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Finishing the letter, Harry smiled and leaned back, excited at the prospect of seeing Sirius soon. Rereading it once more he nodded, happy that it contained everything he wanted it to, and walked over to where Hedwig was sleeping, gently waking her.

After greeting her and giving her a small handful of treats and a couple of scratches, he attached the letter.

"Take this to Sirius, girl. Be safe out there."

Harry watched Hedwig fly off in the direction of Hogsmeade for a couple of seconds before turning and making his way out of the owlery and heading for the Room of Requirements, looking forward to finishing the chapter he had been reading earlier.

The rest of the weekend was spent in much the same way, as in an attempt to avoid everyone who seemed to want to talk to him about the Triwizard Tournament Harry spent as much time as he could out of the hallways and away from others. Part of Harry appreciated the lack of accusatory looks from the other students that had been all too frequent the last time his name had been drawn from the Goblet of Fire, but he was still the center of attention, this time it was everyone wanting to offer sympathy or ask if Harry had any idea who might have done this to him. And frankly it got old almost as quickly and as such Harry spent almost the entire weekend hiding in either the Room of Requirements or his own dormitory, sneaking down to the kitchens by himself, under the cover of his Invisibility Cloak, when he had gotten hungry, in an effort to avoid the Great Hall where he basically would have been a sitting duck for the attention.

He was thankful that other than a brief, if worried, round of congratulations on getting the chance to compete, complete with their assurances that they were sure he'd win, from Neville, Seamus, and Dean, no one in his dorm was making a serious effort to force him to talk.

When Harry had returned from the Room of Requirement, shortly before curfew, on Saturday, he was met with the concerned and anxious looking face of Hermione, who jumped up from the table she had been sitting at, leaving behind a rarely seen closed textbook still laying on the table.

She ran across the common room towards Harry stopping awkwardly in front of him at the last moment, an almost pained look on her face.

"Merlin Harry … where have you been all day. I've been …" she paused, looking back to Ron who had just joined her, having gotten up at a slower pace from the table he had been sitting at with her, leaving behind the sheets of parchment he had been writing on. "… we've been worried about you all day. I thought something might have happened …"

Harry guilty looked between the two of them. "Hey, you two … just after yesterday … it was a lot to process … I just needed some time …"

A brief look of understanding flashed across her face before it was replaced by concern as she shook her head, "That's not enough Harry. I care …" she paused as her face colored, before clearing her throat. "Ron and I care about you. And you just disappeared after making an Unbreakable Oath … one that could have killed you … how were we to know something didn't happen and the magic took effect, and you died alone in some hallway somewhere. We didn't know where you were …"

She paused to take a breath, before seeming to compose herself, "obviously after what happened you deserve space to try and come to terms with what happened. If you didn't need time I would be more worried … but … please don't disappear like that on us."

Harry froze, looking back at Hermione, biting off his initial response, feeling that bit of guilt growing in his stomach.

"Oh … I'm sorry Hermione … and to you as well Ron … I didn't mean to worry you … just with everything that happened last night … I just needed some space … and it just seemed that every time I felt ready to stick my head out, all I heard was whispering between students about me and with every corner I came across students who stopped, stared, and pointed at me. I guess I just got tired of it."

Harry watched as Hermione's expression fully softened, the concern still clearly evident.

"Harry …" she started before pausing, "… if you need to talk, we are both here for you. We will make sure you are ok in the tournament … I've already started pulling all the books about the previous tournaments to try and come up with an idea about what you will face and plan strategies accordingly …" she trailed off as Ron put a hand on her shoulder.

Harry smiled at Hermione, before looking to Ron acknowledging his friend who had been nodding along with Hermione before stopping her before she had gotten carried away talking about the planning.

"I really appreciate it, I do. Maybe once I … process everything … we can start planning, But for now … I'm just exhausted."

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but Ron beat her to it, "That's alright mate. We'll see you tomorrow. And maybe sometime this week we can talk about the tournament. Just let us know when you are ready. I'm sure Hermione will have a thousand questions about what exactly happened once you left the Great Hall …" He turned and smiled at Hermione before looking back to Harry, leaning forward, and continuing in a faux whisper, "… and I'm pretty sure she hasn't really started telling you just how dumb it was to use an Unbreakable Oath … effective as it may have been."

