The Name of the Game

by honestlyidkwhatusernametouse

Summary:

Goblet of Fire time! The chaos grows and we once again have both too many and not enough plans.

Notes:

Next book is out, and it's promising to be a doozy! Hope you guys enjoy this first chapter, leave me a comment below!

Chapter 1: Grave Names

Harry grinned as the cart pulled up at the Potter vault in Gringotts. The cart ride was always so fun, even if Remus looked like he was going to puke a bit. Sirius laughed as Harry practically pulled him over to the door, with Regulus grinning while holding Remus up as his stomach caught up with him. The goblin opened the door with the key Sirius gave him and Harry grinned as he practically bounced into the room to greet his great aunt and uncle first before going to see the other relatives.

Ignotus smiled down at him when Harry finally got to his great grandfather after greeting several of the other relatives. “How have you been, Harry?”

“I’ve been well, how about you?”

“I’m a portrait, Harry, I’m exactly the same as I was the day I was painted. But thank you for asking. What brings you to my portrait today?”

Harry blushed a little bit then shook his head. “Besides the fact that I did just want to see you, I’ve been finding bones whenever I’m digging in classes like Herbology or Care. I would have thought it was weird but I kept passing out and reliving the night my parents died whenever the dementors were around, so it wasn’t really a priority.”

Ignotus gaped at Harry for a while, shocked. Finally, he shook himself, muttering something under his breath that Harry didn’t catch. “Firstly, the bones, because they are much less complicated than the dementors. You’re drawn to Death, and Death is drawn to you. Since you are a natural Necromancer, and even more because you have my Invisibility Cloak, you are safer than most who are drawn to Death and vice versa. Those who are drawn to Death often become Necromancers, but because they do not have the natural safeguards that you have, and they don’t make their own, whether because of lack of knowledge or sheer idiocy, the creations they make are barbaric and terrifying. Finding bones is just one more facet that you will have to deal with. Death makes for good fertilizer, because without death, one cannot have life, so bones are often found around magical plants. Other people occasionally find bones around plants, but it’s not very often. You will find them more often."

He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "As for the dementors, they are one of those foul creations I mentioned earlier. The man who created them was named Ekrizdis, or at least we assume he created them. His fortress, Azkaban, and the dementors within were only found after his death. Every Potter will have a bad reaction to the dementors, but the Necromancers in the family will have a much more potent reaction, such as passing out and reliving the worst moment in your life instead of just faintly remembering like most people, or just fainting like most Potters. You will always have a bad reaction to non-natural Necromantic magic because of the… shape of your magic.” Ignotus thought for a moment. “Shape isn’t the right word, magic doesn’t have a shape, but it’s the closest I can think of without going into spiraling thoughts of theory far beyond your education at the moment. Non-Necromantic magic is a completely different shape than Necromantic magic, so they don’t try to fit together at all. That’s why you’re connected to Death but you can still cast healing spells with the right training. Non-natural Necromantic magic, however, is almost the same shape as natural Necromantic magic, so they will naturally gravitate to each other and try to fit together. However, since it’s not quite a right fit, it chafes, and leaves marks, and your magic doesn’t know how to fix those without removing you from the situation, so it makes you have horrible reactions so that you will get away more quickly.”

Harry nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense. Thank you grandfather.”

Sirius’ voice came from the front of the vault then. “Come on, Pup! Time to go!”

“Goodbye grandfather,” Harry called as he turned to go.

“I’ll see you soon, Harry. Good luck, and stay away from dementors.”

Harry just flashed one last grin at Ignotus and hurried over to Sirius, who gripped his shoulder for a moment before turning to get on the cart.

****************

A few days later, Harry was sitting at breakfast with Sirius and Remus, while Regulus was still in bed. Sirius picked up the last dish and motioned for Harry to help with the dishes. Harry settled in to dry, since Sirius had already started washing.

“Your aunt Rhea suggested we go visit your parents graves,” Sirius said after a few moments. “Is that something you’d like to do? I know we haven’t gone so far, because we were getting settled with each other, and then last summer, but if you want to go we can. And if you don’t want to go yet that’s fine too.” Sirius abruptly cut off. “Sorry. I got a little rambly there.”

Harry smiled slightly. “It’s ok.” He was silent for a moment, then he said, “I think. I think I want to see them. Can. Can we bring Remus?”

“Of course we can, Pup,” Sirius said with a soft smile. “Let’s get these dishes done and then head over, ok?”

A few minutes later they were ready to leave, so Sirius led them out the front doors and grabbed Harry to Apparate. “See you in a minute, Moony,” Sirius said, smiling a little. Moony smiled back and Apparated away, quickly followed by Sirius and Harry. A tight squeezing sensation brought them to the entrance of a cemetery, and Sirius began walking into the graveyard. Not too far in was a simple stone saying:

In Loving Memory

Of

James Potter & Lily Potter

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

Harry found himself sinking to the ground and crying softly for the parents he never knew. He barely noticed Sirius and Remus backing away slightly to give him some privacy.

He sat there for a while, not saying anything and just crying out all the pain he’d felt since he’d been dropped on the Dursley’s doorstep twelve years ago. After what felt like both years and only seconds, his tears slowed, and a few minutes after that he felt a hand land gently on his shoulder.

“It’s ok, Cub, let it out,” Remus said softly. Harry just let out a sob and clung to Remus tightly. Remus held on just as firmly. After a moment, Sirius joined their group hug, and they just clung to each other for several minutes as they mourned two lives that had been so vibrant, so bright, but had been snuffed out far too quickly, leaving behind their infant son.

Sirius slowly began drawing away, still touching Harry as he conjured up some lilies and carnations, handing one of each flower to Remus and keeping two for himself while handing the rest to Harry.

“These were their favorite flowers,” Sirius said softly at Harry’s curious look. “Lily adored the flowers she was named after, and Jamie’s mother, who died when he was quite young, had always been fond of carnations. I haven’t had a chance to visit, but I swore I would leave some lilies and carnations for them when I did.”

Harry looked down at the bouquet and gave a tearful smile. “Thanks, Padfoot,” he whispered. He knelt and carefully laid the bouquet in the middle of the gravestone, while Remus and Sirius each laid their flowers on either side.

They sat there for another minute before Harry turned to Sirius. “I’m ready to go.”

“Of course, Pup. We can Apparate from here, if you want.” Harry just nodded and they stood, Sirius wrapping his arms around the teens shoulders in a hug that Harry returned as he turned sharply on his heel and Disapparated.

Notes:

Poor Harry, just getting everything thrown at him today. I hope you guys liked, it, leave me a comment please, they feed my soul!

Next week will be a normal chapter, but the week after I'm graduating, so that week there won't be an update.

Question of the week: What form does Ron's Animagus take?

Standings:
Slytherin: 0
Gryffindor: 0
Ravenclaw: 0
Hufflepuff: 0

Chapter 2: Get Your Name Face On

Summary:

Harry's birthday and the beginning of the World Cup!

Notes:

Ahahaha I know it's very late, I've never been a big sports fan so my brain decided to just die. The chapters a bit longer than usual though, so hope that makes up for it some. Hope you guys like this chapter!

Please leave a comment below!

I know I said this week (aka 2 days ago) I wouldn't post because of finals, but my brain decided that calendars and dates were for the weak and forgot that finals are this week (aka tomorrow onward) and that I'm graduating college this weekend (aka this coming weekend, not today). So definitely no chapter this coming week as I try not to die from tests and get my diploma (kinda lol. Need to finish paying my bill first.). So yeah! Wish me luck!

The morning of Harry’s birthday, Sirius woke Harry up by leaping onto his bed as Padfoot. Harry jolted awake and turned into [redacted] before realizing what had happened. He chuffed at Padfoot and stalked out of the room, heading towards the bathroom, Padfoot bounding the other way, presumably to wake Regulus. He transformed back into his human self and shut the door, smirking to himself as he heard a canine yelp, indicating that Regulus had either tossed Sirius out of the bed or done something to him.

After a quick shower, he headed downstairs, where he found a green and silver haired Sirius pouting next to his smirking brother. Harry laughed and high fived Regulus and grabbed some food, sitting next to Sirius.

“Happy birthday, Pup!” Sirius said excitedly. “Your friends will be over soon, but first I wanted to give you these.” He pulled out four tickets to the Quidditch World Cup. “All your other friends are going, so I figured you wouldn’t want to miss out. I got one for Reggie too, even if no one actually knows he’s alive.”

Harry grinned. “Thanks, Siri! I’ve been excited about the Cup since Draco mentioned it last year.”

A few minutes later Remus walked in, carrying a wrapped gift. Ruffling Harry’s hair and dropping the suspiciously book shaped gift next to his plate, he moved over to Sirius and flopped next to him, leaning into him and closing his eyes.

“Morning, Moony,” Harry said, laughter coloring his tone. Remus just grunted and Sirius chuckled, kissing the top of his head. Harry made a face at Regulus, making the older Slytherin laugh. Regulus tossed a gift at Harry as well, smiling. “Good morning and Happy Birthday, Harry.”

“Thanks, Reg,” Harry replied with a smile.

The four of them finished breakfast, Remus waking up slowly, and had relocated to the sitting room when the fireplace flared green. A second later Draco stepped out, looking like he’d only just stepped outside, not like he’d been through a fire. Harry stepped forward, grinning, and pulled Draco into a hug, ruffling his hair, making the blonde squawk and struggle out of his grip to fix it while Aunt Cissa and Lucius stepped out of the fire, utterly unruffled except for the warm smile Aunt Cissa had on her face as she looked at the teens.

“Happy birthday, dear,” she said warmly, running a hand through his hair gently and handing him a card that he put on the coffee table. Lucius smiled at the teen and put a large gift on the table. “This is from Draco. He didn’t want it to break in the Floo,” he explained.

As he finished talking, the fire flared again and redheads began pouring out of the fire, along with Hermione and Luna. Once she was out of the grate Mrs. Weasley came over and pulled him into a tight hug. “Happy birthday, Harry. We wrote a card for you, where would you like it?”

“Just on the table, Mrs. Weasley. Thank you!”

Hermione, Luna, Ron, and Ginny all came over next. Ginny ruffled his hair, putting a suspiciously book shaped gift on the table, followed by Hermione’s hug and another suspiciously book shaped gift. Luna smiled serenely as Ron elbowed Harry in greeting. “Happy birthday, Harry. The nargles are staying away, which is nice.”

“Thanks, Luna,” Harry said with a grin as she set her box down.

The fire flared a final time and Neville and his Gran stepped out together, Neville almost tripping but being held up by the grip Madam Longbottom had on his arm. He blushed and grinned sheepishly at Harry, taking the box from his Gran and put it on the table with the others. “Happy birthday, Harry,” he said.

“Thanks, Nev,” Harry replied with a wide smile.

“Now that we’re all here, why don’t we get started?” Sirius asked. Everyone agreed, and Harry reached down to get the first gift. Just then, Jor slithered into the area, climbing up Harry’s arm.

#What’sss happening, Harry Hatchling?# he asked.

#It’sss my hatching day, and my friendsss and family are here to cccelebrate with me. Would you like to join, or are you going to nap?#

#I will watch.#

Harry smiled at the adder and turned to the first gift. It was Draco’s, and it was heavy as well as large. Harry grunted as he pulled it over to begin unwrapping it, but didn’t complain. It was from his best friend, and Draco had clearly worked hard on it, so he wasn’t going to complain. A minute later, he had revealed a snake utopia. Harry gaped, absently wondering how much it had cost to get all of this together before shoving the thought away. Draco clearly didn’t care about the money, since he’d gotten this amazing gift.

“It’s more for Jor than for you,” Draco admitted. “I couldn’t figure out what to get you, cause you never seem to want anything, and nothing seemed right, so I decided to shop for Jor instead.” He paused, looking almost nervous. “Do you like it?”

“Like it?” Harry asked incredulously. “I love it!” He turned to Jor. #Thisss isss for you, if you want it. It’sss a sssafe placcce to sssleep, and it hasss many placccesss you can hide asss well.#

Jor slithered into the large terrarium and explored a bit before coiling himself around a branch. #I like it. It’sss comfortable.#

Harry ginned and left the snake to his new home, turning to the next gift. Harry unwrapped it to reveal a tiny pond, no bigger than his head, and on the top was a flower.

“It’s a water lily. They grow on ponds and are mostly kept alive from the water around them. Just make sure to keep the pond full and the lily will be fine.”

“Thanks, Nev, it’s beautiful!” Harry exclaimed.

He worked his way through the rest of the gifts, thanking everyone. Hermione got him a book on Runes, Remus got him a book on advanced Defense, Ginny got him a book on Quidditch maneuvers, Luna had made him a necklace out of butterbeer caps, Ron had gotten him a practice snitch, and Regulus had gotten him a broom cleaning kit. Harry thought they were finished, but Sirius grinned and handed him a very large but very light box. Harry carefully unwrapped it, prepared for anything. It was an empty box. Harry rolled his eyes.

“Is this because I’m a cat?”

“Absolutely. Try it out! I want to know if it’s true that all cats love boxes,” Sirius exclaimed.

Harry sighed good naturedly and transformed into [redacted]. He circled the box a few times before gripping it in his teeth. The cardboard gave way in a satisfying manner, and he simply chewed on the box for a minute or two before deciding to crawl inside. Once he was in the box he found that the box was big enough for him to fit and just small enough that every part of his body was touching it. It was very comfortable, and Harry was tempted to take a nap, but he decided to do that later.

The rest of the day was spent with laughter and plans to meet before the World Cup. After everyone left, Harry changed back into [redacted] and took a nap in his new box. It really was extraordinarily comfortable.

**********************

The day of the World Cup dawned early for Harry, and about five minutes later for Sirius, Remus, and Regulus, via [redacted] leaping on their beds. After a hasty breakfast, good natured muttering about the early morning wake up call, and a smug Harry, the group was ready to go. They all Apparated to the site of the portkey, which they had decided to take with the Weasley group, which included everyone going to the Cup who lived in Ottery St. Catchpole.

They arrived just as the Weasleys and Diggorys arrived, and spread out to find the object. Before long, Mr. Diggory announced that he’d found it, and they all gathered around the dirty boot that he was holding.

“Alright, we’ve got about ten minutes before the portkey leaves, so stay on this hill you lot,” Mr. Weasley said. General sounds of agreement came, but before Harry could go be with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, Mr. Diggory spoke up.

“Ah, young Mr. Potter!”

Harry winced a little but turned with a smile. “Hello, Mr. Diggory.”

“I hear you’re the seeker for Slytherin! My boy Cedric is the Hufflepuff seeker. It will certainly look good on his resume if he ever beats the Boy-Who-Lived in Quidditch, ey? Ah, but my lovely wife and I are hoping he gets a good job in the Ministry. Nothing too dangerous, but a good solid job for certain. What about you? Have you got any thoughts on what you want to do after Hogwarts?”

Thankfully Mr. Weasley called them over before Harry had to come up with an answer to that, so he quickly excused himself to go stand between Ron and Hermione to prepare for the portkey.

Whatever Harry had been expecting, the portkey was worse. It felt like a hook had been thrown into his guts and yanked him around by his navel, and when the spinning and pulling finally stopped he found himself sprawled on the ground trying desperately to keep his breakfast inside. Everyone else looked like they at least weren’t going to throw up, so Harry presumed they had taken a portkey at some point before.

When he finally recovered, he looked around, unable to hide his awe. Ron had guided him along so he wouldn’t get left behind, so now that he was looking, he could tell that this was a place of wizards. There were colors everywhere, and there were several snitches fluttering about, as well as shops where you could buy all sorts of things.

When they reached their campsite, Mr. Weasley insisted on putting the tent up the muggle way, which meant Harry and Hermione were doing most of the work while Mr. Weasley tried to help where he could. Luckily Hermione had been on several camping trips, and Dudley had insisted on being allowed to sleep in a tent in the living room several times when he was younger, so that he could watch the telly while he “slept”. Actual camping was not the done thing, so Aunt Petunia refused, but her dear Duddikins could not be allowed to sleep on the couch, no he must sleep on the most comfortable of camp cots. Luckily Draco and Lucius were in a tent not too far away, and they had brought some of their albino peacocks. They were remarkably friendly for peacocks, and they had often come to play when Les Amis were around.

Once the tent was up, the group crowded in, only for Harry to realize that it wasn’t crowded at all. The tent, which looked about the size of a four person tent, was almost as big as the Burrow on the inside. Harry gaped for a minute before Mr. Weasley started scolding the twins for betting and having their feet on the table, which made him stifle a laugh as Fred and George put their feet down just to put them right back up the moment their father turned around.

Ron disappeared into one of the rooms, only to come out a moment later with Bulgaria’s colors painted on his face.

“I didn’t realize you knew a team besides the Canons existed, Ronnikins!” George called.

“Shut up!” Ron said irritably. “The Canons are amazing, but they’re not playing today. Besides. The Canon’s seeker sucks. Krum, however, Krum’s an artist.”

“I think you’re in love, Ron!” Ginny said with a shit eating grin on her face.

Ron turned red, Harry wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment or anger, but he certainly wasn’t going to stop the siblings from having their fun.

Finally the game was about to begin, so they all quickly went to find their seats. They had managed to get very good seats, near the top box with the Minister, so their view was clear.

The pregame display was impressive for both sides, even if Harry didn’t find the Veelas as impressive as Ron did. They were pretty, but nothing to try and jump off the balcony for.

Finally, the players flew onto the pitch. The referee held up his wand, and as he blew his whistle he released the balls.

Notes:

Hope you guys enjoyed, leave me a comment, they feed my soul!

Question of the week: What is Harry's Animagus form?

Standings:
Slytherin: 20
Ravenclaw: 5
Hufflepuff: 5
Gryffindor: 0

Chapter 3: Naming Suspects

Summary:

The aftermath of the Cup.

Notes:

Ok so I know this is obscenely late and I'm so sorry but at least it's here? Hope you guys like this chapter, please leave me a comment! They feed my soul.

The game had gone brilliantly, with Krum catching the snitch much to Ron’s delight, but the Irish had won the match 170-160. Harry had replayed Krum’s Wronski Feint several times on his Omnioculars. He knew if he tried that Sirius might actually ground him for a year, but it would be good to have an extra ace up his sleeve. The party after the match had been lots of fun, with several friends in the surrounding area all getting together outside the tents to celebrate.

Now Mr. Weasley was shuffling everyone into the tents to get some sleep. Ginny and Hermione were directed to the smaller tent next to the main one to sleep, so that they had a little more privacy. After a few minutes of excited chatter Mr. Weasley firmly sent the boys to their separate rooms to sleep, and found his own room as well.

It felt like only seconds later that Harry jolted awake. Someone had screamed outside the tent. A moment later another scream came, and Ron jolted awake next to him. Mr. Weasley ran into the room, looking relieved that they were alright.

“Stay in the tent, boys, I’m going to go get the girls. Bill, Charlie, and the twins are in the kitchen area.” With that he disappeared and Harry and Ron exchanged a glance before hurrying out to the main area. For once, Fred and George weren’t making cracks at anything in particular, and Bill and Charlie had their wands out, facing the front of the tent. A moment of tense silence passed before the tent door opened and Bill tensed and Mr. Weasley stepped in, followed by Ginny and Hermione.

Mr. Weasley looked at Bill and Charlie and nodded. “Alright kids, here’s what we’re going to do. This tent is only safe as long as someone doesn’t decide to just set it on fire. So we’re all going to stick together, underage kids behind me and Charlie, and Bill behind everyone else to keep us together and watch our backs. I don’t know what’s happening, so get your wands out just in case, and if someone comes, shoot first ask questions later. If the Ministry wants to make a fuss about underage magic I’ll deal with it. Now. Does everyone have their wands?” He waited for the kids to pull their wands out and nodded, turning to head out of the tent. “Remember, stay right behind me. I don’t want anyone getting lost.”

Mr. Weasley pulled out his own wand and stepped to the doorway of the tent, looking both ways before stepping out. “We’re headed to the forest, so stay very close,” he whispered. “And keep your wand out. If something scares you, hex it. Even if it’s just waving branches I’d rather you lot be extra suspicious than not suspicious enough.”

Harry nervously shared a glance with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny and carefully followed Fred as he followed Mr. Weasley and Charlie, with George right in front of Bill behind the three youngest. He thought about changing into his animagus form briefly, but decided that it wasn’t worth the risk, since tigers weren’t exactly native to this part of the world.

When they finally reached a good clearing quite a ways away from the tents, Mr. Weasley turned to them. “Everyone alright? Good. Now, I’m not very good at making portkeys, but Bill is, so while he finds something big enough to use for that we’re just going to stay right here, understood?”

Harry and his friends nodded. Just as Bill got back with a rather large stick for the portkey, Harry’s head snapped up at the start of a spell in the woods. “Stupefy!” “Morsmordre!” The two spells rang out at the same time, with a snake climbing out of a skull appearing in the sky in a dark smoky cast, and a pop coming from behind a stand of trees just before Harry’s spell reached it.

Not even a second later about ten adults popped into existence around the Weasley group. “Which of you did it?” The man in front yelled. “Which of you put the dark mark in the sky?”

Mr. Weasley stepped forward. “Look around, you dolt! Do you really think the Weasleys, Harry Potter, and a muggleborn would put up the dark mark?”

The man sputtered for a minute before Harry hesitantly stepped forward. “I did hear someone saying a spell over there. I sent a stunner in that direction but I heard them apparate away before my spell hit.”

Hermione stepped up next to him, quickly followed by Ron and Ginny. “I heard it too. It sounded like a man’s voice.”

The man in front sent a snarl their direction and spat, “We’ll just see about that!” and sent two of the men with him to look in the group of trees.

“There’s a house elf over here, and it looks like it’s holding a wand!” one of them called.

“Well bring it over here!”  the lead man bellowed back.

When the two men reappeared, they were dragging what appeared to be a female house elf behind them, with her trying to get her feet under her so she could walk on her own. The man dragging her basically threw her on the ground in front of the lead man, and he looked down with a sneer of distaste.

“Master Crouch, sir!” she gasped. “Winky is not knowing what-“

“Silence, elf!” Mr. Crouch snapped. Hermione jolted next to Harry, and he had to grab her arm to hold her back from punching Mr. Crouch. They didn’t need any more trouble today. “Who’s wand is this and where did you get it? How did you learn to cast that spell?” Mr. Crouch demanded after sending a glare towards Hermione, making Ron take a protective step forward.

“Winky is not casting spell, Winky is knowing that elvsies are not being allowed wands! Winky is just seeing wand on ground and is wanting to return it to wizard or witch who owns it! Winky is sorry, Winky is sorry!” the elf cried, her big eyes welling up with tears.

“You know that house elves are not allowed to hold wands, you are a disgrace to the house you used to serve!” Mr. Crouch ground out.

Winky sobbed, collapsing in front of the wizard. “Please Master Crouch, please do not be giving Winky clothes, Winky is not doing anything wrong! Please do not be giving Winky clothes!”

Mr. Crouch didn’t say anything, just deliberately took off his tie and threw it at Winky before turning away dismissively as if she didn’t exist. “Let’s be off, gentlemen,” he said calmly, although Harry could see his repressed anger. Harry was just glad that Winky wouldn’t be on the receiving end of that anger since she had been freed. With that Mr. Crouch and the other wizards all disapparated away with a quiet pop.

Harry hurried over to Winky after glancing at Mr. Weasley. “Winky?” he asked gently. “Do you have a place to go?”

Winky just sobbed harder, repeating, “Winky is sorry, Winky is sorry!” over and over. Harry looked at Hermione helplessly but she just shrugged. She didn’t know how to comfort the elf either.

“Winky,” Harry tried again, speaking a little louder this time. “Winky, would you like to come home with me and meet Sirius Black and his brother Regulus and our elf Kreacher? You can work for us if you like, I’m sure there will be plenty to do.” He saw Hermione wince in the background but he knew that house elves lived for work. If they had nothing to do they would waste away, whether from boredom or lack of magic, or whatever it was. Kreacher had often complained of boredom when Harry did too many chores, and he always seemed more tired those days. Harry had finally agreed to just clean his own room and to leave the rest of the house to the elf.

Winky’s head snapped up at the offer and she sobbed even louder. “Master Harry Potter is so kind to elvsies! Winky is knowing Kreacher, he is telling good stories about Master Harry Potter. Winky would like to be going with Master Harry Potter!”

Harry winced at the title. “Just call me Harry, please Winky, or if that’s uncomfortable for you at least just Master Harry. No full names.”

“Of course, Young Master Harry! Winky is being honored to use Little Master’s first name!” At least she wasn’t crying anymore.

“Ok, Winky. Do you know how to get to Sirius’ house from here or would you like to come with me when we go by portkey to the Burrow and Sirius picks me up?”

“Winky be knowing the way, Little Master! Should Little Master be giving Winky a message to give to Master Black so that he be knowing why I am there?”

Harry frantically looked around and patted his pockets, looking for something to write on to give her a note. Hermione rolled her eyes and handed him a spare bit of parchment she made appear out of nowhere somehow. “Here,” she said with a smirk. “And a quill too, since I’m sure you don’t have that either.”

“Thanks, Mione, you’re a lifesaver,” Harry replied with a grin. Harry quickly wrote a note and gave it to Winky, who took it. “Make sure you give it straight to Sirius, ok? I don’t want him hurting you on accident before he knows why you’re there.”

“Winky be doing!” the elf said before popping out of existence.

Mr. Weasley sighed and turned to his oldest. “Shall we?”

Bill nodded slowly before quickly casting a spell on the stick he was holding to make it a portkey and they all vanished from the clearing after grabbing hold.

Notes:

Ok so honestly the way Mr. Weasley, an adult, just sent six underage kids into the woods with no way to protect themselves if they didn't want to get expelled from Hogwarts for using underage magic (even if that was just Fudge being his usual incompetent self with Harry) has bothered me for a while so I tried to fix it. Hope y'all enjoyed! Leave me a comment if you liked or didn't like!

Question of the week: Who won the House Cup in the last book?

Standings:
Slytherin: 35
Hufflepuff: 5
Ravenclaw: 5
Gryffindor: 0

Chapter 4: No More Names

Summary:

The end of summer and the start of the year.

Notes:

I'm so sorry it's late again, guys, real life is a pain, what with work and stuff. But it's here! Hope you guys enjoy! Leave a comment!

Draco glanced at the pile of letters by his bed and grimaced. If what he feared was true he was going to have to get rid of them somehow. It wouldn’t do for Lucius Malfoy’s only son and heir to be seen as being friends and writing letters with Harry The-Boy-Who-Lived Potter if the Dark Lord was coming back. He hadn’t talked much to Harry since the World Cup, and he knew he had to, but he couldn’t say what he needed to say over letter. And he would absolutely not bring Harry over to his house where his father was after he had seen his father levitating and torturing muggles for no good reason at all. Draco knew, somewhere, that his father wouldn’t hurt Harry without a direct order from the Dark Lord, but the fact that an order from the Dark Lord, even after thirteen years of silence and being dead for all intents and purposes, overrode Draco’s friendship of three years hurt. Draco would not allow Harry anywhere near Lucius.

He looked at the letters again and winced. They’d have to be burned. And while for now it would be alright to keep sending letters, he would have to keep burning them until the end of the summer. Luckily his parents didn’t care what magic he did, as long as he didn’t hurt himself or anyone else. He quickly cast a flame freezing spell on a spot on the floor before placing the letters within the area. With a flick of his wand, he cast the fire spell his mother had taught him for when he needed to destroy something so that not even a little could be saved. “Facti Ignis,” he said clearly, flicking his wand in the precise movements she had driven into his head before she even allowed him to cast this spell. While not as dangerous as Fiendfyre, any fire was dangerous, and a spell that made whatever you were casting at become fire, instead of just lighting it on fire, was much more dangerous than the simple fire spell taught at Hogwarts, Incendio.

The whole stack went up in smoke, a bright ball of fire appearing where the letters had been. After a moment Draco stopped feeding magic into the spell, allowing the fire to burn out. Not even ashes were left.

As the summer wore on, Draco found himself spending more time with his father. Even though he knew the older man would follow the Dark Lord without question, even if it meant hurting Draco, he couldn’t make himself hate his father, or even dislike him. He was his father first and he had raised him to be the person he was now. He wanted to spend as much time as he could with his father before something dramatic like the Dark Lord returning happened.

