November 1994, 4th year

"I made buttons!" Draco announced proudly, one morning in the middle of November, while the early birds were waiting for their housemates in the common room, so they could go to breakfast together.

"You made … buttons," Lynea repeated slowly.

Blaise chuckled and said, "He's been secretly working on them for over a week," which earned him a half-hearted sneer from Draco.

"So what kind of buttons did you make?" Lynea asked.

Draco's proud smile returned as he tossed one to her (that Lynea did not nearly drop). It was bright yellow with black letters saying 'Support Cedric Diggory – the real Hogwarts Champion!'. Lynea raised her eyebrows at that.

"Press it," Draco eagerly said.

The message immediately changed to dark green letters on a silver background. 'Support Harry Potter – the unwilling Collateral Damage.'

"The unwilling Collateral Damage," Lynea read out loud and gave Draco an incredulous look.

"Are you talking about me again?" Harry asked from the stairs.

Draco's smile widened into a grin. "See? Harry gets it immediately."

"Isn't this taking it a bit far?" Lynea asked sceptically.

Draco shrugged. "I thought about insulting Diggory at first, but then I realized that that would not only make Harry angry with me again –"

"Damn right it would," Harry grumbled.

"– I also don't really want to insult Diggory. He is the true champion. Harry didn't want any of this. And Hufflepuff deserves the attention."

"So you went for house unity instead," Lynea said, still unable to wrap her head around it quite yet.

"Yes," Draco said with a nod. "I made enough buttons for half the school – I think the Hufflepuff's might appreciate them." He turned to Harry with big puppy eyes. "Do you like it?"

Harry took a button and turned it over in his hand. "That's really impressive spellwork. They won't fade for quite a while, will they?"

Draco nodded again, more enthusiastically this time. "I obviously couldn't test out how long the spells will hold up, but I experimented a bit, before I came up with this." And then he went into a lengthy explanation about all the genius ideas he had come up with and why they had or had not worked, while Harry listened with mild curiosity, a fond smile on his lips.

Lynea pinned her button to Theodore's robes and then took another one for herself. By the time the Slytherins were finally heading to breakfast, a considerable amount of their housemates had taken one or two and promised to distribute them mong their friends. Over the course of the day, more and more students could be seen with the buttons, often displaying the Hufflepuff message, but occasionally the Slytherin one could be spotted as well. Neville and Ginevra Weasley even managed to get some of their housemates to wear them, although there were still less willing Gryffindors than any other house.

Seeing Harry encourage the whole idea made many realize that he, maybe, truly did not want to participate and the tension that had permeated the school since Samhain lessened a bit, made it easier to breathe. That did not, however, make the Slytherins lessen their security around Harry.

On the very same day as Draco distributed his buttons, there was an interruption during Potions, when young Colin Creevey was sent to fetch Harry for an interview with the four champions. At first, Professor Snape did not seem to want to let Harry go, but then he relented and just send him away. Alone. Well, technically not alone, but without another Slytherin. Lynea stared at the door until her hissing potion brought her back to the present.

"He will be occupied long enough for you to collect him after this lesson his finished, Miss Fawley" Snape snapped. "Now pay attention to your antidote!"

Lynea caught Blaise's raised eyebrows and shrugged. Professor Snape was in a particularly bad mood today. He even had one of the Gryffindors test out his off-colour potion on another student. It wasn't too bad, Snape had not chosen one of the definitely toxic creations some other students had created, but the brewer (Finnigan?) looked just as green as poor Neville, who had to drink his potion. Neville went straight to the bathroom the moment class was dismissed and Lynea hoped Snape had been sensible enough to not poison Neville severely enough that he had to go to the Hospital Wing. He ought to know better than that, or Lynea would have to force Neville to go to his Head of House. Teachers shouldn't force students to digest toxic potions they hadn't even brewed themselves. Or at all, really.

"Sometimes, I wonder why he became a teacher in the first place," Lynea said. "He hates students."

Draco shrugged. "He's not bad at teaching, though."

Lynea gave him a look.

"What?" Draco asked defensively. "He is a genius when it comes to potions. We're lucky to have him as our teacher."

"Being a genius potioneer does not make him a good teacher, darling" Blaise said mildly. "We are lucky he favours his own house or we would face the same horrors the Gryffindors do. What would you think if he had forced you to drink that potion?"

Draco wrinkled his nose. "Uncle Severus would never have done that. Besides, he knew Longbottom wouldn't face any severe consequences."

Lynea shook her head. "That's not the point, Draco."

"Should we blackmail him?" Theodore asked. "It's a bit late to start now, when we could have started in first year, but," he shrugged.

"It wasn't that bad in first year," Blaise continued Theodore's thought. "Or we just didn't notice it so much."