He then straightened up and looked at Hermione, who glared at Ron for a second, before looking back to Harry and releasing a harrumph, turning back and walking to her table, where she promptly opened the book and used it to hide from Harry and Ron.

Harry looked back to Ron, who was staring at the table and his things that were within arms reach of Hermione, and laughed, "Well good luck dealing with her. Maybe let her know that I really appreciated the offer and I know the two of you will be there when I need you." Harry offered as he shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe that will help? But I'm off to bed, night Ron."

With that he turned, leaving a concerned looking Ron who was still staring and had not yet moved towards the table where Hermione was sitting.

The next morning Harry woke up again just before dawn and jumped out of bed determined to make it to the kitchens to grab food for the day and make it to the Room of Requirement before any other students ended up in the hallway.

As it was his plan was mostly a success, only passing Cho and Cedric on the staircase. Cedric invited Harry along with them to head out to the Quidditch pitch for some flying, which Cho seemed to reluctantly agree to. Although Harry sensed it was nothing to do with him and more to do with the fact that she was looking forward to spending alone time with the Hufflepuff Seeker. Harry was content to exchange words with them but excused himself from the offer letting them know he'd be willing to take it up in the future, heading up the stairs Harry wished them an enjoyable flying session.

Arriving at the Room of Requirement, Harry walked back and forth until the room that he seemed to be spending a lot of his free time in appeared. Smiling, Harry entered the room, sitting down on the comfortable leather chair he picked up the Occlumency book and started right where he had left off the previous night, while munching on a particularly crisp apple.

And it was in that room that a content Harry spent the entire day, only getting up from the chair, around lunch, when he was feeling particularly exhausted to take a break from the reading.

Expanding the room, Harry was pleased to see a dueling range where he enjoyed his break practicing the spells he had been working on this year and after an hour of working up an appetite he sat down to enjoy a magically chilled salad and sandwich combo the elves had prepared. Finishing the main part of his meal he grabbed several pieces of the treacle tart and picked up the textbook again.

Shortly before curfew Harry finally set down the book, confident that he was as ready as he was going to ever get simply from reading theoretical books and decided to head back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Luckily the hallways were deserted so Harry made good time and didn't bump into anyone on the way back to the tower. When he entered, he saw Ron and Hermione, sitting at the same table they had been at the previous night, immediately notice his arrival but thankfully not get up and immediately swamp him. Harry smiled and nodded towards them, happy that Ron had likely managed to convince Hermione to give him some time and space. As he nodded towards them, starting to walk towards the stairs leading up to the male dormitories, he decided that once he sat down with Professor Dumbledore he'd sit down with Hermione and Ron and explain why he had been acting a little off lately … or at least partially explain the reason, knowing that he didn't want to push his friends away.

Arriving in his room, Harry sat down on his bed, drawing the curtains shut behind him and began practicing the Occlumency exercises relating to calming oneself and creating a mind palace. A technique that was supposed to be one of the best forms of defense against a legilimens, as it depended only on an individual's determination. After less than a minute Harry opened his eyes and smiled to himself at both the quality of his mental fortress and the fact that this was his best time yet.

And it was with that smile on his face that Harry laid down and fell asleep.

The next morning as Harry was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, waiting for Hermione and Ron to come down from their rooms so they could all go out for breakfast, he was surprised by two arms grabbing his shoulders at the same time, startling him. As Harry jumped off the couch, spinning around, he was greeted by … nothing. Well, nothing until he heard the familiar laughter of the twins a second before they revealed themselves at the exact same time, hastily attempting to hide hats behind their back.

"Good morning! O Mighty Champion of Gryffindor!" Fred said while bowing before vaulting over the back of the couch landing on a cushion. "Georgy and I have been looking for you for the past couple days … but low and behold … we couldn't find you anywhere."