September first arrived, and Draco Floo’d onto the platform a few minutes before 11. He quickly found where Harry, Neville, and Hermione were sitting, and a couple minutes later Ron and Ginny hurried in.

Barely a minute later, the train started rolling, and Draco cast a quick locking and privacy spell at the door so they wouldn’t be interrupted.

“Draco?” Harry asked. “Everything ok?”

Draco took a deep breath and looked at his best friend. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Swallowing he tried again, and it all came out in a rush. “I’m scared that the Dark Lord is coming back because of what happened at the World Cup, and my dad will be part of it, and I wish that he wasn’t, but he is, so I just have to deal with it, but if he’s coming back then it’s not safe for me to be talking to any of you, and I really, really hate it, but I hate any of you or me or my parents dying even more than I hate not talking to you guys in public. Or maybe even be friends in general, but I still want to be your friend, I really do, but either way I’m going to lose-” His voice broke a little and he had to take several deep breaths to keep the tears in his eyes. The air grew thicker with each silent sob emitting from the poor boy, the group leveling with the gravity of the situation. After what felt like ages, Harry hesitantly laid a hand of Draco’s knee in an attempt at comfort. They sat a moment longer before Harry spoke.

“We’ll figure it out. We always do. I can’t, no, I won’t lose you. Not to the war, not to peer pressure, and especially not to fucking Voldemort.” His voice was heavy with emotion, but his eyes were bright with certainty. None of his friends doubted that Harry meant every word he said, and would move the earth itself to keep his promise.

Draco let out a sob and collapsed more onto Harry, who easily caught him and held him close, beginning to cry as well. Before long, the entire group was sitting on the same side, surrounding Draco and Harry, crying and hugging.

Ginny spoke first. “There’s no way we’re going to let you get away with avoiding us. I know you want to protect us and your family and yourself, but we can make our choices too. If there’s a way for us to meet without everyone finding out, then we will do it. If there’s not, I’m still going to be your friend. I know it will be dangerous, but I know it’s worth it.”

Neville nodded, resolute. “Me too. It’s not so dangerous for us to be seen together, since I’m a pureblood and not Gryffindor, so a few minutes every once in a while won’t raise any questions, but even if it did I wouldn’t care.”

Ron barked out a wet laugh, almost smiling. “Me too, you idiot. You’re my friend. Nothing will change that.”

Slowly, everyone else started smiling as well, before Hermione spoke. “Well how about we have an actual plan for us to meet so we don’t have to worry about anything happening. Ginny, I know how you feel about the Chamber, but until we can find somewhere that we can hide and not be seen by anyone I don’t know where else we might be able to meet.”

Ginny shook her head. “Don’t worry about me. Maybe while we’re down there we can map that place out. From what I remember there’s at least one extra room back there, and I’m sure there’s more. It covers the whole area of the school, I think.”

Harry nodded. “Salmissra was able to easily get to a lot of places, and a lot of the pipes aren’t as big as her. She’s over six feet wide. Some of those pipes are tinier than Mandrake. What I’m mostly worried about isn’t where we’re going to meet, but how we’re going to know when to meet. We can’t just meet at the same time every time. We need to have a signal, and I don’t think Draco’s going to be able to keep his ring when we have our ‘argument’. Hermione, do you know any spells that might help? I know you got Aunt Cissa to teach you the spell she put on our rings. Could we maybe do something similar?”

They spent the next few hours figuring out different ways they could get messages to each other, and Hermione agreed to do research and find something to spread their messages.

When they arrived at Hogwarts, Harry greeted the thestrals quickly before they got into the carriages to head to the school. Before long they were waving to each other and splitting up to go to their respective House tables.

After only a few minutes of chatting amongst themselves, Professor McGonagall appeared at the doors to the Great Hall, leading the new first years in. As they gathered in front of the Hat, it’s mouth rip opened.

“A thousand years or more ago,
When I was newly sewn,
There lived four wizards of renown,
Whose names are still well known:

Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,
Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,
Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,
Shrewd Slytherin, from fen.

They shared a wish, a hope, a dream,
They hatched a daring plan
To educate young sorcerers
Thus Hogwarts School began.

Now each of these four founders
Formed their own house, for each
Did value different virtues
In the ones they had to teach.

By Gryffindor, the bravest were
Prized far beyond the rest;
For Ravenclaw, the cleverest
Would always be the best;

For Hufflepuff, hard workers were
Most worthy of admission;
And power-hungry Slytherin
Loved those of great ambition.

While still alive they did divide
Their favorites from the throng,
Yet how to pick the worthy ones
When they were dead and gone?

'Twas Gryffindor who found the way,
He whipped me off his head
The founders put some brains in me
So I could choose instead!

Now slip me snug about your ears,
I've never yet been wrong,
I'll have a look inside your mind
And tell where you belong!"

 

Everyone clapped obligingly, and Harry mentally reminded himself to ask Salmissra if she had ever been in the fen with Slytherin. As the Sorting wore on, Harry made sure to clap for every student, not wanting anyone to think that being in one House or other was inherently bad.

Finally the last student was Sorted, this class being almost as big as Ginny and Luna’s class, and Professor Dumbledore stood up to make his announcements.

“This year is going to be a special year!” he began. “But more on that later. First, I would like to mention that we have a new Defense teacher. Previously-“

The door slammed open with a bang and a flash of lightning, making Harry and about half of the school jump. A shadowy figure stood in the doorway for a moment before stepping forward.

Notes:

Bwhahaha, cliffhanger! I hope this was worth the wait, leave a comment if y'all liked it!

Question of the week:
What is Les Amis' closest guess as to how Harry got his Parseltongue?

Standings:
Slytherin: 40
Hufflepuff: 15
Ravenclaw: 15
Gryffindor: 5

Chapter 5: "Name" Your Bets

Summary:

A POV other than Harry! And also an apology.

Notes:

Ok, I guess this fic is now being updated every other week even though I try to post every week. I will continue trying to post every week, I think I'm getting into the swing of my summer schedule, as well as the swing of this book in the series. This chapter was hard to start because I had to put myself into the mind of someone completely different to how I normally think, but most of the rest of it will be in Harry's POV most likely. (Not all of it of course, that would be boring and not at all like me.) But anyway, possible trigger warning for very likely wrong depiction of insanity, but this is magical insanity, so I figured some liberties would be fine. If that bothers you, skip the first section until the line break. I'll put a summary in the end notes.

Leave me a comment! I read and respond to them all!

Barty Crouch Jr. stepped forward as thunder shook the Hall. It had been almost sixteen years since he had last been in these halls, but then he had been a student. His mother had been so proud to have a Ravenclaw son like herself, but his father had been upset that he wasn’t a Slytherin like him. His father’s attitude towards him sent him towards the Dark Lord, his ever glorious Lord and Master, who had been the father figure he never knew he needed. His beloved mother had disapproved, but when he had been sent to Azkaban, she still saved him by taking his place. Father had taken great joy in telling him that his mother had died because of him, the worthless son he would have left to rot, but that his mother was too compassionate, too kind, and too loyal to her only son to just leave him to the fate that he deserved, so Barty had killed her.

Barty startled as Dumbledore, that old fool, started talking again. The old man introduced him as Moody, that paranoid fool, which was good. That meant that his disguise was working. Barty took a quick swig from his flask of Polyjuice anyway, just in case. Better to be safe than sorry, after all. He noticed the Potter boy sitting at the Slytherin table and sneered internally. The brat didn’t deserve to sit at his Lord’s esteemed table.

As he reached the table, Barty began to sit down, but then barked “Constant vigilance!”, making most of the children jump. He smirked a little and sat down as Dumbledore continued speaking.

“Ah, yes, Professor Moody here was previously an Auror with our Ministry. He has never been caught off guard because of his favorite saying, ‘Constant vigilance’. It kept him alive during a war.”

Barty smirked internally again. He had managed to catch old Moody off guard. He was the first one to do it, and he had been under the Imperius for almost ten years. Everyone knew that the Imperius over a long period of time affected the mind. Barty had been one of the smartest in his class, only beaten by Regulus Black, but now he could barely remember the simplest Arithmancy formulas without getting distracted by something.

The food suddenly appeared in front of Barty and he almost jumped, thankfully managing to hide his reaction. It wouldn’t do to have his authority overruled by him jumping at plates appearing in front of him. This was normal Hogwarts, after all, and he couldn’t be startled by anything. He had to be paranoid and prepared, not jumpy and frightened. He mentally shook himself and settled down to eat.

*****************

Harry and Draco reached Les Amis’ classroom shortly after Hermione, but before the other members of the group. They had agreed to meet in the classroom before heading to the entrance to the Chamber. Not long after, the others arrived as well, and they began heading to Myrtle’s bathroom. A couple minutes into the trip Harry grinned. “So bets on how long it’ll take for the new Defense professor to try to kill me?”

Draco glared lightly. “Don’t make jokes like that, [redacted]. The fact that two out of three DADA professors have actually tried to kill or at least seriously injure you, and the third also technically tried, but not because he wanted to, does not mean that you should make fun of that and invite disaster.”

Harry laughed. “Sorry, Apple. Force of habit I guess.”

Ron spoke up. “I’d say he’ll definitely try to kill you by Halloween, but it’ll be in a super roundabout way.”

It was Hermione’s turn to glare, and Neville coughed to cover his laugh. Luna nodded agreeably. “Ron is right, I think. Halloween, but in such a roundabout way that it won’t come to fruition until the end of the year. Beware of the fire this year, Harry.”

Ginny nodded in agreement. “Always beware of fire, but be extra careful this year. If Luna says it, then it’s the right thing.”

“I’m honestly more concerned about the fact that there’s no Quidditch this year!” Ron exclaimed. “How can they take Quidditch away?”

Draco, Harry, and Ginny nodded emphatically in agreement, while Hermione rolled her eyes.

“Honestly!” Draco agreed. “How do they expect us to keep in shape for next year? They can’t even let us have normal practice and just no real games?”

“That’s a good idea,” Neville said. “You should mention that to Snape and McGonagall. They’re the ones that care the most about Quidditch out of the House Heads.”

They agreed, and Harry opened the door to Myrtle’s bathroom.

“Hello, Myrtle,” Luna greeted cheerfully.

“Luna!” Myrtle said excitedly, floating over to pet the blonde’s hair. “It’s nice to see you! And you brought friends! How wonderful!”

“Hello, Myrtle,” Harry said. “Is it alright if we go to the Chamber tonight? We want to see Salmissra now that school’s back in session.”

Myrtle floated over to him to grin and pet at his hair a little as well, and nodded, giggling. “Of course you can, silly! It’s your place as much as it’s anyone’s seeing as you’re the only one who can get there except for Tom.”

“Thanks, Myrtle,” he said genuinely. “If you like, you can come down and see it. Salmissra never looks at anyone directly, so everyone’s safe, and the Chamber itself is magnificent.”

Myrtle laughed. “Oh, no, Harry. Not today. Maybe another time. You have fun with your friends today, and maybe another day I can go down with you.”

Shortly after, Harry was hissing at the sink. #He he he, you ssslutsss wink will never guessssss my passssssword.#

Draco was looking at him strangely, which confused Harry because Draco had never had a problem with Parseltongue before, so he just ignored that in favor of starting down the stairs that grew out of the walls. The others followed, Ginny last and very hesitantly, only coming because of Luna’s grip on her hand. Harry couldn’t hear what Luna said, but Ginny was more relaxed because of it.

Before long, they reached the main chamber, and Harry slipped in before the others, hissing a greeting to Salmissra. Salmissra slithered out of her sleeping area as Jor poked his head out of Harry’s sleeve.

#Hatchlingsss! Welcome back! Did you bring your friendsss?#

#Yesss, I brought my friendsss, including Ginny.#

#The fire headed girl? I mussst apologize to her. Transsslate for me, hatchling.#

“Guys, you can come in now,” Harry called.

They all filed in, Draco hurrying to Harry’s side quickly, but Ginny hung back. Harry watched as Salmissra lowered her head to make herself seem smaller.

#Oh you poor hatchling,# she hissed softly. #I am ssso sssorry that Tom usssed you in that way. It wasss not right, and if I ever have the chanccce I will look at him ssstraight in the eyesss and nothing will heal him from that.#

Harry translated, and Ginny smiled slightly. “I’d like to see that, Salmissra. You were always kind to me, even if you thought it was strange that I seemed so like Tom. You don’t have to apologize for his actions.”

Salmissra hissed wordlessly and lifted her head again, gently (for her at least) nudging Harry and the rest of the teens towards her sleeping place. #Now that you’re all here, I think it’sss time for you to sssee the ressst of my Sssalazar’sss beloved Chamber.#

Notes:

Summary for the first section: Basically Barty reflects on his past, thinks about the Dark Lord in very positive terms, and thinks of Dumbledore and Harry in very negative terms. Nothing extremely important, but I figured since everyone knows that Moody is actually Barmoody in this book I might as well try throwing an Imperius addled Barty Crouch POV in.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a comment telling me your thoughts! They feed my muse!

Question of the week:
What was the spell Draco used on Harry's letters?

Standings:
Slytherin: 50
Ravenclaw: 20
Hufflepuff: 15
Gryffindor: 5

Chapter 6: Underground Names

Summary:

More of the Chamber, as was hinted at.

Notes:

Whoo hoo, I actually got this chap out on time! Hope you guys like it! Leave me a comment below!

Salmissra led the teens into the area beyond the main entrance, and Draco stared around in shock as he registered everything. Hermione, of course, immediately ran towards the bookshelves.

“A library!” she gasped, already pulling down the first book, only to grunt in disappointment. “I can’t read it, the lines keep moving around.”

Harry headed over and plucked the book from her hands. “It’s a potions journal!” he gasped. “Draco, come look at this!”

Draco was too excited at the sight of a potions lab a room away from the library. “Harry! There’s a potions lab over here! Come look!” Harry immediately hurried over and the two Slytherins looked excitedly at everything, exclaiming every once in a while about this or that.

Meanwhile, Ron, Neville, Luna, and Ginny were continuing to walk around before Neville stopped in shock at the sight of a brightly lit room with plants from the floor to the ceiling. Almost unconsciously, he stepped closer, stopping at the door to study the plants more closely, before taking a cautious step inside. As expected, a curious plant reached out with a vine and grabbed his ankle loosely. Neville slowly crouched down and spoke quietly.

“Hello, my name’s Neville. I’m sure you miss Salazar and whoever was here last, but their magic is impressive to have kept you so well cared for for so long.” The vine wound its way up Neville’s leg, and Neville gasped. “You’re a Silphium plant! The magical variety, of course, the muggle variant went extinct centuries ago, but everyone thought that the magical variety went extinct too! To find you here, it’s amazing! I wonder what other plants Salazar managed to keep alive with his Herbology charms that lasted a thousand years?” With that, Neville was off, and Ron stifled a laugh in his sleeve before turning to Ginny and Luna before stopping halfway, gaping.

“Are those chicken eggs?”

Ginny looked over and nodded. “Looks like it.”

Luna hummed. “And toads too. But those are dead. I guess Salazar’s charms to keep things alive didn’t extend as well to animals as it did to plants. Thankfully his air freshening charms are good.”

Ron gagged and headed to where Harry and Draco were still gushing about the potions lab. “Harry, there’s a bunch of dead toads and chicken eggs out here. What should we do about them?”

Harry gaped at Ron for a second before turning to Salmissra. #Didn’t you sssay that your firssst meal wasss a toad, or a frog? Do you remember anything about a birdsss egg?#

#The egg I hatched from wasss not like other sssnake eggsss, my Sssalazar told me onccce. He ssseemed very excccited that sssomething had ‘worked exactly like it sssaid.’#

Harry paled. #Do you mind if we get rid of the dead toadsss, or do you want to eat them, or sssomething? If the magic keeping the air fresssh ssstopsss, I don’t want them making thisss placcce sssmell.#

#They are too sssmall for me to eat. You can get rid of them.#

Harry turned to Ron. “Vanish them. Either Salazar planned on making more basilisks, which would be fine as long as they could be told not to kill people on a whim, or he just had a bunch of chicken eggs and toads for no reason at all.”

Ron snorted. “Yeah, no reason.”

Harry cast a quick spell to see what time it was and paled again. “We have to get going! It’s almost curfew!” #Sssalmissssssra, isss there a way out clossser to the dormsss?#

#Yesss, I will ssshow you.#

After they finally collected Neville, Salmissra led them to a group of four doors. #My Sssalazar wanted the ssstudentsss to have a quick way to get to the chamber if anything happened, ssso thessse doorsss lead to ssspotsss clossse by the dormsss.# Harry took a closer look at the doors and noticed carvings faintly etched into the wood of the doors, as if they’d been there for centuries and had worn away over time. He stepped up to the first one and saw that it had the Gryffindor crest engraved on it.

Hissing for it to open, he motioned towards Ron and Ginny. “This is your stop. See you tomorrow?”

Ron and Ginny nodded and stepped through, and Harry closed the door with another hissed command before going to the second door.

Draco and Harry barely made it to the common room in time for curfew, and they quickly headed to their room to prepare for bed.

“We’re going to have to figure out someway to have a big fallout,” Draco whispered while they were settling into their beds. “And it’s going to have to really be big, it can’t be halfhearted.”

“I know,” Harry whispered back. “I’m going to miss being able to be around you in public without being enemies.”

Draco just nodded. “Me too. Hopefully it won’t be for too long, though. I would hate to have to do it for forever.”

Harry looked miserable before he visibly perked up. “That just means we have to get rid of Voldy sooner. And by we I of course mean the adults, even if I am the Boy-Who-Lived.” The last phrase was nearly spat out and Draco hid his smile in his sheets.

“Well make sure you don’t put yourself in unnecessary danger and it won’t be a problem,” he said before wishing his best friend a good night and rolling over before Harry could hiss back that he didn’t put himself in unnecessary danger, unnecessary danger put itself in him!

Harry huffed and hid his own smile, wishing Draco a good night as well. Before long, he was fast asleep.

Notes:

Hope you guys enjoyed! The plant that Neville mentions did indeed exist and is now extinct, although of course I made up the fact that it has a magical variant. Leave me a comment, they feed my soul!

Question of the week:
What was the spell used to put the Dark Mark in the sky?

Standings:
Slytherin: 75
Ravenclaw: 20
Hufflepuff: 15
Gryffindor: 5

Chapter 7: Unforgiving Names

Summary:

DADA classes with Barmoody! What could possibly go wrong?

Notes:

Sorry this took so long! I had a weird mix of too many thoughts and not enough thoughts so it was slow writing. But it's here! Huzzah! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Leave me a comment!

Harry stepped into the DADA classroom, almost afraid to see what it looked like under the new professor. After a quick look around he decided that it actually wasn’t too bad. Sure there were some weird things hanging around, but Harry assumed they would be learning about them during the class. It wasn’t nearly as bad as Lockhart, or even Quirrell had their classrooms set up.

As he settled down in his seat next to Draco, Professor Moody still had not appeared, despite class beginning in less than a minute. There were no strange animals in the room that would indicate that Professor Moody was an Animagus, so he was probably just late.

A moment later the door slammed open. “Constant vigilance!” Professor Moody barked from the back of the room, making the entire class jump. Harry had his wand half drawn before he saw who it was, and he put it back in the holster. “Good lad, Potter. Always be prepared to defend yourself from anything. And even better for recognizing that this is a safe place and knowing when not to be paranoid. Of course, even in a school such as Hogwarts there is no place that is entirely safe. Always be vigilant!”

He reached the desk and flicked his wand, sending a stack of papers to each desk. “Fill this out by the end of class. It’s a simple test to see what you have learned so far. Any wrong answers will not be counted against you, and I’m giving this test to everyone, so there will be questions you don’t know because they haven’t been covered yet. Once you finish the questions you will wait quietly until I dismiss you as apparently it is not appropriate to let children run amok in the halls during classes. Begin.”

Harry took a quick look at his test and started. The questions had no order to them, and Harry found himself skipping several, but not as many as he had expected what with Lockhart teaching for a year. Most of the questions about creatures were easy enough to answer, since Moony had taught about them last year. As he neared the middle of the test, he found himself skipping more and guessed that this was where the questions started to be from fourth year and up.

When he finally put his quill down, he noticed that most of the other students had as well. The Slytherins shared this class with the Ravenclaws, so he wasn’t surprised that a few people were still writing, especially Hermione. Harry had heard Draco put down his quill just a little bit before Harry had, so he elbowed him lightly and grinned lightly, nodding towards Hermione. Draco grinned back and they settled back to sit quietly.

Eventually everyone stopped writing, Hermione last of course, and Professor Moody summoned the papers. “Class dismissed,” was all he said before turning to the papers to grade them.

Harry and Draco shared a glance and shrugged, heading to the door and waiting for Hermione, who had been near the front of the room. She quickly arrived and they walked together.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that he at least isn’t a horrible professor,” Hermione commented after a moment. “The placement test was a good idea, it’ll show where we all are academically and how much we all know or don’t know will tell him whether it was the professors or the students not studying.”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, but emphasis on the cautiously part. He still has plenty of time to make us regret liking him.”

Draco snorted. “I wouldn’t go that far. He’s too paranoid to be likeable. He praised you for pulling a wand on him!”

Harry laughed. “Well, you’ve got a point there. What kind of teacher lets that slide?”

Hermione huffed. “Well I’m still hopeful. He is teaching us to defend ourselves. How can we do that without having good reflexes? Plus don’t forget that Voldyshorts seems to actually be coming for you, Harry. I say it’s better to pull a wand on somebody and maybe hurt them then to let them hurt you, or even kill you, first.”

“Yeah, you’re right Mione. Doesn’t mean he should be glad I’m pulling my wand on him.”

*****************************

The next DADA class arrived and Harry slid into his seat next to Draco a few minutes before class started. Professor Moody was already at the front, and the second the class began he shot a spell at the door, locking it. Luckily no one was late, since it was a Slytherin-Ravenclaw class, but Harry wouldn’t be surprised if the first Gryffindor-Hufflepuff class had someone locked out.

Professor Moody stood up and started lecturing. “It seems that your professors were not very adequate, except for the one last year, even with his. Unfortunate disease.” Harry tensed, and only Draco’s hand on his leg stopped him from doing something foolish. “Therefore, we will just start anew. Patil! What are the worst curses known to wizardkind?”

Patil seemed startled to be called on but quickly answered. “The Unforgivables, Professor.”

“Correct. Davis, name them.”

“The Imperius, the Cruciatus, and the Killing Curse.” Tracy Davis was, as always, perfectly composed despite the clear surprise that still lingered from the random topic change from the placement tests to the Unforgivables.

“Correct. Brocklehurst! Tell me what the Imperius does!”

“Er, the Imperius makes the victim do whatever the caster wants.”

“Close enough for now, although that will be challenged by the end of class. Observe!” Professor Moody conjured a large spider, then said, “Imperio.” The spider went still and Professor Moody smirked. “Jump up and down.” The spider did so. “Weave a web.” The spider obeyed again and Harry fought the desire to cast a quick spell to Vanish the spider so it wouldn’t have to do all this. “As you know, spiders don’t understand human languages, so what is it that makes the spider know what I want of it? Potter!”

Harry gulped. “The Imperius somehow makes it so that your desires are imposed upon the victim. What you want, the victim wants. So if you want the spider to dance, the spider also wants to dance. If you’re better at the Imperius, you can probably tell the victim what to do without vocal commands.”

“Correct! The Imperius creates some sort of mental link between caster and victim. Observe.” He focused on the spider again, and a moment later the spider began to crawl off the table and towards the nearest student, stopping just before Hermione. Then the spider walked backwards, climbing back up the desk, still facing Hermione.

“Granger! Tell me what the Cruciatus does!”

Hermione took a deep breath, clearly disturbed by the spider and spat out the answer that Harry was sure came directly from a book. “The Cruciatus curse, incantation Crucio, causes indescribable pain to the victim. If exposed to a long period of time, the victim may lose all nerve function or go insane.”

“Correct. Observe.” Moody enlarged the spider and cast. “Crucio.” The spider began writhing in clear pain and Harry winced, while Draco flinched minutely. Probably no one else saw it. Hopefully. Draco had a reputation to uphold, and as much as Harry thought it was ridiculous, it kept Draco safe so Harry didn’t care what his thoughts about it were.

Finally, Moody moved his wand away from the spider and the poor arachnid lay still, seeming dead. Harry almost hoped the Killing curse would be sent at the poor thing next, just so it could be put out of it’s misery.

“What your textbooks don’t tell you is that since there is a slight mental connection with the Cruciatus, like there is with the Imperius, there is slight pain to the caster as well. It’s speculated that that is the cause of insanity in some dark wizards and witches. Of course, the more insane you are, the more pain you want to feel. The less you feel that pain, the more you need to feel, so you cast the spell more, making your insanity worse.” Moody spoke quietly, and Harry remembered the slight smirk he thought he had seen on Moody’s face as he cast the Cruciatus on the spider and grimaced. This was a man who had cast the curse before, and often.

“Malfoy! Tell me the final curse!” Moody snapped after a moment.

Draco took an almost invisible deep breath and squeezed Harry’s leg before answering. “The Killing Curse does exactly what it says. It kills. Since only one person has survived it, and he was a baby at the time, no one knows if it’s painless or not, but it seems to be, other than the fear of facing someone pointing a wand at you and saying the incantation.”

“Correct. The only person who survived it is in this room. Observe.” He spoke the incantation and the room lit up green, making Harry faintly hear cries of “Please, no, not my son, kill me, not my son!”, making him flinch and Draco’s hand tighten on his leg again. Once his vision came back into focus, he saw the spider laying dead on Moody’s desk and tightened his hands into fists, taking a deep breath.

There was a moment of silence before Moody spoke again. “Now. Dumbledore has given me permission to train you how to fight against the Imperius curse. It is possible, but it takes a lot of willpower. The only way to learn is to do, so I’ll be calling you up here one at a time and casting Imperio at you. You will attempt to resist. I will continue doing this throughout the year, although not every day, until all of you can resist.” The class burst out into hushed whispers, but Harry could only sit in shocked silence. What. What kind of idiot decided that casting an illegal curse that creates a mental link between two people on fourteen year olds would be a good idea?

By the time Harry had tuned in again, Moody had already called a few students. They had all failed, if Draco’s expression was any judge. Moody seem to be going in alphabetical order, so Harry just sat back and watched, focusing most of his attention inwards. Moody had said it would be a battle of willpower. The Dursleys had always said he was stubborn, and while he generally ignored them, Harry thought this would be a good time to take what they said to heart.

Moody finally called Hermione and Harry tensed. “Imperio.” Moody’s voice was implacable, like he knew that what he was going to say next would be obeyed. “Jump up and down.” Hermione seemed to struggle for a moment, but then she obediently jumped up and down. Moody quickly removed the spell and smirked. “You did well enough, for your first time. Once more. Imperio.” Hermione’s eyes went blank, and Moody ordered her to jump up and down again. After a moment of hesitation, she did. Harry clenched his teeth as Moody released her back to her seat.

A few more people went up, with the Slytherins putting up more of a fight than the Ravenclaws, but not by much. Harry suspected that it had something to do with the stubbornness required to have ambition and stick to it. After a few minutes, Draco was called up. Harry tensed even more as Moody spoke. “Imperio." Draco’s eyes went blank and Harry’s heart clenched. He hated seeing his best friend like that. “Jump up and down.” It had been the standard order, and so far everyone had jumped with barely any hesitation, except for Theo Nott, who had resisted for almost ten seconds before jumping. Harry held his breath as Draco hesitated, but ultimately jumped. Moody did it one more time, and released Draco back to his chair.

“I hated that,” Draco whispered after a student had gone. “It felt like I wanted to jump, not like someone else wanted me to.”

Before Harry had time to answer, it was finally his turn. “Imperio.” Harry felt his mind blank and panicked. No! If he didn’t have anything to think about he would go insane! There was silence in his mind for only a moment before a voice filled the void. Jump up and down. Harry wanted to follow the command. Anything to keep his head from being empty like this. But then he paused. If his head was empty, how was he thinking that he wanted his head to not be empty?

