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Bold = Parseltongue
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November 14, 1994
Once more, Harry found himself in the Durmstrang library aboard their ship with his companion and tutor, Alice Rosier. He was studying with her much as he'd been since she introduced herself, and while he could say he'd made a decent level of progress, it wasn't nearly as much as he would've liked. Not at least with how he was expected to survive in something where others years older frequently died, hence many years since the last tournament was held.
He still couldn't believe the fact that so many prior to this tournament he now found himself locked in had died. It didn't feel real… then again, he supposed much of what he'd done in his time at Hogwarts had been far from the average student's experience. Who else had fought a Basilisk, Voldemort, a Werewolf, and Dementors in the dozens whilst surviving to tell the tale?
Harry didn't have to see a raise of hands at his question to know he was the only one that could say as much.
"You are thinking about something aside from my beauty or our studies, aren't you?" Alice asked, a perfect line of an eyebrow raised as she mock-glared at him.
Merlin, her accent, her voice really, should be a crime, Harry thought to himself before he shook his head to indicate no.
"No, I'm just thinking about… the task that's coming up," He eventually said, the explanation he offered sounding horrible even to himself.
"Right," Alice said as one of her hands walked its way up his back and towards his right shoulder, the one that was closer to her. "It's only normal that you would be thinking about your upcoming task. Your lack of worry, of nerves is commendable as I said previously to you," Her hand began rubbing that shoulder. "We'll get you through it too, we'll see you win the tournament and show everybody how wonderful you can be."
Her voice, deep and strong as it always sounded, had finished with her cooing directly into his ear.
It felt nice, relaxing actually, but when her hand snaked up to pinch his earlobe at the same time she had a burst of giggles, he knew he was found out.
"Come now, Harry, did you think I would fall for your words?" Alice asked as she shook her head and placed a kiss on the top of his. "You will have to work on your lies if you mean to tell them, else you should stick to half-truths. I would think the second option would work better for one as kind and innocent as you."
"Fine fine, I was thinking about…" Harry paused, trailing off as he thought of how to word that he'd been thinking of their time together and what it'd been like prior to their meeting without coming off as a freak.
He certainly didn't want to do that, not when Alice had been so helpful.
"Go on then," Alice encouraged, her impromptu shoulder massage resuming.
Harry inhaled and then said what she wanted him to.
"I was thinking about our studying that we've been doing, how dead helpful it's been, what everything was like before I met you... a lot of stuff," He said quickly and whilst looking away from her, only turning to face the girl to add in one final word. "Really."
"Good boy," Alice said, her other hand coming to join her first in easing his stress as it began playing with his hair. "Honesty between friends is good, Harry Potter, and we're friends, aren't we?"
He nodded, leaning more into her touches as he began to doze off from her soothing touches and bodily warmth. "We are," he tiredly said.
"So tired," Alice cooed again, her hand leaving his hair to trace a line down the back of his head and over to his other shoulder which was now available to her because of his leaning. "We can't have you sleep your studying time away, but… I think I will allow a small break, only for you. You are too cute to resist, now go on, take your little nap — I know how exhausting learning too much can be."
Harry thought, or rather, he hoped he mumbled his thanks before sleep took him. If he didn't, he would make it up to her. He promised himself that, especially with how nice she'd been to him in the week they'd known one another.
Nobody else was as nice as her, especially his fellow Hogwarts students. They all treated him li— he yawned, breaking his chain of thought and lulling him further from the realm of thought and into that of rest.
It was a good, well-deserved, warm rest.
"Well then, look at the two of you."
Those were the first words Harry heard when he was woken from his perfect sleep. They came from a girl, he could tell, and one that was far less accented than Alice. In fact, she sounded vaguely English, with only a touch of something else that he couldn't quite place.
"I told you to join us whenever you'd like, it's not my fault you have only now accepted my generous offer," Alice said, her voice coming from only a few inches above him and sounding as tired as he still felt.
As if to make his point, she yawned not a second after she spoke, much to the huffed laughter of the other girl that'd joined them.