"Do we have enough blackmail material to make sure he can't retaliate?" Lynea asked. "We don't want him to take his frustrations out on us, after all."

"He is still a Slytherin," Blaise said. "He honours our rules."

"No fights in public. Always present a united front." Lynea sighed. "That does not stop him from taking revenge behind closed doors. Is this the right room?"

"Yes, it is," Blaise said, stepping away from a classroom door. "I heard Bagman's obnoxious voice and it sounds like they're taking photographs, right now."

"We will not blackmail my godfather," Draco said between gritted teeth. "I can't believe you were seriously considering that!"

Blaise arched an eyebrow at him. "What do you reckon Harry will think when we tell him what happened?"

Draco crossed his arms in front of him and glared at the closed door. "That does not justify blackmail."

"If you can make your godfather listen to reason, then we won't have to resort to blackmail," Lynea said in a light voice.

Draco did not have any convincing arguments, but they all knew blackmail wasn't the right solution, either. It was still fun to discuss. (They were careful to never mention any names, in case someone overheard.)

Then, eventually, the door opened. Harry and Cedric Diggory were the first to come out, talking about Rita Skeeter and how she had misquoted literally everything Harry had said to her.

"You need proper training in dealing with the media," Draco said, shaking his head. "The way you dealt with Skeeter was horrendous. That woman will rip you to shreds."

Diggory laughed, high and clear in the open and honest way no Slytherin would ever laugh.

"I doubt it would have made a difference," he said, shaking his head in amusement. "Rita Skeeter has never been known to be deterred by anything. She even talked to Professor Dumbledore about the rude article she wrote about him – to his face."

"So they interviewed you all, darling?" Blaise asked, giving Diggory his best smile.

"Skeeter interviewed Harry," Diggory answered. "And they took photos of all of us. But this really was about checking our wands."

Harry nodded. "Ollivander was there. Oh, and Fleur really is part Veela, by the way. Her wand core is a hair from her grandmother. I didn't know you could use other wand cores than the ones from Ollivander's."

"The Ollivanders prize themselves as the best wandmakers," Blaise said, "and according to them the standard three are the cores that work the best."

"Gregorovitch would highly disagree with that," Lynea quipped.

Draco huffed. "You got your wand from Ollivander's, too."

Lynea grinned at him. "But the Lémures don't. They let their wands be crafted specifically for them with Thestral bone cores." And special runes no one outside the family was supposed to know about.

Draco paled and Blaise whispered, "Thestral bones" under his breath, while Theodore just shook his head.

"Who is Gregorovitch?" Harry asked, all innocent.

"A German wandmaker," Lynea said. "My great-grandmother personally knows him and has maintained the connection. After the other wandmaker died, all of the Lémures started going to him – Ollivander refuses to craft custom-made wands."

"Doesn't the wand choose the wizard?" Harry asked curiously. "How does a custom-made wand work, then?"

"You forget, Harry, that the Lémures don't actually need a wand – hence the need to have one custom made. That way they can make use of them for more than just appearance's sake."

"I simultaneously become more fascinated and increasingly more horrified the more I hear about that family," Blaise said mildly. "It's as if they are a different kind of being altogether, sometimes."

"Maybe they are," Lynea mused.

Blaise gave her an odd look. "What would that make you?"

"Well," Diggory chimed in, visibly glad to get out of the conversation. "This is where we part."

"Oh," Harry said, a touch disappointed. "See you later, Cedric."

The Hufflepuff gave them a small wave and went for his own table, while the Slytherins walked on.

"Enjoyed that, did you?" Draco commented dryly. "Talking with the Golden Boy of Hogwarts. Bet you wished we hadn't ruined the mood by starting to talk about Necromancers."

Harry sighed. "Shut up, Draco."

"If he is uncomfortable with such a mellow topic," Lynea said mildly, "then he is not worth it. Let me tell you what we were discussing after potions, Harry dear."

o

The Summoning Charm and the Levitation Charm were very different when you learned them the 'normal way', but actually nearly the same when you used the Old Magics.

Harry wondered how he could use that knowledge to actually learn the spell, because he hadn't managed to successfully cast Accio in class so far. Lynea wondered why the spells were so different, when using a wand and longed, not for the first time, to be able to discuss it with Theodore and Blaise. But she wasn't, technically, supposed to pass along knowledge about the Old Magics and teaching Harry was already cutting it very, very close.

At least Harry's training was coming along splendidly. Lynea wasn't sure how long she would be able to guide him until he was left to his own devices, so she took care to discuss as much of the theory with him as she was able to while they practiced the basics. Harry was getting better at casting magic while being distracted, although certain topics still made him falter and drop one or two of the objects they were passing back and forth now and then – like the article Skeeter had written about him. Draco and Pansy thought it was hilarious, Harry was just angry. (Lynea reserved judgement. She couldn't share Harry's indignity, but admitting she found it funny would make Harry direct his ire at her. Better to stay out of it.)

