Chapter 2516 - Ch: 9

Chapter 9: Awards, consequences, and explanations.

First Task Arena, Forbidden Forest.

Harry didn't move. He didn't open his eyes. He didn't breathe.

He could feel the warm breath of the dragon as she breathed on his arm, his hair ruffling. His body was tense, it was only then he noticed his back was drenched in sweat, his pulse was racing. His eyes snapped open and he released the breath he'd been holding as a sigh.

Somehow, it had worked, whatever he'd done.

He looked up, into the wide silent eyes of the crowd watching him.

Silence.

The only sound he could hear was the sound of his own breathing, the dragon's heavy breathes and occasional snorts.

And his heartbeat. Which was pounding in his ears.

Then he looked to his left where his hand pressed against the warm snout of the female Horntail, who took deep steady breaths, her eyes closed.

'I'm touching a Dragon…I'm TOUCHING a freaking DRAGON!' he thought, he sucked in a gasp as he straightened up, and pulled his hand away from her nose. She opened her eyes and looked at him, snorting again.

"Uhh…hi…" he said awkwardly, licking his dry lips and swallowing nervously, his mind racing.

'Ok…ok…think Potter…gotta convince her to let me get at the eggs…somehow…'

"Ok…well, I don't know how well you can understand me…but…I need to get to that gold egg…" he said awkwardly.

Her eyes narrowed, a low growl emanating from her throat.

'Ok…clearly she understands something , maybe the word 'egg'. Ok…different tactic.'

"Ok…listen lady, I know you don't want to be here, neither do I. I know you're probably freaking out about your eggs being here too, being in an unfamiliar environment, and I don't blame you. I was forced to compete in this damn tournament against my will, and I give my word that I mean no harm to you or your clutch, I just need to retrieve the golden egg, ya know, the shiny fake one." He said pointing awkwardly at the gold egg in the center of the clutch of black eggs. How she hadn't immediately identified and discarded it he did not know, maybe her maternal instincts prevented it he reasoned.

He pointed at the gold egg and made a move to step around her and approach the nest, but she growled again, snapping her jaws a little and he froze, raising his hands in what he hoped was a non-threatening gesture.

"Ok! Ok…Not moving!" He said, holding still.

The dragon snorted then turned around and approached her nest, turning her back to him.

Harry stared at her, then looked to the crowd, they were still silent, he looked over to the hospital tent where he saw the others poking their heads out of the tent flap, staring at him slack-jawed. He looked over at the dragon handlers, including Charlie, who were also staring at him as if he were crazy.

'Heh, I just might be. Guess you guys never figured this was a way of dealing with Dragons…then again, neither did I.' he thought.

He turned back to the dragon as she turned back to face him and started walking towards him, the golden egg clutched in her jaws.

Harry swallowed nervously as she dropped it at his feet then nudged it with her nose.

"Uh…thanks." He said as he stooped to pick it up, then moved to pick up his wand as the dragon snorted again, then turned away, heading back to her nest. He gave her one last look, before he turned and headed towards the hospital tent.

There was still no-one cheering, or even talking, by the time he reached the tent, and he was pulled in by Cedric. Fleur and Krum were also watching him with confused looks, Madam Pomfrey was treating a rather nasty looking burn on Krum's arm.

"What the bloody hell Potter?!"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Well, I was expecting someone to cheer when I got the egg, or at least say something."

Cedric snorted. "They're probably still in shock! What the hell were you thinking?! That dragon could have taken your arm off!"

"I thought you weren't allowed to watch."

"When we heard Bagman say you dropped your wand, we all decided to come take a look." Cedric replied, Fleur and Krum nodded in agreement.

Harry shrugged, "Well, it'll be interesting to see the scores though. Though I figure I'm gonna get a lot of grief from Hermione." Cedric snorted.

Just then, a tall, lanky woman with wire framed glasses and blonde hair that looked like it was dyed, entered the tent.

"Mister Potter! There you are, I was wondering if you would like to spare a few words for the Prophet tomorrow? As the youngest Champion in history…" Rita Skeeter began, pulling out parchment and a green quick-quotes quill.

Harry glared at her and folded his arms.

"No comment." He said flatly.

Rita blinked, before turning to Cedric, who raised an eyebrow.

"How about you, Mister Buggery?"

Harry had to bite his lip to stop the grin, and the laughter, that were struggling to cross his face as Cedric glared at her with an expression that clearly telegraphed that he would like nothing more than to murder the woman.

"It's 'Diggory', you talentless hack." Cedric snarled through gritted teeth, fists clenched and shaking.

Rita tried to look nonplussed as she turned to Fleur, her quill scribbling on the parchment.

"And you dear?"

Fleur glared at her and folded her arms, eyes narrowing. "Va te faire foutre."

Krum snorted, smirking and chuckling, as did Cedric, though Harry had no idea what she'd just said, he guessed it wasn't polite. Clearly Rita understood French about as well as he did, because she just grinned and scribbled on the parchment.

"Wonderful!" she then turned to Krum, who was glaring at her, a look of utter loathing on his face. Clearly he'd dealt with reporters like Rita before, and hated them.

"How about you? Mister Kram?"

"It is Krum, you foolish woman. And no, no comment."

Just then, the flap of the tent was thrown open and Hermione stalked in, her expression a mixture of fury, incredulousness, and shock.

'And speak of the devil…or would that be banshee?' Harry thought, a slight smile crossing his face as he remembered what he'd done to her in the shower the other day.

"Harry James Potter! What the FUCK were you THINKING?!" Hermione snapped, her voice raising into an almost-scream. Her eyes were wide, a multitude of emotions swirling within them as she glared at him, she looked like she wanted to slap him, hug him, and throttle him, and not entirely in that order.

He opened his mouth to say something as Pomfrey came forward to start checking him, since she'd finished healing Krum, Hermione continued regardless. Then she turned and glared at Rita, who was looking between Hermione and Harry like she was on the verge of the scoop of the century. Harry could already see the woman's mind coming to conclusions that would make life for him and Hermione very difficult.

"You. Out." Pomfrey snapped, pointing at the tent flap. Rita huffed.

"Freedom of the Press, I have a right to interview the Champions."

"We already told you we're not saying anything." Cedric snapped, folding his arms.

"Fine then, at least I got a statement from one of you." Rita said, before ducking out.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "Who said what?" Fleur chuckled.

"I believe I said, 'ow you say…Fuck off."

Hermione snorted, as did Pomfrey. "I don't think she understood what Fleur was saying, it'll be interesting to see what she does with that." Harry said. Hermione turned and gave him a look.

"Anyway… Back to my original point. I mean really Harry? Dropping your wand in front of a god damn nesting Dragon?! Are you insane? Why would you do something so merlin damned RECKLESS!" she snapped, voice raising again.

"Well, he is a Gryffindor, that's kind of in the job description with you guys." Cedric said, grinning. That grin faltered when Hermione's icy glare fixed on him instead.

"Zip. It." she growled.

"Well, good news Mister Potter, you're perfectly fine." Pomfrey said, as the tent opened again and Dumbledore and McGonagall came in.

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked, her stern gaze slipping back to Harry. "Because I'm pretty sure he lost his mind out there."

"Do not worry, I am sure eet will turn up, non?" Fleur said, smiling at them.

"Har har." Harry said, before his shoulders slumped. "Lost my broom though." Cedric winced, as did Krum, and Hermione's stern expression softened considerably, as she stepped forward and hugged him.

"I'm sorry Harry." She said quietly, as Pomfrey paused as she checked Harry again, frowned, then started to scan Hermione. Harry smiled and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her neck as he realised how much he'd worried her.

"I'm sure he'll be fine, once you knock some sense into him. Though I am detecting something odd though…I'm picking up traces of a Lust potion in your system Mister Potter. You as well Miss Granger, I hope you haven't been trying to experiment with potion brewing again."

"Wait… what?!" Hermione yelped.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, stepping forward. "Well done, all of you, your scores will be calculated shortly by myself and the other judges, I just wanted to pop in and see how you were all doing." He smiled, his eyes twinkling.

Hermione frowned as she pulled away from Harry, confusion marring her face. Why would Dumbledore be checking on them now? Surely that violated some sort of procedure, but she could barely focus on him at the moment, her mind stalling as she tried to process what the Mediwitch had just told her.

"We're fine, sir." Cedric said, giving Hermione and Harry an odd look. Dumbledore nodded, then raised his hand, and silently wandlessly cast several charms on everyone in the tent, freezing them in place, placing all of them under a trance, so none of them would see or remember what he was about to do. He had to understand why his attempts to engender attraction between Mister Krum and Miss Granger had failed, and to hopefully reinforce it. He was aware that the probability of stopping the Bonding process from starting between Harry and Hermione was likely impossible at this point, even if it hadn't started already. They were living in such close proximity that it was a given certainty now.

Which was unfortunate, but not something that could be handled later. A full Bonding did not always guarantee the two in question would end up being married, after all, and a Wizard could bond with multiple Witches, and a Witch could bond with more than one Wizard, if the two in question chose to.

So…it would seem a little 'prodding' was needed.

Meeting first Harry's, then Hermione's eyes, he silently used a Legilimency probe, and entered their minds.

First, he removed the knowledge of what Pomfrey had just revealed to them, then he entered Pomfrey's mind and did the same. He then reviewed the confrontation with Draco the week before, then how they'd coped with the immediate aftereffects, and then how they'd come to realize how to 'manage' their new condition.