Jump up and down. The voice was more insistent this time, so Harry spoke back to it. Why? The voice seemed taken aback. Harry had no idea how a bodiless voice could be taken aback. Was it just his imagination? That was so weird. Because you want to. The voice had finally answered, and Harry had to admit that had a point. But jumping up and down didn’t seem like something he’d want to do. Maybe he wanted to go to the library with Draco? No, you want to jump up and down. Harry shook his head. Mentally shook his head? No, I want to go to the library with Draco. As he thought that, his mind cleared and was filled with all his normal thoughts again. He glanced around and found himself trying to pull Draco to his feet while Draco looked confused.

“Did, did Harry do it?” Hermione’s voice was confused.

Moody looked confused too. “Uh. Yes? I’ve never seen someone override the Imperius like that. But he didn’t jump up and down and specifically did something I did not tell him to do, so, I guess?”

The rest of class went by relatively quickly, with the last few students not being able to do more than just hesitate briefly. Once everyone had gone, Moody dismissed them. Harry, Hermione, and Draco walked towards the library together, and Harry snorted. “Guess we should write this prof off too, huh? I mean seriously. Teaching us the Unforgivables on our second day? Honestly.”

Hermione and Draco shared a glance, and then all three of them burst into laughter.

Notes:

Harry under the Imperius from a different POV:
Hermione watched anxiously as Moody put Harry under the Imperius. "Jump up and down." Harry didn't do anything. Hermione cocked her head. Would he do it? Moody repeated himself more firmly. "Jump up and down." "Why?" Harry's voice sounded distant and almost childish, and Hermione stifled her laughter as Moody blinked in shock. "Because you want to," he replied. "That doesn't sound like something I'd want to do. I think I actually want to go to the library with Draco." Moody blinked again, then said firmly, "No, you want to jump up and down." "No, I want to go to the library with Draco." Hermione watched as Harry walked across the room to Draco and started pulling him to his feet, only to blink awake and look confusedly down at what he was doing. Blushing, he sat down, and Hermione turned to Moody. "Did- did he do it?"

Ok anyway. I just needed to write that cause it was so funny lmao.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Leave me a comment below!

Question of the week: Who caught the snitch at the World Cup?

Standings:
Slytherin: 87.5
Ravenclaw: 25
Hufflepuff: 22.5
Gryffindor: 10

Chapter 8: Attention to Names

Summary:

Les Amis discuss the Imperius and also a little of the Dursleys and also the other schools arrive.

Notes:

First things first, this took forever and I'm sorry. But, I do have a good excuse! Last weekend I went to go see my best friend and her husband and baby and I spent all of Saturday, which is usually my writing day, with them. So late, but not horrible.

Secondly, Hermione makes some conjectures at the beginning of this chapter about Harry and how he was able to shake the Imperius so easily. She brings up that he might have ADHD, and while he might, be aware that this is the opinion of a fourteen/fifteen year old girl who's done a week of binge reading in between studying for classes, not a professional. Self diagnosis is valid, but it should be done after a LOT more research than Hermione put into it. Does Harry have ADHD? I have no clue. I'm not qualified to make that call. But yeah. Just remember that these are the opinions of a teenage girl after a week of research between her obsessive studying for classes, so closer to like a day or so of research.

Thirdly, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I changed a little bit from canon, because I am Yuri! On Ice trash and figure skating takes a hell of a lot of strength and I just think that if there's a school that has a focus on dance that figure skating should be part of it so yeah.

The days passed, and Hermione practically disappeared outside of classes, which all of Les Amis knew to mean that she was researching something or other intently. Almost a week after the Unforgivables lesson Hermione showed up at the library where they were all studying and plopped down in the empty chair.

“What, no pile of books?” Ron teased.

“Oh, I learned a spell recently that lets me expand the space inside of my bag infinitely. It’s made research much easier.”

“You learned a new spell and you haven’t taught me?” Draco yelped.

“I only learned it this week, calm down. Now.” She turned to Harry. “I’ve been thinking about how you got out of the Imperius and I think I’ve discovered how. You managed to escape the Imperius by having ADHD.”

Harry was silent for a moment, looking at Hermione. “Having what now.”

Hermione snorted. “ADHD. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. You’re easily distracted and you need to always be moving, basically. But since you’re so easily distracted, it made it easy for you to throw off the Imperius.”

Harry didn’t say anything for another minute, and then he shrank down in his chair. “You mean the Dursleys were right about me?”

Draco gaped at him for a moment before he very quietly spoke. “What exactly were they right about.” It wasn’t a question, even though it seemed like it should have been.

“About me being an attention seeking delinquent,” Harry whispered.

“That is not at all what I said, Harry,” Hermione said firmly. “I said that you’re attention is easily stolen by things, not that you seek attention. If anything, you avoid attention like the plague itself.”

Neville nodded. “Yeah. The only attention you like that I’ve seen comes from people you know and like, or from people who are paying attention to you, and not your name.”

Ginny lightly punched his arm. “You’re not an attention seeking delinquent Harry. If anything, you’re an attention avoiding delinquent.”

Harry laughed weakly and sat back up. “Thanks Firecracker. Now, we really need to finish this essay. Moody may be a horrid instructor for teaching fourth years the Unforgivables but I don’t want to actually fail his class.”

***********************

The day of the other schools’ arrivals finally came, and the whole school gathered out on the front lawn to welcome them. It was a chilly day about a week before Halloween, and most of the students had had the foresight to bundle up in warmer clothes. The students chattered for a few minutes before the guests arrived, then a seventh year girl shouted and pointed at the sky. Harry glanced up and saw a large dot growing closer by the second. Before long it took shape as a large carriage pulled by horses with wings. Harry thought it was brilliant.

When it landed, a very tall woman, even taller than Hagrid, stepped out of the carriage, followed by a gaggle of young adults in powder blue uniforms. The giant lady was introduced as Madame Maxime, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons. The young adults were the students over seventeen. They all seemed to defer to one girl in particular, a beautiful young woman with silvery blonde hair and deep blue eyes. For some reason Ron couldn’t take his eyes off of her, and Hermione did not look happy about it.

Another shout came from over near the lake and everyone whirled around to see a ginormous ship erupt out of the Black Lake. It docked and a group of students walked out in fur lined red uniforms, with what Harry assumed was the Headmaster in white. After Professor Dumbledore greeted them, everyone headed inside, where each Hogwarts house split off to discuss their part in the greeting at the feast that night.

****************

The Hogwarts students filed into the Great Hall, except for the Quidditch students. Neville watched quietly as Professor Dumbledore made his speech about the new schools coming to visit for the year. It was relatively informative, Beauxbatons was a very formal school and all of the students took a type of classical dance, usually ballet or occasionally figure skating, as well as etiquette lessons. Durmstrang students, on the other hand, took classes related to dueling, focusing on strength rather than flexibility.

As Professor Dumbledore finished, the door opened a crack, allowing Filch to poke his head in. Professor Dumbledore smiled genially and gestured. “And now, the lovely students of Beauxbatons!”

The first students walked in and began doing ballet up the center aisle. As the first half danced through, the floor turned to ice beneath their feet, and they were followed by students on ice skates. Most of the skaters did relatively simple looking steps that Neville guessed were not as simple as they looked. Butterflies fluttered around them, conjured wandlessly in an impressive show of magical prowess. The last skater, the girl everyone seemed to follow, skated out and immediately did a jump that even Neville knew was much more difficult than it looked. Butterflies fluttered from her feet in shades of fiery red and orange. Neville wasn’t the only one gaping as the ice melted behind her where the butterflies touched.

As the Beauxbatons students sat at the Ravenclaw table, Neville glanced over at the Slytherin table. That part of the show was going to be the most delicate. He saw the sixth year designated for the second part of the potion begin their part as Professor Dumbledore announced Durmstrang.

With a very impressive march to the front, the Durmstrang students rhythmically slammed staves into the ground, giving off sparks with each hit. When they reached the front, one of the female students suddenly had torches from seemingly nowhere, and she began to juggle them as a male student blew on one of their fire sticks, making animal shapes out of the fire while the other students did flips around them. Neville was suitably impressed and clapped along with everyone else, watching the Slytherins trade to their fifth year student for their potion.

“And now,” Professor Dumbledore said grandly, “Our very own Hogwarts!”

Neville stood with his House, grabbing his plant from beside him. As the Hufflepuffs gathered together, they all looked at Neville, as they had planned. He closed his eyes and felt for the magic of the plants around him, grounding himself as he carefully coaxed the plants in the direction he wanted them to go. He felt like he was the sun, pulling the plants to face him and grow towards him. When he opened his eyes to the gasps around him, he knew he had done what he had intended. The vines the Hufflepuffs had brought to the feast were now growing in the outer shape of the Hogwarts crest.

Four Gryffindors stood up next and pulled out blocks of wood. With a flick of their wand, they had each transfigured their block of wood into one of the animals of each House, and they flew, stalked, crawled, and slithered over to their respective spot, where they froze.

Neville looked over nervously as the Slytherin first year now working with the potion put in the last ingredient. Then, the potion exploded.

Luckily, this is what they had intended, and as the potion fumes cleared, the crest was now the right colors in the right places, with the animals in each place the opposing color of the house. Finally, four seventh year Ravenclaws stepped up and lit a firework each. When they exploded, they looked like the founders, each in their usual pose, next to their respective crest on the full Hogwarts crest. The oohs and ahs at the display made Neville grin, before a piercing whistle drew his eyes upward, where the House Quidditch teams swooped in and did a few maneuvers. Neville would have to remember to ask Harry and Draco if they had flown in through the ceiling later.

Once all the displays were through, everyone took a seat at their House tables, with Beauxbatons sitting with the Ravenclaws and Durmstrang sitting with the Slytherins, to hear the rest of the announcements about the Tournament.

Notes:

You guys will never know how tempted I was to end it at "Then, the potion exploded." and make you wait for at least a week to see the rest of it lmao. Luckily, the person I'm writing this with is kinder than I am, so no cliffhanger today lol.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Leave me a comment below! I read and respond to all of them as soon as I see them, and it always makes me so excited to see that notification in my emails!

Question of the week: What command did Moody give the kids while they were under the Imperius?

Standings: (Just updated the points and wowie Slytherin there's a whole lot of you, huh?)
Slytherin: 160
Ravenclaw: 55
Hufflepuff:27.5
Gryffindor: 10

Chapter 9: The Names We Burn

Summary:

The arrival of the other schools and the Goblet of Fire scene!

Notes:

Ah, I'm so sorry this is so late. Work has been a pain, and then I got sick a week ago, so I've been working around a cold and it's just been super exhausting. Anyway! It's here! And the real plot starts now! I hope you guys enjoy! Leave me a comment below!

Les Amis watched curiously as the seventeen year old students started putting their names in the Goblet. Harry mostly just watched Draco, because honestly a tournament with real life stakes being your life sounded like a good way for someone to die, and Harry already had a megalomaniac out for his life, he didn’t need a way to get himself killed.

“It’d be nice to be allowed to compete,” Ron sighed. “I mean, the thousand galleon prize alone would be awesome. Mum wouldn’t have to do near as much as she does to make ends meet.”

Draco shrugged. “It’d be cool for the experience, and the glory, and of course I wouldn’t say no to the money, but I don’t need it. I’d probably donate it somewhere or something.”

Hermione huffed. “Well I don’t think it’s a good idea at all! Even for the seventeen year olds! Do you know how many people have died in this tournament? Too many! That’s why they stopped doing it in the first place! Why bring it back now?”

Neville snorted. “I’d have to agree with ‘Mione. Why risk death when you have your NEWTs?”

Harry laughed at that. “Not to mention that death would put a minor kink in any post-graduation plans.”

Hermione gaped. “You two shouldn’t be joking about this! Death is a very serious matter, and if anyone died during this tournament, it would be a horrible time for everyone!”

“If anyone is allowed to make jokes about death, it’s me, ‘Mione,” Harry said, grinning. “After all, bones just pop up everywhere around me. It’s like they want me to make jokes!”

Ron rolled his eyes. “Anyway, who do you think is gonna get in?”

Hermione glared at Ron, but answered anyway. “I don’t know. That one girl at the end of the Beauxbatons group, the figure skater? If she enters she might be picked. She’s strong enough to do a jump like that, and obviously magically powerful enough to make a show of it while it still does what she wants it too. Maybe that girl from Durmstrang, the one who juggled the fire? And if there’s any justice at all, a Slytherin or Ravenclaw will be picked from Hogwarts, because no offence, Ron, Ginny, Neville, but Slytherins are known for finding good ways out of tight spots, and Ravenclaws are known for not getting themselves into the spots in the first place.”

Draco laughed long and loud at that, and Harry chuckled beside him, catching sight of the way the candlelight glinted off of his friend’s hair before blushing and looking another way, only to see Ginny smirking at him. He wondered what that was about. Did he have something on his face? Or maybe she was just looking at his blush? Which, why was he blushing in the first place?

Ron shook his head. “No way, a Gryffindor should be the champion. And Krum would make the best champion from Durmstrang.”

“Yes, Ron, we all know you love Viktor Krum,” Ginny teased. “My bet’s on the boy who spread the ice under his feet while he danced from Beauxbatons, and the girl who juggled fire from Durmstrang, and for a specific Hogwarts student, Flint, maybe.”

“I think it’ll be the girl at the end, like ‘Mione said, the boy who made the shapes in the fire, and Derek,” Neville said.

“Derek?” Harry hissed incredulously. Draco just laughed at him.

“Just because he snitched on you being a Parslemouth that one time,” he teased. “Anyway, my vote’s on Krum, the figure skating girl, and Flint.”

Harry rolled his eyes and shrugged. “I don’t really know or care, but the first figure skater was pretty impressive, staying on his feet even as ice was spreading right in front of him, as was the first guy from Durmstrang, the one who started the staff sparks. And I bet one of the twins will manage to get their name in the fire and they’ll get picked.”

Luna finally spoke, her voice dreamy and a little distant. “Viktor Krum, Fleur Decalour, and Cedric Diggory.”

Ginny raised her hand. “Can I change my bet?”

“No!” Ron glared at his sister. “Betting after Luna is cheating, we all know that.”

Ginny just stuck her tongue out at her brother and Neville snorted. Before long, it was time to go to their dorms, so everyone went their separate ways.

The next day, Ron seemed distant for some reason. Harry tried to ask him what was wrong, but Ron just snapped, “Nothing. I gotta get to class. Bye.”

Harry was confused, but figured that Ron had just had a bad day and would be fine later. Draco seemed to agree with him, and they headed off to their own class. In a week the champions would be named and they didn’t want to miss any homework before then.

*****************

“The history of the Goblet of Fyre is a long and storied tradition, dating back to nearly before humans began to record events. The first known use was in the year 100 BC, for a dueling tournament between two neighbouring countries who had lost most of their fighting fit people in the war that had been waged between the two nations. It chose a total of forty people from the one hundred that had entered their names, and the final people standing won the war.

One of it’s most famous uses was when Godric Gryffindor, one of the founders of Hogwarts, was pitted against one hundred people and won by killing or permanently injuring every single opponent to the point that not even magical healing could heal the wounds left behind. Many of the one hundred were never able to lift a wand, or walk, or even speak clearly again.^[1]

After that incident, it was believed that the red color of the flames when announcing a competitor was bad luck, indicating that people would die. It is unknown where this superstition arose, but seeing as red is well known as Gryffindor’s color, it did not seem to be an unfounded one. With this superstition in place, the one spell able to be casted upon the Goblet of Fyre, the Color Changing Charm^[2], was often used in order to make the flames seem a different color each time a name was chosen.”

Barty groaned loudly and nearly threw the book in his frustration. How typical, the one thing he needs to do is impossible due to the Goblet’s unspellable nature. And here he thought the Restricted Section would be helpful. Hours of research and all he can do is change the color, how could- He froze, his mind racing to examine that bit of information. Perhaps he could do something with this, it was just a matter of getting a little creative.

Finally, the day of the Goblet’s choosing had arrived. Halloween night, which Barty felt was an auspicious night for his doings.

As the Goblet glowed red to let out the first name, Barty carefully studied the color. He had never seen it before, and it would have to be a perfect copy. There could be no doubt that the fire was being lit for a fourth time.

Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, and Cedric Diggory were all announced as Triwizard competitors, and Barty took a deep breath before gently tossing the ripped paper with Potter’s name on it with a careful lift via Wingardium Leviosa. As the paper flew in the correct trajectory, Barty held his breath and carefully sent a color changing charm at the Goblet, turning the flames the same vibrant red as they had been when sending out the other three names. Not even a second later, he sent a wind charm at it to make it look like the fires had roared. If he did say so himself it had been a masterful performance, and if he hadn’t done it himself, he wasn’t sure he would have noticed. Dumbledore, the old coot, caught the paper in his hand, shocked into silence.

“Harry Potter.” The old man’s voice boomed into the shocked silence of the room, and the room stayed silent for only another moment before exploding into noise.

Notes:

The footnotes in the book passage that I "quoted" are as follows:
1: After this tournament was the first time any record of nonverbal spell use was found in any large quantity.
2: The Color Changing Charm, Colovaria

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, leave me a comment below! I always read and answer them when I see them!

Question of the week:
For a point each, name as many thestrals as you can (that I have already named lol, don't just make up names). The most points you can get is 12, as I have named 12 thestrals.
Standings:
Slytherin: 167.5
Ravenclaw: 67.5
Hufflepuff: 27.5
Gryffindor: 10

Chapter 10: Forbidden Names

Summary:

The choosing and aftermath from another angle!

Notes:

This is so late, I'm sorry! I got a new job and I've been packing up all my stuff all of the last couple weeks, but I figured I should get this out before I can't use internet on my laptop for a couple days lol.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and that it was worth the wait! Please leave me a comment!

Cedric grinned widely when his name was announced. He stood to the claps and cheers from his schoolmates and headed to the room that had been indicated. He quickly introduced himself to Delacour and Krum, then waited for the officials. They seemed to be taking an oddly long time.

Strangely, the next person to walk in the room wasn’t one of the Headmasters. It was Harry. He looked shocked and a little terrified, and Cedric was worried. Had something happened? What could have possibly happened in the few minutes since he’d been called?

“Do they want us to go back into the hall?” Delacour asked.

Harry just shook his head, looking shocked, and Cedric stepped forward. “Monopoly,--” Suddenly Ludo Bagman burst into the room and Harry flinched back. Cedric stepped in front of the fourth year and glared at the offending man.

“What an unprecedented event! We have a fourth champion! Young Mr. Potter’s name has come out of the Goblet of Fire!”

Cedric blinked in shock, then again in anger. He understood, somewhere, that this was not Harry’s fault. The kid’s shock and fear when he came in attested to that. But still. This always happened when Harry was around. Did he not get enough attention around here as it was?

Headmaster Dumbledore burst into the room next, clearly furious. Harry flinched back again, and this time Cedric noticed Krum take a step forward before stopping. Cedric could almost hear the other man’s thoughts whirling.

Dumbledore caught sight of Harry and stormed forward, causing Harry to back away in terror.

“Harry James Potter did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?!” Cedric had never heard Dumbledore shout that loudly, but before he could insert himself between the clearly terrified fourth year and the Headmaster a flash of silvery blonde hair caught his eye and Fleur Delacour was between them, eyes blazing and sparks dancing up her arms.

“Clearly he did not,” she hissed. “Can you not see he is terrified?! Leave him alone. He is famous, and if what I have heard is true, many people have already tried to kill him. This is probably the same thing. The Goblet is so old, who knows what can be done to it.”

Cedric nodded in thanks to her, and for some reason Moody glanced around. Cedric shrugged it off as his typical paranoia and something happening in the Great Hall, but a little niggle of thought lodged in his brain. ‘There hasn’t been a DADA professor since Harry got here that hasn’t tried to kill him.’

The other Heads stepped in, much calmer than either Bagman or Dumbledore, but they were clearly furious. “Dumbledore! What is the meaning of this! How can Hogwarts have two champions?” Karkaroff demanded, Madame Maxime nodding behind him. “I demand we be allowed to reenter our students names and make the Goblet pick another student from each of our schools to make it even!”

“You know we cannot, Igor. Once the Goblet has chosen, it’s decided. Nothing can be changed. But I suppose Mademoiselle Delacour is correct. I apologize, Mr. Horde. I should not have shouted at you with no proof as I did. Now. I believe we should all head off to bed and deal with this more in the morning. I should have considered that someone else put Mr. Giraffe’s name in before Mademoiselle Delacour so eloquently pointed it out to me.”

Cedric nodded, but stayed behind with Harry and the other two champions as the professors left. “We know you didn’t put your own name in. Anyone with eyes could see that you were as shocked as everyone else, and twice as terrified. No, don’t be embarrassed, you should be terrified. This tournament has killed people before, and we three are at least consenting adults. You’re fourteen. You have three years of training, and we have six. So, while I won’t help you with any spells or anything like that since you have Granger who can look up anything and everything, I will try to help keep the other students off your back.”

Delacour nodded. “You will hear nothing bad from my school.”

Krum grunted in agreement. “Mine either. This is a shitty situation, and none of it’s your fault. I will not help you with the tasks, but you will not deal with bullying while you try to figure them out.”

As Harry walked off to join his friends, Cedric couldn’t help but sigh in annoyance. He understood that Harry couldn’t help what had happened, but couldn’t there be one year where Cedric could have his moment? Oh well. He could still have this. He could still win, and not just get in. Maybe his mother would actually say something to him besides “oh that’s nice dear” then. Even as he thought it Cedric knew the likelihood of that happening was slim. If his mother hadn’t acknowledged him yet, she probably never would.

*************************

Hermione waited anxiously in their classroom for Harry to arrive with the other members of Les Amis. The others were also clearly anxious, but Ron seemed to have a scowl on his face. She wondered what that was all about. She would have to get it out of him soon. When Draco stalked past her seat for the fourth time she finally snapped, grabbing his shirt and yanking him down onto the seat next to her. “Calm down. He’s fine. Nothing’s going to happen to him while they’re talking to the champions.”

Draco sighed but settled into the chair. Barely a minute later Harry finally walked into the room, looking a strange mixture of shocked, relieved, and terrified. At first glance, he looked to be holding it together well enough, but Hermione could see the redness in his eyes, as well as the tension in his shoulders and back, as if he was preparing to run at any sign of danger.

“I’m not in trouble, at least not with the schools. And the other three are going to try to keep their classmates off my back since they know I didn’t put my name in. But I still have to compete and someone’s probably trying to kill me.”

“Oh, that’s not so bad at all!” Ginny said with a grin, then yelped when Hermione swatted her lightly on the back of the head. “What? I was kidding! Obviously someone’s trying to kill you, who isn’t these days?”

“Thanks, Gin,” Harry deadpanned.

Hermione was about to comment when Ron scoffed. “Of bloody course you didn’t get in trouble.”

The room turned to him in equal disbelief and confusion. He held their stares with an equally intense scowl.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Bonfire?” Hermione asked, her words scarcely concealing any accusations she held.

“Oh bloody hell, ‘Mione, you’re the smart one here, you know exactly what I mean,” he spat. “’Course he wouldn’t get in trouble, he’s the wizarding world’s beloved golden child! Who cares that he broke not only school rules, but an actual law, just to parade around in the fame and glory of a championship. Doesn’t he have enough as it is? Maybe this joke’s gone on too long if you can’t seem to recall that he’s Harry fucking Potter, and Potter can never do wrong, can he?” Ron ended his yelling with a fierce slam of the door as he stormed out.

The group stood in shock at the outburst. Hermione watched as Harry’s eyes glazed over, like he was trying to hold back tears. The first tear slid down his cheek, and Hermione clenched her teeth. The silence was finally broken by a chocked sob ripping itself from Harry’s throat. As if a spell had broken, Draco nearly tore up the floorboards storming towards the door, until Hermione grabbed him, and spoke in a deathly calm voice

“You take care of Harry. I’ll deal with Ronald.”

Draco’s anger drained out of him as he turned to his best friend, replaced with something even she couldn’t decipher. He ran to comfort the crying boy, and Hermione set herself on the war path.

She found Ron leaning against a wall just before the courtyard. He was pinching his nose and taking deep breaths, muttering to himself in between them. Hermione noticed, but didn’t care, picking up her pace until she was right in front of him. Ron noticed her right as she delivered the harshest smack she’d ever given. Her hand burned like Fiendfyre and his cheek looked like it hurt even worse.

“What on earth is wrong with you, Ronald Weasley?!” she shouted. “You not only yelled at one of your closest friends, you also insulted him, not to mention using his last name, the one line well all agreed never to cross! And over what? Something completely out of his control?! Have you lost your bloody mind!?”

Ron stared back at her, the fire behind his eyes slowly fading and turning to weariness. Finally he sighed, and any fight left in him drained completely.

“Yea, I think I might have.I honestly don’t know what came over me, I don’t even want to think about how bad I messed up with Harry. He must hate me now-“

Hermione took a deep breath, taking control of her anger. Ron didn’t need shouts right now, he needed her to be calm.

“Yes, you messed up big, and you’re going to fix it. But to do that, we need to know why you blew up like that. So tell me.”

Ron cringed a little. “Do we have to? Can’t I just go apologize and forget this whole thing happened?”

“Absolutely not, spill.”

Sighing, Ron sank to the floor. He wouldn’t look Hermione in the eye even as she sat beside him. It took a couple moments, but eventually Ron spoke up.

“I’m the sixth out of seven children. Bill was the first and will always be favored, no matter what mum says. Charlie is insanely gifted with dragons and making incredible progress with them. Percy may always have a stick up his arse, but he could rival any Ravenclaw, maybe even the founder herself. Fred and George are always up to something, and while most of it gets them in trouble the things they come up with are brilliant. And Ginny is the baby of the family and the only girl. That alone would’ve made her special, but she’s already showing such skill in her classes. Everyone has something going for them except me. I end up being forgotten about a lot. Hell, it wasn’t until I met Harry that I finally got consistently noticed, and even then it was just to ask how Harry’s been. Then I come here and you all are so much more skilled and powerful than me and can do things I just can’t. At least here I wasn’t only talked to because of Harry. Here I at least felt equal, even if I’m not really. But when his name got called, I just knew that’s all anyone was going to focus on. No matter if any of us want it to be, we will all have to put our attention towards him to protect him. I felt like I didn’t matter anymore, that I was just another supporter rather than a friend. I felt- I felt like I was back home.”

Hermione exhaled slowly, then leaned over to give Ron a side hug. They stayed like that for a few moments before she spoke again.

“I’m sorry you have to deal with that, and I’m sorry you’re probably right about us needing to help Harry. But you are our equal. You have done just as impressive magic as we all have. You’re an Animagus as well, don’t forget, and that’s some of the most difficult magic out there. We won’t forget about you or toss you aside, but that still doesn’t excuse how you treated Harry.” She stood and offered her hand. “So. Why don’t we go fix this?”

Ron smiled slightly and took her hand with only a second’s hesitation. “Yeah, ok. Thanks, ‘Mione.” Still holding hands, they headed back to the classroom together.

Notes:

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please leave me a comment, I love all of your feedback, and it helps keep me motivated! (Not that I have plans to abandon this don't worry lol.)

Question of the week: What tables did the visiting students sit at? (Be specific. Each correct place gets 2.5 points)

Standings:
Slytherin: 181.5
Ravenclaw: 77.5
Hufflepuff: 36.5
Gryffindor: 10

Chapter 11: Fearful Names

Summary:

Another visit with the thestrals, and strange things in the forest.

Notes:

I am so sorry this is late. I finally just today got my internet connected, and it works like a dream, thankfully. So as a present, here's a chapter! And I make no promises about this weekend, but I'm definitely going to start planning for next chapter and hopefully I'll be able to get it out on Saturday.

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! Leave me a comment! I read them all!

A few days later found Harry in the Forbidden Forest with the thestrals. He was sitting underneath a tree with this year’s new crop of foals cuddling with him while their dams watched carefully from nearby. The closest one, Kali, had her head resting on his lap as he stroked her neck with one hand, the other hand busy gesturing wildly.

“I know there’s nothing that can be done about it now, but you’d think that a dangerous tournament like this would be better protected! If anyone can just put someone’s name it, we’re lucky someone didn’t put in a first year’s as a prank or something! I know the Goblet’s supposed to pick the best person fitted for the job, but what if it made a mistake? What if some poor first year had to deal with all of this?”