"I was busy with the others, it's not entirely easy keeping them away from the library and ship as a whole so that the two of you wouldn't be disturbed by too many of our classmates," That mystery girl said as she finally padded her way across the library until she came to a stop a few feet from he and Alice. "I had thought you'd be working too, rather than letting him rest while you stare at his face."
"I wasn't staring at him, in fact, you caught me right as I meant to wake him from his twenty minute rest," Alice said, her voice sounding vaguely embarrassed and higher than it usually did.
"Right, whatever you need to tell yourself," Mystery girl said to Alice, he could practically hear the shrug in her voice too. "Is he asleep then? Or is he faking it?"
Harry fought to control his breathing as he stayed unmoving from his current position of leaning against Alice. He didn't want them to know he'd been listening in considering how awkward that'd be, and called out as he was, he figured that acting as if he were only just waking up or still asleep was the better bet.
"Asleep, I think," Alice said, one of her hands following up her words to move some of his hair away from his face. "He looks so peaceful, no? Can you blame me for letting him rest with such an angelic look about him?"
Mystery girl scoffed as she plopped down into the wooden seat on Harry's other side, the force of the impact making the thing creak from her action. "I suppose I couldn't blame you too much, but I still think it's weird — speaking of weird, why don't you wake him up already? I'd like to meet him before the two of you go back to studying, assuming the two of us combined don't scare him off. Some boys don't handle being in the presence of multiple girls too well, you should know that with yo—"
"Hush," Alice said, silencing the other girl who simply snickered in response.
"Wake him up then," Mystery girl said when she came down from her quiet laughing.
He felt Alice take in a deeper than normal breath a few seconds before one of her hands began playing with his hair and the other prodded his face. "Wake up, Harry. I let you sleep longer than I intended, and I would like for you to meet one of my close friends."
"One of?" Mystery girl said with a scoff.
Harry opened his eyes then, blinking away the sleep in an exaggerated way to make it seem as if he truly was just waking up. Based on the look Alice gave him for all of a minute, if even that, she knew he hadn't been asleep. Weirdly enough, and thankfully, she didn't say as much to her companion.
Alice smiled at him, retracted her hand that was poking his face and spoke. "Welcome back, Harry. You must have been tired from all the spells I've been teaching you, or is it the fact that I've been making you read and take notes too much? Whatever it is, you were very… zonked out, I think the saying is."
"Conked out, is what you're looking for Alice," Mystery girl said, speaking for the first time since he was 'awake' and as such, drawing his attention to her. "It's good to finally meet the mythical and renowned Harry Potter, my name's Domitile Oleander, I'm a student from Durmstrang like my friend here."
He blushed with a mixture of emotions when she called him 'mythical' and 'renowned', but he still forced himself to keep looking at her and when she finished, to give the girl a smile. "I'm Harry, as you said. It's nice to meet you too."
"Awfully shy, aren't you?" Mystery girl, Domitile as he now knew her as, asked with a mischievous, teasing expression on her face. "Maybe you're just not one to speak too often either, I like that quality in my friends."
"Because you speak enough for all you call friend, Cretia," Alice remarked, laughing at the other girl's narrowed eyes and making Harry laugh due to how contagious said laughter was.
"Cretia?" Harry asked, jumping on the nickname thanks to how hard 'Domitile' seemed to be to correctly pronounce… at least for him.
"Domitile Lucretia Oleander, that is her full name, or near enough," Alice explained, her hands not once stopping their combing motion through his hair. "She prefers Domitile, especially when people mess up her first name, for she takes the chance to mess with them when they do so. I would recommend calling her Domitile only if you think you could pronounce it correctly, else Lucretia should work."
Domitile or Lucretia, whatever he preferred, finally interjected. "Lucretia. I'll allow you to call me Lucretia considering how fond Alice is of you — should I ever hear you call me Cretia as she does, you'll be cursed worse than you've ever been before," Lucretia then smiled at him, showing off wonderfully white teeth to match her beautiful, sweet expression. "Good?"
Harry nodded, she'd made her point.