When he came to Hermione questioning if they had been dosed with potions, he paused. 'How had she figured it out?' he thought. This girl was clearly too smart and too observant for her own good. Hopefully, if she could be paired off with either young Ronald or Mister Krum, it might help curb that in some way. Maybe Mister Weasley, instead of Mister Krum, as he was well aware of the young redhead's budding attraction for the girl. He couldn't tell if she'd just guessed, or genuinely been observant enough to spot it…well, that would not do.

Working quickly, he modified her memories, removing all traces of her suspicion of being dosed, which he hoped would lead her to assume the elevated levels of arousal she would experience were solely due to the curse, and not with the potions on top of that.

Then he came to her encounter with Krum in the library, and he had to bite his tongue to stop the growl of frustration from coming out. Here she was, in a relatively isolated environment with Mister Krum, and a perfect opportunity for her to start 'forming a deeper connection' with him, as it were, and yet, all they'd done was talk! Did Hermione really have that much self-control?

Or maybe it was the 'activities' she'd engaged in with Harry that had 'quelled the fires' enough, so to speak, so that she'd be able to control herself so much…well…that also would not do. Clearly, he would need to supply the House Elves with something stronger. So far, he'd been using potions he'd gotten from an Apothecary in Knockturn Alley, but they clearly weren't cutting it. he'd have to talk to Severus.

He then started to alter Hermione's memory of her meeting with Krum, not removing it entirely, just altering it slightly, and adding to it. Once he was finished, he quickly moved to Krum, and repeated the process.

He also added a stronger compulsion charm on the youth, noting that he already harboured feelings of attraction for Miss Granger, so he amplified them, with a little mental work. While Krum had clearly undergone Occlumency training at Durmstrang, he was no master at it, and hopefully, wouldn't spot the modifications to his mind before it was too late to matter.

He also placed a subtle 'hint' in the youth's mind that he should also pursue Hermione for the upcoming Yule Ball.

When he was satisfied, he pulled out of Krum's mind then double-checked his alterations to Hermione's and Harry's memories. He then delved into Cedric's, Fleur's and Krum's minds to double check everything was fine, then finally, he turned to Pomfrey, and delved into her mind and started tinkering. He hated having to do it, but it was necessary. After all, it wasn't the first time he'd done this. Last time it had been after Harry's first physical in his First Year, and she'd come to him complaining about the numerous injuries and scars she'd found. He'd assured her he'd take care of it, then he had. Now he was doing the same. He topped it off with a compulsion that would stop her noticing any more lust potions in either of their systems.

When he was sure he was done, he unfroze everyone, and smiled at them.

"Well, congratulations to you all. Now, I need to get to the Judges table for the scoring." And with that, he ducked out.

"I'll go wait for you by the stands Harry." Hermione said, giving him another hug and a quick kiss on the cheek, before glancing at Krum, Cedric, then Fleur, and offering them each a smile, though her gaze lingered on Krum a little longer.

For his part, Harry sighed, as he hefted the metal egg. There was quite a bit of weight to it, and the narrower half seemed to be segmented, as if it opened somehow, though he had no idea how right now, as he couldn't even get his fingernails between the plates.

Krum meanwhile, watched Hermione leave, and smiled as his mind drifted back to their meeting in the library, and he felt himself blush with embarrassment as he remembered their meeting, the brief conversation they'd had, though he couldn't really remember what it was about, before she'd said she needed his help with something in the Restricted Section, where she'd promptly dragged him by his tie, and once they were out of the view of prying eyes, she'd rather determinedly dropped to her knees in front of him, and proceeded to give him a very enthusiastic blowjob, and once she was done, she'd promised a repeat performance at a later date right there in the library, all he'd have to do would be to meet her there in the future, which he'd readily agreed to.

"Ok, let's go see how we all did, shall we?" Harry asked, the others nodded and left the tent, soon finding themselves standing before the judges table.

The judges were all conferring among themselves, before they took note of the four champions standing before them. Dumbledore placed his wand to his throat and then his voice echoed over the arena.

"The scoring will now begin, in order the Champions participated in. First, Cedric Diggory."

He then raised his wand, and a glowing 10, Bagman also raised a 10, Maxime raised a 9, Karkaroff, after a moment, raised an 8, which earned him some boos from the assembled Hufflepuffs. Crouch, after a bit longer of a pause, raised his wand and a glowing 8 appeared.

"Cedric Diggory is awarded 45 points." Dumbledore said, the crowd cheered.

"Next, Fleur Delacour." Dumbledore raised a 10, as did Maxime, Karkaroff raised a 5, which earned him a slew of French profanity and sneers from the Beauxbatons students, along with some very inappropriate gestures from some of them.

' Arsehole.' Harry thought, bristling. Fleur also scowled, and Cedric and Viktor didn't look too impressed either. Neither did Olympe, who looked positively furious as she glared daggers at Karkaroff.

Bagman gave her a 10, shooting Fleur a look and a smile which Harry thought was a little creepy but honestly, just made him look ridiculous. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Fleur rolled her eyes and mutter something in French.

Finally, there was Crouch, who, after a hefty sigh, almost as if he was bored with the whole affair, awarded her an 8. This got him some jeering, but not as much as Igor had got.

"Fleur Delacour is awarded…43 points."

The crowd cheered again.

"Next, Viktor Krum." Dumbledore, with a slightly regretful look raised a 6, Olympe gave him a 5, Ludo raised a 7, shooting Krum an apologetic look. Karkaroff, who was glaring at his fellow judges now, raised a 10, which earned him another backlash from the students. Even Krum snorted, not looking impressed by his Headmaster's blatant favoritism.

' Well… that's not biased at all…' Cedric thought, rolling his eyes. "Why so low with the others?" he whispered to Krum, the youth had the sense to look embarrassed.

"I…uhm…may have…how you say…'goofed'."

"What did you do?" Harry asked, keeping his voice down as low as he could.

"I blinded my dragon with Conjunctivitis Curse. She panicked, destroy half her own eggs. And set my arm on fire."

Harry and the others winced .

Finally, it was Crouch's turn, who, after giving Igor a look, raised an 8.

The reaction from the crowd was mixed, the Durmstrang contingent cheered, as did the Slytherins, the other three Hogwarts houses were a bit less enthused, and the Beauxbatons students were silent, making their opinions clear.

"Viktor Krum is awarded…36 points."

This earned boos from the Durmstrang and Slytherin students, some of whom tried to cry foul, but their attempts failed.

' Ok…time to see what that stunt cost you Potter.' Harry thought.

"And finally, Harry Potter." Dumbledore raised a 10, Maxime also raised a 10, Bagman raised a 9, Karkaroff scowled and raised a 10, though the look on his face as he glared at Harry gave the boy the impression the foreign Headmaster wanted to do nothing more than knock a digit off that number, though which digit, Harry wasn't sure. Crouch, after some time, and with a look of reluctance, raised his wand and awarded him a 9.

"Harry Potter is awarded…48 points."

The crowd cheered and applauded, or rather, most of them did. Some of the Hufflepuffs didn't, most of the Slytherins didn't, none of the Durmstrang students did, and only two or three Gryffindors didn't.

Harry easily made out Hermione and Professor McGonagall among the Gryffindors, both of whom looked very proud of him, Susan, Luna and even Daphne were also clapping, though the latter was not cheering, as she was surrounded by Slytherins where definitely not doing either, some were even glaring at her, particularly Malfoy and his ilk. Snape was clapping, though the look on his greasy face indicated he wanted to do anything but.

He briefly locked eyes with Charlie Weasley, and the Dragon Tamer gave him a thumbs up and mouthed the words 'We talk later, yes?' Harry smiled and nodded, giving him a thumbs up in return. He could already guess what Charlie wanted to talk about; he'd want to know what exactly he did with the dragon, and how he avoided losing an arm.

Once the cheering had calmed down, Dumbledore canceled the charm on his voice as he spoke.

"Now, to discuss the Golden Eggs each of you have. They each contain a clue to discovering the objective of the Second Task, which will be held on the 24th of February next year, so that should give you plenty of time to figure it out. Well done, all of you."

The crowd cheered again.

-=-=-=-

As classes were canceled for the rest of the day, the students were free to either return to their common rooms or just wander around the school.

The moment Harry entered the Gryffindor Common room, Gold Egg safely tucked under one arm, he was bombarded with cheers and shouts from the rest of his house, though he noted a few, like Ron and McLagan weren't, though they weren't glaring at him.

' Well…this is different.' Harry thought, as he cradled the Golden Egg under his right arm, not quite sure how to react to the spectacle of his entire house cheering him, when 24 hours earlier, they still believed he cheated.

"How'd you do it Harry?" Neville asked, as he stepped forward to give his friend a hug.

"I think the more pressing question is, 'How did you survive?'" Lavender asked.

"No." came Hermione's stern voice behind Harry, and he felt a slight shiver of foreboding creep down his spine at her tone. He didn't need to turn round to see the twin brown orbs drilling holes in the back of his head.

' Oh boy, she's pissed.' He thought.

"The pressing question is: What the BLOODY HELL were you THINKING Harry James Potter?!"

Hermione's voice echoed through the common room as what started as a growl turned into an ear aching yell by the end of it, causing many of the students to flinch and shy away from them.

"Merlin…I think, dear brother, she's channeling Mum!" George whimpered in fear. Fred grinned.

"Ooooh! Someone's sleeping on the sofa tonight!" Fred sang, several of the other boys snickered. The girls just rolled their eyes.

"Looks like someone isn't getting any tonight!" Seamus cackled. Harry rolled his eyes as he turned to face Hermione.

' If I didn't have to, Finnigan, you'd probably be right.' He thought, as he took in his lover's expression, her eyes were stern, but he could see the fear in there as well, the unshed tears, and like a blunger to the head, he suddenly realized that if his little gamble in the Forest with the Horntail had failed, it would have also affected Hermione greatly, if not immediately, the certainly in the long run.

