Hagrid left his cabin and after collecting Madame Maxime from the Beauxbatons carriage - much to both Harry and my surprise, - he then led us around the perimeter of the forest until both the lake and castle were out of sight.

We could hear men shouting in the distance, followed by a deafening roar. Harry and I shared an anxious look from under the cloak before, following the Hagrid towards the noise.

I had to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from crying out.

Dragons.

That's what the four magnificent yet terrifying beasts before me were. Dragons.

It took a couple of seconds for my brain to comprehend what it was seeing, but when it did, it suddenly kicked into overdrive and I found myself completely freaking out.

Four dragons. Four champions.

"This is insane!" I exclaimed once we were a safe distance away from the enclosure. "Dragons are way too dangerous for a school competition! You could die!"

"I know," Harry admitted quietly.

I stared sceptically at him, taken aback by his calm manner. "You have to fight dragons, Harry! Dragons! Exactly how do you plan on getting past dragons! I mean, they're dragons!"

"I know!" Harry snapped, obviously with more anger than intended. I bit my lip to keep from making things worse.

"Seriously, Harry," I sighed after a short pause. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, I'll talk to Hermione. Maybe she'll have some great idea."

"She usually does," I nodded in agreement. "Do you reckon she'll still be up? If so, we need to start strategizing immediately-"

"No," Harry interrupted. "Not tonight."

"Ah..." I said, slowly. "This is why Hermione didn't want you coming here tonight and why you're in such a rush to get back to her - you have some secret thing planned."

"What? No, I - I'm just tired."

"If you say so," I murmured, suddenly not feeling very talkative.

We didn't say another word to each other as we hurried through the front doors, up the staircase and into the deserted common room. There, we stood silently for a long moment before Harry finally spoke, his voice desperate. "Lean..."

"You want me to leave?"

Harry nodded sadly, refusing to meet my eyes.

I swallowed my disappointment and nodded once, disappearing through the door before my act fell and he saw just how upset I was. I knew I shouldn't be, but I was. Why didn't he trust me enough with this secret? What was I doing wrong?

I was about to begin the ascend up to my dorm when Harry's voice caused me to stop in my tracks. I knew who he was talking to immediately.

And it wasn't me.

It was Sirius Black.