Namgal, Ereshkigal’s first foal, whistled soothingly and scooted closer, making Harry huff in amusement. “Yeah I know. It didn’t happen. Instead I got shoved into this mess.”

Suddenly a loud roar ripped through the forest. Before Harry could do more than flinch, his tree was surrounded by the adult thestrals, the foals being absolutely still around him. He carefully extricated himself from the foals, careful to move slowly and not garner attention. He carefully stepped up next to Thanatos, who looked displeased that he was out of the circle but didn’t do more than try to nudge him back into the center.

Harry carefully stepped out of the circle completely, but didn’t stop Thanatos when he followed closely behind him. Before long they found the cause of the roar, and Thanatos was quick to bite the back of his shirt before Harry accidentally stumbled into the clearing.

Another roar burst out, this time followed by a jet of white hot fire, and Harry flinched again, jerking back into Thanatos as he found himself surrounded by a pile of bones that seemed to have just popped into existence, or perhaps were summoned from the ground, since the ground seemed to have been upturned quite violently.

He shivered, wondering what was happening to him that he was summoning bones, instead of just finding them. He shook himself and turned to go. Thanatos seemed very pleased by this decision and hurried right next to him before opening one of his wings and crouching down a little.

Harry blinked in shock and looked up at the thestral. “Are you sure?” The look he got in return was clear. It was practically a whole paragraph of how it would be faster to get away by flight. Harry nodded and quickly, if not easily, climbed on. One sweep of wings later, and Harry found himself flying through the Forest back to the thestrals’ clearing.

******************

After he helped the thestrals find another clearing farther away from the dragons, Harry headed back to the school. As he exited the Forest, he quickly turned the stone on his ring in the agreed pattern that Les Amis should meet in the classroom when they could, but that it wasn’t an emergency.

By the time he reached the classroom, everyone was there, so Harry just sat down quickly and told what happened.

Everyone was silent for a moment, then Ginny spoke. “Talk about being wary of fire,” she snorted, before her smile dropped. “Seriously though, dragons? That sucks. Should Ron and I write to Charlie to see if he has any advice?”

Ron shook his head. “I shouldn’t. If I ask about dragons now of all times when I’ve always tried to avoid his conversations about them before then he’ll get suspicious. I’ll help Hermione research instead.”

Hermione blushed for some reason, but Harry shrugged it off in favor of thanking them.

Draco grinned. “I’ll help you find fire proofing spells. Wouldn’t want you to get burnt to a crisp, after all. It would be such a shame to ruin your pretty face.”

Harry sputtered for a moment while the others just laughed, making Harry turn away.

“Seriously though, we need to research fire proofing spells,” Draco said, making everyone else agree.

“We also need to figure out why you’re summoning bones now though. It’s probably because of your grandfather, but it would be best to figure out exactly why,” Hermione interjected.

Neville nodded seriously. “Finding bones everywhere is one thing, but if every time you’re frightened or startled you summon them? Not good. That’s a quick way to get a one way trip to the worst place in everyone’s regard.”

“Harry will have to wait to ask, it’s not like he’s going to be allowed to leave to talk to the portraits in his vault without a good reason,” Ron said pragmatically.

“It will turn out,” Luna said. “All things do, and Yule break will come soon enough.”

“I want to know more about the thestrals!” Ginny exclaimed.

Harry grinned, leaning toward her. “There is one thing I didn’t mention.

Draco groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Don’t tell me.”

Harry laughed, leaning into his side briefly. “Fine, I won’t tell you.”

Ginny groaned. “Won’t you tell me, Harry? I want to know!”

Hermione frowned. “We probably should know, just to make sure it’s not another incident like with the murder snake in the walls.”

“Salmissra is perfectly nice!” Harry exclaimed, affronted.

Neville hid his laugh behind his arm. “Yes, we know that now, but when you first started talking to her all you knew was that she was hungry and in the walls.”

Harry pouted. “Fine. Then I won’t tell you what I did.”

Draco leaned into his side. “I suppose we should know. It can’t be worse than seeing dragons if Harry’s this excited about it.”

Harry grumbled, but his twitching lips showed how much he was enjoying the moment with his friends. “Fine, I’ll tell you,” he said dramatically, then leaned forward with a mad glint in his eye and a grin. “I rode a thestral.”

Notes:

I hope the chapter was worth the wait! I know it's only about as long as they usually are, but hopefully it was still good. Leave me a comment! They feed my muse, even if it takes a while to follow it!

Question of the Week:
What kind of rune would be used on glasses? (Hint: I only mentioned it once)

Standings:
Slytherin: 231.5
Ravenclaw: 142.5
Hufflepuff: 41.5
Gryffindor: 10

Chapter 12: Ferocious Names

Summary:

The lead up and the first task.

Notes:

Wow! A chapter actually almost on time! It's a miracle! Also, updates have been so sporadic lately, so here, have a super long one!

Anyway, hope you guys like this chapter, leave me a comment below!

Over the next week, when they weren’t in classes, Les Amis were in the library researching dragons. They had split up the research based on what they already knew about dragons, which was not very much, even though Ginny had always listened to Charlie whenever he talked about his job. Hermione was studying fireproofing spells, Neville and Ginny were studying male dragons, Ron and Luna were studying female dragons, and Draco and Harry were studying hatchlings.

Everything was going well, everyone finding important information, but Harry noticed that Draco seemed to be distracted.

He nudged the blonde and leaned against him. “Hey, you ok?”

Draco jerked in his seat and looked down at Harry. “Yeah, sorry, just lost in thought.”

With that, he turned back to his research, but Harry frowned. Draco may say that everything was fine, but he could tell that something was wrong. Well, if he didn’t want to talk about it there was nothing for it, so Harry turned back to his own research.

A moment later Ron spoke up from his spot. “We better hope that you don’t get a nesting mother. This book has a whole chapter dedicated to how much more dangerous they are than any other dragon. Which, makes sense. I’m pretty sure Mum is about ten times more dangerous than Dad any day of the week, just in general, but if something were hurting us kids she’d be even worse.”

Ginny nodded fervently. “In fact, we better hope that if anything you get a male dragon out of mating season. They’re pretty lazy and ignore everything that isn’t explicitly provoking them, according to this book.”

Hermione leaned over towards Ron. “What about a mother who’s eggs have hatched but the hatchlings have started to grow? How long is a mother a nesting mother?”

“Until the babies leave I expect,” Ron says. “The book doesn’t say exactly, although it does mention that even when mothers have been separated from their hatchlings shortly after birth they still recognize them later.”

Hermione nodded and leaned back before putting her book on the table. “Makes sense. Now. There are a lot of fireproofing spells, but I’m not sure if they’ll work against dragon fire. It’s well known for being more powerful than other magically created fire, so we need to find some backup plan just in case, or just don’t get hit.”

Harry laughed nervously as Draco glared at him lightly. “I guess we should go for ‘don’t get hit’ and find other fireproofing methods?”

Draco’s glare lessened as he spoke up. “Another interesting thing is that dragons are born with as much fire as they’re going to have, but hatchlings are less likely to be able to control it, so like baby snakes and their venom, dragonettes might kill you on accident while an adult dragon might just scorch you a little.”

Harry nodded. “I remember reading that too. So hope for an adult male out of breeding season. Of course knowing my luck, that means we’re getting a nesting mother with a just hatched dragonette, so prepare for the worst.”

The rest of the group nodded grimly and turned back to their research, Harry moving to help Hermione find other ways to protect against the dragon fire.

**************************

Harry stepped out of the Arithmancy classroom with Hermione and Draco and heard quiet talking from the hallway over. He motioned for his friends to be quiet and carefully snuck over to hear what was happening. It had sounded like one of the Headmasters from the other schools, and they would have no reason to be speaking so quietly in such an out of the way area, so Harry wanted to know what was going on.

He was glad he had come to listen, because he found Madame Maxime telling one of her male students about how fire was such a dangerous thing and how they should all be very careful about it and anything that might make it. The cheating was not surprising, and at least she wasn’t being blatant or obvious about it. At most, Delacour would eventually think of dragons, but it would take a while for her to get to that point. Several other creatures and objects made fire, such as phoenixes. Of course not many fiery creatures were dangerous like dragons, but the things that had been created by wizards were often very dangerous.

Harry turned away. Cheating was part of the game from what Draco had told him, and he was sure no one wanted anybody to die, so they made sure that they were at least well informed enough to not die. If he heard any rumors of Krum also knowing about the fire portion at least, Harry would make sure that Diggory knew to study up for fire related things, but no more. It was Cedric’s responsibility to prepare, and he was also seventeen. He’d be fine. Besides, if Harry helped Cedric, the Hufflepuff would feel the need to keep things fair and might help Harry later, which might keep him alive too.

Harry slipped away back to his friends and grinned at them. “Everything’s fine. We should get to our next class.”

By the end of the day, he had heard Karkaroff speaking directly to Krum about fire and it’s danger, so Harry wrote a note for Diggory, then slipped it into his pocket as he walked past without the older boy even realizing he’d been given a note. The Dursleys were good for one thing at least.

The next day Harry saw Diggory in the library studying up on fireproofing spells and things that made fire and smiled. Good. At least he wouldn’t die or something.

***************************

The day of the task finally arrived and Harry forced himself to eat a little bit of toast. Draco tried to get him to eat some more, but Harry knew if he ate anything else he’d just throw it all up. He anxiously sat next to Draco until Professor Snape seemed to materialize behind them.

“Gyrde. It’s time. I will escort you to the location of the first task.”

Harry nodded and turned to Draco, swallowing before waving goodbye and following Professor Snape. When they reached the tent, Professor Snape turned to Harry. He looked uncomfortable for a moment, then coughed and turned his head away.

“Good luck, Gyrde.”

“Thanks, Professor,” Harry whispered, and then Professor Snape swept away.

Harry took a deep breath and stepped inside the tent. Time to face the music.

***********************

Draco held his breath as he hovered outside the tent. It wouldn’t be good if someone caught him out here, since he wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place. But he just had to wish Harry good luck. It wouldn’t feel right if he didn’t, and while he would worry about Harry anyway, he would worry even more if he didn’t get to see Harry one more time before he went out to face the dragon.

Finally, Draco heard Harry pacing on the other side of the tent flap and hissed at him.

“Harry!” he whispered furiously.

“Draco?” Harry asked incredulously. “What are you doing here?”

“I just- I wanted to wish you luck. You’re going against a dragon after all.”

Harry was quiet for a moment, then his breathing sped up and suddenly sank towards the ground. Draco abandoned all sense of subtlety and rushed into the tent just in time to catch Harry before he sank to the ground completely. Harry clung to him just as tightly as he clung to Harry, taking comfort from each other.

The moment was broken by the flash of a camera and the entrance of Rita Skeeter.

“Ah, young love,” the woman said brightly. “And such scandalous love at that! The Boy-Who-Lived and a Malfoy of all people!”

Draco scowled at the woman as her Quick Quotes Quill wrote as she spoke. He had opened his mouth to defend Harry to the reporter when Harry spoke up from beside him.

“My friend, who I share a House with, was just wishing me good luck before I go face the first task. Is that such a horrible, scandalous thing? Is there nothing else worth writing about?”

Draco almost blushed, but managed to refrain by smirking at the witch instead. “I’m sure my father would love to hear about the Daily Prophet writing about the personal lives of underaged teenagers instead of the Triwizard Tournament itself, as you’re supposed to. I’ll make sure to mention it in my next letter to him, which should be going out, oh, tonight.”

Skeeter blanched and her Quill began scratching out the words previously written. The other three champions stepped up as well, half surrounding Draco and Harry, and while Diggory glanced at them to make sure they were alright, Delacour glared at Skeeter.

“What do you think you’re doing in here?” She hissed. “This tent is only for the champions to have quiet time to prepare for the task! Invited friends are one thing, but a reporter for what this country calls a newspaper is a completely different matter. You are not welcome here.”

Krum nodded silently from beside her and Draco found himself feeling grateful for the older students. They had stepped in when needed, and not a second before, and had backed them up without a second thought.

Skeeter left with a huff, followed by her photographer and her still quickly writing Quill, and Draco turned back to Harry.

"I have to go, but I wanted to wish you luck one more time. You’re going to do great, and if you die, I’ll make Owlet learn Necromancy just to bring you back to life so I can kill you myself.”

Harry laughed humorlessly, glancing away nervously. “We all know that Owlet wouldn’t be able to do that nearly as well as I could, and I couldn’t do it very well in the first place,” he whispered. “But thanks. And spread my thanks to the others too.”

Draco nodded, gave Harry one more tight hug, and vanished out of the tent to find a place to sit.

************************

Harry took a deep breath before turning to Mr. Bagman, who had just entered the tent dramatically, holding a suspiciously moving bag and followed by the Headmasters and Mr. Crouch.

“A few announcements, before we begin,” Mr. Crouch said imperiously. “Firstly, the reveal of what your task is to be. You are to collect a golden egg from a nesting mother dragon. This egg will be the clue for your second task, so if you do not get it, you will not receive the clue for the second task. Secondly, what Mr. Bagman holds in his hand is a bag of the types of dragons you will face. You will each pick a dragon, and that dragon is the kind you will face in this task. Now. Mr. Bagman, if you please?”

“Yes, yes, of course, Mr. Crouch. Ladies first, I say, Mademoiselle Delacour, if you would?”

Delacour stepped forward and reached into the bag easily. When she pulled her hand out, she held a miniature green dragon that spouted flames at her fingers before curling up on her hand.

“Ah, the Welsh Green! And you’ll be going second, as you can see by the number around the dragon’s neck here. Next, let’s have Mr. Krum. Come, come, pick out your dragon, don’t be shy now!” Bagman said cheerfully.

Krum stepped forward as well, and when he stepped back, he was holding a red dragon that shot out an actual ball of fire.

“Ah, good! The Chinese Fireball! You’ll be going third. Mr. Diggory, you’re up. Come along now!” Bagman sounded even more cheerful, if it was possible.

Diggory swallowed nervously before reaching into the bag and drawing out a silvery-blue dragon. The dragon nipped at his fingers before coiling into it’s tail in his hand.

“Good, good, the Swedish Short-Snout! Cheers, mate! You’ll be going first! And now, Mr. Potter. Come on now, don’t be nervous. These dragons can’t give any lasting damage, unlike their very real counterparts outside!”

Harry grimaced at the use of his last name but stepped forward to grab the last dragon in the sack. He yanked his hand out when the dragon bit him, pulling the miniature out by the teeth.

“The Hungarian Horntail! Awful luck, mate, that’s the toughest one there is!” Bagman sounded far too cheerful about Harry’s possible imminent death, so Harry just forced out a smile and turned away to try and calm the angry little figure down. Maybe it would give him some hints that would help with his plan to deal with the dragon.

Bagman tried to pull Harry aside for a moment, but Harry just frowned at him and said he’d rather finish preparing for the task, so Bagman backed off. A few minutes later, there was muffled sounds from outside, then a cannon boomed. Diggory gulped and stepped out to cheers. About ten minutes later, he stepped back in, again to cheers, and immediately headed over to Madame Pomfrey, holding his arm to his side gingerly, but holding the golden egg tightly in his grasp in the other hand.

Another cannon boomed, and Delacour stepped out, head high and hair whipping behind her as the wind hit it. Krum began pacing while she was out there, and Harry turned towards the tent wall to avoid seeing his visible nervousness. It was making his own worse.

Another ten minutes or so passed, and Delacour stepped back in, head as high as it was when she left and not a scratch or burn on her. Harry had definitely heard the dragon roar at least once, so it was very impressive indeed.

A moment later, the cannon boomed for the third time, making Krum breathe in sharply before striding out confidently. He took a little longer, closer to fifteen minutes, but he strode back into the tent with just a mild burn and a slight grimace on his face as he looked back at the dragon before the tent flap closed.

Harry took a deep breath and braced himself as there was a longer pause this time before the cannon boomed. Were they having trouble getting the dragon into the enclosure? What did that say about the dragon and his chances of beating her? He wracked his brain for his plan, but found it completely blank. He started to panic, breathing quickly and shallowly. The cannon finally boomed, and Harry startled, jumping almost out of his skin before taking a deep breath and forcing himself to calm down. Panicking would not help his situation.

As he stepped out into the enclosure, he felt his throat closing up again and forced himself to breathe deeply. When he looked up to see the dragon, he saw that she was sitting proudly in front of her eggs, her tail wrapped around them protectively. She looked like what Harry would imagine a queen of dragons looking, and he gasped in awe. His mind went blank for a completely different reason than panic, and all he could think to do was hiss in Parseltongue at her, to see if she understood it.

#Hello,# he started to say, when he was interrupted with a loud roar that shook the ground beneath him and made him fall, scraping his arm on a sharp rock. He stared at his arm as blood started to well from it, unsure what to feel besides hysterical amusement. Apparently dragons didn’t speak Parseltongue, and beyond that, they hated it. It made him laugh far to quickly and high for him to feel any actual amusement. Just like humans then.

Staring at his blood gave him an idea. His mind flashed back to one of the first classes with Professor Babbling.

“Be careful what you use when you perform magic with Runes. Etching runes into wood or stone or any other material will give you a permanent, if not particularly powerful on their own, magic base. This is how many wards are made. Runes carved into something will draw magic from what they’re carved into, so many magical buildings were built on ley lines, giving near infinite magic to the runes carved into the foundations. Ink and similar mediums is a good option, because it is less permanent and will give a moderately powerful magic burst. But there is one thing you should only under the direst of circumstances use to write runes. Blood. If I hear of a single one of you using blood to write runes in any situation where you will not die if you do not, you will be lucky if you only have to deal with detention for the remainder of your time in my class. And my detention will not be as lenient as cleaning cauldrons with Professor Snape. Blood, when used for runes, draws magic from the person or animal the blood came from. Most people will use their own blood, as it is relatively easy to get, and has a measurable magical power.”

He absently hoped that Professor Babbling wasn’t in the crowd today, or maybe he hoped that she was, so that she could see that this was indeed a life or death situation, since the dragon seemed to be gearing up to shoot fire at him.

He dipped his finger into the blood on his arm, figuring that he should use the cleanest blood he could get to get the best reaction, and began tracing on the ground in a circle around him as quickly as he could. Thurisaz, for defense and reaction. Uruz, for strength and courage. Ansuz, for inspiration. Hagalaz, for being tested and overcoming obstacles. Wunjo, for success and reward. Nauthiz, for willpower, endurance, and self-reliance. Tiwaz, for logic and battle. Laguz, for intuition. And finally, directly in front of him, the rune that he saw in the mirror every day, Sowilo, for health and victory.

He finished writing just as fire burst from the dragons lungs, and Harry felt his magic leave him in a burst as a shield flashed into existence around him. The fire hit the shield and split around it as Harry almost collapsed from the magic rushing from him. A moment later the fire stopped coming, and his magic stopped powering the shield.

He had a flash of inspiration and pointed his wand towards his own throat. Hopefully this option would mean that only Professor Babbling would kill him, instead of Draco as well. Using the spell he had seen in a book in Slytherin’s library, he whispered, “Alio Voce,” then began speaking in Parseltongue.

He had no idea what to say, so he just said whatever popped into his head. He wondered if Salmissra or Jor could hear him and if they would make fun of whatever nonsense he said later. For now, it seemed the spell worked. The dragon turned towards where the voice seemed to be coming from and growled at it, spitting fire at it, then starting to follow it when the hissing didn’t stop.

Harry crept forward slowly, staying in the cover of the boulders around the edge of the enclosure until he was behind her, where only her tail was wrapped around the nest. He hissed louder, trying to entice her into following the voice away from the nest. Finally, with agonizing slowness, her tail slid around the nest, leaving the path clear for Harry to sneak into the nest and grab the egg.

Thankfully, this spell made it seem like anything Harry said came from the place where he had imagined when he cast the spell, so even as he kept hissing, the dragon didn’t hear him. He silently stepped into the nest, then to the center where the golden egg was, not touching a single other egg. He grabbed the egg, finally, then began to carefully pick his way out of the nest, still hissing, making himself sound angrier and like he was trying to get past the dragon so she would stay distracted. It worked, thankfully, and he was able to sneak out of the nest and back into the cover of the boulders and creeping back to the entrance of the tent before cancelling the spell and nearly collapsing because of the amount of magic he’d used.

He stepped back into the tent to the crowd’s cheers and almost immediately collapsed. He saw the ground rushing up to meet him before everything went black.

Notes:

Again, everything Snape calls Harry is just "pot" in different languages according to Google Translate so I'm sorry if they're wrong. Gyrde is Danish.
Also, I made up another spell. Alio Voce means "different direction voice" in Latin, so magical ventriloquism. Thanks to my fellow brainstormer for the idea.

Question of the week: What book on Harry's first year list was written by Newt Scamander?

Standings:
Slytherin: 235
Ravenclaw: 142.5
Hufflepuff: 91
Gryffindor: 10

Chapter 13: Names We Discuss

Summary:

The aftermath of the first task.

Notes:

Ahh, it's been like a month since I last updated! This month has been really hectic. Anyway, new chapter, finally! I hope you guys enjoy! Leave me a comment below!

TW canon typical death. Not explicit, and it happens in canon, but just thought I should warn you.

When he woke up, he was in the Hospital Wing. He sat up carefully, wincing at his headache, and reached for the glass of water on the stand. As soon as his hand passed the border of the bed, Madam Pomfrey appeared from her office.

“Ah, good, you’re awake. You gave us quite the fright, young man. Now, I couldn’t ask before, since you were unconscious. Do you feel any pain anywhere?”

Harry thought for a minute, then tried to speak. His voice came out in a croak and he winced, simply pointing to his head.

“Understandable. You used a lot of magic, and that’s hard on a child of your age. Oh don’t get offended at me calling you a child. You’re all children to me, even Professor Snape. I went to school with Professor McGonagall. Now, anywhere else it hurts?”

Harry shook his head and Madam Pomfrey nodded briskly, bustling to her potions cabinet. “A headache reliever and a throat soother then. Drink the soother first, it’ll make the headache reliever easier to swallow.”

Harry drank the potions, and the Mediwitch smiled. “Good. Now, drink that water too, you’ve been out for almost twenty four hours so you’re going to be a bit dehydrated, and then you have some people who have been waiting impatiently to see you.”

Harry coughed a little, then croaked, “Who?”

“Well, Albus for one, the stupid man, wanted me to wake you up before you were ready to congratulate you and tell you your scores. And your friends of course. And I’m not sure whether Bathseda wants to congratulate you or strangle you. She seems to vacillate between them quite frequently.”

Harry winced, then sat up carefully, leaning against the headboard.

“I suppose I should let the officials in first, so you can get your scores and find out what it is you’ll be doing for the next task.” She began walking away, still muttering, “Why they decided it was a good idea to do this at a school of all things I’ll never know.”

Just as she opened the door, more people than Harry was expecting burst in.

“Harry! You’re awake!”

“Mr. Potter, congratulations!”

“Mr. Aurora Borealis what in God’s green earth made you write those runes in your own blood!”

Harry winced at the loud volume and Madam Pomfrey glared at everyone.

“What part of wait until I fetch you did you not understand, Albus? I did not mean wait outside the door to bowl me over the second I touch the doorknob! Everyone out! Wait until I fetch you!”

Everyone sheepishly shuffled outside and Harry relaxed.

“Now. If you cannot be polite about this, I will let no one in until morning, since Mr. Potter is staying the night.” Madam Pomfrey said, and Harry grimaced at the second use of his last name, but didn’t say anything. “First, Albus. Come in, say what you need to say about the tournament, and get back to your own work.”

Professor Dumbledore stepped into the room, smiling benignly at Madam Pomfrey. “Now, Poppy, no one meant any harm, I’m sure it could have been sorted without kicking everyone out.”

Madam Pomfrey huffed. “Perhaps no harm was meant, but it was nearly caused. Just because you have good intentions doesn’t mean your actions are good. Now. What are Mr. Potter’s scores and what can he expect from the second task so that you may leave my ward and get back to your own duties?”

“Very well. Mr. Orchid, I’ll give you a short version of events, since you weren’t able to hear what happened. Mr. Diggory went first and Transfigured a rock into a dog. It worked well enough as a distraction and Mr. Diggory was able to get his egg with little burning involved. He received forty seven points. Mlle. Delacour went second and attempted to put the dragon to sleep. The spell worked, but not as well as she was hoping, and the dragon snorted out some flames, which wouldn’t happen if she was fully asleep. Mlle. Delacour was hit by the flames, but wasn’t burned, and thus received thirty seven points for fetching her egg. Mr. Krum cast the Conjuctivitis curse on the dragon, which enabled him to get the egg quickly, but in her rage she crushed some of her eggs. This lost him points and he received forty points. You received forty five points for your ingenuity in using Runes and the spell you used, even though no one knew what the spell was as you spoke it so quietly. Quite good work that spell. I’d be interested in learning it to play a prank on my brother….” He trailed off and Madam Pomfrey rolled her eyes.

“Get on with it, Albus. What does he need to know for the second task so he can get some rest?”

“Ah, yes, my apologies Poppy. The egg you retrieved is your only clue for the second task. It will be held on February 24. Good luck!” With that, he swirled out of the room with his technicolor robes flaring around him.

Madam Pomfrey sighed and turned to Harry. “How are you feeling, Mr. Potter. And don’t tell me you’re fine, if you’re tired and I let your friends in then I might have to keep you another night for exhausting yourself. You used a lot of magic and while so called “magical exhaustion” isn’t something that actually happens, you’re still using energy, and that makes you tired.”

Harry thought for a moment then adjusted himself in the bed. “I think I’m alright for a few minutes, Madam Pomfrey. I’ll let you know if I get tired.” He paused for a second, then spoke more quietly. “Um, Madam Pomfrey, could you not call me Mr. Potter? At least when you don’t have to? You can call me literally anything else, just. Not Mr. Potter?”

Her eyes softened as she turned to face him fully. “Of course, Mr. Radius. Sit tight, I’ll go get your friends.”

A moment later she returned with the rest of Les Amis in tow.

“Oh, Harry, we were so worried about you!” Hermione said, hugging him tightly.

“Yeah, mate, can’t have you fighting a dragon and then dying after the battle’s over.”

“Ronald!” Hermione snapped.

“What? Someone had to say it!”

“Ignore them. They’ve been like this for the last day,” Ginny said, shoving them apart and sitting on the edge of the bed. “How you feeling?”

“I’m alright, Gin. Anything exciting happen while I was asleep?”

Draco winced and sat on the other side of the bed from Ginny, but Harry scooted over so he could sit up against the headboard next to him. “I got a letter from Father yesterday at supper. It’s. It’s not good. We shouldn’t talk about it here, but we should talk about it as soon as we can. All of us.”

“Madam Pomfrey said I have to stay one more night, but I should be able to go tomorrow. We can meet up in the Chamber after classes?” Harry suggested.

Neville nodded. “That works for me. Any news on your egg? What was so exciting about it?”

Harry grimaced. “Apparently it’s my clue for the second task. Am I supposed to find the egg that looks the same and assume I’m fighting that creature?”

Hermione frowned. “Isn’t it just a fake dragon egg?”

Luna hummed. “I don’t think so. It doesn’t have quite the right look, I don’t think.”

Hermione grinned. “Guess that means we need to do research!”

Ron groaned. “Ugh, can’t it wait until Harry’s better at least?”

Neville looked at him. “Why. He needs all the help he can get. No offence Harry.”

“None taken,” Harry grinned.

They chatted for a couple minutes more, but Harry started yawning, so the others started to get up. “We’ll see you tomorrow for class, Harry?” Hermione asked.

“Yeah, Mione. Thanks for coming to see me, you guys.”

“Anytime, Harry,” Draco said, before leaning closer so their shoulders brushed more firmly before getting up from the bed.

After they’d all left, Harry laid back down and tried to stay awake to think about what Draco might want to think about, but fell asleep immediately.

Harry looked around, confused. Hadn’t he just been in the Hospital wing? Now he was in a dusty sitting room with a fire. A muggle man walks in, and the fear Harry feels is strange. He doesn’t fear the man, he fears for the man. Something, or someone, is in the armchair in front of the fire, and if the muggle doesn’t get away, he’ll be hurt.