"No change there then, huh Seamus?" Ginny spoke up, snickering at her own joke.

"Screw you Weasley." Seamus said.

"No thanks, you're not my type." Ginny replied. The common room dissolved into fits of laughter, though Harry and Hermione were the only ones who weren't.

"Well, I'm waiting Harry." Hermione said sternly over the laughter, her arms crossed. He gulped.

"Uh…ok…uhm…look, I'm really sorry Hermione. I had planned to use my Firebolt to jump into the air, dive past her and grab the egg, but…that wasn't an option, apparently."

Hermione's eyes softened slightly as a look Harry couldn't place spread across her face, and she uncrossed her arms.

"I'm sorry Harry, I know that broom meant a lot to you."

Harry nodded, sighing, "Yeah, better the broom than me though, right?" he asked, laughing a little nervously, despite herself and her tempering anger, Hermione smiled.

"Yes, better the broom gets roasted than you."

"So...as to what I was thinking, well, I just figured I'd try and prove to her I wasn't a threat to her or her eggs, and I figured she'd seen a lot of humans, holding wands that shoot light at her, and sometimes that light would hurt, so, I thought to myself; 'What if I'm not holding a wand, and don't have one in easy reach? That should prove I'm not a threat.' So…yeah."

"And if it hadn't worked? If she'd decided that you were just not worth the risk, or she got close enough to touch you but then decided she wanted a snack?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Then…it wouldn't have worked, I guess there's no arguing around that point." Harry said with a shrug.

The rest of the common room had gone silent, as everyone watched, though Ron was still scowling.

"Just kiss and make up already!" Alicia Spinet said from the crowd. Harry shot a quick glare over his shoulder, before he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Hermione, who let out a sigh as she returned the hug.

"Weren't you going to tell us why you guys got your own quarters? I'm betting the other Champions don't." Katie Bell asked.

"Er…well, we do want to tell you guys, it's just a very…awkward situation, and we don't really want it getting around." Hermione said.

"You can trust us." Lavender said.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "The two biggest gossip mongers in the school?"

Parvati rolled her eyes. "Give us some credit Granger, we do know when to put a lid on things, you know."

"Just not very often, it would seem." Neville said.

The two girls glared at him.

"We'll tell you tonight, after Dinner." Hermione said. "After I've had a chance to calm my nerves."

"So what, you dropped your wand, held out your hand, closed your eyes and hoped she wouldn't take your arm off?" Cormac said.

"Pretty much."

"That's pretty damn reckless." Ginny said, folding her arms.

Harry shrugged, a cheeky smile appearing on his face. "We're Gryffindors, it's an occupational hazard. And according to Cedric, it's in the Job Description."

That earned him a few snickers. That smile faded when he looked back at Hermione and saw the look in her eyes, and how really scared she must have felt for him.

' Nice going Potter, now you upset her.' He thought. He then turned back to the others.

"Hey guys? You mind if Hermione and I take this somewhere else?" and before he got a response, he took her hand and pulled her towards the entrance to their private quarters. Though he couldn't miss the few whisles and catcalls being sent their way. Muttering the password, he stepped through, pulling Hermione with him. Once they were in their common room, he turned to face her.

"Hermione, look, I'm really sor—" his apology was cut off as she stepped forward and threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, burying her face in his neck. Startled, he stood there for a few seconds, before his arms came up around her.

"Stupid…stupid…stupid…" she said, her words muffled by his neck as a few silent sobs wracked her body. "Don't you…dare do anything…like that again…"

"Don't worry, I won't." he said, burying his face in her neck, taking a deep breath of her hair. 'I'll try not to.' He thought.

"We…we need to talk." She said, pulling her face away and stepping back, looking him in the eye, and he felt his heart tighten at the emotion he could clearly see there.

Harry gulped.

When a girl said that, it was never good.

-=-=-=-

When Daphne Greengrass entered the Slytherin Common room, she instantly noticed something was wrong.

She instantly went on alert as she noticed the common room was empty, save for Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Bulstrode and Parkinson. All of them were sneering or scowling at her, glaring openly.

Daphne felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise, as a shiver went through her, and she slowly started to move her hand towards her wand.

"Don't try it, Greengrass." Malfoy growled, as he drew his own wand, and with a gesture, Pansy and Millicent moved to either side of her and took an arm.

"What's this about Draco?" Daphne growled.

"You were cheering Potter after he cheated his way out of getting eaten." Draco snapped, his eyes alight with fury.

"I have no idea how he did it, and to be honest, I don't really care, as there's nothing I can do about it. As a Triwizard Champion, he can't be touched, legally. So whatever dark magic he used on the Dragon, can't be looked into yet."

Daphne snorted, rolling her eyes and she tried to suppress the panic starting to build.

"In case you hadn't noticed, Malfoy, he dropped his wand , so there was no way he could have be-spelled the Dragon."

"What about the fish he conjured? He could have done something to that." Parkinson said to her right. "A calming spell or something."

Daphne hated to admit it, but the blonde had a point, but that wasn't important at the moment.

"So you want to have a go at me just for clapping after he grabbed the egg? I wasn't the only one in Slytherin doing that, you know." She retorted.

"Yes." Draco drawled, huffing. "We know, but most of them were the First Years, they'll be set straight soon enough. You , on the other hand, should know better! We know you've been spending time with the Mudblood Granger and the Huffleslut Bones. I didn't think anything of it at the time, until yesterday, when something occurred to me and I went looking through my trunk. Guess what I didn't find."

Daphne did her best to remain calm, despite the panic that was rapidly overtaking her.

"Where. Is. The. Book." Draco growled, his gaze as cold as ice.

"What book?"

" THE Book!" Draco snarled, stepping closer, putting the tip of his wand to her chin. "The one that I got that spell from, the one I used on Granger and Potter, although Granger was my only intended target, Potter did me a favor by using himself as a shield, which worked out great in my view, after a day or two, they'd both be dead. But nnnooooo … Someone helped them figure out what the curse was and how to deal with it, and now they're back on their feet!" he glared at her, then he nodded to Crabbe and Goyle, who used their wands to conjure large table, and the two other girls started to drag her backwards towards it, and she started to struggle.

"And the ONLY one who could be that someone, is you. Parkinson and Bulstrode have already searched your Trunk and come up empty, and I doubt you'd give something like that to your sister, so that just leaves you." Draco growled again.

"I don't have it." Daphne said.

"Then where is it?" he growled again, coming to a stop by her head as he leaned over her now prone form, the two other girls holding her arms, and the two lumbering boys holding her legs. She felt terrified, powerless, but was doing her best to hide it, but they could all see the fear and panic in her eyes.

"I don't know!" she lied, as she continued to struggle.

"Well then, looks like you're going to have to make up for your transgression against your House." He sneered, as he reached down and roughly fumbled with the buttons on her blouse, before pulling it open, exposing the black bra she wore, before reaching down and roughly pulling it away from her breasts…

-=-=-=-

"Uhm…ok." Harry said nervously. Hermione moved to one of the sofas then patted it, gesturing for him to sit down, which he did, after placing the egg on the small table at the centre of the room.

"Harry…You and I have been friends for years, you saved my life back in First Year, I'm pretty sure I might owe you a Life Debt over that, actually, I'm not sure though. In Second year you separated Bulstrode and me when we got into that fight in the Dueling Club, and then when I drank that Polyjuice, you were the only one who didn't laugh, and you came to see me more than Ron did. Then when I was petrified, you came to see me regularly, you even read to me." She paused, smiling, her brown eyes full of genuine affection at the memory.

"Wait, how do you know…" he started to ask.

"Pomfrey."

"Oh."

Harry thought back to that year, those had been some of the most difficult six months of his life, and he'd made sure to visit Hermione every chance he got.

' Hang on a sec, why did we have to spend all that time growing Mandrakes here when Professor Sprout, Pomfrey or Dumbledore could have just gone to St. Mungo's got some of the potion from there? They're bound to have some.' He thought.

"That raises a point actually, why didn't Dumbledore or Pomfrey go to St. Mungo's to get some potion? Why did we have to make it here?" he asked.

"The potion has a short shelf-life, and Petrification like the ones we had here is rare, as most of the time, if something can petrify you, it can also kill you, and usually does, at which point, the potion would be useless." Hermione replied.

"Oh, uh, ok then." That made sense, he thought.

"Then there was last year…" Hermione said, a little awkwardly. Harry scratched the back of his head, feeling embarrassed and guilty at the memory.

"Yeah, sorry about that, you did have a point, we didn't know at the time that Firebolt came from Sirius, you were right to have it checked out." Harry said, feeling a sense of loss from destruction of the present his only remaining family had got him. He didn't count the Dursleys as family, despite what Dumbledore said. Padfoot was going to be heartbroken. Hermione nodded.

"It's ok, it gave me time to let my hair down a bit, get some breathing room away from Ron, and I have got to make some new friends too, so that's a plus, friends, who I might add, are willing to now also help you deal with your… condition , when I can't." she said, smiling sheepishly.

Harry raised an eyebrow, he'd forgotten about that, in all the mayhem of the day.

"Uhm…not sure how I feel about that, I mean, ok, you helped me get over some of the hang-ups they left me, but still, I can't just go up to these girls and ask them to lift their skirts, can I?"

"Well, ideally, no, probably the best way for that to work is for them to make the offer first, I'll have to mention it, that should avoid any awkwardness, and the less people who know about this condition we have, the easier it will be for us to deal with it." Hermione said. Harry nodded.

