Chapter 3
Rita Skeeter was messing with Harry’s nerves because of the bullshit she writes in The Daily Prophet. When he reads the articles that she writes about him Harry fumes. That woman was evil and because Harry was having a very shitty year and wasn’t as merciful as people made him out to be, him and Hermione found out that she was an unregistered animagus ( a beetle), captured her while in her form in a jar, made a little hole in said jar so she could breath and left her there for the unforeseen future. And she also made the mistake of writing bullshit about Hermione, so the duo were quite keen on the idea to let her stay there for sometime at least.
__________________________________________________
A maze, that was what the third task was about. The fact that they didn’t have any more information on what was in that damned maze made chills run down Draco’s spine as he sat down in the stands beside Theo and Daphne, his eyes trained on Potter. The moment the champions set off Draco’s blood started running cold, he didn’t why but he didn’t have a good feeling about this at all.
In another universe Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory touched the cup at the same time, which led to the death of the eldest champion. Howard, in this universe, Harry Potter was much faster than Cedric Diggory due to the fact that he had a bigger reason to just get this damned tournament over with; he was responsible for a life that was not his, and as much as many people would like to think otherwise, Harry was not that selfless a man, he had a soulmate and he sure as damn would make sure to keep them safe.
So when Cedric had finally arrived to the final straight line that would lead him to the cup he found Harry already reaching for it. Cedric, being the Hufflepuff that he was, simply stood and watched with a smile on his face; Harry despite his young age was an excellent wizard who absolutely deserved to win. The moment Harry touched the cup, he disappeared and after a beat of pure silence, Cedric realized something was off; he knew that from the look of what just happened the cup was a port key which, Cedric assumed, would take Potter back to the stands and be declared the winner of the Triwizard tournament. Expect Cedric did not hear any cheerings coming from the spectators, but then, where was Harry-
“Cedric you have to believe me! I did not put my name anywhere! I had nothing to do with this, surely it was someone else who did it! Someone who is out for my blood!” A very distressed Harry had told Cedric a few days after his name had come out of the goblet of fire.
Cedric suddenly had gone very still and his eyes widened. Oh no Cedric thought something had gone very wrong. He raised his wand, shooting red lights, signaling that things went to shit and then he took off towards the entrance of the maze, to get to Dumbledore.
He may not be a Gryffindor, but Hufflepuffs have always prided themselves on being loyal!
The moment the ritual started Draco started feeling a huge amount of pain, so much that he was getting dizzy. He quickly turned to Daphne, trying very hard to stay conscious. “Daphne….” He said quietly and Daphne, bless her, understood immediately. “Theo! We need to get Draco out of here, now!” Theo did not miss a single second and started helping Draco up and out of the stands while Daphne told the others some lies about them being bored of just sitting and waiting like idiots.
When they got away, they laid Draco on the soft grass, handing him water and talking to him through the entire thing.
When the duel between Harry and Voldemort began Draco was becoming paler and paler, barely being able to keep his eyes open. Theo and Daphne were in tears, but still talking to him and trying to heal him as much as they possibly could. They barely turned fifthteen seeing their friend a few minutes away from dying terrified them.
“I’m going to get Professor Snape.” Daphne declared between sniffles.
“But Daphne, Draco is going to kill us if we-”
“ He's going to die if we don’t do anything!” The Slytherin girl shouted, getting up to her feet before setting off to get their Head of House. “Stay with him and make sure he stays conscious!” She yelled at Theo before disappearing from his sight.
“Mr.Diggory? What’s going on?” Dumbledore asked as Cedric hurried towards him. But before he could say anything Harry suddenly appeared, falling down on the ground with the cup in his hands looking in an awfully terrible state.
“Arry!” It was Fleur Delacour, whose scream stopped the cheerings coming from the stands as she ran to his side, falling down to her knees to hold him in her arms as he cried. After Harry had rescued her sister, a friendship formed between the two champions.
Cedric, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Moody made their way to Harry, trying to get him to tell them what happened to him. But things escalated when Harry was dragged by Moody while the other professors and Dumbledore tried to hold off the students who were coming down to take a closer look at harry.
Harry was not understanding what the fuck was going on as Dumbledore and Snape were handling Barty Crouch Jr who was apparently polyjuiced into Alaster Moody. - What the hell - his head was pounding, his whole body ached, he really just wanted to rest and forget about this bloody year.
Until Daphne Greengrass barged into the room when Crouch was moved away.
“Professor Snape…” The girl was literally crying in relief when she found the Potions Master.
“Miss Greengrass, what are you doing her-”
“It’s Draco.” She cut in.
“What?” The spy’s voice suddenly sounded slightly worried.
“I-I don’t know w-what happened to h-him… He is in pain and pale a-and barely even conscious I-” The girl was having a very hard time forming a single sentence at this point.
“Lead the way, quick!” Snape urged, immediately leaving the room not sparing anyone a single glance.
If Harry wasn’t so fucking tired of his long messed up existence, he would’ve actually wondered what was wrong with Malfoy to get even fucking Severus Snape worried.
“Now Harry, tell me everything that happened. Do not spare any details please.” Dumbledore told Harry pointly as soon as they sat down in his office.