The weeks leading up to the First Task were spent either in the abandoned classroom in the dungeons, where Lynea taught Harry the Old Magics and then send him into duels against whoever had time, or the library, where they looked for new spells and generally anything that could prove to be helpful whenever they weren't working with their study groups. Hermione gladly put her elf-liberation project on hold in favour of helping Harry, Neville provided trivia about plants that might be useful – from healing properties to different types of toxins – and Luna procured odd books no one would have looked at twice.

They ran into Viktor Krum surprisingly often, but he was probably using the library to prepare for the First Task as well. Although the giggling girls following him everywhere were pretty annoying. Lynea wondered whether he practiced spells with his classmates on their fancy ship and what the Beauxbatons champion was up to. Cedric was practicing with his Hufflepuff friends under the supervision of Professor Sprout (in case of emergency and surely not helping him in any way) – everyone knew about that, because the Hufflepuffs weren't even trying to keep it a secret.

With no clue as to what the First Task may entail other than 'testing their daring' – "Are you sure you remembered that correctly, Harry?" – there was only so much they could all do.

Harry was getting rather distraught as the days went by, no matter how much Lynea and the others assured him that he would do fine – he could hold his own against three of them, after all – so the Hogsmeade visit on the weekend before the First Task came as a welcome distraction.

Harry hid under his Invisibility Cloak (the Invisibility Cloak, Lynea still couldn't quite believe it), because they all agreed it would be safer that way, and Harry felt free for once, free from his worries and free form all the stares and whispers that followed him constantly. It was a bit tricky, keeping track of him at first, but Draco eventually just kept a hand on the cloak in a discreet way no one would notice and Harry made sure not wander too far away from him, so the cloak wouldn't slip off accidentally.

Interestingly enough, Professor Moody's magical eyes could apparently see through Invisibility Cloaks, even one that had been a gift from Death, Himself.

"Hello there," Hagrid said jovially, beaming at them all in a way that made Pansy recoil with distrust written all over her face.

"Hello," Draco said, trying to smile and failing miserably.

Then he winced suddenly and started to rub his arm, Moody's magical eye tracking the motion.

"Nice cloak, Potter," Moody said.

"Can your eye –" Harry said in amazement, "I mean, can you –?"

Lynea nearly rolled her eyes. Harry lacked subtlety in all the important things. For one, it had been obvious that Moody had spotted Harry under the cloak, or he wouldn't have come over with Hagrid in the first place. For another, had that not been obvious, Moody could have just taken an educated guess – Invisibility Cloaks were uncommon, but not unheard of – and Harry had just given himself away.

"Yeah," Moody said, "it can see through Invisibility Cloaks. And it's come in useful at times, I can tell you."

Hagrid, still beaming, bent down and whispered something only Harry could hear. Lynea, who sat next to his seemingly empty spot only made out the words 'tonight' and 'cloak'. Hagrid departed right after that, Moody following behind him.

"That wasn't odd at all," Pansy commented.

"Why does Hagrid want me to meet him at midnight?" Harry asked.

"Alone?" Draco asked sharply. "No. We're not letting you go alone."

"But – It could be important."

"Then find a way at least one of us can accompany you," Draco replied. "We can hardly fit two people under that cloak of yours."

"It might be feasible," Lynea mused. "Your shoes and ankles might show, but as long as no one's looking too closely – except for Moody, I suppose – the darkness of the night should cover that up. Hagrid surely won't mind another person."

"I'm sure he won't," Harry said. "And I don't want to go alone, anyway. Anyone up for a midnight stroll?"

Draco sighed. "Fine. But you're taking all the blame when we get caught."

"If we get caught."

They did not get caught.

Instead, the two of them told their patiently waiting and very tired housemates a story about dragons.

"He was using it as an excuse to have a date with Madame Maxime," Draco said, wrinkling his nose. "Merlin. Pansy, you were right – that suit is even worse up close. How can anyone think that atrocity is a proper piece of clothing?"

"Fleur Delacour knows, then," Lynea commented, preventing Harry and Draco from getting into a fight over Hagrid's attire.

"As does Krum," Harry said. "We saw Karkaroff sneaking around the edge of the forest. We need to tell Cedric."

"Do that," Lynea said. "We only have a few days left to prepare, so I suggest we all go to bed now and start looking into dragons first thing tomorrow."

Harry bit his lip. "Do you still think I can do it? Dragons are a bit – well …"

Lynea raised an eyebrow. "Do you think you can do it?"

Harry paused. Then he slowly raised his head to meet her eyes. "Yes. I can do it."

"That's the spirit," Draco said. "Now, off to bed. I'm exhausted. Remind me to never let you drag me through the Forbidden Forest at midnight, ever again."