"You also helped me rescue Sirius, I'd have lost him if it weren't for you." Harry said, taking her hand in his. She smiled and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"And now we're helping each other with this…situation. Granted, it's not how I'd pictured starting a relationship, of any kind, with someone, but, I think we can manage, the most important thing for us to remember is, a relationship built on purely sex and dependency is NOT how it should be done. I know we trust each other; I know we care about each other, and I know that we can get along well together, and not have quiet moments between us seem really awkward." She paused, and Harry took the time to process what she was saying, and his mind went back to their conversation the other day.

"And…what you did for me on Tuesday, well, like I said, a girl could really get used to that kind of treatment every now and then." Hermione said, smiling and blushing.

Harry smiled, also blushing, as he felt his blood-flow shift south.

"Is this your way of asking me to be your boyfriend Hermione?"

"Yes. Yes it is. That stunt you pulled with the Horntail really scared me, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you." Before he could respond, she leaned forward and gently kissed him.

Harry stiffened as her lips met his, not sure how to react, which he found odd. He'd been more intimate with Hermione in the last five days than he'd been with anyone else, ever, and this was the first time they'd properly kissed, and he was seizing up?

' Get a grip Potter! You've done a hell of a lot more than kiss her over the past week, and you freak out at this? Kiss her back already!' his inner voice yelled.

He reached up, cradling her face in his hand as he kissed her again, tilting his head slightly so they didn't bump noses as they stared into each other's eyes. The raw emotion he saw there made his heart flutter, then they broke the kiss, but didn't draw very far apart, then he leaned in and kissed her again, closing his own eyes as he parted his lips slightly, and let his tongue tease hers. He felt her moan as she parted them, and his tongue slowly entered her mouth and met hers.

He leaned back into the sofa, pulling her with him as his arms went around her, and they deepened the kiss, enjoying the moment. When they finally broke for air, and looked into each other's eyes, Harry tried to give voice to what he had thought in the Arena.

"Hermione…" he whispered, his voice hoarse with emotion.

"Yes?" she replied, just as hoarsely.

"I'm really sorry for scaring you, I know I should have told you what I was planning, but my plan went up in flames, literally."

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy." Hermione said with a smile.

"Who said that?"

"Nineteenth Century Prussian General, well, it's not exactly what he said, but that's the basic gist of it."

He nodded, swallowed nervously then continued.

"Well, what I'm trying to say is, you're important to me, and I don't want anything to ever happen to you. You stuck by me through everything the past 3 years, especially this year, when everyone, including Ron, who is supposed to be my best friend, shut me out. That's why I stepped between you and Malfoy a week ago, and if given the chance or choice, I'd do it again, in a heartbeat."

He saw the emotion in her eyes, the slight glistening of unshed tears.

"Harry…"

"I love you Hermione. I have for years, I just didn't know how to tell you, I finally admitted it to myself today just before that Dragon pressed her nose against my hand." He admitted, finally. He watched Hermione's face carefully, saw the raw emotion filling her eyes; love, happiness, lust, fear, uncertainty and pride. She blinked a couple of times, and the tears started to fall. He reached up and stroked one away with a thumb. She closed her eyes and let out a whimper as she tilted her head, pressing her face into his hand, closing her eyes, then she opened them again and looked at him.

"I love you too Harry, I have, I think, since the Dementors last year, I was just too young to understand or act on it, but now…I'm not…" she said, her voice getting deeper and huskier as she finished speaking.

"I think, Mister Potter, you deserve a reward for coming in first place…lay back."

He did so, as she scooted a bit further along the sofa, giving him more room, she then reached forward and gently ran her fingers along the semi-hard bulge in the front of his pants, their eyes met, and she gave him a sultry smile.

"Well, these have to come off." And with that, she made a show of unzipping and unbuttoning him, then she started to pull.

"W-wait! What if some-one comes in?" he asked as she pulled his trousers down to his knees, along with his shorts.

"The only ones who know the password are Neville, McGonagall, and I'm assuming Pomfrey, and I set a doorbell charm." Hermione replied as she gently took hold of her new boyfriend's shaft and started to gently caress it. After nearly a week of doing this, she'd already learned quite quickly what he liked best. 'Time for a little something new I think.' She thought, quickly leaning over, she planted a chaste kiss to the exposed tip of his shaft, making it twitch in her hand, then she sat up, and fixed her eyes on him as she loosened her tie, then started to unbutton her blouse, flashing him what she hoped was a sexy, sultry smile as she pulled her blouse open, exposing her bra as she let the garment slip down her arms, then with a flick of her want, she removed her bra, leaving her firm breasts exposed.

She then locked her gaze with his, licking her lips slowly as she began to pant, and she began to gently knead them.

Harry moaned, staring at her as she started to massage her breasts. Was he exhausted from his time dealing with the dragon? Yes. Was watching his best friend, and just-acquired girlfriend stroke and knead her own breasts while she stared at him and licked her lips as if she were starving hot as hell? Yes, it was.

"H-Hermione…" he grunted, as she took him in hand again, rolling back his foreskin, she leaned forward and licked his glans, all the while keeping eye contact, then raised herself up a little, before she pressed it against her right nipple. After a few moments of massaging the mound with his shaft, she moved to the left breast, all the while maintaining eye contact.

"Wow…" he breathed.

"Hmm…like that?" she purred. As she made a show of gently squeezing his glans, opening the little slit at the end with her left hand, while she used her right to press her now hardened left nipple into it.

He stiffened and tried the claw at the sofa cushion under him at the unexpected sensation. He nodded, not trusting his suddenly dry throat.

She then leaned forward and cupped both mounds, lifting them.

"Well…how about…this?"

She arched her back until his shaft lay against the warm, smooth skin, then she brought them together, embracing his shaft in warm soft flesh.

Then she lowered her head, and Harry let out another moan as he felt her tongue caress his crown. Then she looked back up at him, her eyes dark with lust, as she began to raise then lower her breasts.

"Mmm…how's this feeling Harry? My boobs feel nice?" she asked huskily.

"Y—Yes…" he breathed, staring at her, not even daring to blink.

"Good."

Hermione hummed as she quickly set into a rhythm, occasionally lowering her head to eagerly lick his crown when it was close enough. She was pleased that she was managing to do this for him, she knew she wasn't as impressive as Susan or the other girls in her dorm, but she was determined to do this for him.

As she worked, taking his crown into her mouth to gently suck on it, she started to think about what the book had said about Bonding, that there was a conscious decision made by the Witch when exactly to start it, and what would follow, given what the Curse apparently did to the Bonding. If they started it now, her breasts would be full within a few weeks.

' Would Harry really want to drink my milk? Would that solve the issue of him needing to feed from my vagina? There HAS to be a cure, we just haven't looked in the right place yet.'

A grunt drew her attention, and she looked up as she worked her breasts around him. Harry had his head leaning back, eyes closed, lightly panting as he started to lightly thrust his hips. He then opened his eyes and looked down as he felt Hermione take his hands in hers then raise them to her warm mounds.

"Touch them Harry, play with my breasts…show me how much you like them, show me what feels good to you." She purred.

"They're really nice…" he said, half dazed, as he gently cupped the warm flesh, gently squeezing them around his shaft, he then noticed Hermione reaching back with a hand, though he couldn't see exactly what she was doing with it, her slight moan of pleasure, followed by her eyes closing and a faint wet squelching sound told him enough.

"You know, I'd be more than happy to help out with that." He said, a little breathlessly.

"Mmm…later perhaps, right now, let me focus on you. Boyfriend." She said, grinning and opening one eye to wink at him, before moaning again as he gently pinched her nipples.

And with that, she gave his shaft one last squeeze with her breasts before she moved back a little, then lowered her head.

Harry closed his eyes and let his head fall back with a moan as he felt his climax building, he felt his balls tighten, his shaft swell…

"Excuse me." A deep baritone voice came from somewhere off to the side.

' What the?!'

Harry's eyes shot open as he sat bolt upright, or as much as he could with Hermione leaning over him, though she wasn't for long. Upon hearing the voice, Hermione sat up so fast that he was surprised she didn't give herself whiplash, her head turning this way and that, trying to find the source of the voice, her eyes wide with horror, her mouth still open with a trail of saliva running down her chin.

"Sorry to interrupt." Came that same voice "But Professor McGonagall is here, I think she wishes to speak with you."

"Who's there?!" Hermione said, her voice a high-pitched squeak, her face losing all color.

"It's me, Mufasa." The voice said, a voice that reminded Hermione of Darth Vader for some reason, he sounded an awful lot like James Earl Jones.

"Wait…the Lion painting? You can talk?!" Harry said, as he reluctantly started trying to stash the erection that was still slick with his new girlfriend's saliva.

"Yes. How else are you going to know who wants to come in?"

The two of them looked to the side, at the large painting that hung on the wall, over the fireplace. Not as large as the one that hung over the doorway, but big enough. It was an identical painting, though it seemed to be from a closer perspective, though the lion seemed to be making a conscious effort to not look at them.

"Have you been spying on us?" Hermione asked, scandalized as she hurriedly tried to pull on her blouse and button it up.

"No. You two aren't the first couple staying here to get… comfortable in the common room. Unlike some of the portraits here, and even one or two ghosts I could name, I don't really like to watch humans mate. It would set a bad example for my son, Simba."

The two of them looked at each other, and just then, Mufasa turned and walked into the shadow of his painting.

-=-=-=-

Minerva McGonagall paused as she approached the portrait guarding the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, her mind in a whirl.

' Only Harry.' She thought. She honestly didn't know whether to dock him 500 points, award him 500 points, assign detention or put a note of commendation in his file.

' Or maybe all of the above. I think Serverus was chomping at his bit when Harry got that egg.' After a bit more rumination, she continued walking, eventually coming to a stop in front of the Portrait.