A high voice hisses from the armchair and Harry almost screams. “Kill him, Wormtail. I promised you would be able to prove your loyalty to me and my cause. Now kill him. KILL HIM!!”

Harry watches, frozen, as Peter Pettigrew stands up from where he was kneeling before the armchair and says an inaudible spell, but Harry knows it for the bright green light that streaks out and hits the muggle right in the chest.

Suddenly Harry is sitting upright in his bed in the Hospital Wing, clutching his scar and trying not to make a sound. He suddenly remembers a similar strange dream earlier in the summer, where he awoke to a dull throbbing in his scar and had just attributed it to a slight headache. But now he remembers the dream that had come before the waking, and it was scarily similar to this, except that a weird baby with Voldemort’s face had told a snake to kill a woman after forcing her to tell him about the Triwizard Tournament.

He rubbed at the skin over his scar for a moment, then flopped back onto his bed. He didn’t think he was going to be able to sleep anymore tonight.

Notes:

Yes, I decided that the Golden Egg is actually a mermaid egg and either the dragons didn't care that there was a weird egg in their nests, which, would have been the case in canon anyway, unless dragon eggs were made of gold, or handwavy magic stuff was done so the dragons would allow the eggs. Also there was a whole conversation between me and my fellow brainstormer about mermaid reproduction, so, you're welcome I guess lol.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed! Leave me a comment, they feed my muse!

Question of the week: How did Cedric find out about the dragons? Be specific.

Standings:
Slytherin: 246.5
Ravenclaw: 147.5
Hufflepuff: 98.5
Gryffindor: 10

Chapter 14: Name Anything Worse

Summary:

The next day, and discussions that have been needing to happen.

Notes:

*Looks at calendar* So uh, it's been like a month since I last posted. I am so sorry. Hopefully this chapter makes up for the wait!

Enjoy! And leave a comment, they make me think about it more often!

The next morning, Madam Pomfrey frowned at his tiredness, but when he mentioned that it was just a nightmare and the only cure for that was good sleep in his own bed, she relented and let him go. Since it was a school day, he headed to breakfast and sat next to Draco, who greeted him with a smile and shoulder bump.

It wasn’t until DADA was over that Harry realized that Runes was today. He groaned and slumped onto Draco as they settled into their seats in Charms, and Draco raised an eyebrow.

“Runes is today,” Harry muttered petulantly.

Draco, the bastard, just laughed. Harry swatted him lightly with his sleeve and sat up as Professor Flitwick started class.

After lunch, Harry, Draco, and Hermione headed towards Runes. Harry dragged his feet when they neared the classroom, but they were all in their seats by the time class started.

Professor Babbling wasted no time. “What was the first thing I taught you in this class, Mr. Kennaz?”

Harry gulped. “To only use blood to write runes in a life or death situation?”

“Are you asking or telling me?”

“Telling.”

“And, while the dragon would have killed you had you not used runes, the runes would have had enough power if you had used ink or something else. Now. I understand that you did not have ink at the time, but it is a simple conjuring to produce some. So, today, we will learn that conjuring spell, since you clearly have not learned it in Charms yet.”

Hermione raised her hand, and Professor Babbling nodded to her. “We don’t cover Conjuring as an actual topic until fifth year in Charms. We’ve learned some conjuring charms, but not very many.”

“Well then. You lot will get a head start then. Now. While Mr. Eiwaz here was in an interesting situation, should I hear of anyone else following in his footsteps, there will be heavy consequences.” With that, she whirled around and settled at her desk, pulling out her wand and conjuring a bottle of ink to begin the lesson.

*****************

After supper, Harry and Draco wait patiently outside Myrtle’s bathroom for the others. They had a lot to discuss, and Harry was sure Salmissra would want to know how the first task had gone.

Neville arrived first, and Harry greeted him with a smile. He was carrying a plant, which had wrapped it’s vines around his waist and shoulders.

Neville noticed the questioning glances and shrugged. “She was lonely. It’s a quirk of her species. During their developmental months they need body heat rather than heat from the sun. They’re picky though, and won’t go to just anyone for this heat. Once she’s matured, she’ll be more stationary, but there have been stories of mature ones protecting their caretaker when they’re nearby. She’s actually a subspecies of the Whomping Willow, except she won’t try to whomp anyone who comes by.”

“Huh. That’s cool that she likes you, then,” Harry said. “Will she be ok in the Chamber?”

“Yeah, she’ll be fine,” Neville said. Just then, Hermione hurried up.

“Sorry, sorry, I was finishing up the homework for Charms and lost track of time! Luna should be right behind me, she was going to go find Ginny.”

Just as she spoke, Luna, Ginny, and Ron came around the corner. Harry grinned and checked both ways before slipping into Myrtle’s bathroom, followed by the other six.

#He he he, you ssslutsss wink will never guesssssss my passssssword# As the stairs materialized out of the walls, Harry motioned the others to go down first. As soon as he was clear of the door, he hissed again. #Clossse, but keep the ssstairsss.# As the entrance slid shut, lights flickered on around them.

Hermione, in the front, gasped. “How did you do that, Harry?”

“I just wanted to make sure no one followed us this year especially. There are people we don’t know, and Voldemort is getting stronger by the day. That’s part of what I need to say, but that can wait till we get to the main Chamber.”

Hermione nodded and turned around to keep walking down the stairs. Before long they reached the main doors, and Harry opened them with a quick hiss. Salmissra met them in the middle of the room, quickly surrounding them and nudging Harry. #Harry hatchling, you mussst be more careful! Dragonsss, of all thingsss! Oh that headmassster had better watch hisss back from now on!#

Harry laughed and patted her nose. #I’m fine, Sssalmissssssra. Hardly a ssscratch, and what wasss injured wasss fixed in the Hossspital Wing. Now, would you like to join usss for our talk?#

Salmissra finally stopped fussing over him and unwound from around the children. #No, hatchling. Thisss dissscussssssion would be bessst had without interfering mother figuresss I think.#

Harry blushed and glared at her. #I only called you mum onccce! And I thought we ssswore to never bring it up again!#

Salmissra gave a snakey chuckle. #No, you ssswore to never bring it up again. Go have your talk, I will wait here. Make sssure to come sssee me again before you leave.#

Harry nodded and the humans stepped into the inner Chamber, then headed towards the library.

***************

Draco was nervous. He didn’t want to talk about the letter his father had sent him, but he knew they needed to talk about it. He had gotten it the morning after the first task, and he hadn’t really had time to process it what with worrying about Harry. But now it was time to talk about it, and he didn’t know how anyone would react.

When everyone had settled into the chairs in the library, they looked at Draco patiently. He took a deep breath and pulled out the letter that he hadn’t let out of his sight since he got it.

“As I mentioned last night, I got a letter from my father. He said that his Dark Mark was getting darker, and that it most likely meant that the Dark Lord is getting stronger.” He closed his eyes and breathed deeply again. “He also said it’s a very bad time to be seen as friends with Harry. And, I agree with him, somewhat. On the technicalities, if not the reality.”

He looked over at Harry, but he just looked thoughtful, as did the rest of the group when Draco chanced a glance at them.

Harry was the first to break the silence. “I know Voldemort’s getting stronger. I had a vision, or a dream, or something about him last night. He has a body, but it’s a baby body. He has to rely on Wormtail, even for casting spells.”

Neville nodded. “I think Draco’s dad is right. Voldemort getting stronger is a bad time for one of his most loyal supporter’s son to be friends with the Boy-Who-Lived. So. How do we work with this?”

Draco breathed a sigh of relief he didn’t know he was holding, slumping in his chair and almost crying. “Thank you guys,” he whispered. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“What, you thought we wouldn’t at least hear you out? If not understand that you want to protect your family as well as us? Please,” Ginny scoffed. “As if. If you’re friends with Harry, then Voldy can get to Harry through you, and to your family through Harry. It’s a lose lose.”

“So, what can we do?” Hermione asked, looking frustrated. “Whatever we end up doing it can leave no room for disbelief that Harry and Draco are no longer friends. And maybe Draco and the rest of us, for that matter.”

Luna hummed in thought. “Yes, it must be big, and it must be public. How is your godfather doing, Harry?”

Harry frowned at her, baffled. “He’s fine, living with Remus and Reggie, as you all know, you visited over the- Of course! Luna, you’re a genius.” He turned to Draco. “Dray, you need to insult Sirius. Or at least Remus, and by extension Sirius. Here’s what I’m thinking….”

Notes:

Hahahaha, cliffhanger! The next chapter. Should be out a bit quicker. Perhaps a Christmas present? Fingers crossed for all of us (Me most of all ahahaha).

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed! Leave me a comment, they remind me that people actually read this!

Question of the Week:
How did Barty trick the Goblet of Fire?

Standings:
Slytherin: 346.5
Ravenclaw: 152.5
Hufflepuff: 108.5
Gryffindor: 10

Chapter 15: Fight for Your Name

Summary:

The fight! And a few other things.

Notes:

Ok, I know this is not a Christmas present, and I think we're long past the New Years present too, so I'm super sorry. I hope it was worth the wait none the less!

Bit of hand wavy magic happening here, but honestly if you can't have hand wavy magic then what even can you have.

Ron grimaced as he thought back to the plan. It would definitely work, if there was one thing Slytherins were definitely good at, it was making plans. The problem wasn’t that it might not work, it was what the plan entailed. The things Draco would have to say, and act like he meant…. Ron hated them. But he could live with it, because it would make life safer for all of them if Draco was no longer visibly talking to them.

Speaking of the plan, it was time. Ron carefully fell in with Harry and Draco as they began their trek to Potions. He didn’t want to get int the way of the fireworks, but they had decided that now would be the best time, because the Malfoys and the Weasleys were famous for not getting along, so if a fight were to happen that would break apart the whole group, they couldn’t do it with say, Neville.

“So, Harry,” Draco started. “How is dear Sirius? Still putting up with Lupin?”

“What do you mean ‘putting up with’, Draco? There’s no ‘putting up with’ on either end. I’ve told you their dating,” Harry said, perfectly confused. Ron was impressed. For a script that had basically been written the night before, Harry was acting perfectly.

“I know you said they were dating, but I was really hoping that was just a bit of an exaggeration. Nothing against Professor Lupin, mostly, but a pureblood like Sirius Black really could do better than someone like our previous professor.” Draco was dancing around giving actual offence, but Ron supposed that was better. If he had been the one who had to break it off with his friends, he wouldn’t be able to do it like this. He’d be too straight forward and that might make it too obvious.

“What exactly are you implying?” Harry asked, stopping completely and turning to face Draco head on. This was why they had picked Potions on this particular day, because they had a free period before and could leave early enough to not be late if the “argument” went too long.

“Harry, I’m implying nothing at all. My mother had just written about a lovely pureblood woman she had met recently that she thought Sirius would like, is all.” Draco stopped as well, and turned to face Harry, confusion written all over his face.

“Sirius and Remus have been dating since their Hogwarts days. Your mother was there while they were. She should know better than to set Siri up with anyone, he’s dead set on Remus.”

Draco sniffed pompously. “Well, if he wants to shack up with a halfbreed like that it’s his own fault. If Remus was completely human it’d be one thing, but he’s not, is he?”

Harry gaped, looking so offended that Ron wouldn’t have known it was a ruse if he hadn’t been let in on it. Now was his turn. A Slytherin would never be so crass as to start a fight, but a Gryffindor? This was right up Ron’s alley.

“You take that back!” he snapped, stepping forward to stand beside Harry facing Draco. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with Remus and you know it!”

“Of course you would think that,” Draco said condescendingly. Ron bristled. If he forgot they were friends, then this acting thing was really quite easy. Malfoy was a git, and deserved to be told so. Multiple times, and multiple ways, if the first way wouldn’t do it.

Ron drew his wand first, as had been planned, and sent off a relatively harmless jinx. He didn’t want to actually hurt the prat, since Draco was still their friend, just not in the open anymore. It was just a light stinging hex to make him yelp a little. And yelp he did, and turn his wand on Ron too, to make it even better.

Once Draco had fired a Tripping jinx at Ron, Harry retaliated with a Sticking charm on Draco’s shoes, so that when he tried to take a step he tripped as well. Draco scowled at him and sent a stinging hex at him as well.

After a few more stinging hexes, Harry and Ron were walking on one side of the hallway, while Draco conspicuously walked on the other side. They had timed it perfectly. People had started to exit their classes just as Harry and Draco had really begun sniping at each other, so the news would be around Hogwarts by dinner. Harry and Draco were no longer speaking, and Ron had sided with Harry.

********************

Later that week, Harry had still not spoken a word to Draco in public and avoided him like the plague when Professor Snape called a meeting of the House.

“It has come to my attention that you have not yet been informed of the Yule ball happening on the 25^th of December. Anyone fourth year and up is allowed to attend without an invitation, and if you are asked by an upper year, third years are also allowed to attend. Each of the chosen champions are required to bring a date, as they must open the dance with their partners. I will provide dancing classes, taught by the sixth year prefects, to those who require them.”

Harry immediately thought of Draco but regretfully discarded the thought. If they went to the ball together, it would ruin all their hard work. They couldn’t risk the plan at such a crucial moment in time. At the end of the week, the Slytherins, at least, would assume there was a serious crack in their relationship that couldn’t or wouldn’t be easily fixed.

So, he had to ask someone else. But who?

After a moment’s thought he shook his head. There would be plenty of time to think about that later. For now, he had to remember that he couldn’t commiserate with Draco about the dancing lessons, although knowing Aunt Cissa, he’d learned already.

*****************

Barty grimaced as he replayed the recording of the egg he had taken from Diggory. The boy was Hufflepuff to the core and had seen no problem with “Professor Moody” recording his egg so he could try to figure it out himself. He knew Dumbledore, the gullible fool, would eventually tell him what the second task was, but if he figured it out himself he could tell his beloved master what it was and get further instructions sooner, and the old fool might not tell him until too soon before the task.

In a fit of rage, he flicked his wand to banish the recording, accidentally sending the sound into the bath he’d been filling instead of stopping the sound like he had intended. With a groan he prepared to banish the sound again, this time properly.

But the sound from the bath wasn’t a screech like it had been before. If anything, it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. With a grimace at the thought of the water going over his head, he carefully dipped one of his ear under the water and listened.

After listening to it twice, he smirked and rose, banishing the sound before draining the tub and getting dressed. He had a lord to contact, immediately. His lord would absolutely love this news.

***************

Viktor Krum snapped his egg closed with a growl. He could not figure it out, and his shipmates had banned him from listening to it inside. In a fit of rage, he threw the egg overboard, than sighed as he realized he would have to go get it. Luckily he had learned to swim in the cold waters of the lake by Durmstrang, and even though it was nearing Yule, the lake here was not as cold as Järvi Lake. Stripping off his jacket and shoes, he dove in, only to hear the most beautiful music. What? As he got closer to the egg, he realized that it was coming from the annoying object.

He listened to the song twice through, then swam back up to the ship, emerging with a grin. If anyone asked, he would just say he dropped it on accident. No one needed to know he had thrown it overboard.

*************

Fleur Delacour groaned as she closed the egg for what felt like the millionth time. She just couldn’t figure it out. What kind of creature, plant, or place made such a sound? With a sigh, she leaned back against her bed and put the egg on the floor next to her.

She rolled over and groaned again. If she couldn’t figure it out now, she would just have to learn as much as she possibly could about everything. She doubted the next task would include fire, since the first task already had, and besides, she didn’t every really have to worry about fire. The perks of being part Veela were her resistance to fire, even dragon fire.

With another sigh, she got up and headed to the library in the carriage. She might as well start with water.

***************

Cedric Diggory had no idea why he was carrying the egg with him into the bath of all places, but he had started carting the thing around everywhere, just in case it was something to do with where it was. He sighed as he stripped for the bath, then filled his ears with wax, just in case, before dunking the egg underwater and opening it. He winced, prepared for the horrible screeching,

He opened his eyes as he didn’t hear the usual offensive screeching, and carefully pulled the wax out of his ears. When he only heard soft music, he carefully dunked his head under the water and listened in shock as the egg sang a beautiful song. He listened to it twice, memorizing it carefully, before casting a drying charm at himself and heading to the library. He needed every book he could get on the Black Lake.

****************

Harry flopped back on his bed, careful to keep a grip of his egg. The last time he’d done that, he’d dropped it and it had taken far too long to get it closed again. He glanced around the room, then his eyes caught on Bob the squid, who seemed to have taken residence right where Harry would easily see him.

Harry growled. He was frustrated with the egg, and now Bob was tormenting him! He stood up, fetched his shoes, made sure his grip on the egg was solid, and headed up towards the Black Lake.

On the way, he passed Neville, who turned to walk with him. “Where are we headed?” he asked.

“I’m going to fight Bob,” was the answer Harry gave.

“You’re going to—Harry you can’t swim!”

“I’m going to fight Bob.”

Neville seemed to realize he was implacable, for he just gulped and eyed the egg Harry held, and followed him quietly until they reached the lake.

Harry began to quickly take off his shoes and outer robe before wading into the lake. Neville quickly followed suit, trying to convince him to stop.

When he was about waist deep he tripped over something on the lakebed and dropped the egg, only staying on his feet because of Neville’s grip on his arm. With a groan he dunked his head underwater to find it, then almost gasped as he heard the most beautiful song he’d ever heard.

“Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you're searching, ponder this:

We've taken what you'll sorely miss,

An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took.

But past an hour - the prospect's black

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.”

He listened to it a few times to make sure he had it memorized, then he used the ring to call a meeting. They needed to figure out how he was going to be able to survive an hour underwater. And also what exactly was singing. Who knew what was able to sing underwater but only scream on land in the magical world.

Notes:

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a comment below, they actually do help me write faster!

Question of the week: What was the example of previous use of a Color Charm on the Goblet?

Standings:
Slytherin:359
Ravenclaw:192.5
Hufflepuff: 116
Gryffindor: 15

Chapter 16: Name the Date

Summary:

Preparations for the Yule Ball abound, will Harry find a date?

Notes:

I deleted the note that was originally this chapter, but I'm going to keep the question I asked in the end notes. It will be the "question of the week", with no points given for this chapter.

Anyways, I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, but here it is, finally! I hope you enjoy it! Leave me a comment below!

The Yule Ball was rapidly approaching, and Harry had still not found a date. He would have been fine going by himself, but he had to open the dancing portion of the ball as one of the Champions. He briefly thought of asking Ron, since Hermione was going with someone she seemed to want to save as a surprise, but decided that both of them sucking at dancing wouldn’t make a good impression for the opening dance.

He thought about every girl he knew even marginally and almost asked Ginny, but it turned out Neville had asked her instead. When he congratulated his friend, he found out Luna hadn’t been asked, and decided that she would enjoy the ball, if just to hang out with Ginny, since she didn’t seem to have many other friends.

Before he had a chance to ask her though, he had to suffer through the Slytherin dancing lessons. Harry honestly thought they wouldn’t be so bad if Draco wasn’t across the room instead of right next to him. It definitely didn’t help that someone, probably Aunt Cissa, had given him lessons as well, which meant that he was often seen whirling around the room with various girls, especially Pansy.

“Ipuhao! Find a partner and actually attempt to learn how to lead! You’re the one in this room who actually has to dance and be presentable.” Snape was also rather passionate about making sure Harry didn’t screw up with the opening dance, which was absolutely expected. If he was clumsy during the dance he would be an embarrassment to Slytherin, as well as the whole school. For such a strict teacher in the potions classroom, he saved his ire for Harry, leaving most of the teaching to the sixth year prefects.

With an internal sigh, Harry stood up and turned to the nearest girl, who happened to be Daphne Greengrass. “Might I have the honor of this dance, Miss Greengrass?” he asked politely.

“You may, Mr. Derivative,” she replied, just as politely. Then she grinned. “But if you step on my feet I reserve the right to return the favor.”

Harry grinned back. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

They easily walked out to the middle of the room and began. Harry had improved by quite a bit since the first time he had danced. Poor Gemma Farley had had bruised feet afterwards, he was sure of it. Now, while he was still a bit clumsy, he was able to avoid his partner’s feet, at least.

Greengrass was actually quite good of a partner for him. She was much better than him, of course, but since she was actually just barely shorter than him, unlike every other partner he’d had, he was able to look down a bit and watch both her and his feet at once, which he knew he wasn’t supposed to do, but if it kept him from stepping on her, he’d do it anyway.

“Remember,” the blonde said casually. “In the actual dance, chances are your partner will be taller than you anyway, because she’ll be wearing heels. So you won’t even get to cheat like you are now.” She promptly stood on her toes, imitating the height she’d have with heels, and Harry groaned as it put her eye level above his head again. She smirked in return. “So. Learn to look up, instead of at your feet. Trust in your partner, especially if she’s better than you. A good partner can make even an average person look good.” She frowned a bit, then nodded decisively. “The ball’s too soon to truly teach you to lead, so your date better be really good at dancing. Who are you planning to ask?”

“Luna Lovegood,” Harry replied.

“Good. She’s as good a dancer as I am, if not a little better. She may not seem like it, but as a Pureblood she did have to make nice at parties, and she wouldn’t be able to make nice without being able to dance properly. That means I can teach you a trick. Follow my lead, instead of trying to lead. Me following you works for now, but you don’t have enough experience or confidence yet for it to always work.”

He hesitantly followed her lead, and suddenly he felt like he was much better.

“Good,” Greengrass nodded. “To someone who didn’t know better, you still look like you’re leading, and Lovegood’s even better at this. I suggest practicing with her exclusively once you’ve asked her, so you get used to her. For now, your dancing has reached an acceptable level.” She stepped back and curtsied perfectly, Harry automatically following her lead and bowing at the correct depth.

“Thank you for the dance, Miss Greengrass. I hope it was as enjoyable for you as it was for me,” Harry said first, as he’d been taught. The prefects had quickly drilled the correct courtesies into his head, and the male always spoke first at the end of the dance.

“I found it very enjoyable, Mr. Derivative. Thank you for the dance.”

The next week, Harry finally found time to ask Luna. Les Amis had all gathered into their classroom, besides Draco, and Harry found himself helping the blonde girl with her Defense homework. Once she finished the last question, he turned to her more fully.

“Would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me, Luna? I figure you would like the chance to hang out with Ginny at least, since she’s going from what I heard, and also you’re apparently better at making your partner look good in dancing than most of the girls in Slytherin, so I’ll have less of a chance of looking like a fool in the first dance?”

Luna laughed in that breezy way of hers. “Of course I’ll go with you, Harry. It would be a delight to go with you, and not just to be with Ginny. You’re my friend too, you know.”

Harry breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back just in time for Ginny to walk over with her own Defense homework in her hands.

***********************

Draco sighed as he almost threw his Defense homework on his desk. He really wished Harry were here to help him. He understood most of it, but his best friend had an almost instinctual understanding of the subject. Unfortunately, they still weren’t talking, so he couldn’t even just complain in his general direction. Groaning, since he was alone in the dorm room, he flopped back into his chair, dragging his hand down his face. This was the worst. Not to mention he still had to find a date to the ball, because a Malfoy couldn’t be seen alone at an event like this. If Voldemort wasn’t such a little bitch he’d have asked Harry, but apparently Harry was taking Luna, which was good for both of them. Luna would be able to make Harry look good, and Harry would make sure Luna got to see the ball.

Draco got up and walked over to his bed, flopping even more dramatically on top of it. Ugh. Fine, he’d just ask Pansy. He knew she still didn’t have a date, and the best part was she wouldn’t read anything into it because she wasn’t into guys.

Rising, he flicked his wand at the bed, straightening it out again, and went to the common room in search of Pansy. As expected, she was sitting near the fire. He blinked in surprise at her companion. Astoria Greengrass was of course not the same person her sister was, but Pansy almost hated Daphne Greengrass. Draco had never been able to find out why, but he thought Daphne was a nice enough friend. If Pansy was sitting with Astoria, she probably had some scheme or other going.

He reached the couch they were sitting on in a few strides and bowed shallowly to the girls. “Might I borrow Miss Parkinson for a moment?” he asked courteously. Pansy rolled her eyes at his airs but stood up with a quick word to Astoria.

“What is it you need, Mr. Malfoy?” she asked, sarcasm coating his name. He grinned in response.

“Are you going to the ball with anyone?”

She looked at him for a moment before sighing. “Of course I’ll go with you, you cabbagehead. You’re hopeless when you and Hitogata are fighting, aren’t you? Hela, you’re useless when you two aren’t fighting. You couldn’t be more obvious about your little crush if you tried babes. But that’s ok. I won’t tell lover boy, and I’ll go to the ball with you so you can ogle him from across the room.” She rolled her eyes. “But you owe me. One favor, equal value.”

“Deal,” he said immediately. He was so glad Pansy was his friend rather than his enemy.

Notes:

I hope you guys enjoyed! Please leave me a comment below! I read and reply to all of them, even if it takes me a bit!

As promised in the beginning notes, here's the question: (no points this week, sorry)
My cowriter mentioned they did this on Wattpad, where they're posting this fic, and I thought it was a good idea to do it here. Do you guys know of any plots we dropped at some point? Stuff we mentioned that was never brought back up again, even when it might have been relevant? (esp when it might have been relevant lol). Also, if you want to drop suggestions I will not say no. We might not use them, but I'd be willing to look at them!

Standings:
Slytherin: 422
Ravenclaw: 222.5
Hufflepuff: 116
Gryffindor: 15

Chapter 17: What the Hell are These Clothes' Names

Summary:

Last preparations for the Yule ball, and also the very beginning of said ball.

Notes:

A second chapter in a month, what a surprise! And it's even over 2k words! What a shock!

There is brief mention of a Hindu holiday, so if that is likely to make you uncomfortable for any reason, read my end note for more information. I am not Hindu myself, so if I did anything wrong I would like to know so I can fix it or change the holiday to Christmas or Yule. The holiday is literally only mentioned, and not expanded upon at all, except that gifts are included.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy! Leave me a comment below!

About three weeks before the Yule Ball, Luna floated up to Harry with a smile on her face. “Daddy has found the perfect robes for me. They will match yours perfectly!” Then, before Harry could call her back to say he didn’t have robes yet, how did she know hers would match, what color were they so he could match her, she danced away, humming some song Harry had never heard.

Harry grimaced as she disappeared around a corner. He had completely forgotten about that little note at the end of the Hogwarts letter this summer. So, he turned towards the Slytherin dorms, where Draco would be--. No. He couldn’t go to Draco. They had to maintain their cover. So he sighed and turned to the library. Hermione would be able to help him.

As expected, he found his Ravenclaw friend in the library. Unexpectedly, she was with a friend. That was good. Hermione needed more friends outside of Les Amis. If she was making friends in her House that was only for the better. He grinned before flopping down into the seat next to her, careful not to touch the table until his friend had acknowledged him.

The other girl at the table noticed him first, and nudged Hermione. “Hermione. برتن  is here to see you.”

Harry cocked his head at the strange language. He wondered what it was and what, who he was guessing was the Ravenclaw Patil twin, had called him, but Hermione looked up before he could ask. “Oh. Harry. What do you need?”

“Dress robes. Luna says she’s found the perfect match for mine for herself, but I don’t have any. ‘Mione, the ball is in three weeks! How could I have forgotten dress robes?”

Hermione rolled her eyes fondly. “I told you to get some over the summer. Of course you didn’t. I bet Ron doesn’t have any idea what he’s wearing either.”

“’Mioneeeee,” Harry whined.

“Yes, yes, one moment. You’d think you’ve never heard of owl order.” At this Patil looked up, alarmed.

“You can’t buy dress robes over owl order! How will you know they fit right? No, no.” With a quick shake of her head, Patil reached her hand out towards Harry, who took it hesitantly. “I’m Padma. If you don’t mind, I’d like to help you. How do you feel about modern Indian clothing?”

Harry grinned and shook her hand. “I’m Harry. I have had absolutely no thoughts about clothing in my life ever, so if you have some way to help I would be grateful.”

“Give me two weeks. My grandmother is a weaver and she would absolutely love to make something for you. Call it a Pancha Ganapati gift from the Patil family.”

And, for the second time, before he could ask any of the questions on his mind, such as what Pancha Ganapati was, what she had called him earlier, or why she wanted to help, she disappeared up towards the Gryffindor tower. Harry blinked. Wasn’t she a Ravenclaw?