"And trust us Harry, there is not a lot of people with more knowledge of every nook and cranny of this castle than yours truly." George continued, as he walked around the couch, sitting down and looking towards his twin as he paused before looking to Harry and staring at him, "You haven't been hiding from us Harry, have you?"

Harry laughed as he sat on the chair across from them, rather than sitting on the spot they had seemingly innocently and conveniently left open between them, "Sorry guys, and no haven't been hiding from you … or at least not you specifically. Besides I imagine even with the map, I probably wouldn't be able to hide from you guys for long if I had been trying to. I've just been spending the last couple days trying to keep my head down, hopefully giving time to let this entire thing blow over. But even with that it seems every time I bump into anyone, they are all just staring at me and whispering."

Harry actually laughed at the twin's response, unable to stop himself as the twins leaned forward in unison, matching expressions on their faces.

"Anyone … you want us to have a talk with Harry? Fred and I have been working on some pranks that are … just begging to be used. It would really be a waste bot to use them Harry, and there would be no problem at all … if anything you would be doing us a favor." George said with a laugh.

Fred nodded his smile matching that of his twin, "George is right Harry, we may have only let everyone in Gryffindor know to give you space but in reality our warning goes double for the rest of the school … just point out who needs a … talking to, we'd make one small, insignificant little example and pretty sure the rest of the school would learn pretty quickly."

George leaned back thoughtfully, taking a quick glance towards the stairs leading towards the boys dormitories, before looking back to Harry, "For instance … lets say it was Ron that was bugging you … all you have to do is let us know and we'd do our tiny little prank and then everyone at school would be like 'wow … if Harry was willing to do something that embarrassing to his friend, just image what he'd have in store for us'."

"Exactly," Fred eagerly nodded before looking back to Harry, "So was it Ron? You can tell us if it was, don't feel guilty. Or maybe … if it was him cough twice, if it was someone else cough three times."

Harry stared at the twins almost laughing at the eager looks in their faces. "It wasn't Ron you guys … I don't think I can remember if it was anyone in specifics, and it was honestly just small things …" Harry paused before looking back and forth between the twins his eyebrow raised, "Why do you two prank Ron so much?"

George looked at Fred and put his hand over his mouth in faux shock. "Ugh oh Fred! Looks like we are going to get a stern talking to!"

Fred smiled as he looked towards Harry, "Don't worry Harry, we do it for his own good … and because of Bill and Charlie."

Harry looked in shock at the twins who were both nodding their heads vigorously, definitely not having had expected that answer, "It's because of Bill and Charlie? I mean I don't really know them … but I can't imagine they'd ever have done something like that to either of you … or to Percy for that matter."

Fred slapped his knee and pointed right at Harry as George clapped, "And there you go Harry, you got it on your first guess and didn't even need any hints. Bill and Charlie never did stuff like this to Percy or ourselves. And the last thing we would ever want is for poor little Ron to end up like us … or worse … like Percy." He paused and looked towards his brother who had clasped his hands on his cheeks in outrage, "I mean seriously our poor mother has enough with the three of us, she would not be able to take it. So, you see we reason that since we aren't acting like out two older brothers, we will prevent Ron from falling down the horrible path that we have gone down. So, you see … like I said it's for his own good … it's actually pretty logical once you pause to think about it."

Harry laughed leaning back in his chair, "well then I guess I will have to tell Ron just how lucky he is to have the two of you looking out for him." He smiled seeing the twins nodding.

Harry paused remembering how this entire conversation had started, "But you said you were looking for me, what about?"

Fred nodded, losing his smile and becoming serious, "Well we just wanted to give you a heads up, not sure if it means anything … but you know how we were taking bets on who the outcome of who would be named as the Triwizard Tournament Champions?"

Harry nodded slowly, not having expected this would have been what they wanted to talk about.

"Well …" Fred began, "… we took bets of students …" he paused to look around before leaning in further, "… and even teachers, who wanted to guess all three champions or offered a lower payout if they only picked one individual they thought would be a champion and … well … it seems that some of the people in the school thought very highly of your chances before you were selected … even though, honest businessmen that we are, we reminded them of the age line making the fact of your selection very unlikely."

Harry's eyebrow raised in surprise. "Really?"