The portrait swung open without any prompting, and McGonagall took a moment to observe the Gryffindor Common Room, not many students had noticed her, they were all bustling about, the Twins were huddled in a corner with Lee Jordan, obviously plotting something, the younger Weasleys were talking amongst themselves, though Ronald did not look happy, various other students were reading or doing homework.

But she did not see the young wizard she'd come to see.

"They're in their quarters. You might want to knock first." Parvati said, smirking.

Raising an eyebrow, but saying nothing, Minerva turned and approached the small hallway, off to the side, approaching the painting, she noticed Mufasa turn and look at her, gave a slight nod, then turned and walked into the shadow of Pride Rock.

A few moments later, he walked back out, and nodded.

"They're ready for you now Minerva."

A slight smile crossed Minerva's face. "Didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

"No."

"Ah, good."

"But I did."

Minerva sighed as the portrait swung forward, allowing entrance.

"You've been watching the Twins too much…" she muttered as she climbed through.

She found her two favorite lions sitting on the couch, their faces slightly red, almost flushed, Hermione looking particularly put out.

"Hello you two, I hope this isn't a bad time, I wanted to see how you were doing Mister Potter."

"I'm fine, we're fine, thanks Professor." Harry said, casting a slight smile towards Hermione.

"I must say Mister Potter, Godric would have been proud of you today, not only for coming in first, but also for the manner in which you pulled it off."

"Uhm, thanks. Shame about my broom though." Harry lamented.

"Brooms can be replaced, Harry, but you can't." Hermione said.

"Very true." McGonagall said as she sat in one of the armchairs.

She regarded them for a few moments, before forging ahead.

"Have you told any of your housemates about your… condition yet?"

"We told Neville and Hannah, we're going to tell everyone else after Dinner tonight." Hermione said. Minerva nodded.

"Do not be surprised if there is an article about today in tomorrow's issue of the Prophet Mister Potter. In fact, I'd be surprised if there wasn't one."

"Yay." Harry deadpanned.

Minerva smiled. Then she continued. "I suspect they'll be taking the Dragons and their eggs back to the preserve tomorrow, though Charles is still very curious and anxious to speak to you to find out how you did what you did."

Harry shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know why I did that, and I don't know why it worked. By all rights, she should have taken my arm off at the very least. But…she didn't, and I don't know why."

' I have a theory…' Minerva thought, her mind briefly wandering to an obscure legend she'd heard once in her youth.

"How are you two coping with… this? " she asked, gesturing to their surroundings. The two of them blushed, exchanged looks, then Hermione replied.

"We're making progress, I'm still trying to work through Harry's hangups and reservations. I was right, at the beginning of the week, those… people …taught him nothing! They even told him it wasn't natural for teenagers our age to experiment or date, or anything ." Hermione snarled, her face contorting in anger.

"Harry can NOT go back to that house! I won't allow my boyfriend to be mistreated by people who are supposed to be his family!"

Minerva raised an eyebrow at her student's outburst, but she didn't say anything. If anything, she agreed with Hermione. She'd warned Albus they were unsuitable, but he had insisted.

Damn him.

"I mean, honestly! Can we honestly expect any of them to help him?" Hermione said. Harry went very pale.

"What makes you think I'd want their help? You realize what you're implying they'd have to do? What I'D have to do?!" Harry yelped, giving her a look of disgust and horror.

Hermione blinked, his words sinking in, and her face turned several interesting colours.

"Oh god, I'm sorry Harry! I just meant that I don't think the Dursleys would let you out of the house to meet up with any girls that live locally near you."

"Of course, they wouldn't." Harry snorted, scowling and folding his arms. "Half the families on Privet Drive think I'm a troubled delinquent whose parents were killed in a car crash while drunk, and that I spend all year at what is essentially, a cross between a Juvenile Detention Centre, and a Psychiatric Hospital."

" What ." McGonagall growled.

"Yeah." Harry shrugged. "They call it St Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys."

The two women stared at him.

"Never heard of it." Hermione said. Then she scowled. "You're definitely not going back there. I don't care what Dumbledore says. You can stay with me. Besides, I'd be in a similar situation as you, there are a few boys that live on our street, but I don't really know them that well. Can you imagine what my parents would think if they started hearing rumors? At least with you there it'll be easy for us to manage this." Harry gave her a look.

"I dunno Hermione, I mean, sure, it'd be easier for us, but if your dad is anything like the parent of a teenage girl I think he is, he'll be watching me like a hawk. So I doubt we'd get much time for that, if we even get any privacy. They certainly won't let us sleep in the same bed as we do here."

Harry winced as he saw the look McGonagall was giving him, so he tried to explain.

"We decided it would be easier for us if we slept together." Harry said sheepishly. McGonagall sighed and rubbed at her eyes.

"As long as you two are careful, I guess I can allow it, though usually it would not be permitted considering your age, but considering the circumstances…"

"We are being careful Professor, we've only done…what we need to do." Hermione said, blushing slightly, then she looked back at Harry and continued her previous line of thought.

"Well, we have gotten pretty good at quickies." She said, casting a sideways glance at McGonagall, who suddenly looked like she was wishing she was selectively deaf. "Besides, I haven't even written to my parents yet! I mean, what could I possibly say? 'Dear mum and dad, things are going well here, we're having a magical Olympics at the school, but I was cursed a week ago and now I have to drink sperm three times a day to avoid falling into a coma and dying. How are things with you guys?' Yeah…that would go over well…about as well as 'I'm pregnant' ." She huffed.

"I dunno Hermione, 'I'm pregnant' seems like it'd be easier for them to believe." Harry tried to give her a reassuring smile. Hermione gave him a look.

"Yes, it probably would, but they would probably ground me for life, and murder the supposed father of the non-existent baby. Or try to."

"Well, only reason we've done so well here is because we're in a castle built to house thousands of students and staff, but in reality only has a few hundred students at most, so we've gotten lucky with empty corridors and classrooms, but I doubt your house is that spacious, and I doubt we'd be given the time or privacy, as I said." Harry said.

Hermione sighed and nodded.

"Well, I guess you're right. But like I said, you're NOT going back to Privet Drive, you'd likely be dead by the end of the first week, I'm pretty sure your Aunt won't help you, either of them, and I doubt they'd let you out of the house long enough to find anyone else to help you."

Harry snorted. "No, they'd probably lock me in my room and wait for me to snuff it. And no, Aunt Petunia would never help me, nor would I want her to, neither would Aunt Marge, she and my uncle must have been cut from the same mold. He's basically an Elephant Seal on legs."

"An Elephant Seal? That's insulting to Elephant Seals. From what I've heard, I'd say he'd make Jabba the Hutt feel anorexic."

"Who?" Harry and McGonagall asked.

"Never mind."

"Are your housemates giving you any problems?" McGonagall asked.

Harry snorted, "In what respect? You mean most of them blanking me because they thought I cheated this year? Or what about everyone being too afraid to talk to me because they thought I was the Heir of Slytherin two years ago?"

"They've been blanking you?" Minerva asked, arching an eyebrow. She did not like what she was hearing.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, though to be honest, I don't really mind, the only ones I'm really close to still talk to me so…and they did all talk to me earlier."

"Only because they wanted to know how you avoided getting eaten." Hermione said with a huff.

Minerva pursed her lips then stood. "Then it's time I had a word with them I think. Oh, before I forget, I'm assuming since you two have decided to take your relationship further, you're going to start the Bonding process fully?"

They nodded.

"Well then, given what we read in those books, it seems that you will start producing a lot sooner than we thought Hermione, and there is no telling how your condition will affect that as well."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, a feeling of trepidation starting to rise.

"Well, the Curse you were hit with is said to accelerate the bonding process considerably, which means that you will not only start producing sooner than normal, but I think it might also affect how much you produce, and how often."

"Oh." Hermione said.

"Mhm. If you experience any problems or discomfort, bring it to mine or Pomfrey's attention as soon as you can, and we'll see what we can do. Now then, I need to have a word with your housemates. You're free to join me, or…erm…carry on with what you were doing before I got here."

And with that, she turned and left to deal with her house. Harry turned to Hermione to ask her if she wanted to join Professor McGonagall and the others, only to stop at the look of sheer hunger that was now filling her beautiful brown eyes, and before he could say anything, she stood, unfastened her skirt and pushed it down her legs, then almost aggressively pushed her knickers down her legs, before kicking them aside, leaving her naked from the waist down, save for her shoes and socks, before giving him an odd look he couldn't quite place. When she spoke, her voice was thick, her face already flushing, and not from embarrassment.

"Potter. Get those trousers off. Then get on your back. Now. "

Harry couldn't help but smile as he started to do as she said, if he was honest with himself, he liked this dominant side.

A moment later, he was laying on his back on the couch, head resting on one of the arms, it wasn't as comfortable as a bed, but it would do. He looked up at her, waiting for her next order. But she didn't say anything.

She pounced.

-=-=-=-

Later that evening, at Dinner, Harry sat with Hermione on one side, and Neville and the Twins on the other; the rest of their house was rather subdued. He and Hermione had been too focused on each other to pay attention to the faint sound of McGonagall dressing down their housemates.

Harry was just glad none of them had tried to hex or attack him since he'd been entered into the Tournament. Though many of the Gryffindors were still giving him odd looks, a mixture of admiration and pity, as if they were starting to realize just how dangerous the contest was.

The rest of the Great Hall were also giving him looks, curiosity from the Ravenclaws, admiration from the Hufflepuffs, jealousy from the Slytherins and Durmstrang, and respect from the Beauxbatons.