Hermione saw his blink and laughed. “Her sister is in Gryffindor, don’t you remember? Now sit down, I need your help with this Defense homework.”

*****************

Ron’s mum had pulled him aside the day before they left for Hogwarts, telling him that she had something extra for him this year. “Your Hogwarts letter mentioned that you would need dress robes this year. I found these in the attic. If you absolutely hate them we can figure something else out, but I want you to at least look at them before I just owl them to you in the middle of breakfast.” She winked at the last bit, and pulled out the most hideous robes Ron had ever seen.

His first reaction was to say he hated them, but he looked at his mum’s face and knew he couldn’t. His parents would do anything to make their children happy, even if it was a little beyond their means. He looked back at the robes and thought for a minute. “Is there a way you can fix them up some? They’re fine robes, but they look like they came in a capsule from the 1800s. I’ll wear them either way, but if you have time I bet you could make them look fantastic, Mum.”

His mum had smiled a watery smile, and he endured the hug that came flying at him. He had later told Neville that those robes had been the worst robes he had ever seen and he might have just gone in his school robes if his mum hadn’t agreed to fix them up.

Now, he got a package in the owl post. It was from Mum. He opened it carefully to find the robes. Except they looked nothing like they had when his mum had shown them to him at home. They looked amazing. She had somehow managed to get rid of the lace entirely, and make the color shine out. She had also put in some lighter embroidery on the lapels. He grinned. His mum was the best.

****************

Pansy had worn many dress robes to many occasions. But this was the first time she would be allowed to pick her own clothing. She had found a black dress at Twilfitt’s and Tatting’s, and had bought it. She had later found some black beads at a miscellaneous shop that her parent’s wouldn’t be caught dead at, and went to Madam Malkin’s to ask if she could do some work for her. When the final dress came by owl a few weeks before the ball, Pansy was pleased. The dress was perfect.

*********************

Draco had had his robes since summer. His mother had taken him to Twilfitt’s and Tatting’s and told him to find what he liked while she did her other shopping. He had gone for something simple that could match anything, black. He had also found a green tie that matched Harry’s eyes exactly and couldn’t help but buy it. It would look amazing with the dark outfit. He’d had it altered to his size, then sent to Hogwarts. He had taken the tie home with him, though. He wanted to keep it close to him, if this year was going to be anything like he feared.

************************

Hermione had found her dress via owl order. She had taken to the library to learn some tailoring charms, just in case, but she had picked a reputable store and found a dress that would match Viktor’s uniform, which he had explained he was wearing to the ball. It was beautiful while still being modest, but she would also stand out quite a bit more than she usually did. That was good. She had also convinced Padma to help her with her hair, since she didn’t want it to be a bush at the ball. Padma had grinned at the request and promised to help.

Hermione nodded sharply in satisfaction and turned to the next thing on her list. Keeping Harry alive underwater for an hour.

**********************

Ginny yelped as the needle hit her finger again, for the fifth time in the last hour. It was time to put the dress away. She would be able to finish it tomorrow, but if she continued tonight, she’d probably mess something up from tiredness. After her first year, she had spent a lot of time with her mum, watching and learning, to take her mind off of that whole fiasco. As a result she had learned to sew, and she loved it. She had decided to sew herself a dress at the end of second year, taking Narcissa’s and her own measurements to give a maximum and minimum size for the tailoring charms to use. The summer and weekends of work had paid off, and now she had a dress that she hadn’t been expecting to wear so soon, but was pleased to be able to nonetheless. She was doubly pleased that Neville’s robes matched hers so well.

************************

Neville had gotten an owl from his gran, so he opened it in private. It had been robes. Traditional robes that looked probably rather similar to Ron’s before Mrs. Weasley had fixed them. Thankfully he had guessed this might happen and asked Ginny what color she was wearing so he could match her, then bought his own robes from the same shop Hermione had found her dress at. When they had arrived, one of his plants had taken a liking to them and planted itself into the front pocket. He had smiled fondly and made sure that pocket would never get too much sun if he had to wear them outside.

**************************

A week before the ball, Padma found Harry on his way to the Quidditch pitch. “I have your clothes,” she announced, then began dragging him to Ravenclaw tower.

“I have Quidditch practice in about five minutes!” he yelped, which caused Padma to stop and squint at him.

“When does it finish?” she asked.

“In an hour.”

“Good. You will meet me at the front doors in an hour or I will find you and you won’t enjoy it.” Her implacable voice made him shiver and he nodded fervently. She nodded back and disappeared around a corner while he gaped at her before remembering practice and running for the field.

As promised, he met Padma at the front doors. Her sister was with her. They both had the same glint in their eyes, and Harry gulped before following them silently. Patil turned around and cast a quick Cleaning Charm at him, winking, before turning back around and stopping at the bottom of Ravenclaw tower. “Wait here. I will be back in five minutes.” Padma went up the stairs, leaving Patil with Harry.

“I’m Parvati,” she said pleasantly. “Sorry about my sister, she can be a bit brusque at times.”

“It’s fine,” he said with a smile. “I’m Harry.”

Padma returned quickly and led them to an abandoned classroom nearby. Parvati hung a curtain and Padma handed Harry a pair of trousers. “Put these on and come back out. We will teach you how to put these clothes on.”

Harry obeyed, finding it interesting how the trousers clung to his legs, ruffling at the bottom. When he emerged from behind the curtain, Padma held out a long sleeved robe that looked like it would end just above the ankle. Padma demonstrated how to put it on first, then handed it to him. He put it on. Next came a belt, which Parvati had to adjust to show him how it would stay. Then came the over robe. It was easy enough to put on, and the Patils nodded in satisfaction. When he was changed back into his normal clothes, Padma held out a garment bag.

“Keep the clothes in this. When you take it out, lay all the clothes out flat so they don’t wrinkle. We’ll be excited to see you at the ball.”

“Thanks guys,” Harry said with a grin. “I’ll see you at the ball.”

**********************

The Yule Ball finally arrived and Harry nervously waited for Luna at the bottom of Ravenclaw tower. He had followed the Patils’ instructions to the letter, and was ready to get this over with, especially the dancing part. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too bad.

When Luna reached the bottom of the steps, Harry was amazed. She looked amazing. The dress fit her personality, and his suit, perfectly, as promised. Her hair was in an intricate braid with flowers scattered throughout, and he had no idea how they were going to stay put through the dancing they would have to do. As Daphne had promised, even Luna, who was the only person in Les Amis who was shorter than him, towered over him by a few inches with high heels.

As she reached him, he extended his arm as he’d been coached in one of the first dancing lessons for Luna to hold onto. She took it, but he felt none of her weight on him, even though it must have been hard to walk in those heels.

“How do you walk in those?” he finally asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

“Oh it’s quite simple really,” Luna said. “Magical heels are much more comfortable than Muggle heels.”

“I wish someone had told me that,” Hermione’s voice broke in with a grumble. Harry startled and glanced over to see her clutching Viktor Krum’s arm like it was the only thing keeping her standing. Harry suspected it was.

“Ron’s going to flip when he sees who your date is,” Harry laughed after he’d gotten over the shock of seeing his friend actually in a dress. When she wasn’t in uniform she wore slacks, and while she never looked boyish, it was just strange to see her in a dress. “I’m not sure who he’ll be more jealous of.” He winked, then leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Congratulations.”

Hermione blushed and glared at him before primly turning up her nose. “I’ll have you know he asked me, not the other way around.”

“Of course!” Harry said, grinning, while Luna nodded solemnly beside him. “You’re a catch. Krum’s just lucky he got to you first. That said,” he turned to Krum, “one wrong move and no one will find your body. I’ve got, lets say friends in low places.” He smirked, letting his teeth show.

Krum laughed nervously. “Part of me hopes you are kidding, but part of me also thinks that it is a good thing you are so protective of your friends.”

Hermione turned her glare onto Krum before snapping, “I can take care of myself, thanks. If anything, I should be the one threatening your date, Harry, except I know Luna wouldn’t hurt a fly, even though she could absolutely beat you in a fight.”

Harry laughed. “You’re right. Good luck to the both of you then.”

By that time they had reached the doors to the Great Hall, where Diggory and Delacour were already waiting with their dates. Diggory had of course, asked Chang, who he’d been dating for as long as Harry could remember, while Delacour had brought a Durmstrang girl Harry didn’t know. Harry shook his head at himself. Of course they’d be allowed to bring dates of the same gender. He should have asked Ron after all. Then he thought for a minute. No, then they’d both suck at dancing, and he didn’t particularly want to make a big fool of himself in front of three schools and representatives of the Ministry.

For the next few minutes, they chatted all together, until Professor McGonagall clapped to get their attention. “In just a few moments I will open the doors. You will walk in in the order your name was called from the Goblet, and then you will go sit down at the table prepared for you. There will be a light supper, then the band will set up for the first dance. Good luck.”

With that, she turned towards the doors, peeked through them, then, with a spell that rolled off her tongue easily, the doors swung open, letting Krum and Hermione step through.

Notes:

The word Padma says when telling Hermione that Harry is there is just the word "pot" in Urdu, an Indian language that is commonly spoken in one of the area's the last name Patil comes from according to Wikipedia. Pancha Ganapati is a five day Hindu holiday in December that celebrates the five-faced Maha Ganapati (according to a Google search) it celebrates with worship, gift-giving, and celebration. I figured the Patils wouldn't follow a Christian holiday, so I looked for a Hindu one and this one fit what I needed perfectly. If anything in this is offensive or my research was not done well, let me know, and I will change the holiday to Christmas or Yule.

Also, the chapter title is a reference to the fact that my cowriter and I have no idea what Harry's clothes are called (if you know, please tell us!) and all our searching got us literally nothing. Thanks Pinterest.

I have attempted several times to upload images of their clothes, to no avail, so I will just describe them here.
Harry is wearing a blue over robe over a calf length white top and white pants. According to Pinterest it's Indian wedding attire.
Luna is wearing blue with white edges, and it's just all ruffles. It looks like a flower decided to grow around her legs. She looks strange and fantastic.
Draco is wearing a black suit with a green tie, and a black robe over it.
Pansy is wearing a black off the shoulder dress with beading on one side and it looks fantastic, like the queen she is. She has a green and silver comb in her hair to match Draco's tie.
Neville is wearing a brown suit with a boutonniere (flower on pocket).
Ginny is wearing a red dress with darker red lines running lengthwise along the torso looking somewhat like a corset. It also has a cape and is very dramatic, as Ginny should be. She has about seven braids in her hair, with the rest of it being down. There are flowers along the top two braids that form a crown like thing at the back of her head.
Ron is also wearing brown, but he's got some lighter brown detailing on the lapels and cuffs.
Hermione is wearing a red off the shoulder dress. Her hair has been tamed down from it's floof into braids that stop about halfway down her hair, which are then pulled back into a half up ponytail.

Update! My cowriter was able to get the images on Wattpad! Link: https://www.wattpad.com/1345426428-one-day-they%27ll-know-your-name-what-the-hell-are/page/6

Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed, and that the clothes were good choices! Let me know what you think in a comment below!

Question of the week: How did Harry figure out what the second task was?

Standings:
Slytherin: 442
Ravenclaw: 222.5
Hufflepuff: 116
Gryffindor: 45

Chapter 18: These Names Were Made for Dancing

Summary:

The Yule Ball!

Notes:

I know it's been a while, but here's the next chapter! Hopefully the one after will come a little quicker since we know more what we want in it, but no promises lol.

The Great Hall was beautifully decorated, and Harry looked around in awe for a moment as he led Luna to the table they had been assigned to. Once he had settled her in her seat, he sat himself, finding himself next to Delacour’s date. The girl grinned at him and held out her hand for him to shake. “My name’s Viktoria! I’m from Durmstrang with Viktor. You must be Harry Potter.”

Harry hesitantly held out his hand in return. “Uh, yes? It’s nice to meet you?” Before he could continue Krum sat down next to Luna and rolled his eyes.

“Her given name is Viktoria, but everyone calls her by her second name, Katarina, because our names are so similar and we’re in many of the same classes.”

 Katarina pouted at Viktor and turned back to Harry. “Yeah, yeah, you can call me Katarina I suppose, although I’d like to argue that I’m the better Viktor.”

Harry grinned. “You can call me Harry. And this is my good friend, Luna Lovegood. She’s in Ravenclaw.”

Luna smiled politely and shook Katarina’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Katarina. What are you studying in Durmstrang?”

The two girls quickly got into a heated debate about different classes, with Hermione and Chang quickly joining in, talking about the pros and cons of the classes offered at Hogwarts, and asking questions about the classes at Durmstrang.

Meanwhile, the Champions rolled their eyes at each other and started talking about the first task. They all, of course, had heard about what the others did, but not in detail. Harry was especially curious about how Delacour had not been burned by the dragon fire.

Delacour waved it off. “It’s just something to do with my heritage. We naturally have fire magic, and that makes us more resistant to any type of fire. But what about you? What made you think of runes, and where did you get the material to write them in anyway?”

Harry winced. “I used my blood, since it’s what I had and I didn’t have time to find anything else. I’m just glad it worked.”

The other champions nodded, glancing at their food for a moment. Suddenly Diggory spoke up. “Hey, do you play Quidditch, Delacour?”

She glanced over at him and nodded. “I am Seeker for my team at Beauxbatons. Do you play as well?”

Harry grinned. “I guess the Goblet has something for Seekers. All of us play Seeker for our teams.”

Krum’s eyes glinted, and he smirked. “I propose a Seeker’s game. We can use the pitch, yes?”

Diggory grinned. “Yeah! I’m sure Madam Hooch won’t mind, I’ll ask tomorrow! When should we do it?”

Delacour smiled slightly. “I’m in. All you lesser Seekers won’t know what hit you when I win.”

Harry chuckled. “Not if I win first. It’ll have to be after the break, I’m going to see my Godfather tomorrow. How’s the first weekend back?”

The other champions all nodded, and they turned back to their food.

A few minutes later, Professor Dumbledore stood, pointing his wand at his throat, casting a Sonorus to announce the first dance was beginning. He winced a little, but stood and helped Luna up, leading her to the dance floor.

Thankfully, it was over quickly, and Luna was an amazing dancer, able to make Harry look better than he was. After that first dance, the other students were able to join in, and Harry soon found himself surrounded by his friends. He made sure to dance with Greengrass, as thanks for helping him so much. He saw Draco across the hall, and wished they were able to dance together, but Harry knew it would be a terrible idea. They’d have to find some time to hang out without everyone being there to see.

After an hour or so, Harry took a break, walking out to the gardens to see what they looked like for the celebration. He was amused to find Professor Snape stalking around the grounds, snapping at students hiding in the bushes to make out, and sending them back into the hall with lost points and threats of detention if they even thought of coming back out.

After wandering for a few minutes, he glimpsed Madame Maxime and Hagrid sitting together next to a fountain. Harry smiled and started to turn away when he heard Madame Maxime stand up and loudly hiss at Hagrid.

“How dare you imply something like that? Why I never! Goodnight Mr. Hagrid!”

Hagrid seemed shellshocked, standing up as well. “What did I do wrong, Olympe? I didn’t think that would be so offensive!”

Harry winced, trying to get out of the situation without making too much noise. Unfortunately he stepped on something that yelped, and he whirled around to see seemingly nothing. He cursed mentally, then cast a silent sight enhancing charm, thankful for the month he had spent with Les Amis learning how to cast silently. He peered more intently in the darkness, and spotted a beetle struggling to fly. Narrowing his eyes, he followed it carefully, making sure to stay far enough back that he wouldn’t be noticed, even if it made it harder to follow the little beetle.

The beetle rounded a corner, and Harry quickly followed, only to find the beetle gone and a disheveled person holding their arm and cursing quite colorfully, if quietly. Harry narrowed his eyes again and watched carefully as the witch, based off the voice, drew her wand and cast a healing spell at her arm, then straightened her shoulders, cast a quick glance around, then walked carefully back into the party before disappearing in the crowd.

Harry thought for only a moment before he twisted his ring to indicate Les Amis should meet. He then twisted it again, in the agreed upon pattern for meeting in the Chamber. He didn’t trust their wards to keep out Animagi in their classroom, but Salazar probably had been much more thorough in the Chamber. Either way he would be sure to keep an eye out for beetles before letting anyone into the bathroom.

Notes:

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Leave me a comment below if you did!

Question of the week: What did Beauxbatons do for their presentation when they first arrived at Hogwarts?

Standings:
Slytherin: 442
Ravenclaw: 303
Hufflepuff: 116
Gryffindor: 45

Chapter 19: Not Knowing Their Name is Bugging Me

Summary:

The meeting in the Chamber and heading to London for break.

Notes:

Whoo! Less than a month since the last time I updated! Which is still a long time, but much better than I've done for the last few chapters.

Anyway, this is pretty much a filler chapter, but more will happen next chapter. I hope you like it! Leave me a comment below!

Edit: Changed the chapter name cause there's another chapter with a similar title.

Before allowing anyone into the Chamber, Harry sent the Animagus revealing spell at each of his friends, making them send him confused looks but he promised to explain when they got there. After he was satisfied, he opened the Chamber, letting everyone go in. He immediately closed the entrance and followed them down. Once they reached the main room, he turned to them.

“Sorry about that at the top. I just found out there’s an Animagus here. It’s a beetle, but other than that I didn’t get a very good look at it. So, just keep an eye out, don’t have any sensitive conversations where you don’t know for sure a beetle isn’t able to get to, and just be careful. We’ll need to look up wards to keep out Animagi soon. For now I think we’ll be safe enough down here, as long as we keep an eye out for beetles.”

Ginny frowned. “Did you get anything about what the beetle looked like, Harry? A flash of a color, a specific shape?”

Harry slowly nodded. “As it passed some torchlight it kinda looked iridescent green. It was flying too fast for me to get a good look at the shape though.”

Luna hummed. “Perhaps we should grow some catnip, tansy, and parsley to keep beetles away. Neville? What do you think?”

Neville grinned. “I think I can manage a little herb garden to keep beetles out in our classroom. I wonder if Myrtle would mind some plants in her bathroom….” He trailed off, thinking about the logistics.

Ron grinned, exchanging a glance with Draco. “Careful, Snowflake, you just gave Neville free reign to grow plants in our classroom.

Hermione whacked him over the head before turning to Harry. “I’ll handle the wards. Harry, you just focus on staying alive in the next task and having a good break. Hopefully we’ll have a good plan for keeping you alive underwater for an hour when we get back. Now. It’s late and we have to be getting on the train tomorrow morning, so off to bed, all of you.”

Everyone nodded, but Harry hung back, pulling Draco with him. “We’ll catch up in a minute, guys,” he said, smiling sheepishly. Draco looked at him confused, but stayed back with him.

Hermione rolled her eyes but walked out, followed by a confused Ron, the other three following behind with quick smiles at Harry and Draco.

Draco turned to Harry, clearly still confused, but Harry just threw himself at his best friend. “I missed you,” he whispered against the blonde’s chest. Draco’s arms came up to wrap around Harry to complete the hug, and Draco nodded.

“Yeah. I missed you too. It’s not the same without being able to be your partner in class and jump on your bed when you won’t wake up in the morning.”

“Oi! It’s you who won’t wake up, I’m the one jumping on your bed!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Just from the tone Harry knew Draco had his nose in the air and he smiled.

“Oi!” Ron shouted from the next room. “You wanna let us out so we can get back to our dorms?” A second later they heard him yelp and had to suppress laughter.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re coming, don’t get your wand in a twist!” Harry yelled back, then stayed leaning against Draco for just a second longer before sighing and standing up.

Just as he was about to head to the other room, he suddenly thought of something. #Sssalmissssssra?# he called.

It took a few minutes, but Salmissra slithered out of Slytherin’s mouth and nudged him gently. #What isss it, Hatchling? It’sss late and little Hatchlingsss like you and your friendsss ssshould be in bed.#

#Sssorry, we’re headed there now, I jussst wondered, did Sssalazar ever put up wardsss to keep the wizardsss that turn into animalsss out?#

#My Sssalazar wasss complaining about Rowena and Helga being able to get in when he accidentally left the entranccce open when he and his Godric were down here. They liked to come in asss their animalsss, so he put up the block to keep them out if they were in their animal formsss. I quickly learned to ssstay away when my Sssalazar and his Godric came down here without Rowena and Helga.#

Harry scrunched his nose. That was way more information than he needed about his Founder. #Ok. Thanksss, Sssalmissssssra. Sssorry if I woke you.#

#It isss fine, Hatchling. Now. Go to bed! You need your ressst.#

Harry grumbled, but headed to the entrance, letting everyone out and sending Draco to the dorms first so they wouldn’t be seen together.

********************

The next day the Express left for London, and Harry was ready to see Sirius, Remus, and Regulus. He had been trading letters with them, of course, but he hadn’t been able to see them since summer. He really needed one of Siri’s bone crushing hugs, Remus’ hot chocolate, and Reggie’s cuddles.

He practically twitched the whole way home, making Hermione glare at him as he was sitting right next to her, and flew off the train the second they arrived.

Sirius was there with Remus, but it seemed Regulus wasn’t with them, which Harry suspected was because not many people knew he was alive yet. He barreled into Sirius, making the man bark out a laugh as he engulfed Harry into a hug.

“Welcome home, Pup. We’ll be headed there in a minute, do you want to say goodbye to your friends first?” Sirius asked.

“Yeah, thanks Siri. I’ll be back in a minute!” Harry ran off to tell his friends that he’d see them later, then headed back to Sirius and Remus, who held out a piece of cloth.

“Portkeys are safer than side-along Apparition, especially when you might be distracted by other people around you, so we’ll be taking this instead. Hold on tight, now,” Remus explained when Harry gave him a questioning look.

Harry nodded and stepped in close, giving one last wave to his friends as he was whisked away to land in a pile on the floor of Grimmauld Place.

Notes:

Like I said, pretty much a filler chapter except the bit where they're talking about the Animagus, but we all need filler chapters every once in a while. I hope you liked this chapter!

Question of the week: What did Harry call the snake he got in the second year dueling club?

Standings:
Slytherin: 452
Ravenclaw: 395
Hufflepuff: 121
Gryffindor: 45

Chapter 20: Theoretical Names

Summary:

Break time! For Harry, not for the readers lol.

Notes:

This chapter is hella long, and also surprisingly early for what I've usually been posting. Sorry it's been so chaotic and not once a week like I had originally planned. Anyway, extra long chapter, as a treat, and it's not even the climax of the story!

Note: Italics, when in a huge block like it will be in this chapter, is a flashback. Otherwise it's just emphasis.

Harry was nearly bouncing as he led Sirius, Remus, and Regulus into the bank to go visit the portraits in the family vault. He turned around and grinned at Regulus, who was coming with for the first time today. He had a few questions for the older Potters about magic that wasn’t taught at Hogwarts anymore. He was also curious to know if any of the Potters had known Tom Riddle, as Harry had informed them that he became the Dark Lord.

As they arrived at the vault, Regulus smiled as Harry greeted each portrait happily, dragging Regulus behind him to introduce him, and then went to sit right in front of the oldest portrait with a suddenly serious expression after introducing the Peverell brothers to him. Regulus shook his head and went back to Charlus and Dorea, who were about the right age to have possibly known Riddle, or have known someone who knew Riddle, and conjured a stool for himself.

“Hello,” he greeted. “Harry was in a bit of a rush to go meet his great grandparents, so he didn’t get a chance to tell you my name.” He smirked, then grinned fondly at the fourteen year old at the other end of the vault. “I’m Regulus Black. Sirius is my brother.”

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you dear. I’m Dorea, and this is Charlus. Harry, the sweetheart he is, must have some questions for Ignotus. He usually does. I’m sure he’ll be back after a while.” She rolled her eyes fondly, then looked down at Regulus more shrewdly. "I'm actually your great aunt, I believe. Walburga was my niece. Awful woman.” She shuddered delicately, and Regulus scowled in agreement.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a few questions,” he said after a moment.

“Oh of course, dear! We’re family! Isn’t that right, Charlus?” Dorea asked with a slight glare towards her husband.

“I don’t know why you’re glaring at me, darling, if the lad wants to ask questions I’m willing to answer, as long as it’s nothing about family secrets.”

“Oh, nothing like that. I merely wanted to know about what magic you were taught in Hogwarts, and how different it is to now, or even my generation about twenty years ago.”

Charlus spoke up first. “Well, we had Latin of course. We all started that in first year, along with basic Magical Theory.”

Dorea interrupted him. “don’t forget about Warding and Spellcrafting.”

“Just because you were a Ravenclaw, dear, doesn’t mean all of us took the advanced classes in sixth year,” Charlus laughed, rolling his eyes.

“You were glad of my knowledge with wards when we built our own house,” she said tartly.

“Yes, I was, but that class would have gone right over my Gryffindor head.”

Regulus spoke up again. “Sorry to interrupt, but what was Magical Theory? That class was gone by the time I got to Hogwarts. We just learned spells in Charms and Transfiguration.”

Dorea looked aghast. “Just learned spells in Charms and Transfiguration! What about wandless magic? And Enchantment! Charms and Transfiguration! Next you’ll be telling me the headmaster’s idea of Defense is muggle wrestling!”

Regulus winced. “No, we learned some jinxes and curses too, but the Defense class is horrible. There’s some curse or something on it. There hasn’t been a single professor for more than a year since before Sirius started.”

Charlus looked alarmed. “Really! How did you get a good education! That many different teachers, it must have been chaos!”

“Self-study for the years we had bad teachers, and we had a few good teachers.”

“Well that’s something at least,” Dorea replied with a huff. “Back to Magical Theory. All magic has a specific…” she seemed at a loss for words for a moment.

“Shape,” Charlus suggested.

“Yes, shape is probably the best way to describe it. Now, you must understand, shape is not a very good way to describe this, but it’s probably the easiest, especially with your limited knowledge. All magic has a shape. Let’s say Transfiguration is a circle, Charms is a triangle, etcetera. With such different shapes, the magic can be cast side by side with hardly any difficulty, but it’s very hard to combine them. You can Charm something to be a different color, or you can Transfigure something into something of a different color, but you can’t do both to the same object at the same time. You can layer them, one after another, Charm a shirt to be green and then Transfigure it into a blue shirt, but you can’t cast a Charm and Transfigure something at the same time. But you can cast two Charms at the same object at the same time. One person can Charm a shirt to float while another person Charms it green.” Dorea took a breath and Charlus spoke next.

“it’s similar with curses, hexes, and jinxes, but you can’t Transfigure an object into two things at once, or Heal two things on the same person at once. If Charms was a triangle, it’s easy to stack them and put them beside one another. But with Transfiguration being a circle, it’s not easy to stack them. They don’t fit together easily and slip around each other.”

Dorea spoke again. “What’s worse is if you have badly done magic next to well done magic. The best example of this is Inferi.” Regulus tensed and she noticed. “Oh I’m sorry dear, have you had experience with Inferi? Nasty things, even when made right. Let me think of a different example.”

Charlus spoke up slowly. “Dementors. This is the example we told Harry, but it’s almost a family secret. Rhea?”

She thought for a moment, then nodded. “It’s not actually a family secret, as anyone who looks would see. And he lives with Harry, so if he doesn’t already know, he will soon.”

Charlus agreed, but Regulus could tell he was still a little hesitant. “Dementors are what a typical person would probably call necromancy. And in a way, they are. But the creator of Dementors, Ekrizdis, did not have the latent talent that passes through some families. In any case, natural Necromancy has it’s own shape. Badly done necromancy, such as the Dementors, has a similar shape, but it’s not quite the same. It hurts when the two interact, even just by being near each other. All Potters have a bad reaction to the Dementors, but the natural Necromancers in our family have it the worst. You will get cold, and feel like the happiness has been sucked out of the room. I used to become very cold, and maybe have a sense of remembering the worst of my memories. Someone like Harry would become catatonic, actually sees the memories, and passes out entirely.” When he finished, he sat back and seemed to withdraw into himself. Dorea spoke up again.

“That’s about as much as we can tell you without getting into years’ worth of study about magical theory.” She paused for a moment, then said, “There’s not much about Spellcrafting I can tell you that won’t take me several hours and a blackboard, but you need a working knowledge of a magical language, and there’s several ways to do it.” She paused again for a moment as Harry wandered back over. “Hello, dear, did you have a good chat with Grandfather Ignotus?”

