The first Hogsmeade trip of the year fell on the third Saturday in November, just days before the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. As a third-year, Ginny was finally allowed to join her older friends in visiting the village. Harry had only made the trip once before, due to the security precautions the previous year, so the experience was still rather new to him as well.

As Ginny and Harry strolled past the shops, with Hermione and Ron a few paces behind them, they discussed the first task. Before the Goblet of Fire shocked everyone by selecting Barty Crouch to compete in the Tournament, he'd been one of its organizers, and as such he had inside information about the tasks the competitors would face. To try to restore some semblance of fairness, the other organizers had revealed this same information to the other champions. From there, most of the details of the first task spread to the rest of the student body.

Ginny said, "Merlin, Harry. Dragons. I still can't believe it."

"Yeah. If I'd gotten mixed up in this, right now I'd be trying to figure out how the hell you steal something from a dragon's nest."

"Instead you're here with me, and I can't even breathe fire… yet. Must be a bit of a letdown."

"As if. Being here with you, I can relax and feel like an ordinary student."

"Aw. I make you feel ordinary? Sweet-talker."

"You know what I mean. Imagine how hard Hermione would be making me work."

"And she'd be right."

"I know. At least I'd have you and Ron to lighten things up."

"I'd still make you work hard to prepare, though." She looked thoughtful. "You know, it's like I'm a perfect blend of your other two best friends. Well. Maybe two-thirds Hermione, one-third Ron."

"Not sure your math checks out. You and Ron are both gingers."

"Yeah, but I make it look good."

"No argument there."

"How would you handle the first task? If you had to?"

"I got to talking to Sirius about it the other night. I wondered if Krum or Cedric might try to zip in on a broom, but he said you'd have to be mental to try to out-fly a dragon. He thought the best option would be to not get noticed in the first place. Like use my Cloak to disappear, create a distraction, sneak in and grab the egg, and get out of there. Wouldn't be much of a crowd-pleaser though."

"Fuck the crowd. If you can get the job done before anyone even knows you're there, why wouldn't you?"

"I suppose so. How would you do it?"

"I like the idea with the Cloak."

"No stealing my answer."

"You mean Sirius's answer?"

"Say the rules didn't let you use the Cloak."

"I'd break the rules. Failing that, I guess I'd try to fight fire with fire somehow."

"I knew you'd say that."

"I like to play to my strengths."

"You're brilliant with fire–for a human. But you'd for real try it against a dragon?"

"I doubt I could summon anywhere near as much fire as a dragon, but you know how much work Remus and Moody have had me do on controlling and directing it. I'd let the dragon produce the flames, then turn its own fire against it. Probably throw it back in its face, see if I could take out the eyes."

"Ouch."

"Going for the eyes worked for you the last time you fought a giant reptile."

"That was life and death, and the Basilisk's eyes were weapons. This is just a competition. Besides, that was Fawkes anyway."

"Facing a dragon is always life and death. Even under the 'safe' conditions of a competition."

"I'm glad I don't have to face one under any conditions–no matter what some people might think. I can't believe Moody thought I needed a lecture on how I'm not ready to face Riddle in a duel. All I asked was if they ever found Riddle's wand, and only because Hermione wanted to know. Why does everyone assume I'm eager to go looking for trouble?"

Ginny said nothing in reply.

Harry asked, "You know I don't want to go after Riddle, right? At least not before I'm ready?"

"I don't worry about what you want to do. I worry about what you might feel like you had to do, to keep other people safe."

"That would be a different situation, if I didn't have a choice."

"A lot of people would think they had a choice, if not a good one. I wouldn't be here today if you thought that way, but it worries me. And I'm not the only one."

"I guess I can see that. It's just frustrating to keep hearing it. Moody didn't even know anything useful. I wonder where that wand could have gone?"

"I have a feeling it will turn up again. It would be too much of a coincidence for the two of you to get those wands, and never have them meet."

"Which means someday I have to duel Riddle."

"Yes, someday in the distant future, when you're ready, and you've got a bunch of scary powerful friends with you to help take him down. Or at least one specific scary powerful witch, who will have an astounding mastery of fire magic by then."

"Hmm. Anyone in mind?"

"Yeah. And I have a feeling she'll be available."

~*~

That evening after dinner, a warm fire was burning in the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room. For a time, its cheerful flickering masked the patterns of light cast by the fires blazing outside.

"Fire! The Forbidden Forest is on fire!" yelled Seamus, who was sitting near a window, and thus the first to notice.

Everyone in the common room crowded around the windows.