"Wonderful, now that that's in order, why don't we see where the two of you cuddle-bugs left off?" Lucretia said, rubbing her hands together before she inched her seat closer to Harry and reached to angle the book more towards her. "I see, the two of you are aiming to work through this entire book based on these notes, aren't you?"
"Portions of it," Alice said, her tone serious now as she switched from slightly patronizing and teasing to full on tutor-mode. "I wanted him to learn magic that would better help him should he find himself in combat against the other champions or a task where he would be prone to injury. With the tales the both of us have been told about our friend Harry, it may not be completely necessary, but I would have him protected."
Harry felt warm at that, and he knew it was because he felt like somebody cared. It was a stupid feeling really, he knew some of his mates still cared about him enough to not want to see him hurt, but to hear somebody say it… it was just nice.
"Protected. You hear that, Harry? It seems like you'll be safe and tucked away in Alice's arms," Lucretia said, her tone a mixture of teasing and something else he couldn't pick up on. "Seriously, let's get back to studying now that we've met."
Alice nodded and separated herself completely from Harry then. "Yes. It would do well for Harry to continue now that he has had his chance to rest."
Alice's tone, or maybe her demeanour… there was something there that Harry couldn't explain. Whatever it was, it made him crave her touch or be easily soothed by her voice when he knew that he shouldn't be so comfortable in her presence thanks to how new their friendship really was.
Still, he couldn't really fight it. He didn't want to either, not entirely. There was a portion of him that wanted their fledgling friendship to be as true as it felt. Especially since he still wasn't on talking terms with almost everybody else who once claimed to be his friend.
"Let's go then," He said, leaning forward in his seat and rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
He would better himself as Alice had said, and if he did his best, maybe he'd not only survive, but maybe… he could win the stupid tournament.
November 19, 1994
"As always, the two of you are down in the depths of the ship despite the unusually fair weather," Lucretia said as she all but collapsed into the seat opposite of Harry and Alice.
As far as weather went, Lucretia wasn't inherently wrong in claiming today was unusually fair. It wasn't often in November that the sun was out and no rain or snow was in the air, there was barely even a breeze too, as if the lack of precipitation wasn't reason enough to be outside. Harry didn't care much about all of that though, not when Alice had asked if he wanted to study some more with her.
She was very pretty, and the pull she'd somehow gained on him since their first meeting had yet to lessen. Harry wasn't sure what the root cause of it was, he wasn't sure what Lucretia had tried getting at either before Alice had shut it down. It didn't matter all that much to him when he really thought about it, not so long as the pair of them continued being helpful; Lucretia was the more suspect one of the two anyhow.
Where Alice was nice, patient, rarely aggressive, and fairly loving — as much as one could be considering the newness of their friendship, Lucretia was the opposite; she was impatient, courteous but not warm, decisive, and hadn't gone so far as to hug him or otherwise make physical contact. He wasn't sure how the two were as close of friends as they appeared to be considering how opposite they were.
"Yes, we are," Alice said after she saw he wouldn't speak for the pair of them. "Harry is trying to focus on his first task, and with the lack of information we have for it, we must broadly prepare. I take it Krum has not shared anything with you yet?"
Lucretia shook her head. "Krum didn't give anything away, or at least not intentionally. He did say that he'd gone to the Forbidden Forest only last night on the advice of a person he wouldn't name, and it was then that he smiled wide as he assured me he was 'fully prepared' for the first task."
"Did you investigate?" Alice demanded to know, leaning forward in her seat as she fixed her friend with a stare that conveyed just how focused she was.
Harry couldn't blame her. Really, he was actually a bit touched that she was so concerned for him.
So long as it's real and not acting.
A more scornful part of him thought secretly as he looked between the two Durmstrang girls- He still hadn't figured out why Alice had decided to help him considering the lack of an answer she'd given him, much less Lucretia and her reason aside from the fact that her friend was helping him. Both of them had to have some sort of goal in mind, he couldn't think of anybody who helped freely at all times even at the cost of some of their own marks.