Daphne, he noticed, was giving him an odd look every now and then, when she wasn't talking to her friends, Draco was constantly sending looks of loathing his way, which Harry returned. Krum and Cedric kept shooting him congratulatory looks, while Fleur kept looking at him oddly, though he wasn't quite sure how to interpret that.

At the Staff table, it seemed to be business as usual, though Snape wouldn't even look at him, and the few times he did, the greasy git was constantly glaring. Harry rolled his eyes and looked away, but not before he saw the look of pride on Hagrid's face.

"So, how'd you do it?" one of the third years asked.

Harry shrugged, "I just let her know that I trusted her not to kill me, that's all."

"By dropping your wand?" the boy asked.

"Had to show I wasn't a threat. Way I figured it, the only humans she'd ever seen, had held sticks that shot light at her that I'm sure hurt sometimes, and was probably very annoying for her. Plus she was only trying to protect her eggs, she was in an unfamiliar environment, and as far as she was concerned, if her eggs were there, anything around her was a potential threat. Especially if it was armed."

"And if it hadn't worked?" another Gryffindor asked, repeating what Hermione had said earlier.

"Then it wouldn't have mattered." Harry said.

The rest of Dinner progressed quietly.

At the Staff table, Dumbledore eyed Harry carefully, the method he'd used to get the egg still amazed him, how the boy had done it, he did not know. In all his years, he'd never known of anyone doing what Harry had done, not in all the sources he'd ever found. When he's spoken to Mister Weasley, the man had been almost giddy with curiosity, he also had no idea how Harry had done what he did, and he wanted to talk to Harry soon, before the Dragons went home, though Dumbledore had warned him he might not get the chance, then he'd suggested that he ask one of his brothers to get the information from the boy instead.

Dumbledore had asked Charlie if there had ever been any record of a human wrangling a dragon in that way, and Charlie had shook his head.

" If there were, I'd know about it. There are some old stories, a myth or legend or some such nonsense, that say that's how the first Dragon Handlers did it about 1000 years ago, but most who know that myth disregard it."

" Oh? Why is that?"

" Because if those stories are true, the first humans to learn how to wrangle and deal with Dragons…were Muggles. "

" Really? Surely not!"

" I know, that's why pretty much everyone who knows the myth, dismisses it."

But…Dumbledore could not help but wonder.

"I can't believe that cheating little bastard got First Place!" Snape growled to his right.

Dumbledore sighed. Now Serverus was going to be even more difficult.

At the Slytherin Table, Daphne looked over at Harry Potter, wondering. Her mind in a whirl.

She still couldn't believe what he had done, Draco had been ranting non-stop, until one of the Prefects had told him to shut up and stop bleating.

She'd have to try and talk to him. Besides, wouldn't he be coming to her for help soon? She'd have to approach him delicately. Then she smiled to herself as her thoughts began to run away with her.

-=-=-=-

Later that evening, in the main Gryffindor Common Room, Harry and Hermione sat on one of the sofas, most of Gryffindor house crowded around them. It was a bit intimidating.

"We don't want the First or Second years hearing this, some of what we have to say…isn't for them." Hermione said.

Several protests were heard, but the Prefects ushered them out of the common room to their dorms. Once they came back, Hermione continued.

"Well…as McGonagall said, last Thursday, Draco confronted me and Harry, blabbing his usual nonsense. Words were said, spells were exchanged, then Draco used an old Greek Curse called the Gift of Aphrodite or Kiss of the Succubus , apparently it has two names, though I'm not sure where the second one comes from."

"What's it do? If it's named as a gift from the Greek Goddess of Love, then it can't be too bad." One of the Seventh Years asked.

"According to a couple of books we found the curse in, it didn't start out as a curse, it was originally designed to help couples in the bedroom, as a means of foreplay, and to help form the Bond in couples that hadn't yet formed one."

"What's a Bond?" Colin Creevey asked.

Hermione blinked. 'Oh yeah, we're not supposed to know about that until Fifth Year.'

"Er…You'll find out in two years."

Ginny snorted, "We already know Creevey."

"Do NOT tell them!" Hermione said, giving Ginny a hard look. "I'm sure there's a reason students aren't supposed to know until their fifth year, whether or not your parents tell you sooner is up to them."

Ginny rolled her eyes "If you don't want the Third- and Fourth-year Muggle-borns to know, then they have to leave now too. Though I imagine if they do, they'll be constantly badgering the rest of us trying to figure out what you told us. So you might as well just tell them too."

Harry and Hermione exchanged looks, before Harry sighed. "Fine, but you do NOT tell any of the younger years, ok? That includes your brother Colin." He said, giving the young boy a look, who nodded.

"The Curse, in a nutshell, basically magically suppresses our body's ability to absorb nutrients from the food we eat. Slowly leading to starvation over several days, which gets worse with each passing day. It also makes us feel tired and run down, even if we manage to get a full night's sleep, and Pepper-up potions don't work. After 4 days of not doing what we need to do to get the nutrients absorbed, we'll slip into a coma, at which point, it's pretty much game over, 2 or 3 days after that, our bodies give out."

"Merlin…" Fred said.

"How the hell could that be considered a Gift?!" Parvati yelped.

"I think it has something to do with the measures we have to take to counter the effects."

"Which are?" Ginny asked.

"Urm…" the two of them exchanged another look, before looking again at the Third-years. Parvati suddenly perked up.

"Wait…you said this curse is called the 'Kiss of the Succubus' right?"

"That's one name for it, yeah." Harry said.

"You know of it." Hermione said.

Parvati sighed and nodded.

"I've heard of it, but only in passing, back in India. All I know is that it hasn't been used in centuries, and when it was, was used early in the reign of the first Sultans, who used it to form Harems. Though I never learned how, or the specifics of the curse."

"Did you find any hint of a cure?" Hermione asked. Parvati shook her head.

"The book we read seems to indicate that it's creator did not intend for it to be a curse, but instead a means of foreplay for married couples, and as a side effect, accelerates the Bonding process, greatly so, which is probably a result of the methods used to counter its effects. It seems whoever created it, messed up somewhere, and couldn't reverse the effects." Harry said.

"Oh." Several of their housemates said in unison.

"Yeah. 'Oh'. So if you know what the Bond is and how it's formed, then you know what Harry and I have to do to counter the curse's effects." Hermione said.

"How…often?" Lavender asked.

"At least three times a day, two at the bare minimum. Once every 12 hours at the absolute minimum."

"Bugger…no wonder McGonagall put you in private quarters." Alicia said.

"Want us to kill the Ferret?" Katie asked, grinning evilly.

"As amusing as that would be, I don't really fancy getting into a legal thing with Lucius because his son wound up dead and he decided to pin it on me." Harry said, smirking "But the offer is appreciated though."

"Ya know, what he did to you, could be considered Attempted Line Assassination, considering you weren't immediately aware of the Curse's effects and how to deal with it, and if convicted, it'll get him a reservation at Hotel Azkaban. Might want to consider getting the DMLE involved." Angelina pointed out.

"We know. We might consider it, but not until after this damn Tournament is over." Harry said, "Unless Draco tries something else stupid before then."

"Sooo…" Alicia said, eyeing them.

"So…what?" Hermione asked.

"You guys have to do what? 'Feed' from each other at least twice a day to stay alive now…and if what you're required to eat is what I think it is, well, does it have to be the two of you or…"

Hermione stiffened a little, but then relaxed, closed her eyes and let out a sigh, her mind, oddly enough, going back to her encounter with Krum in the library, and she felt a blush start to darken her face. "Well, we haven't tried with anyone else yet, but I guess there's no reason why we can't, but at the moment, we don't know for sure. I mean, my 'time' is coming up, starting in the next few days so…Harry at least will have to look elsewhere, most of the time."

The other assembled students all cringed, or most of them did, Colin just looked oblivious.

"Have you had any offers yet?" Lavender asked, wiggling her eyebrows at Harry, who blushed.

"Er…sort of."

"Sort of? What do you mean 'Sort of' Potter?" one of the Sixth-years asked.

"Hermione's friends, Susan Bones and Daphne Greengrass, and a Ravenclaw named Luna Lovegood."

"Oh Merlin ! You've been talking to Looney ?!" Ron cried, sitting back, looking scandalized.

Harry scowled. "Don't call her that. Yes she's a bit…eccentric, but aren't half the people in this country insane? I mean, we have a school teaching kids how to use deadly weapons, we have a completely incompetent government whose public face is a brainless puppet, and we have serial killers working in said government and making all the rules."

The others stared at him.

"Wow Brother of mine, I think young Harry has finally got it!" George crowed.

One of the seventh years snorted in the background. "Good thing Percy isn't here, if he'd heard that, he would probably have thrown a fit. Or issued a detention."

"Well, back on topic, so Harry, if by chance, you need a 'boost' as it were, and Hermione isn't around, or otherwise unavailable, you could always find and ask one of us." Lavender said, flashing him a smile. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"24 hours ago, barely any of you were willing to talk to me, now you're offering to help keep me alive? What's your angle?" Harry said, folding his arms.

"What? We just want to help." Lavender said.

Fey snorted. "You just want him to do to you what he did to Granger to make her scream like a banshee two days ago."

Hermione's face flushed red at the memory. And Harry felt uncomfortable, he noticed Ron and Ginny giving him looks, Ron was glaring at him again, a look of pure jealousy on his face, and Ginny was giving him an odd look he couldn't place.

"Well, duh! Any guy who can make a girl scream like that is a keeper." Lavender replied. Then she looked back at Harry. "So how about it Harry?"

"I will take it under consideration." 'No I won't.' he replied, adding the last bit in his head. "Besides, as my new girlfriend, Hermione gets first dibs."