"That's no ordinary fire," said Ginny. "That's dragon-fire."

"How do you know?" Hermione asked.

"I know."

"Hagrid!" Harry exclaimed. "His hut's right at the edge of the Forest."

Ginny turned to Ron, her eyes wide. "Charlie could be out there too!"

"I'll get McGonagall," Ron said, as he turned and ran out of the common room.

Harry ran in the other direction, to the stairs and up, ignoring Ginny and Hermione calling after him.

"Where is he going?" Hermione wondered.

Rather than answering, Ginny ran after him, with Hermione close behind her. When they entered Harry's room, they found Neville there alone, standing at the open window, looking out.

"Neville, did Harry come in here?" asked Ginny.

He turned to stare at her. "He… grabbed his broom."

"Then what? Where did he go?"

Neville pointed at the window. "Out. He's flying towards the dragons. Doesn't he know how dangerous they are?" He glanced down and took a step back. "Jumping out windows isn't great either. You can't always count on bouncing when you hit the ground." He absently rubbed the wrist he'd once broken falling off a broom.

Ginny and Hermione rushed to the window. The view here was better than the one from the common room. They could now make out several dragons circling in the air above the forest, breathing streams of fire. The color of each blast of flame marked the species of the dragon which produced it.

A lone figure on a broomstick was flying straight towards them.

"No, no, no," complained Hermione, shaking her head. "We had everything sorted this year. He's supposed to be safe. It's not fair."

Ginny cursed as she looked down. "I need you to cast a Slowing Charm on me." She leaned forward to brace her hands on the windowsill, and stuck one leg out the window.

"Are you mad? What are you doing? Stop!"

Ginny paused to meet her eye. "With Harry on the Quidditch team, and all the times you've seen him in trouble on a broom, you're telling me you haven't prepared a response?"

"I know the spell, but I've never used it on a falling person! At least find another broom."

"Most people keep their brooms in the equipment sheds. Harry only keeps his here because Sirius gave it to him, and he loves that thing so much. This is the fastest way. If I take the long way down through the castle, the stairs might not cooperate. Every second counts."

"But–"

"Harry is out there, and maybe Charlie and Hagrid too. Fire is my element, and you know how rubbish Harry is with it. Please. He's up there all alone with dragons. I can help him, but I need you to help me. I know you can do this. You don't get spells wrong. Not when it counts."

Hermione bit her lip, but nodded and drew her wand.

Neville said, "I don't think you should do this."

"Probably not," Ginny agreed as she ducked through the window, lowering herself to hang by her hands from the windowsill.

"Definitely not," Hermione said.

"Ready?" Ginny asked, looking up to find Hermione's wand pointed at her.

"No," Hermione said, "but if we're doing this, let's do it. Just please be careful out there. Are you ready?"

"Not even a little. Here goes."

Ginny took a deep breath, then brought her feet up and kicked off as she let go, to avoid hitting the side of the castle on her way down.

Hermione cast her spell. "Arresto Momentum!"

Ginny barely had time to notice herself slowing before she hit the ground. She rolled, jumped to her feet, and took off towards the forest at a sprint.

As she ran, she studied the activity in the air: four dragons, for the four champions. Somehow they'd all gotten loose at once. She recognized the breeds from pictures Charlie had shown her. Growing up, books about dragons were the only bedtime stories he ever wanted to read her. She tried to think of anything he'd ever told her about the different varieties which might give her any advantage at all. Nothing was coming to her.

Harry reached the dragons and began looping around and between them. Ginny gasped as she recognized what he was doing. He was using the same moves he'd used to distract Cedric during the last Quidditch match of the year before. The Gryffindor team had taken to calling it the 'Potter Whirlwind'.

Now, rather than distracting an opposing Seeker from spotting the Snitch, he was trying to keep the attention of four dragons on him, and away from anyone who might be on the ground below. Merlin, was he betting his life on Quidditch maneuvers? That couldn't be his entire plan.

It wasn't. As she watched, she saw him provoke the Swedish Short-Snout into chasing him, only to jerk his broom to the side at the last second to let the pursuing dragon crash into another one, which she recognized as a Welsh Green.

The silvery-blue Swedish dragon shrieked in anger, which the Welsh dragon answered with a strangely melodic roar. The two enraged beasts grappled and tore at each other with teeth and claws as they plummeted down to crash into the trees below.

Pitting the dragons against each other wasn't a terrible plan–at least relative to other approaches to messing about with four bloody dragons–but she doubted Harry appreciated just how smart dragons were. Their ability to learn to respond to rewards was what made dragon-handling a viable career option, rather than a flamboyant form of suicide.