He'd learned that the both of them were in their final year of Durmstrang and still would have to take tests come the end of the year, yet, they still decided to study almost exclusively the subjects that were more fit for him. Harry was dead grateful and expressed as much, but still, that nagging, distrustful and sometimes poisonious portion of his mind in the very back of his thoughts at nearly all times kept working to disillusion him from the two girls.
"I think he's a bit shocked," Lucretia said, her hand waving in front of his face as she looked, unimpressed, at him.
"What?" He asked, blinking away his annoying thoughts and focusing on the pretty girl before him.
Alice's soothing hand found its way to his hair as it always did at the same time her honey-like voice spoke to him. "Your first task is to beat a Dragon, either in a competition or for something."
Harry felt his heart rate pick up with those words. He had to fight a Dragon, the big mythical beings that slaughtered whole villages and were the focal-point of infinite Muggle stories.
He wasn't prepared for that, not in the slightest.
"Relax," Alice's voice cooed, bringing him back from the nerves that were threatening to overwhelm him. "We can do much to see you through this so long as we three prepare you correctly. Isn't that right, Lucretia?"
Lucretia shrugged. "He probably already knows not to cast anything at a Dragon's scales, thick and magic resistant as they are. What we'll have to do is devise a way Harry can take away its senses — that should work so long as he doesn't scuff it up. I suppose we'd have to teach him correctly too, else that'd look bad on us considering a few classmates have seen us working with him."
Alice made a humming sound before shaking her head and returning to massaging Harry. "If the stories Harry has shared with us are true, a dragon will not be the deadliest thing he's fought. With a bit of a plan and a few new spells, if he can learn them in time, his chances of success will rise."
Harry spoke up, finally. "I could outfly it, I'm sure of that. That would work, wouldn't it?"
Lucretia scoffed and stood up from her seat. "I'm going to go look for spells good at blinding, deafening, or otherwise dealing with natural senses. I'll let you answer that question, as well as any others he finds himself asking, Alice."
He wasn't sure what exactly it was in her words, but he was sure that Lucretia wasn't very excited or pleased with his suggestion.
"Ensure what you find is not past the current line," Alice said to Lucretia as the latter made her way towards the opposite side of the library. Alice's attention then went back to Harry and her motions stopped. "I would not suggest trying to beat the dragon in the air, at least not until you know which type of dragon it is. Some it would be more possible than others, I would think. What I would ask of you first and foremost, before we help with any plan that you go with, is that you don't worry yourself too much. If you do th—"
"I'm not worried," Harry said, turning in his seat to look at the older girl. "You heard from Malfoy and the others what trouble I'd supposedly gotten up to. I'll be fine, especially with you and Lucretia helping me."
Alice smiled that soft, angelic-looking smile of hers at him. As always, it sent his heart rate up and made him realise just how beautiful she was. He couldn't think of any other girl save for Fleur who could make beauty a contest for her.
"Your bravery is charming, and very cute," Alice said as she leaned forward to kiss his cheek, making his pulse raise higher still. "Still, what sort of friend would I be if I didn't offer you words of warning and advice?"
"A bad one," Lucretia responded as she once more seated herself across from Alice and Harry. "Are we ready to get out of the mushy stuff and dive into the books, or do the two of you want to fall asleep in each other's arms again? I suppose if need be, I could go through all the books and pick out what's worth knowing."
Alice tutted and straightened out her posture as she looked at the other girl. "Jealousy is unbecoming," She winked at Harry before she stole one of Lucretia's books while the aforementioned girl muttered something hostile-sounding.
He knew he would've been alright, or rather, he figured he would've been without the help these two girls had given him; he'd survived everything else time and time again, hadn't he?
Still, be that as it was, Harry knew when to recognise a good thing and that was exactly what he did in that moment whilst the two girls bickered. They were helpful despite him not knowing what it was that they wanted, very helpful, actually. But most importantly to him, they provided him with company that he'd been sorely lacking since his name had come from the goblet.
It never felt right to him when he was alone, even if he wasn't entirely alone. Hermione would more often than not be stolen away by Ron along with the rest of the group Harry often spent his time around. Fred and George weren't rude to him, he doubted they had a bone in their body that could make them as such, but the two of them stuck with the rest of the Quidditch girls who weren't entirely happy about their names not being pulled… save for Katie.