"Girlfriend? Since when?" Ron asked, ears turning red.

Harry shrugged "Just before McGonagall came in, we had a nice long chat, reflecting on our past interactions."

"Well, I could give him what he needs. I'd be happy to." Ginny smirked.

"Ah-HEM!" came the sound of three boys clearing their throats dramatically, she turned and looked at her brothers who were all giving her stern looks, and she rolled her eyes.

"As I said, under consideration."

"Well…Harry, you could—" Colin started, but Harry raised his hand and shook his head emphatically.

"No. Sorry Colin, just no. I don't swing that way."

Harry then rolled his shoulders and checked his watch, checking the time, it was getting late.

"Well, it is getting late, and I don't know about you guys, but I'm exhausted after today, so I need to get some sleep."

"But we're throwing a celebration party for you later! We were just going to get everything ready!" Fred protested. Harry shrugged.

"But I'm not the real Hogwarts Champion, remember?"

"Who cares?" George asked.

Hermione put her hand on Harry's arm, he turned to her, and she gave him a reassuring smile. "They're at least trying to make up for the past few weeks, and you did come in first, so that does deserve a celebration."

Harry smiled at her, then leaned in and hugged her, not seeing the scowl on Ron's face, and the slightly hurt look on Ginny's.

"Okay."

-=-=-=-

Friday, November 25, 1994

At breakfast the next morning, Harry was trying to not pay attention to all of the hustle and bustle going on, it seemed he was still the talk of the school, he'd seen the other Champions giving him thumbs up when he entered.

As expected, a flutter of wings heralded the arrival of the morning post.

Harry knew what was on the front cover of the Daily Prophet before he even picked it up. He raised an eyebrow at the picture on the cover, which captured the few seconds it took for the Horntail to press her snout into his palm.

' This should be good.' He thought with a snort as he picked up the paper.

' Triwizard history!'

' Youngest Hogwarts Champion in history Boy-Who-Lived secret Dragon whisperer or flagrant cheat?'

By Rita Skeeter

Yesterday history was made yet again dear readers! Following on from the historical appearance of the youngest Champion in Triwizard history on Halloween, yesterday, during the First Task, history was made yet again!

For those who were not in attendance, the First Task involved the four Campions facing off against various nesting female Dragons. Their objective: A Golden Egg.

That's right, you read correctly. Nesting female Dragons.

Harry skimmed most of the article, as it was just a play-by-play of each Champion's challenge and what they did, though he did scowl when Rita accused him of cheating his way through his challenge, and making the suggestion that he used Parseltongue to ask the Dragon for the egg.

"I didn't cheat…" he growled. On either side of him, he noticed Hermione and Neville lean in close.

"We know you didn't, Harry." Neville said.

"She's just a useless Ministry Mouthpiece, we KNOW this woman doesn't do her research." Hermione added. Harry nodded. He didn't bother looking up at the other tables, he could feel the eyes on him. He looked back at the paper.

We at the Daily Prophet do wonder however, WHY did the dragon press her snout into his palm? This behavior is completely unknown and has never been observed before in all the years humans have been interacting with dragons.

This reporter had a chance to speak with one of the Dragon Handlers, Charles Weasley, second eldest son of Ministry Employee Arthur Weasley. He is quoted as saying:

" Harry was pretty tight-lipped about what happened, he wouldn't really say much, other than he saw the dragon was coming, figured he was as good as dead, but still being the brave Gryffindor he was, decided to try and tackle her bare-handed, since he admitted he did not know any spells that would work on a dragon."

Harry rolled his eyes, he highly doubted Charlie would have bothered to talk to Skeeter, he would have been too busy with the dragons. Her statement was a blatant lie anyway, he still hadn't had the chance to talk to Charlie yet, and from what the twins and Ron had said, Charlie had left the night before, along with the other handlers and the dragons.

In the Hospital Tent, where the Champions were being tended to after their respective tasks, this reporter got a chance to sit down and interview each of them.

"No, you didn't." Harry muttered.

Mister Diggory was quoted as saying: "It was touch and go for a moment, but thanks to the skills I learned here at Hogwarts, thanks to the excellent instruction of my Professors, I was able to power through."

Harry snorted, "Bollocks. That's not what he said at all."

"Oh? What did he say?" Fred asked, looking over at Cedric, who was rolling his eyes and snorting.

"She called him 'Mister Buggery' and he said 'It's Diggory, you useless hack.' " Harry said, chuckling, as did several other Gryffindors.

Next, Miss Delacour was quoted as saying: "Va te faire foutre." Which my colleagues have informed me means "It was no trouble at all." Very humble of Miss Delacour.

Harry snorted again , as did Hermione, a chorus of giggles and laughter drew his attention to the Beauxbatons students, who were all patting Fleur on the back, and laughing. Fleur herself was grinning, looking very pleased with herself.

"I don't really know French, but I'm pretty sure that's not what she said." One of the Gryffindors said.

"No." Hermione said, chuckling. "Fleur literally told Skeeter to fuck off." At this, the rest of Gryffindor broke out into laughter.

Mister Krum was quoted as saying: "It was difficult, the Dragon put up a good fight, but clearly, I made a mistake using the spell I used. And it cost me dearly."

"'No Comment.'" Harry paraphrased, as he looked up at Krum, seeing him scowling and throwing down his copy of the paper in disgust. He started to make gestures to his friends and schoolmates, who clearly shared his opinion. Then he sighed, preparing himself for whatever blatant lie Skeeter had prepared as his 'Interview'.

And finally dear readers, we have an exclusive interview with Harry Potter, the highest scorer of the Tournament. He is quoted as saying: "It was harrowing! After my broom was destroyed, for a moment, I had no idea what to do! Then it hit me: Feed her, get her distracted, get in and get the Egg. Well, the feeding part worked, but I stumbled, and she heard me, looked up and saw me. So I decided to prove myself a true Gryffindor and tackle her bare-handed."

Harry snorted. "Again, No Comment. At least she can't make it up completely, since there's a photo right there of what happened."

When asked about how he managed to subdue the Dragon, Mister Potter replied: "I'm a Parselmouth you see, so I figured 'Why not try talking to her? Dragons are related to snakes after all.', so that's what I did, I spoke to her, asked if I could pet her snout, then held out my hand for her."

Harry scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Utter Bollocks! " he growled.

"Language!" Hermione scolded.

"I didn't use Parseltongue, Dragons are NOT related to snakes. this… Woman… is completely FULL of shite."

" Language!" Hermione said more forcefully. Then she paused, "Wait, how did she find out you're a Parselmouth?" Harry shrugged.

" Anyone here could have told her. The entire school has known for 2 years." Harry growled, throwing down his paper in disgust again, this time, he ignored it, but he still felt the eyes on him from all over the room.

He'd have to send Sirius a letter later explaining everything.

At the Head table, Dumbledore sat watching young Harry, after reading his own copy of the paper. He knew of course that Rita was lying through her teeth, at least regarding the 'interviews'. Though he did find it amusing that no-one at the Prophet had bothered to correct Rita's mis-translation of Fleur's comment to her, which seemed to indicate to Albus that the woman was not as well liked among her peers as he suspected she believed herself to be.

While he might not know the secret behind Harry's performance in the arena, Dumbledore had to admit he'd been surprised, impressed and once it was over, relieved. For a few seconds, he honestly thought the boy was going to die a horrible death, which would have messed up everything of course.

' I thank Merlin that he wasn't facing a Nadder, Nightmare, Razorwhip, or magic forbid, a Skrill , those species are on the Critically Endangered list, and are incredibly violent, and considering what happened with Krum…Dropping his wand in front of an agitated nesting dragon. Hm, a True Gryffindor indeed.' he thought.

Still, everything was fine, Harry was fine, now all he had to do was make it through the rest of the Tournament. He had a destiny to fulfill, after all.

-=-=-=-

Ministry of Magic, Office of the Senior Under-Secretary.

Senior Under-Secretary Dolores Jane Umbridge threw down her copy of the Daily Prophet in disgust.

The Potter brat had cheated! There was no other way to explain him coming in FIRST! A miserable Half-breed spawn of a Blood Traitor and his… Mudblood whore of a wife.

Dolores suppressed a minor snarl at the thought, those…animals…had no place among humans! Only thing worse, were the vermin that spawned them.

And to add insult to injury, to make matters worse , the actual half-breed abomination from France had got a higher score than someone who was clearly her superior in every way.

Oh yes, Dolores knew what Fleur Delacour was. It was impossible not to. It was clear to anyone with functioning eyes and a working brain what the French harlot was the moment they looked at her. It was bad enough that they let Mudbloods into their education system, but on the continent, they allowed half-breed abominations into their schools as well!

It perplexed, and honestly infuriated Dolores, that a man like Monsieur Delacour would be willing to stick his dick in a magical creature! Surely there were laws against that. Then again, she had heard the tale of a witch who lived during the 1930s or 40s in France, who was, if the accounts were accurate, half House-Elf!

How in Merlin's name did THAT work?!

' Then again…' she mused, 'There is Flitwick, who if I'm not mistaken, is half Goblin. Then there's that oaf of a Groundskeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, who I'm pretty sure is Half-Giant. No ordinary human is that big…then you have the Centaurs in the Forbidden forest, and in other places, then there's the Merpeople in the Black Lake…those disgusting fish… I guess humans as a species are willing to fuck just about anything with a penis or vagina, regardless of what species it is.'

Her mind went back to Viktor Krum. While she did not know the Krum family, the fact that he was a Pure-Blood, a proper Wizard of decency and breeding, from good stock, with a respectable position as Seeker for his national Quidditch team, should have guaranteed him First Place.

Should have, but it hadn't.