But when they became enraged, that same intelligence made them all the more dangerous. Harry had succeeded at getting them angry at each other, as intended, but also at him, which was less useful. She could see the two remaining dragons getting better at anticipating his movements, coming closer to burning or biting him each time he swept past them.

Harry seemed to recognize the danger, but refused to break off. He began to resort to dipping down to weave through the burning treetops to evade their attacks, before popping up to buzz past them again. Flying at top speed through the dense trees would be a desperate chance to take even if they weren't on fire, but it still wouldn't be enough. The dragons were starting to catch on to this ploy as well.

Ginny wasn't used to running. Going up and down the castle stairs kept you in decent shape, but she didn't think she'd actually run anywhere since racing Harry back from the pitch the first week of school. If you wanted to go fast, you used a broom–like the Firebolt whose speed and maneuverability Harry was currently trusting with his life.

Her legs were starting to burn, but as she fixed her eyes on Harry, her will burned stronger still. She drove herself to go faster, hair flowing out behind her like flames.

Harry swung around to zip past a dragon whose black scales and spiked tail marked it as a Hungarian Horntail. The Horntail locked its gaze on him, but rather than pursue, it opened its jaws wide.

Ginny drew her wand as she ran. When the torrent of fire erupted from the Horntail's mouth, she reached out with her will to grab the flame, yanking her wand to the side to redirect the flow away from Harry, and into the face of the last of the four dragons, a red Chinese Fireball.

The scarlet dragon shrieked in pain and fury and sent back its own mushroom-shaped burst of flame. The Horntail dove to avoid the blast, then swooped up to crash into the Fireball from below. Like the other pair had done, the dragons clinched and tore at each other, too enraged to focus on anything else, even as they tumbled down to crash into the forest below.

"Harry!" Ginny called.

He spotted her and flew over to meet her as she stumbled to a stop.

"I didn't see anyone while I was up there!" he cried. "Not Hagrid, or Charlie, or any of the other handlers!"

Ginny struggled to catch her breath. "Cages, in clearing," she managed to gasp. "Charlie told me. Best place to look. Not without me! I'll just follow on foot."

He grimaced. "Get on, then."

As soon as she got settled behind him with her arms wrapped around his middle, he shot into the air while she held on tight. Looking down, they could see the Short-Snout and the Green had gotten knocked out by their impact with the ground. The Fireball and the Horntail were still struggling with each other, but weakly.

Fires were burning in several places throughout the forest below, and spreading.

"Over there!" Ginny called against the wind rushing past them, as she pointed to their left.

Harry turned the Firebolt in the direction she indicated. As they reached the clearing, they saw Hagrid carrying two unconscious wizards, one slung over each shoulder.

"Hagrid!" Harry shouted.

The gamekeeper looked up. "Harry! Get outta here! The dragons are loose!"

Harry landed his broom. "What happened to them?" he asked, gesturing to the unconscious wizards.

"They bin knocked out, and I can't wake 'em. I have ter get 'em outta here 'fore the forest burns down aroun' 'em. And the two o' yeh have ter get outta here 'fore those dragons come back!"

"We took care of the dragons," Harry said.

Hagrid gave him a skeptical frown, but before he could question this claim, Ginny asked, "Have you seen Charlie?"

"I carried him an' the other one out already. They're safe, but out cold."

"Someone must have stunned them," Ginny said. "Set those two down, and we'll revive them. Moody taught us."

Hagrid eased the two wizards he was carrying to the ground, and Ginny and Harry each cast the Reviving Spell on one of them. When they came to, they looked around at the empty cages, and jumped to their feet.

"Where are the dragons?" one asked.

"Follow us," Harry answered, as he got back on his broom. To Ginny, he added, "Come on, you can ride with me."

She shook her head. "No. I'll go with Hagrid and revive Charlie and the other handler. They'll be able to help."

Harry hesitated.

"I'll be fine," she said, shooting him a grin. "It's just fire. I've got this."

He gave a quick nod, and turned to the dragon handlers. "I can take one of you, and come back for the other."

The handlers exchanged a look, and one said, "It's best we all go together. There's not much either of us will be able to do alone. Fly slow, and we'll follow as fast as we can."

"Besides," the other handler added, "You'll fly better without a passenger. Once we spot the dragons, fly away in the other direction as fast as you can."

"Right. You'd have to be mental to do otherwise," Harry agreed, and rose into the air. He set off towards where he and Ginny had left the dragons, going slow enough to let the dragon handlers keep up with him. His attention moved back and forth between finding a safe path for the handlers through the fires in the forest below, and checking the sky, in case any of the dragons reappeared.