"Get tucked into your book then," Lucretia said, snapping him away from his thoughts for the second time in less than ten minutes. "I'm sure you'll get a bigger reward than surviving a dragon if you continue your studying. Alice'll probably give you another kiss on the cheek and drive you mad because of h—ow."
"Study doesn't mean talking," Alice said, smiling sweetly at Lucretia and switching her gaze to Harry shortly thereafter. "Tell me if you have any questions, we will go until you're too tired to continue."
He nodded and dove into the book as Lucretia had suggested. Harry had to learn as much as he could, as quickly as he could, he understood the stakes even if they hadn't completely sunk in yet… there was still a tiny piece of him that was curious what Lucretia kept alluding to as well, but that was a riddle for another time.
When he wasn't potentially the dinner for a dragon.
November 19, 1994
"I'm not one to usually miss out on a good time," Lucretia started as the trio made their way down one of the side roads of Hogsmeade. "But aren't we missing out on perfectly good studying time for… this?"
As if to prove her point that Hogsmeade wasn't worth the trip nor the time they were spending whilst there, Lucretia motioned towards the most run down building in view. It was a long closed restaurant or shop with a sign that was incoherent. Harry hadn't ever heard what it used to be, he didn't particularly care considering how rotten the building was.
"Harry has learned the two spells that were needed as good as can be expected in the amount of time that we have left," Alice said, her arms looped through Harry's and Lucretia's as they were, forcing the other two to walk when she started up again. "We have made our plan and any more time spent modifying it will make it turn overly complicated. Now, with our preparation complete aside from one last small session tonight, it is up to Harry to perform as well as he can. There is nothing else that we can do."
They'd planned a lot, that was just as true as him learning the two spells that they said he needed. One, the easier to learn of the two and the spell that had been picked first, was a temporary blinding jinx. It was meant for use on trolls and other large, magically resistant creatures hence Lucretia picking it when she'd come across the book it'd been found in. Sure, they didn't know if it was guaranteed to work against the dragon Harry would be up against, but he always had his broom and the other spell to rely on should it fail.
That other spell was far worse than the temporary blinding one was too. It was meant to seriously sicken people, with later modifications made to do the same to the aforementioned magically resistant creatures; a magical big game hunter had made those adjustments. The spell would force you to vomit until nought but acid remained in your stomach, and even then, you'd be heaving until your throat was numb. Beyond that effect, it clogged your ears as if you had infections in either of them and stuffed your nose worse than any cold you'd ever had before.
It was a horrible spell, but one that could be easily countered… should you have a wand. Such was the reason that the spell had made the transfer from something wizards and witches would cast at each other to something they all cast at creatures who weren't so lucky as to be able to remove it themselves.
He hadn't a clue as to how it worked against creatures that were resistant to magic, but how it was explained to him was 'resistance doesn't mean immune'. Harry hoped Alice was right in that regard, the teasing tone she'd said it in made him wonder though…
Back on track and away from thinking about Alice, Harry knew he wouldn't be horrible with it. All three of them doubted that he would have to kill or otherwise seriously harm the dragon, and with that as their thinking, he would cancel the spell before anything too serious happened to the poor thing — Alice and Harry were the ones to consider the dragon in a tame, sad manner. It couldn't very well decide what it did considering it came from a dragon reserve.
"One of these days," Lucretia started, her fingers pinching his earlobe as she dragged him from his thinking. "You'll be too deep in thought to notice something that'll cost you. Maybe it'll be a missed kiss from a pretty witch, or worse, a missed spell from a not-so-pretty Dark Lord."
"You tease him too much," Alice chastised as she removed Lucretia's hand, and more importantly, fingers from his ear. "And you, Harry, you spend too much time thinking when you're with us. Enjoy the time you've earned for relaxation, and spend it… relaxing," Alice's words and her sweet, deep, accented-voice withdrew the stress he'd felt since his name had first been called.