“Yeah, thanks Aunt Rhea. Were you talking about Spellcrafting? ‘Mione a bit interested in that. Can I listen for a bit?”

“Of course dear, Regulus, would you mind getting a chair for Harry?”

Regulus smiled and conjured up another stool for Harry, and the teen settled down. “Now, as I was saying, there’s a few different ways to do it. You can either make the spell and then connect it to words, or you can decide on the words and make the spell around them. It’s easier the first way, as the words often describe what the spell does, such as Lumos, which means light. Then, there’s actually creating the spell. You need extreme knowledge of Arithmancy, and a good knowledge of Magical Theory, and you need to know how the magic feels. Fire spells often feel warm, water spells feel cool, floating charms feel light and airy, light spells feel bright, etcetera. I’ve heard some people describe the actual making of the spell as weaving the magic together, while others describe it as layering it like paint, while yet others describe it as drawing a picture. It’s different for each person.”

Harry was wide-eyed and Regulus grinned at him. “Severus was known for creating a few spells in Hogwarts, maybe if you ask just right on a good day he’ll feel like sharing his knowledge.” Harry nodded eagerly and Dorea laughed.

“That’s about all I know about Spellcrafting, but I’m quite the expert in Warding.” At this, Harry nearly fell off of his stool in excitement. He blushed and sat back down.

“Sorry. I just really like Runes and I’ve heard they’re very important for Warding.”

“They are,” Dorea agreed. “I’ll tell you a bit of the basics now, and next time you come you can ask me some more, and eventually I’ll get you a good working knowledge.”

Harry nodded excitedly. “Yes please!”

Dorea laughed and sat back in her chair again. “Runes are very important for Warding, and not just the ones you’d think. What would you use Ansuz for?”

“I suspect Sirius and dad used Ansuz on their mirrors, so they could communicate with them,” Harry replied.

“Mirrors?” She shook herself. “If they used Runes and the mirrors were for communication, then yes, very likely they did. But you can use Ansuz in wards too. Can you think of a way someone might do that?”

Harry thought for a moment, then spoke slowly. “If you connected it to someone else who you trust, you could have a way to call for help if something happens. If you put it in the last layer, and the first layer is breached, you call for help, and by the time the attacker breaks through any other layers, help has hopefully arrived.”

Regulus looked at Harry with wide eyes. “I’d have never thought of something like that,” he said. “Good idea, kid.”

Dorea smiled proudly. “Very good! That is one way you can use Ansuz in Warding. What other Runes would you use?”

Harry thought for a minute longer, then asked Regulus for some parchment. Regulus summoned a piece, and watched as Harry drew three concentric circles of Runes. He finished after a few minutes, then held it up to show Dorea. She looked for a moment, then leaned back again, looking thoughtful. “I never would have thought to use some of those Runes that way, but I think it would work.”

Regulus took the sheet when Harry offered it and his eyebrows went up. The outer ring had mostly offensive Runes, the middle circle had mostly defensive and balancing Runes, and the inner circle had Runes for success, inspiration, communication, and home.

Dorea continued. “The balancing Runes in the middle circle ensure that it all works together, and the inspiration and success Runes on the inner ring would still defend in a pinch, although I would have still put a few defensive Runes on the inside, so you have a better chance of it doing exactly what you want. As you know, desire and need are important when you use Runes, because each Rune has several uses.” She shook herself. “In any case, the most complicated wards are not always the best. Sometimes a single circle will do what you need.”

Harry winced, and Dorea looked at him. “Harry?”

“Er, yeah, a single circle will hold about one shot of dragon fire if you do it in blood,” he said hesitantly.

Dorea was silent for a long moment. “I’ll assume your Runes instructor already berated you for your use of blood. But why were you facing a dragon of all things at Hogwarts?!” Charlus had stepped back up at this moment and was frowning as well.

“Yes, why was there a dragon at Hogwarts?” he asked much more calmly.

Harry grimaced and told them about the Triwizard Tournament and the first task. Dorea and Charlus were upset that he had been forced to compete, but at least they weren’t as mad about the dragon anymore.

************************

Now that they were finished talking about warding, Harry wandered off to let Uncle Reggie keep talking to Aunt Rhea and Uncle Charlus. He needed to think about what Ignotus had told him.

“Hello, Grandfather,” Harry said, smiling at Cadmus and Antioch as well.

“Hello, Harry. How has your term been?” Ignotus asked.

“Well, they brought back the Triwizard Tournament, and I was forced to compete as a fourth competitor.”

“You were what?!” Ignotus interrupted.

Harry nodded. “Yeah, it’s awful. But it’s also magically binding, so I have to compete. The first task was dragons, but when I found out about them is what I was wanting to ask you about.”

Ignotus stared for a moment, then shook himself. “Yes, of course. What was your question? You can tell me about the dragons later.”

“Well I was with the thestrals, and we heard a roar, so the stallion of the herd took me to check it out, don’t worry, we were careful, and saw it was dragons. I was so shocked and scared that I took a step back and bones popped up around me, like they’d been violently upturned from the ground. Is that just a natural progression of my magic growing, combined with my being scared?”

Ignotus blinked, then blinked again. “Well, yes, technically that is the next step in your growth, summoning bones instead of just finding them, but even with you being scared that shouldn’t have happened this early. You haven’t even reached your fifteenth birthday, and that’s usually when that sort of thing starts happening. I suppose it’s not too early, and you were likely very frightened,.” He trailed off, seeming deep in thought. “A combination of…” “It’s not that surprising, Iolanthe…” “He’s powerful too,” The three brothers had a quiet conversation that Harry only heard portions of, but he wasn’t worried. Harry trusted Ignotus to tell him what he needed to know, and he seemed rather shocked about this development.

Finally, Ignotus turned back to Harry. “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised you’re so powerful. Iolanthe was too, and she was the last Peverell. If I remember right, her mother was a foreign witch, so there was no chance of her parents being related. Now. About the bones. The next step is learning to control when and how you summon the bones. Eventually you should be able to summon bones in a specific shape, but that will take a lot of training and study. I was never good with bones, my talents lay more with the magic part of it like my brothers, which we will eventually teach you as well. I’ll have to see who I can find here to teach you, or if there’s other portraits somewhere who could teach you.”

Harry nodded excitedly. “I’d love to meet more necromancers!”

After that conversation with Grandfather, Harry was excited to learn more about necromancy, but also curious and a little bit anxious about Iolanthe and living up to her legacy. He knew, logically, that it was a ridiculous thought, he knew that Grandfather would love him and be proud of him even if it turned out he was just a mediocre necromancer, but the wriggling thought still wouldn’t leave him alone. He thought he had gotten rid of those fears about how adult figures felt about him long ago, after he left the Dursleys, but apparently he hadn’t.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE MADE MORE THAN ONE HORCRUX?!” was suddenly yelled across the room, pulling Harry out of his thoughts. Hushed whispers followed, and Harry was instantly on alert. There were secrets about, and ones people didn’t want to tell him. While he knew that Sirius, Remus, and Uncle Reggie always had his wellbeing at heart, his curiosity burned in him at the idea of a mystery. Even if he didn’t do anything about it, like he’d had to do about the Stone and Salmissra, it would be fun to find out what Horcruxes-Horcruxi? No, definitely Horcruxes, Harry decided- were.

After a few more hushed words, Uncle Reggie began wrapping things up in his conversation and waved towards Harry. Sirius and Remus had already been with him, so whatever it was that Horcruxes were, they were in on it. The four of them bid their farewells to the portraits, then headed back up to the top, Harry burning with curiosity and already making plans to look through the library.

Notes:

Whew! That was fun! I hope you liked my magical theory and wards jabber. That was. A lot of the chapter lol, more than I'd originally thought it would be.

I hope you liked this chapter! Leave me a comment below!

Question of the week: What did Durmstrang do for their entrance into Hogwarts?
Standings:
Slytherin-472
Ravenclaw-400
Hufflepuff-171
Gryffindor-45

Chapter 21: Guessing Names

Summary:

Back from break! The kids have a lot to talk about!

Notes:

I'M BACK BITCHES BROS AND NONBINARY HOES!

In all seriousness, it has been way too long since I updated this, but it has been insane at work. Hopefully it'll slow down a bit, but who knows honestly. But! You finally get this chapter, and I'm pretty happy with it! So I hope you enjoy it too!

Draco felt his ring vibrate in his pocket during supper on the second day back from Yule break, and methodically continued eating as the rest of Les Amis managed to exit the Great Hall without too much trouble. He finished his plate, knowing that if he left too soon after them no one would keep believing the ruse that he and his friends were fighting. That was why they had charmed his ring to vibrate instead of light up, like the rest of the group’s.

A few minutes after the others left, Draco stood as well, nodding at the people around him in farewell, then heading to the Chamber, where they’d decided all their meetings should be after finding out about the Animagus, since their classroom wasn’t warded against them yet. He knocked on Myrtle’s door, and she poked her head through the door.

“Oh, Draco! How nice to see you! Did you come to visit little old me?” she asked.

“Hello, Myrtle. I came to visit your roommate, actually,” Draco admitted.

“Ah, well, she does get the exciting visitors,” Myrtle sighed, before giggling, “Well, come in! I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you!”

As Draco walked in, he saw Harry standing next to the open sink. They smiled at each other and Harry motioned him down into the Chamber, following quickly after. When they reached the bottom, Harry almost tackled him in a hug. Draco laughed as he caught his best friend, only grunting a little at the weight. “Nice to see you too,” he grinned when Harry finally let go.

“I really missed you!” Harry pouted. “We should really figure out a way to communicate over breaks when we can’t visit. Maybe I can nick Sirius’ mirror and study it so we can do something similar.”

Draco nodded. “That’d be a good idea. But we better go catch up with everyone else. I’m sure everyone wants to talk about their breaks.”

Harry nodded and they joined the others in the main room. Everyone else was whispering quietly together, but they quickly shut up when they saw Harry and Draco had joined them. Draco raised an eyebrow, amused, but said nothing. They all sat together and shared a few stories from their breaks. Hermione had visited France with her parents, and visited the Louvre, of course. Hermione had been thrilled to find that it also had a magical section and had spent several days looking around.

Ron had just spent the break with his family, nothing exciting happened at all, shut up Ginny. Ginny of course, did not shut up.

“He tried to take the quick way downstairs, through the railing, but he must have grown since summer, cause his head got stuck,” Ginny said, laughing and dodging Ron’s jinxes. “He really must’ve gotten an ego boost at some point for his head to be that big!”

Ron gave up on jinxing his sister and huffed, crossing his arms. “Well at least I didn’t spend the whole break mooning over—” He cut off as bats came shooting out of his nose, coughing and choking while trying to make them stop.

Ginny put her nose in the air. “I have no idea what he’s talking about,” she said airily, before bursting out laughing. “Besides, if anyone was mooning over anyone it wasn’t me, it was Percy.”

Ron tilted his head in thought then nodded. “Yeah alright,” he agreed.

Neville had just spent time with his Gran, and was able to go to another Herbology convention.

Luna had been able to spend some time with Ginny, living near the Weasleys, and had also gone to Scandinavia on the hunt for the ever elusive Crumple-Horned Snorkack.

Draco had just spent the time with his parents, and Lucius had been particularly pleased all break. Draco hadn’t asked, although he suspected at least part of it was that he was still “fighting” with Harry.

Harry went last, starting with the normal holiday things he did, before beginning to talk about the visit with the portraits. “I found out a few things. Aunt Rhea is working to teach me about Warding, and Uncle Reggie mentioned that Professor Snape was known for creating spells while he was here, so if we catch him in a good mood he might teach us some things,” he started, looking at Hermione for the last bit. Hermione nodded, probably making a mental note to talk to the professor at some point in the near future. “Grandfather mentioned that he was going to try and find someone to help me with my necromancy powers, since they manifested in a different order than his and his brothers’. But the really interesting bit was that Uncle Reggie, Moony, and Padfoot were talking with a few of the portraits and mentioned something called ‘Horcruxes’. I have no idea what they are, but they were in the context of someone shouting about ‘him’ making more than one.”

Everyone frowned in thought. “That kind of information probably wouldn’t be in the school library,” Hermione eventually mused. “What are the chances one of you could find it in the Black or Malfoy libraries?” she asked, turning to Harry and Draco.

“No chance for me,” Harry said with a sigh. “Siri took out all the darker books when I first moved in and has been slowly putting them back a day or two after my birthday. Something that made my ancestors that upset might show up around my thirtieth birthday.” He grinned at the last bit, clearly joking.

Draco rolled his eyes. “A book like that would probably be in the library at home, but Mother at least would have hidden it behind wards I won’t be able to get through. They sound dangerous, and she doesn’t want me to be exposed to that kind of thing.”

Hermione sighed. “That makes good sense, even if I wish it didn’t,” she grumbled, but moved on quickly enough. “Maybe there’s an old portrait that knows something,” she suggested after a moment. “We’ll have to ask around, discretely, of course. Wouldn’t want people to know we’re asking about strange things. Now, on to other business.” She turned to the rest of the group. “Any ideas on keeping Harry alive underwater for an hour?”

Neville immediately raised his hand. “There’s a plant, gillyweed. It will give you the ability to breathe underwater for an amount of time relative to the amount of gillyweed you eat. Professor Sprout says we’ll cut some open this year in Herbology, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to Owl Order it.”

“Mandrake, that’s brilliant!” Ron exclaimed, wrapping his arm around Neville’s neck and scrubbing his hair. “We make sure to get plenty, just in case, you never know what’s going to happen. Any weird side effects we should know about?”

Neville wrestled his way out from under Ron’s arm with a shrug and eye roll. “It’ll be unpredictable the first time you use it, and we won’t want to get too much, just in case someone is checking mail. I’ll order enough for about two hours, no one would blink an eye at me getting two gillyweed balls. The best way to make sure it’ll react the way you want is if you dunk it in the water you’re going to be swimming in, and make sure it gets soaked through before eating it. If you ever need it again to swim in the same water it’ll react the same every time. Swim in new water and you’ll have a different reaction, especially if you go from lake water to salt water.”

Hermione looked like she would love to have something to take notes with and Ginny rolled her eyes at her twitching. “You’ll be able to write it all down soon enough, Owlet,” she said with a grin. “Neville, Ronnikins was right, that’s brilliant.” She ignored Ron’s grumbling at the nickname with the expertise that came from being a sibling. “I honestly don’t know what we’d do without you sometimes.”

Neville blushed, and Ron had a shit eating grin until Ginny shot him a glare and raised her wand threateningly.

Hermione stood up with a stretch, then began shooing everyone else up. “Come on, we should get to bed. Especially you, Harry, you need your rest if you’re gonna kick the other Champions’ asses in the Seekers’ match tomorrow.”

Draco gasped dramatically, hauling Harry up as he did so. “Hermione! Language!” he exclaimed, only to yelp as she shot a stinging hex at him with an eye roll. Luna laughed her tinkling laugh as she accepted Ginny’s hand up, earning a glare and a huff from Hermione as well.

Harry let everyone out of the Chamber after calling a quick goodbye to Salmissra, everyone laughing before Draco had to split off from the group as they left the bathroom.

Notes:

The mention of soaking the gillyweed before consuming it was pulled directly from survival is a talent by ShanaStoryteller. You should check it out, definitely one of my favorite HP fics. Also, Harry's comment about Sirius removing the dark books, we imagined Sirius giving Harry a tour of the library, pulling books with a comment of "that's a little too old for you" and then like a month later on his birthday putting a few of the books back with a shit eating grin and "I think you're old enough for these now" while Harry just stared at him with a thousand yard stare.

I hope you guys enjoyed! Leave me a comment, I read and respond to them all, eventually (I try to get them right away, but no promises lol)

Question of the week: What did Hogwarts do for their exhibition for the feast with the other schools?

Standings:
Slytherin: 492
Ravenclaw: 407.5
Hufflepuff: 178.5
Gryffindor: 45

Chapter 22: A Seekers' "Name"

Summary:

Seekers' Game!

Notes:

Place your bets! Who do you think will win?

The next morning arrived, and after eating a quick breakfast, Harry headed out to the Quidditch pitch to find Krum already there warming up. Harry nodded at him in greeting, getting a nod back, and started warming up himself.

Before too long, Delacour and Diggory had joined them, followed by what seemed to be the entire school and all of the guests. The twins’ friend Lee Jordan led Katarina and a Beauxbatons student up to the announcer’s booth, and a few moments later Katarina’s voice rang out over the crowd.

“Attention, everyone, this Seeker’s Game will be starting momentarily. In the meantime, Lee Jordan, from Hogwarts, Anais, from Beauxbatons, and I, Katarina from Durmstrang, will provide the rules and commentary. To begin, we will release the snitch ten times.”

A softer female voice, presumably Anais broke in. “Whoever catches the snitch the most will win. Since Delacour is clearly the better Seeker here, I’m sure it will be her.”

“As if!” Jordan snapped. “Gladiolus will wipe the board with her. No offence Diggory, but you can’t really beat Harry in a normal game, let alone one where he doesn’t have to deal with bludgers.”

Diggory laughed derisively. “Just because he does well in interhouse games doesn’t mean he’ll do well now!” he yelled back.

Before Harry could respond to that, Katarina broke back in. “Yes, yes, that’s all well and good, but we all know Krum is the real winner here. Now, some ground rules. Again, the snitch will be released ten times. The person who catches the snitch most often wins. That’s the only rules. Good luck, Seekers!”

With that, the snitch was released for the first time, and the four Seekers shot after it. Harry distantly heard Jordan shouting in the background, but he didn’t pay too much attention to it. He just watched the snitch and his competitors. He was going to win this thing.

Krum caught the snitch first. Harry couldn’t help feeling disappointed, if impressed. Krum was really quite good at Quidditch, which he knew of course. Krum grinned at all the cheers from the Durmstrang group, then the snitch was released again. This time Harry caught it, although admittedly it did almost fly right into his hand when he shot after it. The crowd laughed, and he laughed with them, tossing the snitch to the person on the ground designated to release it.

The third time the snitch was released, Delacour came alive. She caught it twice in a row, to raucous cheers from the Beauxbatons section, before Krum caught it again. Hogwarts booed, “Come on, Diggory, Hrathen! How could you let them get it three times in a row!” but they just grinned good-naturedly as the snitch was released again. Delacour caught it again, but it had been a close fight between her and Krum.

Harry watched closely as the snitch was released for the seventh time, and was able to catch it again, this time much more spectacularly, with a spinning dive that drew gasps from some of the first years.

The next release seemed to go by in a blur, Krum catching it. Then the second to last snitch was released. The snitch buzzed just above Delacour, and refusing to let the opportunity slide, she flung herself upwards, capturing the snitch and using her momentum to backflip back onto her broom, landing neatly on her feet. Cheers roared through the stadium, and Harry was in awe. Before the next launch he managed to fly up to her, shouting “That was so cool!” as the snitch was released for the final time. After searching for a few moments, Harry saw gold flash before him and shoot up towards the sky directly above him. He barely thought through the motions before he found himself attempting to copy the most impressive move he’d ever seen. As he leapt off, he had half a mind to apologize to Hermione after the heart attack he knows he’s giving her right now, her worried yells escaping the stands. He caught the snitch with ease, but hadn’t quite thought throw how he was going to get back on his broom. Ah fuck, he thought. This is gonna hurt if I miss. He quickly pulled his body into the same movement he had just watched Delacour pull, and miraculously landed back on his broom, not quite on his feet, but he also didn’t end up in painful agony either.

The stands were deadly quiet for a minute before he heard Hermione’s voice yell, “Harry I’m going to kill you myself!” leading the rest of the crowd to laugh and cheer as he grins in pure joy. He lands, followed quickly by the other champions, and Delacour immediately ran up to him, slapping him on the back.

“You lucky little fils de pute, that move took me years to master! If you had missed even slightly you would not be having children in the future I think,” she laughed, pulling him under her arm to ruffle his hair roughly. Harry let himself be manhandled, laughing as the other two champions joined them.

“I do not think I would have the testisite to try that,” Krum admitted, looking a little pained at the thought of landing badly. Cedric shuddered beside him, but he was grinning.

Above, Anais spoke up. “As expected, Fleur Delacour wins with four snitches caught.”

There was the sound of a scuffle above, and a few words came through as the announcers fought over the megaphone, “What do you… as expected… no such…” before finally one voice rang out clear.

“Give me that!” Katarina snapped, then announced. “Tied for second place, Viktor Krum and Harry Gurne with three snitches each, although admittedly if we were counting coolness points Viktor would be in third. And in last place, Cedric Diggory, with no bitches, I mean, snitches, caught.”

“Language!” came a voice that sounded remarkably like Professor McGonagall from the crowd, while everyone else, including Diggory, laughed.

Delacour pulled them all into a huddle and smirked. “As arguably the best Seeker currently at this school, my winnings are that I get to have one thing. And the thing I want is for all of us to call each other by name. How’s that sound?”

Harry laughed and agreed. “Sounds good Fleur! What do you think, Cedric, Viktor?”

The other two laughed and agreed, and everyone headed in towards lunch, Hermione catching up with them and smacking Harry on the back of the head.

“Of all the foolish, stupid, foolhardy,” she seemed to be out of words. “You could have fallen to your death you imbecile!” she yelled, before adding in a mutter, “I really need to learn necromancy, don’t I.”

“Ah, ‘Mione, don’t be like that. I was fine! And I promise I will only practice that move close to the ground until I get it perfect, alright?”

Hermione just growled and grabbed his ear, yanking him towards lunch as he yelped, “Ok ok! I’m sorry! I’m sorryyyyyyy!” as the champions laughed and followed.

Notes:

So! Did everyone like the result? I hope so! (Also Fleur is a badass and I will die on that hill.) Also can everyone tell I love the announcers. Cause I love the announcers.

Little bit of translations, which are from Google Translate so take with a grain of salt:
Fils de pute: son of a bitch (French)
Testisite: testicles (Bulgarian)
Gurne: pot (Bulgarian)

Question of the week:
What would Harry use the rune Ansuz for in warding?

Standings:
Slytherin: 552.75
Ravenclaw: 458.25
Hufflepuff: 178.5
Gryffindor: 45

Chapter 23: Screaming Their Names

Summary:

The Second Task!

Notes:

Here we go! Finally made it to the second task at (checks chapter count) the same number of chapters it took us to finish PoA! Welcome to The Name of the Game, where the plot has to fight for a place among all the sideplots!

All French came from Google Translate, so if it's not accurate, apologies, and if you'd like to correct me, I'd love it.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, send me a comment below!

Harry found himself at the side of the lake at way too early in the morning, Draco having apparently gotten up even earlier than him, which was unusual. The other three champions were beside him, Fleur saying some very interesting sounding words in French that he should never let Hermione hear him repeat but that he was going to beg Fleur to teach him anyway, Viktor looking like he had never fully woken up, and Cedric disgustingly cheery for this early in the morning. All three other champions left a good extra foot of space around him so he wouldn’t try to pull them into a hug or something ridiculous.

Harry watched as Professor Dumbledore, Madame Maxime, and Headmaster Karkaroff stepped up onto the podium in order to start the task. Professor Dumbledore pointed his wand at his throat and began his speech. “Today we are here to complete the second task in the Triwizard Tournament. Each of you has had someone special taken, and put at the bottom of the lake. You have an hour to retrieve them.”

Harry watched his fellow champions, feeling enraged. It was one thing for the school to put them, the champions, in danger. They had signed up for it, or at least been signed up and accepted the challenges. But to take four other completely unprepared people? Harry could tell that the others felt the same. Cedric’s smile fell off his face, Viktor perked up and glared at Karkaroff, and Fleur started smoking, making Harry take a step back.

Madame Maxime spoke. “From Fleur Delacour, we have taken her sister, Gabrielle Delacour.” Harry watched as her hair began to let off sparks.

Professor Dumbledore continued. “From Cedric Diggory, we have taken his girlfriend, Cho Chang.” Cedric’s fists clenched and he took an unconscious step towards the lake.

Karkaroff spoke next. “From Viktor Krum, we have taken his classmate, Viktoria Katarina Paskaleva.” Viktor gritted his teeth and sent a scathing glare towards his headmaster.

“And from Harry Potter,” Professor Dumbledore finished, “we have taken his friend, Draco Malfoy.” Harry forced himself not to react, but he cursed mentally.

The headmasters must have sensed something from the champions, because Professor Dumbledore started the task. Each of the champions ran towards the water. Fleur shivered as her feet touched the water, but cast the Bubble-Head Charm and dove under as soon as she was deep enough to swim. Cedric did the same, and Harry goggled a little when Viktor partially transformed himself into a shark while Harry was dunking his gillyweed into the water and chewing frantically. Finally, the gillyweed kicked in, and Harry dove underwater, gills forming on his neck and webbing growing between his fingers and toes. He shot forward, heading towards what he hoped was the center of the lake.

He hadn’t gotten far when he was attacked by grindylows, but he was able to shake himself free with the spell Professor Lupin had taught them last year with only a minor wound on his arm. He looked around with a little bit of awe when he reached a clearer section of the lake. It was beautiful. The sunlight filtered through the surface, creating a greenish glow in the water, and there was so much life! Movement at the corner of his eye caught his attention and Harry whirled around, catching sight of Bob. He growled and shot after him. He would finally get his revenge for the great offense Bob had given him.

Harry propelled forward, using all his strength to body slam into Bob, but he seemed to just bounce off, leaving the squid unfazed. He dove for the nearest tentacle and yanked, which pulled him a bit but Harry was unaware if that was his doing or Bob simply treading water. He went for another body slam, but this time he took a moment to look at the squid. He watched carefully, then noted where the eyes were. They were bigger than his whole body, but Harry had been cured of any fear of humongous creatures when he met Salmissra. He took a deep breath, then dove for the nearest eye. This seemed to actually make the squid rear back, and one of the tentacles reached up, wrapping around Harry. He struggled for a moment, but could do nothing as Bob flung him out into the lake.

Stunned and unable to gather his bearings, Harry bounced off a solid object and hit the lake floor with a thud he felt in his ribs. He groaned and looked up, reaching for his wand. Draco’s floating and eerily still form looked back at him, looking as if he was still asleep. Harry shot up and reached to untie him, then paused, looking over. No one else had come yet. There was Chang, Katarina, and a little girl about nine years old who must be Gabrielle. Harry wished he had a waterproof watch so he could know how much time was left. He settled down between Draco and Gabrielle. He would wait. He didn’t particularly care about winning this thing, and he definitely cared more about people’s lives than winning this stupid task.

Before long, Cedric arrived. He noted Harry and looked at him questioningly, but Harry just waved him off, looking meaningfully at Gabrielle. Cedric nodded and headed to the surface. About fifteen minutes after that, Viktor swam up, going immediately to Katarina. He nodded at Harry as he carefully bit the ropes off, having seen Gabrielle as well.

Before long, Harry began to feel heavier. He could still breathe just fine, but he was worried that would be the next thing to stop. He untied Draco, then reached over to Gabrielle. He saw the mer watching him, but they seemed reluctant to stop him. Finally, one with more elaborate armor swam over to him. “You are only supposed to take your own hostage.” The mer’s English was good, but sounded like Professor McGonagall when she was particularly angry.

“The girl is young. Younger than the others. I won’t leave her, and her sister hasn’t come yet. The time is almost up. I’m leaving with her. Whether I have to go through you to do it or not,” Harry said, eyes flashing.

The mer looked at him for a moment, then nodded. “Very well. As an adult, you are able to make these decisions.” Harry nodded back and began swimming before stopping.

“Wait. What do you mean ‘as an adult’?”

The mer laughed. “You fought Belesama. You did not hurt her, of course, but you lasted longer against her than some of our younglings have.”

“Huh.” Harry suddenly felt himself grow even heavier, and quickly thanked the mer before shooting towards the surface.

Just moments before they broke the surface, Harry felt his gills and webbing disappear. He kicked frantically, and was able to haul Draco and Gabrielle to the surface. He knew Draco could swim, and between them they could keep Gabrielle afloat.

The second Gabrielle woke, she began struggling and crying. “Non, non, je veux sortir!” she whimpered.