She looked down at the article again, reading the section that detailed the Handlers examining the remains of the nest Chinese Fireball had destroyed after Krum blinded it, and they had discovered that, in fact, the damage had been worse than first thought. All of the dragon's eggs had been destroyed, save one.

She snorted.

That was hardly Krum's fault! The stupid lizard just didn't bother moving away from her nest is all. It certainly wasn't reason enough to dock him so many points and put him last , behind inferior competitors and cheaters!

Something would have to be done.

She paused, thinking of Cedric Diggory, the true Hogwarts Champion. He was a Pure-Blood, like Krum, and no doubt the young man tried his best during his task, and he had come in second place…but still…

Then an idea came to her, if she could get herself onto the Judging Committee, she would soon set things to rights. The first task was a wash, but there was the second one coming up in February. Plans would have to be made, if she could learn what the Task was meant to be, she could arrange a little…'accident' for the Potter brat. She would have to find out quickly, however.

She scowled as she looked down at the photograph in the article, which showed the moment the Horntail pressed its snout to Potter's outstretched palm, instead of biting it off!

Clearly, he had used some sort of magic to subdue the mindless animal just before he dropped his wand, or he had a second focus hidden on his person, she would have to investigate. She highly doubted he used Parseltongue as Skeeter claimed, as Dolores knew that dragons and snakes were not related, so the language would not work on them. So it had to have been something else.

Then there was the other issue concerning Potter.

Her mind went back to the conversation she'd had with Lucius Malfoy the other day, who had received a rather petulant letter from his son, Draco.

Draco was a nice fine young man, he had great potential, but he was spoiled, a little arrogant, and a bit too cocky for his own good. Apparently, Draco had tried to hit the Mudblood Granger with an old Greek curse, and Potter had stepped in to take the hit instead.

Fool.

Though the Mudblood had apparently still been hit, Draco's efforts weren't a failure by any means. When Lucius had told her the specifics of the Curse Draco had used, she'd laughed, the thought of the Mudblood being reduced to nothing more than a whore, as was her proper station, was oddly fitting. The fact that the Curse's side effects were lethal if ignored, well, that was just icing on the cake, sadly, she saw no way to make them forego managing their new ' condition' , at least not while she was outside of Hogwarts, oh well…

The main issue Draco had brought to his father's attention was Dumbledore's punishment for Cursing Potter and the Mudblood.

That had rankled her, though Lucius had just rolled his eyes at his son's demands that he 'fix this!' , the fact that Draco had been invalidated as a possible choice for Prefect next year was unwarranted! That could NOT stand! The Prefect position was one of the most prestigious a student could hold, next to Head Boy and Girl, but to deny Draco of that, for simply doing the right thing in punishing Potter for cheating his way into the Tournament, that could not be allowed to stand! She would have to find a way to get into a position to correct that…depending on how the Tournament went, it might provide her with an option.

Then her thoughts turned to other matters…she'd heard whispers, rumors, that the Dark Lord was returning soon, that he had never truly died, and had merely been biding his time all these years.

She scowled.

Voldemort's time had passed. He'd had his chance, and he'd failed. Defeated by a baby. That proved he was no real Dark Lord, surely not. Her mind went back a year, to the summer of 93, after the Chamber of Secrets fiasco, she'd traveled to Hogwarts during the summer break, when all of the students, and most of the staff, were at home, and the castle was virtually empty, save for the ghosts and a hand full of staff who stayed year-round.

It had taken her some doing, and she'd had to rely almost exclusively on the ghosts for her intel, as the few staff she talked to refused to tell her anything, but she had eventually managed to get information that led her to the ghost Myrtle Warren, or Moaning Myrtle, as she was known. The ghost was constantly depressed, and talking to her was depressing, but she had learned how the girl had died.

A Basilisk.

Though Myrtle hadn't explicitly said it was a Basilisk, from what she had been told, and from what she knew of dangerous magical creatures, it had been obvious. The girl had also mentioned hearing a boy in the bathroom hissing, just before she died, giving Dolores the hint as to who it had been, since Voldemort was a well-known Parselmouth.

Uncovering who he was while at Hogwarts had been difficult, to the point where she almost gave up, but Dolores had been determined, she'd asked Myrtle if she'd noticed anything unusual during the previous school year, when the Chamber had been opened again. All the ghost had said was that someone had tried to flush a diary down her toilet. A diary monogrammed with the name T M RIDDLE . Thanking Myrtle, Dolores had left the bathroom and tracked down one of the other ghosts, hoping they'd know more; one had. The Grey Lady, who, in a rare instance, spoke, and told Dolores what happened after Myrtle's death, how Hagrid had been blamed and expelled, and the student who 'caught' him, one Tom Riddle, had been awarded honors for services to the school.

Dolores blinked, sitting up straight as an epiphany struck her.

Tom Riddle was Voldemort.

How had she not realized that a year ago?

Picking up her quill, she inked it and grabbed a spare piece of parchment and wrote 'LORD VOLDEMORT' then mentally dissected the name, taking out the letters and rearranging them to spell Tom Riddle.

It didn't fit. Not entirely. She wrote down her first deduction.

TOM RDDLE

' But where did the extra letters go?' She wondered, she was missing something, Tom's middle name.

She cleared the parchment and tried again.

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

She almost laughed when she wrote out TOM RIDDLE on the parchment. Almost.

Dolores scrutinized the parchment and frowned. She could not recall a magical family named Ridddle among the Sacred Twenty-Eight, which meant it had to be a lesser family. The alternative did not bear thinking about. She stood and headed out of her office, taking the parchment and her quill with her, heading for the Hall of Records. If the Riddle family was magical, it would be recorded there. As she walked, she went over the spare letters in her head and tried to piece together Voldemort's middle name, hopefully that would give some clue to his heritage, if she couldn't find any trace of the Riddles.

Ideally, she hoped her search would prove him to be a Proper Wizard, as he always claimed, and at least, a Half-Blood, while not a crime, it would call his claim to be a Dark Lord into question, if the Riddles were not magical.

Worst case scenario, he was a Mudblood. Which would also not only invalidate his claims of Lordship, it would also make him a hypocrite of the highest order, but no, that did not make sense. He waged a campaign of terror against the Mudbloods as much as, if not more so, than he did the Pure-Bloods and Half-Bloods that opposed him during his first rise.

There was also the fact that he was a Parselmouth. Parseltongue, the magical ability to communicate with snakes, as far as she knew, was hereditary, and the last known British wizard to possess it was Slytherin himself, though she had heard the odd rumor awhile ago that Potter was a Parselmouth, but that couldn't be right.

Dolores paused outside the Hall of Records, trying to piece together Riddle's middle name, but she couldn't, shaking her head, she entered the large room and began her search.

-=-=-=-

Riddle Manor

Voldemort scowled as Barty lowered the copy of the Prophet he had brought from Hogwarts, Barty had reported earlier in the week that Potter and the Mudblood had managed to find a way to mitigate the curse affecting them, though Barty had not yet discovered how they were doing so. Apparently, it was an old Greek curse that had fallen out of favor many centuries ago. It seemed that the curse wasn't having that much of a negative impact, so Riddle had to wonder why Draco would choose such a spell.

' Rita is an idiot. He did not use Parseltongue. But he clearly did something.' Riddle thought.

He had to admit though, watching the looping magical photo in the paper, that what Harry had done was most unusual, he had heard an ancient Nordic legend while journeying through Scandinavia many years ago, before his first rise, but those he had spoken to who knew of the legend dismissed it, as, apparently, if the legends were true, the humans they centered around were either muggles or muggle-borns, so naturally, Riddle had dismissed it as well.

Now he was given pause to wonder…he knew the Potters went back to the 9th or 10th century, and he was pretty sure the family had its roots in Britain…hm…

' Either way, it is irrelevant, if Barty ensures Potter finishes the final task, arrives in the graveyard, and Potter serves his purpose, it does not matter what secrets his family holds. They won't save him.'

" Very good Barty, return to the castle and continue to observe."

Barty bowed, rose and left the room.

" Wormtail…it is time for my feeding." He hissed. Off the side, Peter shuddered, he always hated milking Nagini.

-=-=-=-

12 Grimmauld Place, London.

Sirius threw down his copy of the Prophet and reached for the glass of fire whisky he'd opened. He hadn't called Harry after the task, since he had no idea if Harry or Hermione would even be in the private common room, and if they had been, he might have… interrupted something.

He chuckled to himself, the curse honestly didn't seem to be that bad, if you ignored certain aspects of it. Yes, he'd be pissed as all hell if someone had ever used that spell on him, or Remus, or James or Lily when they were back at Hogwarts. But still…sure, he got his own needs taken care of thanks to some of the local strays that wandered the area but…the dogs he interacted with didn't really want to hug afterwards, not that they really could anyway.

Still, looking down at the photo in the paper, he was sure James and Lily would have been proud, terrified out of their minds, sure, but proud all the same.

He let out a bark of laughter when he read Fleur's 'interview' with Skeeter, the joke made all the sweeter by the fact that Rita apparently didn't know French.

Though he felt sure that Harry never would have spoken to the woman, not after his first disastrous interview.

He threw back his head and swallowed the whisky, then let out a jet of flame as it settled, and he raised his glass in a toast.

"Well done Harry. You made your parents and me proud."

He couldn't wait to get the full story from Harry.

His attention was caught by the sound of the fire roaring, and someone stepping out of it.

"Remus? That you?" he called.

"Yeah." Came the reply. "I got dinner. Chicken."

Sirius grinned and stood, stretching, before grabbing the paper as Remus entered the study, holding a brown paper bag.

"How about some light reading while we eat?"