I think there was an error in the system and no email alerts were sent for chapter 53. So if you missed it, you might want to check on the previous chapter first.
Big thanks to everyone who is reading and reviewing. Every view, review, favorite and follow makes me incredibly happy.
As always, read, enjoy and review :)
October had given way to November and the weather was growing colder. It rained a lot. More and more articles of Harry Potter and the triwizard tournament filled the Daily Prophet, but even that could not completely distract from the growing number of articles on attacks on muggles and muggleborns. With no word did the articles mention any reactivation of the Death Eaters, but rumors were flying. All of this, naturally, did nothing to ease the tensions in the school. Quite the opposite, actually. Everyone seemed to be on edge, especially the Slytherins. No one said anything and there were no obvious fights among them. The signs were quite subtle, but there was a growing rift between those who supported the Death Eaters wholeheartedly and those who did not.
Never before had a lack of unity within Slytherin been a problem, so Draco assumed the change, be it good or bad, had been somehow caused by him. Originally in his fourth year, he could not have named one Slytherin who was against the Dark Lord. Apparently, this had nothing to do with a lack of rebellious Slytherins but rather a lack of overtly showing such rebellious behavior in the house of the cunning.
Staying on the good side of all Slytherins got harder every day. Crabbe and Goyle seemed to be struggling with not wanting to be alone and wanting to spend time with Draco, and there growing dislike for the people he surrounded himself with. When Draco spent time with them, and he really tried to do so, it was always just the three of them. Draco had never openly said anything against the Death Eaters, but it seemed to be clear to the more observant of the snakes that his heart had changed on these matters.
Draco's friendship with Neville did not seem to be a secret anymore, which lead to some curious consequences. One of those consequences, and perhaps the most curious, was that Harry Potter, who apparently had had a falling out with his best friend Ron and was shunned by half of the school since the first article appeared in the Daily Prophet, and Hermione Granger had, hesitantly and obviously prompted by Neville, joined Draco's group of friends. His group now most of the times consisted of four Slytherins, one Ravenclaw, three Gryffindors and three Durmstrang students.
Since their group had become bigger and infinitely noisier, which Draco blamed solely on the two Gryffindor newcomers, they had moved their meetings from the library to the Room of Requirement. Their main topic of discussion was usually the Triwizard Tournament and they often helped Harry and Viktor practice for it.
Daphne, Pansy and Theo seemed to have no problems with Harry. Theo was a little cross because of the second champion thing, but having been saved by Harry and Sirius at the Quidditch World Cup, he was able to look past it. But still, Pansy and Theo were unwilling to help Harry with the tournament. House-solidarity, they had said. But they still spent time with them.
Draco also met with Neville and Snape once a week to work on the potion and the spell to heal the Longbottoms. Admittedly, Snape could have probably done all of this on his own and he would have probably been faster, too. Still, they met once a week, shared their findings and Snape taught them about spell and potion creation, which was a highly complex topic and Draco and Neville would have struggled with it, had Draco not been a grown up and invested in finding a cure for his wife, and had Neville not been as highly motivated as he was. Draco was not sure whether it was Snape or Dumbledore who had come up with the plan of involving them, but it seemed like Snape enjoyed himself. The cure engaged his mind in a way that his work at school hardly ever did and when he talked it was obvious that he was talking about something he was passionate about, which made the lessons rather pleasant. They were making good headway, too, having the basic idea figured out and just having to work on the implementation.
Although happy, Snape also looked somewhat tired, and Draco sometimes wondered if Dumbledore wasn't asking too much of his godfather. Teaching a new subject, teaching Occlumency, working on the cure and being a spy - it must be hard to cover everything.
The 21st of November was a Saturday three days before the first task. It was also a Hogsmeade weekend.
The Three Broomsticks was packed, mainly with Hogwarts students enjoying their free afternoon. Among them were Draco and his friends, which, Draco figured, now included Potter and Granger. Hagrid soon joined them at their table, engaging them in some small talk.
Although he tried to be subtle, Draco noticed how Hagrid leaned in to Harry and whispered, "Harry, meet me tonight at midnight at me cabin. Wear that cloak."
So it wasn't all that surprising, when Harry walked into the Room of Requirement the next day and announced desperately, "It's dragons. I am a goner."
"What?" asked Daphne, Astoria and Theo in unison. Krum probably already knew from Karkaroff and he had probably told the other two Durmstrang students. And Neville and Hermione Harry had probably already told in their common room.
"The first tasks are dragons. I am so dead," he sighed, sinking down on a sofa that the room had provided them with.
"I checked all the books on dragons in the library..." said Hermione. "Talon-clipping by charms… treating scale-rot… Nothing useful, unless you're like Hagrid and want to keep them as pets… Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, owing to the ancient magic that imbues their thick hides, which none but the most powerful spells can penetrate… "
"You are thinking to complicated. The tasks vere made for students," offered Krum, blinking at Harry, then he, Serge and Johanna left. Apparently he was willing to help a friend, but not enough to outright tell him what to do. It was still a competition and Krum was intent on winning.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Neville asked.