Draco spoke gently back in French, and she slowly stopped struggling, but the tears didn’t stop. “I want my sister,” she whispered after a moment, and Harry nodded.

“We’ll be back to shore soon, and then you can see your sister.” It felt like it took hours to get back, but Harry knew it couldn’t have been that long. Katarina gasped when she saw Gabrielle, and hurried in a few feet to help the girl out, bundling her up in the blanket Madame Pomfrey had provided.

A few moments later, Fleur resurfaced, spitting mad. She reached shore and, without even looking towards the other champions, she stalked towards the judges. “Where. Is. My. Sister.”

“Ah, Miss Delacour,” Professor Dumbledore started.

“WHERE IS MY SISTER!” Flames rose off of Fleur, and Harry gulped before yelling. “Fleur! She’s safe! She’s right here!”

The rage seemed to vanish as she whirled back around, catching sight of Gabrielle running at her. She caught her, holding her close. “C'est bon, tu es en sécurité,” she whispered as Gabrielle cried. It took a few moments, but finally the tears stopped, and Fleur turned to Harry. “Thank you. I was attacked by the grindylows and was not able to make it to where the hostages were kept. Thank you.”

Harry looked her in the eye. “It was my pleasure.” Fleur pushed Gabrielle towards him again, then turned back to the judges, back straight.

“Tell me why I should not kill you all for endangering my nine year old sister,” she hissed.

Karkaroff made the mistake of speaking first. “It was for the tournament!”

Fleur turned her eyes on him, sparks flicking out of her hair, and her hands beginning to smoke. “It is one thing to put people who have volunteered for this tournament in danger. It is another thing entirely to put a nine year old child in danger.”

Karkaroff gulped, but didn’t speak again. Fleur turned back to the other judges, and Professor Dumbledore finally cleared his throat. “Your sister was perfectly safe the whole time she was in the lake. The mer had agreed to not allow any of the hostages to come to harm, and they would have returned any who had not been retrieved, at the end of the hour.”

Fleur’s hands slowly stopped smoking, and she eased back. “Be very careful what you choose for this tournament, judges. You chose the most qualified witches and wizards of our generation for this tournament. Do not be surprised if we deem you unfit in any way and do something about it.”

The judges muttered to themselves for a moment, but then seemed to just decide to ignore that whole spiel. Professor Dumbledore stood up. “And now, for the points. For Fleur Delacour! She did not retrieve her hostage, and returned after the time limit was up. However, she also showed great courage and calmness while in a stressful situation. Therefore, we will award her thirty-five points, giving her a total of seventy-two. For Harry Potter! He brought back his own hostage, but took more time than had been allotted. He also, however, brought back Miss Delacour’s hostage. We award him forty-three points, giving him a total of eighty-eight! For Viktor Krum! He brought back his hostage, just barely missing the end of the time limit, but he demonstrated a particularly well done partial transformation. We give him forty-five points, for a total of eighty-five! And finally, for Cedric Diggory! He brought back his hostage within the time limit. For this, he receives forty-seven points, which gives him a total of ninety-four!”

The audience cheered, the Hufflepuffs louder than anyone, and the champions grinned at each other. Madame Pomfrey huffed in the background, before finally pulling Harry and Fleur over to the tent they had set up. “Honestly, they could have waited to award the points until I had treated the both of you. You both ran into the grindylows, hm?”

Harry nodded a little sheepishly. “It doesn’t hurt so much at the moment,” he offered.

Madame Pomfrey harrumphed. “Of course it doesn’t! You’re running on adrenaline right now. The moment you stop to rest, I imagine this will be quite painful, especially since I won’t be able to heal it completely. The best I can do is start the process and get you some pain relief potions. The same for you Miss Delacour. I’d like the both of you to stay in the Hospital Wing overnight. Your sister can stay with you if you’d like, deary.” Fleur just nodded, taking the potions Madame Pomfrey handed her, as did Harry.

When she was satisfied, she bustled them towards the castle, sending a scathing glare towards the judges. Before long, she had them bundled into a bed each, Gabrielle right next to her sister. Neville came to visit Harry for a few minutes.

“Madame Pomfrey only allowed one of us in, and I won, so, congratulations from all of us,” he said.

“Thanks, Nev,” Harry said with a grin. “Glad to see you. I’ve got something for you once I’m out of here, so don’t let me forget about it, alright?”

Neville grinned back. “Sure thing, Harry. I’ll see you tomorrow, and let the others know you said hello.”

“Sure thing. I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Shortly after Neville left, Harry found himself struggling to keep his eyes open. He groggily wished Fleur a goodnight, and fell asleep instantly.

Notes:

So! Harry finally did what he's wanted to do since first year, even if it didn't do much good! Now that his thirst for revenge has been satisfied, he finds out that the giant squid has a name, and that she's female! The name for the giant squid came from Wikipedia. Belesama is a Celtic goddess of lakes and rivers.

French:
“Non, non, je veux sortir!” No, no, I want to get out!
“C'est bon, tu es en sécurité,” It's ok, you're safe

If you liked, or didn't like, leave me a comment! They feed my soul!

Question of the week: Where did Ravenclaw hail from? (Hint: Answer is in one of the Sorting Hat songs)

Standings:
Slytherin: 662.75
Ravenclaw: 458.25
Hufflepuff: 178.5
Gryffindor: 45

Chapter 24: We couldn't think of a chapter Name

Summary:

The aftermath of the second task.

Notes:

No chapter title this time because it is late and I am sick and my cowriter can't think of a good title either. If y'all have suggestions I will gladly listen. Also, I'M NOT DEAD BITCHES. Just very busy at all times. I haven't had a non-weekend day off in like four months so. But! The new chapter is here, and I do not plan on abandoning this anytime soon. I and my cowriter have way too many plans.

The next morning Harry, Fleur, and Gabrielle were released from the Hospital Wing. They walked together to the Great Hall, chatting easily enough between them. They split up to go sit with their usual companions, except Harry was sidetracked on the way to his usual spot at the Slytherin table by Tracy Davis yanking him down to sit between her and Theo Nott, near the first years.

“Er. Hello?” he greeted unsurely, blinking between the two of them.

“Sorry about Tracy, Mona. She’s of the opinion that if Malfoy is going to be a bitch about being your most important person then you shouldn’t sit next to him,” Nott explained, not looking up from his food beyond a polite nod.

Davis, however, put her fork down entirely. “Malfoy is being a prat. If he wants to throw away your friendship because you have a werewolf for a godfather in law than he can fuck right off. And you need to stop sulking in the common room. You can have as many friends outside Slytherin as you like, but you need some in there as well. You can call me Tracy.”

Harry blinked some more, than laughed. “Alright. You can call me Harry, Tracy. Nott, what’s that in front of you that’s so good, and would you pass it to me.”

Nott laughed and passed him the food. “You can call me Theo if you’re calling her Tracy.”

“Harry, then.” They spent the rest of breakfast with companionable conversation, with the first years occasionally leaning across the table with bright eyes and curious questions about the dragons and what happened under the lake. Harry grinned and told them a very dramatic version of his fight with the squid, who’s name was actually Belesama, and was possibly a goddess of the lake. The little first years gasped in awe.

One brave soul, Belladonna Fawley, shoved her DADA homework across the table for Harry to help with, which he did. This broke the barrier and suddenly he was the center of a storm of Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions questions. He helped as best as he could, remembering his own time in those classes. Tracy seemed satisfied with this, and only broke in occasionally to offer her own experiences.

After breakfast, Tracy reluctantly let Harry go, as he had promised to meet the other members of Les Amis, but made him promise to come study with her in the library later. They agreed on a time, and Tracy flounced off with an amused Theo in tow. The first years stayed near Harry, looking a little lost on what to do, and Harry smiled, crouching down to get shorter than them. “I have to go see my other friends, but if you like, I’ll be in the library with Tracy and Theo later if you still need help with your homework.”

Little Belladonna sniffed and pointed her nose up. “I only had the one question. But I suppose if you need help with your homework I could come visit,” and flounced away in the same motions as Tracy. Harry hid a laugh behind his hand and stood up, ruffling the hair of the closest first year, much to her dismay as she squawked and frantically reached up to smooth it down with a pout. The other kids reluctantly dispersed as well, and Harry grinned, turning to head to Myrtle’s bathroom for the Les Amis meeting.

He was dragged somewhere for the second time, but this time it was Ginny dragging him into Myrtle’s bathroom. He yelped but let himself be yanked with no other complaint, other than to rub his throat where his collar had inadvertently pulled.

Ginny glared at him playfully. “I’m not apologizing for that. If you didn’t want to be dragged places you shouldn’t have let Davis start it.”

Harry dramatically flung his hands towards the ceiling. “I’m not going to fight Tracy when she wants something, I learned that from you and ‘Mione!” he cried, and Ginny began to choke in her efforts to hold back her laughter.

“Tracy, hm?” Ron spoke up from behind, sounding horribly amused.

“That’s what she said to call her, am I supposed to ignore her and get my glasses hexed for a year to sit crookedly? You witches are bloody terrifying when you want to be.” He was definitely whining now, but he couldn’t make himself care.

Hermione finally broke, bursting out in laughter, quickly followed by the rest of them. Neville calmed down first and motioned to the Chamber. “Shall we?”

Harry rolled his eyes and hissed the Chamber open, letting his so called friends in first. He felt Draco pass by as well, hidden under the Invisibility Cloak, and followed immediately after, closing the entrance behind him. Draco pulled off the cloak and grinned. “Davis is a good friend to have in Slytherin. She seems to have made at least acquaintances with everyone, so you won’t be lonely in the Common Room not being able to sit with me anymore. Plus Nott’s a good sort.”

Harry rolled his eyes at him as well, lifted his nose, and pranced past him just like little Belladonna had done earlier. Draco laughed even more, but followed him.

Once in the Chamber, Harry greeted Salmissra, sulking about his friends being horrible to him while she also laughed at him, than they got down to business.

“The second task may present a problem with Harry and I supposedly fighting,” Draco started. “With me being his ‘most important person’ people might start to wonder if there’s something else behind the scenes, especially sympathizers of You-Know-Who.”

“Tracy told me that she just thinks you’re going to be a bitch about it,” Harry offered. “Theo doesn’t seem to have much of an opinion beyond thinking my terror was funny, and the first years were just interested to hear about my fight with Belesama and exploiting me for my help with homework.”

“Belesama?” Hermione broke in.

“Oh! I never told you about what actually happened beyond that I found Gabrielle and Draco, huh.” Harry went to explain the fight with Belesama and the fact that he was apparently now an adult in mer culture, which is why he was allowed to leave with Gabrielle so easily. “Sorry, guess I forgot after all, even after I mentioned it briefly last night to Neville,” Harry said sheepishly.

Neville shrugged. “Well, now we know at least. But Draco’s right, I don’t think Davis, Nott, and a bunch of first years are the best judge of what people will think. You and Draco will need to have a fight again. A serious one. Where no one will expect you’re hiding that you’re actually friends.”

Luna spoke up, sounding much less dreamy than she normally did. “I think Draco must call you Potter, Harry. Everyone knows you hate that name, and for good reason. Miss Davis will likely pull you further into her circle, but more friends in Slytherin is a good thing, I think.”

Ron nodded slowly. “It’s the only way everyone’ll believe you two had a permanent break, mate. Having an argument is a typical thing for friends, and it’s still believable that he’s your most important person. But him calling you Potter would make everyone think that that’s done.”

Harry winced, but nodded. “Ok. Don’t warn me when. My reaction will need to be as real as possible. But we need to work up to that. Arguments in the halls, real barbs. You call me Potter, and that’ll be the end of our public friendship until we can get rid of old Snake Face permanently.”

Draco grimaced. “I don’t like this,” he started, turning towards Harry. “In fact I hate it. Even with warning this would be painful for you, and I never want to cause you pain. Can we,” he paused, looking a little pink around the ears, “could we meet up in the Chamber, whatever night we do this, make sure everything’s ok? I know we have to do this, but I want to make sure it’s done with the least amount of damage done to our friendship.”

Harry smiled. “Yeah, of course Draco. You’ll have to keep the Cloak, it’s the easiest way you can still meet up with us, and Moody shouldn’t be able to see under it according to Grandfather Ignotus.” Draco just nodded.

After that, Harry handed the extra gillyweed back to Neville and got him started talking about the herbs he had almost ready to put in Myrtle’s bathroom, with her permission, to keep Rita Skeeter away from the Chamber entrance. Draco just sat nearby, listening in and half leaning on Harry, making Harry lean back to stay sitting upright.

*****************

After an hour or so, Harry reluctantly herded everyone out of the Chamber. He had promised to meet Tracy and Theo in the library, and he expected there would be a herd of first years expecting him too, armed with their least favorite subjects.

When he reached the library, he found he was right, but that the first years had brought their friends from other Houses as well, and they had just as many questions. He helped them as much as he could, but there were just so many of them, and he couldn’t do as much as he’d like without Madam Pince raining down with fury on their heads. A few second years had even somehow heard about this impromptu study meeting and joined in.

As they were leaving for lunch, Tracy spoke up. “If we’re going to do that again we’ll have to meet somewhere besides the library. I thought Madam Pince was going to throw us out physically a couple of times.”

Theo, who was reading what Harry was pretty sure was a novel charmed to look like a textbook, absently said, “But where would we find room for that many people?”

Tracy sniffed. “They’re little, they can squeeze into a classroom.” When Theo rolled his eyes at her, she huffed. “Fine, I’ll look around.”

“Don’t I get a say in the matter? This is my time you’re promising away after all, and I need to keep up with my other friends as well,” Harry said, amused.

It was Tracy’s turn to roll her eyes. “As if Granger and Lovegood wouldn’t enjoy tutoring younger kids. I bet Weasley and Weasley the Better would enjoy parts of it too. Longbottom could tutor for Herbology.”

“And which one is Weasley the Better?” Harry asked, holding back laughter.

“Ginevra, obviously.” At that Harry couldn’t hold his laughter anymore and let it out with a bark, tossing his head back.

“I’ll need to tell Ron that you think so. Ginny would be pleased,” he said when he had caught his breath.

Tracy just smirked at him.

They arrived at the Great Hall, and headed to the same seats they had sat in for breakfast. Ginny immediately came over to join them, with Hermione following more hesitantly, but it seemed to be more because she was trying to haul about ten books over the heads of the first years than because she didn’t want to sit with them.

“Harry, Nott, Davis,” Ginny greeted cheerfully.

“Weasley the Better,” Tracy greeted back, mischievous grin on her face. Ginny laughed.

“You can call me Ginny if you like, Merlin knows there’s enough of us Weasleys around, but feel free to call me that in front of Ronnikins. Harry, did you have fun tutoring the little ducklings?”

Before Harry could reply, Hermione arrived and carefully set her books down between her feet, since there wasn’t room on the table. “Oh is that what you were doing? Good idea, perhaps I should try that, see if it helps me remember things from previous years better. Nott, Davis, good to meet you.” She eyed Theo’s textbook, and huffed. “You could at least have chosen a more wordy textbook to charm your novel as if you’re going to hide it.”

Theo looked up at this, and grinned, showing his teeth. “Which textbook would you suggest, then?”

“Defensive Magical Theory,” she replied promptly. “Horridly dull, but if you’re seen as the studious sort then no one will think it’s strange. Then the cover at least will get some use.”

Harry looked over at that. “Wait. I’ve seen you read that textbook many times. How many times has it been charmed?”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “I have other research I’m not ready to tell anyone about, so it’s a good cover.”

At her suggestion, Theo had put the book down entirely and held out his hand. “I think we will get along just fine. Theo.”

Hermione shook the offered hand. “Hermione.”

Notes:

I hope y'all enjoyed! It was a fun chapter to write, and I got to introduce some new people. I hope the firsties were cute!

QOTW: How did Harry catch the last snitch in the Seekers' game?

Standings: Again, will come back and put this in, sleep is my master and I require it to get through work tomorrow.

Chapter 25: The Forbidden Name

Notes:

Quick update this time, it's a miracle! Get your tissues ready, cause this chapter's kinda rough gang. I hope you like it!

A few weeks after they made this plan, Draco exited the Chamber with everyone and found an out of the way spot to store the Cloak in his bag, thinking carefully. He had very slowly worked his way towards more violent fights with Harry, and he knew he was going to have to have the climactic fight soon. He strolled along, avoiding the library to go study in an abandoned classroom. He was joined by Pansy shortly after.

“Darling,” she greeted, draping herself over his shoulder, “you really do know how to make an impression. Obviously everyone knew that you and Jin weren’t entirely estranged, but to prove it so publicly is really a bold move.”

Draco didn’t roll his eyes, but he thought about it. “Pansy dear, is this your way of telling me you’re worried about me? And you’re bringing up the task awfully late after it happened.”

Pansy sat next to him, leaning into his shoulder. “You’ve been hard to find alone, and I’ve had my own distractions. And of course I’m worried. That’s what friends are for, after all. And you need to be careful. I know what’s going on, or I can guess, and if I’m right you’ll want to be very publicly separated from North before long.”

“We’re working on it,” he murmured, focusing back on his work. Pansy nodded and stood.

“Well, I’ve kept Tori waiting long enough, so I’d best go meet with her. You let me know if you need any help, darling.” She kissed his cheek fondly and waltzed out of the room, leaving Draco rolling his eyes behind her.

He spent the rest of the time until lunch studying, then headed to the Great Hall. He saw Harry sitting with Davis and Nott again and mentally nodded in satisfaction. He would miss being able to spend time with Harry in public, but at least he was surrounded by allies. It was time for Draco to get his own. He sat next to Pansy and Astoria Greengrass, both of whom looked remarkably put together for what Draco suspected they had been doing before now.

“Davis is a good choice,” Astoria said unexpectedly. “This way he’ll still be friendly with one of the most well acquainted of us, and thus won’t be entirely shut out. That’s good.”

Draco eyed Pansy, wondering what she had told Astoria. Astoria just rolled her eyes at him. “I’ve got eyes, Draco. Just because Daphne is such a mad scientist about Care doesn’t mean I’m the same way.”

Pansy shrugged. “To be fair, I don’t think anyone else here has known you practically since you were born, so they won’t be able to tell as much as we can.”

Draco rolled his eyes at his childhood friends. “Well how do you suggest we be more distant?”

Pansy smirked, sharing a glance with Astoria. “Give Tori and me some time to finish our lunch, then meet us in your abandoned classroom.”

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Padma watched as Malfoy walked into the Great Hall and sat next to Parkinson and Astoria. Her eyes narrowed at how Parkinson leaned into Astoria so comfortably, jealousy flooding through her veins, wishing she could be that close to Astoria. She quickly hid her glare behind her book as Malfoy glanced toward Bartan. She’s not the only one who’s noticed the strange tension between them since their fight about Bartan’s godfathers, clearly Malfoy still cares but Bartan can’t get over the insult to his family. She watched over the edge of the book as the three finished their meal and got up to go somewhere together. She closed her book, wiped her mouth, and rose to follow them. Unfortunately she quickly lost sight of them after a couple minutes and cursed. She would just have to find them later to see what was going on.

As she exited the library a few hours later, she stopped dead in her tracks as she watched Malfoy step up to Bartan, looking like he was fighting the hold of a Ramora. She watched warily as a crowd slowly formed around the two of them when Malfoy shouted for Bartan’s attention, and watched Bartan look nervously at Malfoy as Malfoy looked desperately at Bartan for half a second before schooling his face into a deep sneer.

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Draco grimaced as he walked toward the Great Hall after the planning session with Pansy and Astoria. He was not looking forward to this, but he knew it had to be done. He glanced up as he passed the library and saw Harry walking towards the Great Hall as well, from the opposite direction. He took a discreet breath, then marched forward, calling out, “Hey, Scarface! I have a bone to pick with you!” He watched Harry turn around, shoulders hunched a little already. Draco looked into Harry’s green eyes, hoping he could read the apology in his own, before forcing his features into a sneer worthy of his father. “I just had someone remind me of the oh so special second task. I can’t believe you still found me so important, even after I told you exactly what I thought about your dogfather and his little werewolf pet.”

Draco saw Harry’s mouth open and paused for long enough to hear, “At least my godfather’s not a pompous asshole like your father is. I’d rather have a dogfather than a blonde posturing git like Lucius.”

After hearing that, Draco lowered his voice to sound threatening, copying his mother that one time she found someone trying to kidnap him when he was little. “I thought I told you where we stand. I’m not associating with blood traitors and mudblood sympathizers.” Draco paused, hopefully imperceptibly, before forcing himself to spit, “And you’re the worst of them, Potter.”

His heart broke as he watched Harry’s eyes almost well up with tears before he straightened his shoulders and hissed back, “Fuck you, Malfoy. I should have left you to drown under that lake.”

Draco forced his face to stay in its scornful scowl as he watched Harry turn and start away, before breaking into a run in the direction of Myrtle’s bathroom. He wanted to follow but knew he couldn’t. Instead he squared his shoulders and strutted through the hoard of glares and sneers. He heard whispers and braced himself as he felt a hand grip his arm and spin him around and was greeted with a solid punch to the face. He wheeled back, barely registering that it was one of the twins, before he felt a stinging hex hit his backside, and another punch to his solar plexis. He forced his way through the crowd and headed back towards the Slytherin common room before breaking off into a secret passage to lose any followers. He had to get to the Chamber as soon as possible.

Notes:

I hope all of you cried. I hope you cry even more next chapter. Your pain feeds my muse. Leave a comment if you liked, or hated, or cried, or laughed, or whatever!

QOTW: Who were the announcers for the Seekers' game? One point per correct name. First name is fine.

Standings:
Slytherin: 726.5
Ravenclaw: 468.25
Hufflepuff: 178.5
Gryffindor: 45

Chapter 26: The Names We Forgive

Summary:

The aftermath of The Fight.

Notes:

Hehehe I hope you like this chapter. Sorry about how long it took to come out, but the ending scene took. A long time to figure out. Anyways, enjoy!

Harry ran on instinct, going to the one place he felt safe after the fight. He should’ve checked if anyone followed, should have looked around before sputtering out Parseltongue in a choked voice, but he didn’t care. He knew it was fake, but the sting from hearing that name, his name, especially from Draco, and how he spat it out with so much hatred…. He almost meant it when he told him to drown in the lake. He rushed into the chamber and collapsed into a corner, finally allowing himself to cry. He heard  Salmissra move and hiss at him, but he didn’t respond. Just cried until his eyes were sore and puffy and he didn’t have any tears left. After a couple of hours he heard another entrance into the chamber open up and the splashing of water as hurried feet ran across the floor.

“Harry! Harry I’m so sorry, I  didn’t mean it, it was acting, I’m sorry, I’ll never say that again-“ Draco’s rapid apology and ramble continued even as he crashed into Harry and had his face tucked in his shoulder. Harry didn’t move, but his body tensed like it used to when he expected a beating from the Dursley’s. He knew it was an act, that he wouldn’t be physically hurt, but he reacted on instinct, and frankly he was still angry at Draco regardless of the circumstances. Draco stopped mid sentence and noticed that his hug wasn’t being reciprocated, lifting his head to look at Harry. Harry noticed all the injuries, the black eye and bruised cheek, he saw black and blue litter the parts of his arms that had shifted out of his sleeves in his hurry. But the worst and most painful to see was the look Draco had given him. Entirely crestfallen, his jaw hung slack in shock and his eyes welled with tears, all the pain in the world held in his gaze. Harry still didn’t move, couldn’t look him in the eye any longer, and shifted away from his grasp. With that one small move, one final push, Draco broke. The tears leaked from his eyes to fall freely down his face now, but he couldn’t move a muscle.

His face twitched to sob, but nothing came out, and his body shook but he never moved from where he was holding Harry moments ago. It was quiet, neither boy making a sound, until Harry’s eyes began to shed another tear, and Draco finally cracked. He took in a shuddering breath and began to sob, uncaring of the echo that bounced through the chamber, and curled his arms around his body and tucked his head into his chest. He looked so small, and Harry broke down with him. Despite everything, this was still his best friend, and he couldn’t bear to leave him with how hurt he was, so he rushed to hug Draco. They stayed like that for what seemed like hours, tightly holding on to each other as they cried.

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Ron grimaced as he watched Draco slink away. If he hadn’t known this moment would have to come, and been half expecting it, he would have fully believed the hatred he had sworn he saw in Draco’s eyes. With what he knew, he suspected that hatred had been aimed inwardly, not towards Harry, but it had worked. No one would guess that Draco and Harry were friends now. And with what had happened as Draco tried to get out of the crowd, the blond would never have to use that cursed name again. Ron straightened out his face and headed into the Great Hall. He would leave Harry and Draco to fix everything between them for now. There was nothing he could do, and he was hungry. He caught sight of Hermione, Luna, Ginny, and Neville sitting at the Gryffindor table clearly waiting for him, so he hurried over and slid into the spot they had left open for him.

Luna glanced at him and gave him a smile. “Everything will be alright,” she said quietly. “They will come out stronger than ever for this, even though it hurts now.”

Ron just smiled back. “Yeah, I hope so,” he said, then turned his attention to his food.

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After what felt like hours, Harry finally found the strength to stop crying, even if he stayed where he was, clinging to Draco. His voice came out muffled from where his face was planted in Draco’s neck, but he whispered, “I forgive you. We knew it had to happen, and I told you not to warn me, so I don’t have anyone to blame but myself.”

Draco’s voice was fierce as his arms tightened around Harry’s waist and he whispered back, “The only one to blame is the fucking Dark Lord. Not you. Definitely not you.”

Harry found his own arms tightening around Draco’s neck before he sighed and reluctantly stepped back. “We need to talk about it. How we’re going to keep this up. Based on the bruises I see everywhere you can get away with not calling me that name ever again, but we need to keep fighting in public. And we can’t meet up after every fight either.”

Draco nodded, gently pulling on Harry’s hand, leading him to a pile of cushions that Les Amis had brought down shortly after they started meeting in the Chamber. “Agreed. And if we have to completely cut me out of the meetings between Les Amis to keep all of you safe, I would prefer that.”

Harry shook his head. “No. We can keep you hidden. We’ve been doing good with that so far, the wards Slytherin put on the Chamber still ensure that whoever that mystery Animagus is, they won’t be able to follow us in. If nothing else you could turn into Apple and follow us around as a dog. We could freak Derek out some more.” Harry smiled a bit at the idea, but when Draco’s grim demeanor didn’t shift, his smile faded.

“Harry, the issue is not whether I can continue to sneak around and join you or not. It is whether the Dark Lord will remember I was your friend once and think to ask me for information. He’s close to coming back, I can tell with how my parents have been acting. What I don’t know can’t be tortured out of me.” Draco’s voice lowered under the stress of his suggestion, as did his body as he leaned even further back into the cushions and stared at the ceiling.

Harry’s body shot up straight and stiffened, green eyes suddenly ablaze, and Draco found himself falling into their depths as the dark haired boy hissed, “If he touches a hair on your head I will rip his throat out with my teeth, tiger or not.”

Draco stared, eyes wide at Harry’s ferocity. The anger he held at the idea of Draco getting hurt raised his body temperature and heat radiated off of him, and Draco could feel his cheeks growing hot. Although he knew it wasn’t just because of Harry’s proximity. “Oh,” he whispered.

Draco’s mind whirled with implications and thoughts he’d tried to bury. He’s tried all year to bottle up his feelings so when the inevitable split for their safety happened, his hear wouldn’t ache so deeply. But for all the loyalty and love that Harry embodied, he’d never see Harry get so angry so quickly at the mere implication of harm coming to his friends like he just did with Draco. Why was Harry so upset about it being him? Draco almost dared to think of what that might mean, and of how much more difficult it made things, and how much more this will hurt despite all his hard work, but if this was his last Les Amis meeting he didn’t have time to mull it over. Without thinking, he sat up, wrapping his arms around Harry’s shoulders, and pulled him into a kiss.

 

Notes:

CLIFFHANGER!!! Muahahahaha. Ok but no joke the kissing scene was the hardest thing I've written in my life and my cowriter (who posts on Wattpad) ended up being the one to actually write that scene. So! I hope you all enjoyed! Leave me a comment below!

Question of the week: Where did Derek see Draco's Animagus form?

Standings: Will edit to include these soon.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 4 of They'll Know Our Names