When they'd gone, Ginny asked Hagrid, "Which way to Charlie?"

"That way," he said, pointing, "but there's a whole mess o' fire between here and there we'll have ter go 'round."

Ginny held up her wand. "I can handle the fire."

She took off in the direction Hagrid had indicated, without giving him a chance to argue.

~*~

Working together, the revived dragon handlers had far less trouble than expected in subduing the two dragons that remained conscious, as the massive beasts were weak from their fight and their fall from the sky.

McGonagall and the teachers she'd gathered after Ron raised the alarm had managed to put out the worst of the fires. With the situation under control, she confronted Harry and Ginny.

"Are either of you hurt?" she demanded. "Do you need to visit the hospital wing?"

They both insisted they were fine.

She looked them up and down to confirm this, then gave a terse order to return directly to Gryffindor Tower, with a promise to deal with them in the morning.

Both students murmured, "Yes, Professor," then climbed on Harry's Firebolt and took off towards the castle.

As they flew back at a leisurely speed, Harry called back over his shoulder, "I assume I have you to thank for that blast of dragon-fire suddenly turning away from me in midair?"

"Possibly, though I don't like to brag about such things."

"Thanks. Just in case it was you."

"You're welcome. Just in case."

"So… how much trouble do you think I'm in with Hermione, for acting recklessly?"

"Did you happen to bring your Cloak to hide under for a while, to give her a chance to calm down?"

"No."

"Unfortunate. Just watch out for her right cross. Or so I've heard. I never get to see any of her best moments."

"The next time she punches Malfoy, I'll be sure you get an invitation."

"Her next fight might be sooner than you think. Just keep your hands up to protect your head," she advised. "I'd hate to see anything happen to that pretty face of yours."

"She can't be too mad. Everything worked out. And it's not like I never tried out the technique before. It worked on Cedric well enough."

"Oh? Can Cedric breathe fire? I'll have to get him to teach me."

"Maybe the two situations weren't exactly the same."

"Maybe don't lead with that point then."

"Right. Do I need to hide from you for a while too?"

"It's adorable that you think an Invisibility Cloak could hide you if I ever truly lost my temper."

"I had to, Ginny."

"I know." She tightened her arms around him, though they weren't going fast at all. "I hate it, but I get it. I went out the window right behind you, after all."

"Where's your broom?"

"Didn't have one. I jumped. Hermione cast a Slowing Charm."

"Yikes."

"You're in no position to say that. Not tonight."

"Fair. Though you know, since Hermione went along with that, she can't complain too much about me taking risks, right?"

"I dare you to tell her that."

"Nah, I'm not that brave. I'll just have to rely on you to protect me until she calms down."

"Oh, Harry. The notions you come up with. Truly adorable."

~*~

When Harry and Ginny got back to the common room, it looked like every one of their Gryffindor housemates was waiting for them. Ron and Hermione pushed their way through, with Fred and George close behind.

Hermione threw her arms around Harry and Ginny and squeezed them tight.

"Charlie? Hagrid?" asked Ron in a shaky voice.

"They're both fine," Ginny answered once Hermione let her breathe again. "Everyone's fine. The handlers still need to get the dragons back to their cages, but none of them had much fight left after the way Harry took them down. And there were some fires left to put out, but nothing major. I could have helped, but McGonagall wasn't having it."

"Er, back up," George said. "Did you say Harry took down dragons? As in, more than one?"

"Four, actually," Ginny confirmed. "Now that I say it out loud, it does make it sound like he was showing off a bit."

"It sure does," agreed Fred. "I mean one dragon, yeah, fine, no problem. Happens every day. You might even manage to beat up two and pull it off tastefully, as long as you didn't make it look too easy."

"You've more than made your point with three though," decided George. "I'm afraid four is just unseemly."

Harry snorted. "Knock it off, guys. It wasn't all me. Ginny helped. A lot."

Hermione glared at the twins. "How can you joke about this?"

"I'm fine," Harry told her. "None of them even got near me."

"Really?"

"I only had one close call worth mentioning, and Ginny had my back on that one. If not for her, I would have gotten roasted for sure, but with her there, it was no big deal. Sorry to make you worry over nothing."

"Oh, Harry," Ginny said, shaking her head and pressing her hand to her forehead.

Hermione opened her mouth, closed it without saying anything, then spun around and stormed away.

"Poor guy," George said. "Just doesn't know when to stop talking."

"Sad," Fred agreed. "Reckon it's a medical condition?"

