"Why's Harry here?"

Aline mumbles something under her breath, hiding her head in her hands. For the past three days she's been stuck in the great Hogwarts library, trying to find information on the Triwizard tournament , maybe what sorts of tasks the victors have faced in the past and how they've defeated them. Turns out the library is a good place to hide from the crowds too. Someone, perhaps the librarian Mrs Pince or a secret friend had been slipping books under her arm. Helpful books. There she's learned about the types of tasks done in the past: trying to navigate out of an enchanted cornfield, surviving in the snowy landscape of durmstrang , dogsled races, choosing between doors, duelling with boggarts and trying to swim over the black lake. It made her blood run cold thinking about it.

"Aline?"

She turns her head once more and is met face to face with Harry. Running the sleep from her eyes she stands.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you."

"I uh ... Was just thinking...about the tournament ," she conjured.

"Me too. Are you free tonight?" He whispered.

"Yeah."

"Meet me at door to exit to the greenhouses at eight. I think Hagrid might want to show us something important."

-x-x-x-

"You can't come with me," Aline warned as her sister rolled over on bed and began to look for her slippers.

"I want to. Please please please."

"No! This is a me and Harry thing." Aline surprised herself at how easily the words rolled off her tongue. Her and Harry. Harry and her.

"I'll tell you about it when I'm back. I promise."

She grumbled, pouting and crossed her arms.

"When have I ever broken a promise?"

"Never."

"See? I'll be back before you know it."

Slipping out of the common rooms was easy. Aline had learned to be stealthy when learning to hunt with the werewolves. She stepped in just the right way that her steps left no sound.

Suddenly a light shone from around the corner. Professor Snape was making his rounds about the school, patrolling for students out of bed. She nearly shrieked when a hand pulled her into the nearest alcove.

It was Harry with a finger to his lips. He slipped a heavy fabric over her head and mouthed Invisibility Cloak.

When professor Snape had rounded a corner Harry grabbed Aline's arm and the two of them snuck towards the exit. She noticed how his hand felt on hers, steady and firm. She did not like it. From her experience anytime someone tried to get close to her and made friends with her, they'd always end up having an ulterior motive. And Harry did have an ulterior motive. He needed her cooperation to win the Triwizard tournament. This was all it was.

A convenient Alliance.

Before long they were approaching Hagrid's hut. Rubeus Hagrid was the school's ground keeper and the previous professor of care for magical creatures. Harry and his Friends seem to like and trust him. Aline had no better options or ideas about what could be the first task so this was as good a way to find out as any.

"Harry! Miss Lupin!"

"Just Aline."

"Aline. Pleasure to meet yeh. Harry's been telling me quite about about yeh brave choice." The giant shakes her hand firmly and smiles. Harry shifts his feet. "Bet you're curious as to why I've called yeh here today? Trust me yeh won't be disappointed."

Harry had his cloak and the two of them followed Hagrid deep into the forbidden Forest. Students weren't normally allowed here. She held Harry's hands as the two of them step through the shrubbery, unusual hoots and scricks surrounding them.

"What's with the flower? You've brushed your hair?" Harry asks suspiciously.

"Errr thought it would be nice to change up my look."

"I think it looks nice," Aline says.

Hagrid stills. "Yeh got the cloak?"

"Yeah." Harry pulls it over him and Aline.

The two of them follow Hagrid at a distance as he approaches a fourth figure in the distance. It's Madame Maxine, the head of the Beauxbaton Academy. Hagrid and her giggle, and he kisses her hand, Harry's face pulling in to an uncomfortable smirk.

"Gross."

"Why?"

"Hagrid's like a friend...I can't imagine him...with anyone," Harry mutters.

"Everyone has someone," Aline says. "Why shouldn't he."

"There's something I wish to show yeh," Hagrid tells Maxine and they head deeper into the Forest. Sounds grow louder until red flames spike up through the leaves and men's cries sound through the air.

Harry's breaths grows ragged. "Dragons. The first task is-"

"-Dragons." They say it at the same time.

Aline's lips grow dry and she shivers as a flame bursts particularly close to them. One second under that heat and you're as good as fried like a coal.

"I can't fight a dragon," she stutters. "I don't even have any magical abilities yet."

Hagrid stands in the distance, a deep sigh. "Such misunderstood Creatures...dragons."

The walk back to the castle proves painfully awkward. Aline's head is splitting. Seeing others in books compete is one thing. Seeing the dragons up close, is something different. She couldn't, could she?!

When she tells Ellie, she stares at her as though she's speaking in a different language. "How can you fight a dragon?"

" I don't know. But I'm going to have to find out. I can't fail."

If she fails, she'd not only lose the tournament. She'd lose her life. And she'd lose her sister and Remus. She needed to think and think fast.