Harry, who had no energy left, did as he was told and started telling the Headmaster the whole story. When he started talking about the duel, he was shaking terribly and just wanted to this over with and go to bed but he was suddenly interrupted by Sirius and Remus barging into Dumbledore’s office.
“Sirius!” Harry choked out as he reached for his godfather, instantly relaxing when he was hugged tightly by him.
“Oh pup…” Sirius breathed out embracing his godson with as much force as he could. He then looked at the headmaster with pure fury in his stormy eyes. “The boy just faced Voldemort Albus! He must be exhausted, he needs rest!” Albus wore a blank expression as Sirius basically shouted at him.
“Sirius, such matters cannot wait, Harry can have all the rest he needs as soon as tells exactly what happened in that graveyard.” Dumbledore said calmly.
“Fine, but me and Remus are staying here with him.” Sirius declared as he and Remus sat down beside Harry squeezing him tightly as he continued his tale.
When he was finally finished, neither Sirius nor Remus waited for Dumbledore to stutter even a word before they were up and guiding Harry out of the headmaster’s office to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey fussed over Harry for a good ten minutes before manhandling him into laying on the bed, it was only at that moment that he noticed a very pale - barely alive - Draco Malfoy on the bed next to his, surrounded by a visibly worried Daphne Greengrass and Theodore Nott. Snape himself was looking at the Slytherin with narrowed eyes. Madam Pomfrey went back to Draco waving her wand over him while saying something in Snape’s ear.
“What happened to him?” Harry whispered to himself but he was loud enough for Remus to hear him. “We don’t know cub, when we were told what happened during the third task, we came rushing to Hogwarts fully thinking you’d be here.” The werewolf’s voice was barely a whisper, obviously trying not to be heard by the potions master nearby.
“When we entered the hospital wing” Sirius continued, voice as quiet as Remus’s “Sni- Snape, was barking orders, fussing over the Malfoy boy who looked as good as dead, The two other Slytherins were literally crying their eyes out yelling for the Malfoy boy not to die…” Sirius’s voice cracked for a second, it wasn’t just the fact that a literal child looked like minutes away from dying, it was that that child was Cissa’s boy; even after twelve years in Azkaban, Sirius could recognize the Black genes from miles away, and that graceful posture? Yes, it was definitely Cissa’s son.
“When I tried to figure out what happened to him, your lovely professor simply told us that Dumbledore took you to his office and that we should not meddle in business that does not concern us.” Sirius mocked, distaste written all over his face.
“And we were too worried about you to dig further so we just left and went to you.” Remus finished, shooting Sirius a glare.
“Draco!” Greengrass shouted as soon as she noticed Malfoy blinking his eyes open, immediately screwing his nose in annoyance as the light abused his eyes.
“You reckless, idiotic, irresponsible child!” The potion professor snapped, reaching for Malfoy, making the blond sit up right and proceeding to run some tests on him.
Sirius looked closely at the scene, at Snape more precisely. The Slytherin since their school days has always prided himself on having a tight control on his emotions, but now hidden behind that sneer of his Sirius recognised a specific expression; the same he himself wore the moment he found out that the third task had gone wrong.
Endless worry for his godson.
Sirius smiled. Oh what a smart woman Narcissa Black ‘Malfoy’ was…
The next morning Dumbledore came to the hospital wing followed by Minister Fudge and Aurors, after arguing for about ten minutes, Minister Fudge walked out, calling Dumbledore and Harry lunatics. The Headmaster immediately started giving out orders left and right, looking every inch the powerful leader of the light he was during the last war. Remus and Sirius did not look satisfied by that and Harry didn’t know why, but if there were two people he trusted in this world, it was these two.
“Remus, I need you to reassemble the old crowd as soon as possible.’ Albus said
‘Which isn’t now.” Sirius, who was a dog since last night while the Slytherins were in the hospital and while Fudge was here this morning, shot back at Dumbledore.
“Sirius please-“ The old man started.
“Me and Remus are staying here until Harry is back on his feet, Albus.” Sirius cut through, with the classic Black glare. Dumbledore sighed, and reluctantly let the wo Gryffindor stay but for one other hour only.
As soon as they were finally alone, Sirius turned to his godson. “Now listen to me very carefully Harry, things are going get a bit messy from now on and I need you to promise that when you get back to the Dursleys you stay in the house, you do not leave it and you certainly do not respond to any mail sent you by Hermione, Ron or Dumbledore. Do you get it?” Harry looked very confused because he did not expect Sirius to tell him such things at all. And Remus saw it.
“Listen cub.” Remus started “ I know this is all very confusing to you right now, but you need to trust us on this and I swear, as soon as we get our hands on you we will tell you everything.” Harry furrowed his eyebrows.
“What to you mean ‘when we get our hands on you’ I-”
“We will explain everything, eventually” Sirius cut him mid sentence. Harry gave his godfathers a long look and then he sighed. “Fine, I promise.” He said quietly
Sirius gave him a warm smile before kissing his scarred forehead while Remus kissed his very untamed hair.
“We will see each other soon pup, I promise.” Sirius reassured him before transforming into a huge black dog and leaving the hospital wing with Remus.
After giving all his winnings to the Weasley twins and packing his things by the end of the day Harry found himself locked up in his crusty, tiny room at the Dursley. Doing as his godfathers told him, waiting for them and hoping he would be able to be with them soon…..