He wasn't sure why it had taken so long considering the past affects her voice had on him, nor why she felt so wonderful to be around, but he wouldn't complain. Not when his headache was gone along with the sense of impending doom and pressure.
"Relaxing, got it. Where are we off to, actually? I don't remember what we said we were doing," Harry's question earned him a fond shake of the head from Alice.
Lucretia, for a change, didn't scoff or roll her eyes at him. She actually seemed vaguely embarrassed too, and it was only when Alice looked between the both of them before eventually throwing her arms in the air did he figure out why that was.
"Neither of you remember where we are headed, do you?" Alice asked, a thin smile on her face as her accent came out heavier due to the tone of voice she'd taken on.
When he and Lucretia both shook their heads, the latter of which with a small, angry blush on her cheeks, Alice laughed.
"Wonderful, that should mean I have free choice to decide where we will have our lunch," Alice said, relooping their arms as she turned them around and headed them in the direction of a business they'd only recently passed.
It was a rental, if he wasn't mistaken. Somebody looking to capitalise on the foreigners that were at Hogwarts this year, and what better way existed than to cook food from their homelands?
Harry was interested in eating what the place had to offer just as much as he was interested in having his first date with Alice.
Well… Lucretia too, he supposed.
"So… where are you two from?" Harry asked when silence lingered for a few too many seconds after their orders had been delivered.
"Only now you ask us that?" Alice teased in a husky tone, her smile beautiful as ever.
Lucretia shook her head, her fork already loaded up with food as she gave her very short answer. "England, my family moved to Romania before I came to Hogwarts."
That was all she gave as her answer, and just like that, she was digging into traditional English food, and a lot of it.
Merlin, she can eat, Harry thought after a few seconds of watching her dig into her grilled fish and the mashed potatoes alongside it.
"I am from Switzerland," Alice offered, putting a spoonful of soup into her mouth after she spoke.
Harry shrugged, seeing that was all he'd get from either of them in way of their own history.
"Would you mind if I tried a few bites off your plate?" Alice asked after she swallowed the spoonful of her soup and dabbed at the right corner of her lips. "I did not think to order more from the menu, and I must admit, the meal you picked looks very delicious."
Lucretia snorted with a mouthful of mashed potatoes, making bits of it escape the confines of her lips — Harry very quickly looked away from her general direction, lest he laugh at the girl and earned himself her ire.
He answered whilst he remained looking away and towards the direction of the kitchen. "Sure, take whatever you'd like."
"Thanks," Alice purred.
Harry could feel her smile in her words, and when she moved her seat closer to his as well as her plate, he could feel her soothing, wonderful presence just as strongly.
Alice. He liked Alice.
Lucretia snorted again, this time louder and with a meaning that he missed.
She was alright too.
COMMENT REPLIES:
Thiago-Gamer12: Completely forgot to change that initially lol.
Shanesnericka2018: Thanks!
Matt9917: Thank you as always for the long, wonderful review- there's a lot in it, but overall, thank you!
Pixie Duck: Thank you very much, it will be a love-triangle and possibly on the Saviour's Pariah. Have a good day to you as well!
Diagonalpumpkin: Thank you, and it's definitely very interesting to work with. I appreciate the OC compliment and thank you very much for the wonderfully nice appreciation! Have a wonderful week!
Blcoachmac: Thank you, and this'll be very interesting for sure!
Annieartworld: I was never big on them, but I really enjoy writing them! Thank you!
Monkiepawn: I'm not too fond of the overly-mysterious or murderous nature. I like to picture them as what they are, children, with minor differences thanks to the natures of the school they attend. Thank you!
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F- Names: I appreciate your PM that you sent me that apologised, and I thank you for all the other compliments from other fics!
Stevem1: Thank you thank you, I hope you enjoy the coming chapters.
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Hadashi Shoujo: I didn't like the single-sex schools all that much either, felt boring. Thank you so much for reading a few of my other works, and I can promise this'll end up very different from The Guarder Snake despite the similar start. I hope you'll share your thoughts on this coming chapter and one of the two references was right! I've never seen Doctor Who haha.
Javiergimenez: It will, and thank you !
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