George nodded, "We were surprised ourselves when three people made the bet right away, but based on the fact that they were girls in lower years, including Romilda Vane … we just assumed they were making the bet as fan girls of yours with huge crushes."

Harry nodded, inwardly cringing at the memory of Romilda Vane's actions in his sixth year.

George looked at Harry as serious as his brother had, "However … right before the feast and selections on Friday we had one more person come up to us and make a … rather large bet on you. We almost didn't accept the bet based on who it was. But after discussing it, we were only to happy to take the person's money on what we thought would have been a sure loss for them … but well then you were selected …"

Harry nodded slowly, "Who was it?"

Fred looked around before leaning in again, "It was Malfoy …"

Harry leaned back in surprise, looking at George who was nodding for his brother to continue. "… now we haven't fully ruled out the fan girl crush theory … it would probably explain a lot …" Fred said with a hollow laugh looking at Harry with a forced smile that didn't reach his eyes. "But after your Oath about it not being you who had entered your name … well we thought you might want to know as soon as we got a moment to tell you in private."

Harry leaned back, thinking on what they just told him confused, before looking back at the twins, "well I'm definitely not sure what to make of it. But I'm positive that he didn't put my name in … when we were in that antechamber after the selections the professors were talking about the fact that it would needed to have been a very strong witch or wizard that managed to fool the Goblet of Fire into selecting me as well as Cedric and everyone one of them doubted a student would have been capable of doing it. And for what it's worth … I can't imagine Draco would go through all that work to do that just to have me hopefully get hurt during an event. The past couple of years he certainly didn't show anywhere near that level of cunning, preferring the direct confrontation, and this year … well he's almost entirely left everyone alone. I don't think it was him."

Fred and George both nodded their heads slowly looking unsure, so Harry just shrugged, "I'm just going to believe that after all those years of losing to us in the Quidditch and House Cup competitions, he has finally hoped on the Harry Potter fan train. Personally, I am quite looking forward to seeing him wearing a Harry Potter sweater next year when we end up playing Slytherin when Quidditch is back on."

Harry watched as both the twins stared at him for a second before bursting into laughter.

George was the first to recover, "Merlin … that'd be a sight. I'd give up pranking and adopt a Percy like attitude towards life if that ever happened." He said before turning to Fred. "Well, I think that's enough slumming it around here with the future Triwizard Champion Fred, we have some people to meet up with before the deadline who still need to pay."

Turning to Harry who looked at them questioningly he shook his head, "Nothing to concern yourself with O Champion of all Champions. Just a couple students dragging their feet to pay us for the bets they had made. But no worries, Harry, we can get that all sorted. See you later Harry."

With that they turned and headed towards the exit to the common room, humming a very off tune version of "The Trolls Be Coming."

Harry laughed, watching them go, before settling back down and picking up one of the magical magazines that one of the Gryffindors had left laying around the common room and proceeded to read the articles until he was joined by Hermione and Ron who came down at the same time and the three of them headed down to the Great Hall to enjoy their breakfast.

Kind Regards,

FavoriteAuthor

Dreous44 - Thanks so much!

Grosvenor - That's a good point, he definitely doesn't.

littleemberlou - Thanks so much, I really appreciate feedback like this!

kimjo2 - Well congrats on the discovery! Happy you enjoy it!

jslee102 - It will be full of Dumbledore asking Harry questions CALMLY. Haha :)

RealityInFantasy - I appreciate the feedback, dialogue is something I am working on getting better with.

zega606 - I am also really happy with how Ron is coming along! And I guess we shall see what Harry comes up with!

cameron1812 - It definitely went over pretty well! Good thing Harry has the twins!

Lucy Elizabeth Dawson - Me too, although I would like to imagine with the growth Ron had experienced in this version he wouldn't have needed to hear the Oath and it was more so for everyone else. But Harry will definitely take it.

Thanks to those of you out to those of you who enjoy my stories, I promise to keep updating the stories as long as you enjoy them, and a special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to leave feedback or reach out to me directly.

Author Note 1 – All feedback is welcome (hopefully constructive!) Looking forward to what you think!

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