"Might turn into one, once Hermione decides how to demonstrate her displeasure over his disregard of dragon danger."

"Alas, to survive a heroic battle with dragons-four of them, mind you–only to be struck down by the wrath of a young lioness. Nice alliteration, by the way."

"Thanks. The tragic irony seemed to call for a bit of poetic language. By the same token, I like what you did there, juxtaposing literal dragons and a figurative lioness."

"Thank you for noticing."

"Are you going to tell mum and dad?" Ron asked Ginny, ignoring the continued rambling of their older brothers.

"Why would I do that?"

"They're bound to hear about it sooner or later, even if Charlie stays quiet."

Ginny and Harry both groaned.

She glanced over at him. "I appreciate the sympathy, but I can handle it."

"I just realized I'm going to have to tell Sirius. He won't take it well."

Ginny leaned close. "That's the trade-off, when you have someone who actually cares."

"Yeah. I guess there is that."

It took some time before Harry and Ginny could get away, as everyone wanted to hear the story in detail. Though in truth, neither was in any great hurry to relate the tale to the adults who were sure to receive it with far less enthusiasm than their fellow Gryffindor students.

Eventually, Ginny slipped away to write a letter to her parents, and Harry went to his room to talk to Sirius using his mirror.

As Harry finished telling his godfather the story, he noticed Sirius had stopped speaking, or even moving. He wondered if the mirror had frozen up somehow.

"Er, hello? Sirius?"

The image shifted, and Harry found himself looking at Remus.

"Hello, Harry. You've had a rather eventful night. Are you certain you're okay?"

"Hi, Remus. Yeah, I'm fine. Is Sirius?"

"Sirius needs a moment to take a breath and collect his thoughts." When a crashing sound came from another room, he added, "And possibly do a little redecorating."

"Um. Am I in trouble?"

"Of course not. He's not mad at you, Harry. It's these situations you keep finding yourself in. You did a good thing, trying to help people. But we'd both hoped that after your friends succeeded at keeping you out of the Tournament, you might actually have a peaceful year for once. Though I admit I harbored doubts about things being quite so easy."

"Hermione wasn't too thrilled at me for getting involved tonight either. Remind me to never be in the same room with the two of them at once, right after a situation forced me to do something dumb. You seem to be taking it okay though."

"You caught me at a fortuitous phase of the moon. At another time, I can imagine myself responding with far less calm to this news."

"Ah. Right."

"Though no matter how you think we might react, please be sure to call us back in the morning if you have any troubling dreams."

"You think this was Riddle again? What for? He can't have known I would get involved."

"I think someone wanted to disrupt the Tournament. If a dragon isn't in the mood to cooperate, it usually takes several handlers working together to subdue it without causing injury. And that's for a single dragon. Without your unorthodox intervention, four loose at once would have been nearly impossible to stop without using lethal force. Even if the handlers or teachers didn't kill them in the course of stopping them, the dragons could easily have harmed or killed many people while they were loose, after which they would certainly have been put down."

"Like Buckbeak almost was."

"Yes, though with far more justification in this instance. If you hadn't managed to turn the dragons against each other, the outcome would surely have been far worse, in one way or another. And this would–almost incidentally–have ruined the plans for the first task. It takes a particular sort of warped mind to unleash such unpredictable violence in the service of one's goals."

"A mind like Tom Riddle's."

"Yes. Tonight's events might have nothing to do with him, or with you, but given the irregularities at the selection ceremony, and your nightmare afterwards, accompanied by pain from your scar…"

"Yeah. I take your point. He cares about this Tournament for some reason."

Another crashing sound came through the mirror, prompting Harry to ask, "Are you sure he's okay?"

"It's frustrating for him. After spending the whole summer being able to watch over you, having you away at school has been an adjustment. When that business with Crouch and the Goblet seemed to confirm your friends' suspicions, I had to talk him out of going back to live in the Forbidden Forest as a dog, just so he could be near you in case something happened."

"That's… Um…"

"Yes, it is. But he calmed down, as he will this time."

"Thanks, Remus. I'm glad he's got you there."

"It's the least I could do."

"Please let him know I'm alright, really."

"I will. Anything else you want to talk about? Any more problems with Snape?"

"No more than usual. He hasn't threatened me again. He hasn't had many nice things to say about my brewing skills, but I'm used to that."

Remus sighed. "I fear his attitude is unlikely to change any time soon."

"I know. I can handle it. Nights like tonight help put everything else in perspective."

"I suppose they do at that. You should get some rest after what you've been through. Good night, Harry."

"Good night."