"I think he is on to something," said Astoria, "they are testing students, not adults. So, there must be a solution a student can come up with."
"Hmm... so a simple spell will do?" asked Hermione, thinking.
Draco was curious whether they would come up with the solution themselves. Similar to Theo and Pansy he was holding back when it came to helping Harry with the tournament. His reasons, however, were quite different and had little to do with house-solidarity. He just thought it was unfair as he already knew the tasks and the proper solutions. And since Harry survived all of them and won the tournament, he didn't see much need to help him.
"Is there anything you are really good at? Like, beyond normal good?" Astoria asked Harry.
"Uhm- no?"
"Oh, come on!" huffed Pansy, "Mr. Beating-the-Dark-Lord-once-a-year is telling us that he doesn't have any strengths?"
"Those times I was lucky!" hissed Harry. He thought about it some more. "Quidditch - and a fat lot of help-"
"That's it!" squealed Daphne excitedly. "Your a good flier!"
"Yeah," Harry stared at her, "but I'm not allowed a broom. I only got my wand."
"Oh, Harry," moaned Hermione, "the Summoning Charm we have been practicing! You could summon your broom and then out-fly the dragon."
"Yeah," Pansy laughed, "too bad you're rubbish at it."
"Well, we'll just have to change that, won't we?" Hermione answered defiantly.
And so they started practicing the Summoning Charm. They spent the rest of the day practicing, until Harry, and everyone else in the room, was able to summon even heavier objects across the room. The mood of everyone grew infinitely lighter, when Harry was able to summon even the heaviest of Hermione's books.
To practice more difficult summons and because they all needed a bit of fun, everyone sans Harry started a pillow fight and Harry had to summon the flying pillows out of the air.
Exhausted, sweaty, but laughing like maniacs, they finally decided that Harry was good enough to stand a chance against the dragon.
When they all went back to their dorms, Harry stopped Theo and Draco.
"Guys - you have to tell Warrington about the dragons."
"What?" Theo asked, surprised, "Why?"
"He's the only champion who doesn't know. Who has no chance to prepare."
"Yeah, but that's giving you a clear edge in the tournament," Theo said. "Why would you want to give that up?"
"Because it's not fair!"
Draco looked at Harry, wondering how dense he must have been to believe Harry had cheated to be in the tournament. "Life isn't fair," he replied.
"Please, just tell him. He won't listen to me. I tried talking to him today, but I am a Gryffindor and he is a Slytherin. He will believe it if you are the ones to tell him."
"Fine," Draco groaned. "But just for the record, I think you are a foolish Gryffindor with no sense of self-preservation."
"I second that," laughed Theo.
Harry smiled. "Thanks, guys. And thanks for helping me today."
"Slytherins and Gryffindors working together, an interhouse pillowfight, a Gryffindor helping a Slytherin,... what has the world come to?" Theo joked.
When the two snakes arrived in the common room late at night, Cassius was the only one still up, buried in books. Preparing for the tournament, no doubt.
Theo and Draco sat down next to him.
Cassius didn't look up from his books, but furrowed his brows. "What do you want?"
"It's dragons," Theo simply said. "The first task is dragons."
"What?" he said, looking up.
"They have four dragons, one for each of the champions. You will have to get past a dragon."
Draco saw fear flicker in the eyes of Cassius Warrington. "Are you sure?"
"Dead sure," Theo said.
"Why are you helping me? Aren't you usually running around with Krum and Potter?"
Theo and Draco looked at each other. "We are trying not to let the tournament dictate who we're friends with," Theo finally gave as an explanation. "We still want Slytherin to win, though... And it would be nice if no one died."
"Well, thanks guys. I guess I owe you, now."
"Don't worry about it," Draco said. "Good luck for Tuesday."
Cassius smiled at them, and Draco and Theo went to bed, both glad that it was not one of them who was chosen as champion.
TBC
Hmm, another chapter done :) what do you think of this one? I really should be doing other stuff, but well...
I know some other authors who end their chapters with story suggestions and I quite like the idea, so I will do this too. What do you think of that idea?
Here are my first two suggestions:
1. Forever and a Day - By: Alomoria - Harry, Hermione, Ron and Draco travel back into their third year. Not finished, but still gets updated. It has been kind of my inspiration for this story. I always liked time travel stories. I read a lot of Snape travels back stories, but this was the first I saw including Draco. I found the idea of Draco traveling back intriguing because he has an interesting history (so much character development) and doesn't know everything. And there are few time travel fanfiction about him. Most that I saw are Draco/Hermione or Draco/Harry, which focus mostly on romance, so I decided to write my own, unique story (I do love Snape traveling back in time but it has been done so often and so well that I didn't feel like I need to add more than a one shot to this collection.).
2. Crossing Lines - By: plutoplex - The Weasley twins travel back into the Marauder's time. A well written, complete story. And I just love unique stories and as far as I know, there are very few Weasley-twins-time-travel-ffs. Perfect if you love time travel, the twins, Snape or the Marauders - or all of them.