April Showers
The week of the Easter holidays came with the welcome surprise of the return of Hedwig and gifts from Mrs. Weasley, but the unwelcome gift of rain from Mother Nature. It was no surprise, as it was April, but no less detested. Even more detested, however, was that within these eggs gifted by Mrs. Weasley was a nasty trick for Hermione. Ron and Harry had both gotten big ones, while she had gotten considerably smaller ones.
Clearly, the outside world still believed Hermione was a nuisance, as they had no newspaper promoting her to go off of--Malfoy’s Hogwarts News was just that, Hogwarts news, not world news.
On a happier note for Hermione, however, or at least what Harry perceived as happy for her, she had gotten a letter back from Sirius just as he had, and seemed quite thrilled with it, rushing off with the thing immediately. Harry was left to read his own note, not minding the fact that Ron and Draco were both reading over his shoulder.
Harry,
What do you think you are playing at, walking off into the forest with Viktor Krum? I want you to swear, by return owl, that you are not going to go walking with anyone else at night. There is somebody highly dangerous at Hogwarts. It may be Barty Crouch’s son, or it may not be, but it is clear to me that whoever it is wanted to stop Crouch from seeing Dumbledore and you were probably feet away from them in the dark. You could have been killed. The man we’re dealing with is clearly a Death Eater, and we all know by now that you and Mr. Malfoy’s names did not end up in that Goblet of Fire by accident. Your theory of it being Crouch Jr is becoming increasingly plausible, and I can’t deny that all the dots are aligned. But that does NOT mean you must pursue this. If he’s trying to attack you, he’s on his last chance. Stay close to Ron, Hermione, and even Malfoy, but no one else. Do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours, and arm yourself for the next two tasks. Practice Stunning and Disarming. A few hexes wouldn’t go amiss either--I’m sure Malfoy would be glad to teach you some. There’s nothing you can do about either of the Crouch’s. Keep your head down and look after yourself. I’m waiting for your letter giving me your word that you won’t stray out-of-bounds again.
Sirius.
Harry scowled as he folded the letter back up and tucked it into his robes, marching off for the door out of the Owlery with his friends at his heels. “Unbelievable! Stay at the castle… After all he did in school!” Ron grunted his support while Draco shook his head, rolling his eyes.
“I can’t imagine why or how you're so eager to get yourself killed, Potter. Reckless Gryffindor’s… I can’t believe I’m saying this, but my cousin’s right. The adults can handle all of this, not us. We need to focus on not getting killed in this next Task.” Harry stopped halfway down the spiraling stairs to the ground to turn to face Draco, still scowling. “No, you need to not get killed. No one’s been making any attempts on my life this year! For once…”
“Except putting your name in the Goblet.” Ron pointed out, to which both boys glared and he threw his hands up in surrender, continuing to move down the stairs without them.
“What’s wrong with you?” Harry accused, brow furrowed upon the pale boy. “You're the one who figured out Crouch Jr’s the one who's trying to kill you. But now you don’t want us to stop him?” Draco bit his lip and looked to the side, fists tightening around his robes.
“Listen, I’m not brave like you guys. I… He did kill me with that Bludger, Harry! And he… he almost did it with the dragon and… He’s been Imperius cursing Champions! I don’t want to get hurt. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. We don’t know what he’ll do if he thinks we’re on to him. Death Eater’s aren’t to be underestimated, Harry. He could have a whole group of followers behind him for all we know. And--”
“Okay, I get it!” Harry raised his hands, shushing Draco quickly, then placing his hands on his arms to calm him. “And I… I understand. It’s okay if you don’t want to fight. We can wait it out. I just…” Harry winced, biting down on his lip hard. “I don’t want you to get hurt either, and my method has always been to act first so--”
“So… you aren’t used to my style.” Draco manages to smile. “I get it. But, hey, we can still help each other prepare for the next two tasks, right? I can teach you some jinxes.” Harry smirks, raising a knowing eyebrow, “If you have time around your newspaper, of course.” Draco laughs, adjusting the strap of his book bag as he continues to head down the stairs, Harry following suit. “Of course.”
As the two made their way back up the steps to the castle, neither one noticed the shadow of a large man waiting for them in the shadows until they had reached the final step and he cleared his throat, causing the two to whirl around in surprise and anticipation for some attack, relaxing when they see it was just Moody emerging from the shadows, limping up the stairs to them.
“Think I woulda attacked yeh? Never attack from behind, remember?” “Right.” Draco responds immediately, straightening in a way that reveals to Harry he clearly wasn’t over the ferret thing yet, and was in no rush to make it happen again.
“How have you boys been faring in the Tasks?” Mad-Eye asks, his magical eye fixed on Draco and the other on Harry. “Well enough.” Harry says with a shrug while Draco makes a humming noise.
Oh yeah, definitely still uncomfortable with him.
Both eyes now turn to the Malfoy boy. “What’s wrong Mr. Ferret? You're not scared whoever’s trying to kill yeh will succeed next time, are you?” Draco swallows hard while Harry blurts out, “You think so too?” The Professor ignores him, however, instead grunting and pushing him aside lightly to place a hand on Draco’s shoulder and nudge him through the doors.
“Here, come with me, Malfoy. Let’s talk.” The doors slam behind him and Harry’s left alone, licking his lips, looking around him, and suddenly feeling very alone. And even a little worried.
A loud buzzing meets his ear and he quickly bats away the beetle flying near it, instead, opening the doors quickly and heading to the Gryffindor Common Room to think, trying to ignore worrisome thoughts of Draco that keep meeting his brain.
-*-*-*-
It occurs to Draco suddenly, as he shifts awkwardly from foot to foot in front of Moody’s desk while he sits down behind it with a grunt and takes a long swig from his flask, that he’s never been in any teacher’s office before for a reason unrelated to their class, or detention, the few times he’s ever gotten one.
He needs to stop letting the Gryffindor’s rub off on him like this.
“So,” He jerks his head, from where it had wandered with his eyes to examine the office he’s never been in before at all, back to Moody as he speaks up suddenly. “Lost your brave nerve, have you?” Draco swallowed, fists tightening at his sides, settling on asking, “Who said I ever had one?” Because he wasn’t sure how Moody felt about him yet. He was walking on eggshells, so it was best to go along with the, ‘I’m barely surviving any of this’ claim.
He wasn’t quite sure if this was even incorrect, as he really didn't feel like he was going to get through this Tournament if a Death Eater was trying to kill him and his father had gone missing while hysterical after attacking him too, but he was a Malfoy. Nothing if not prideful.
“Well we can’t all be like our father’s.” Draco met Moody’s eyes, both of them, and raised one eyebrow in surprise. “Excuse me?” “Your father. Quite a Death Eater he was. Hard to catch.”
A pause, then Draco was reminded of how he was supposed to respond in this situation and blurted, “You didn’t catch him. He was Imperiused he--” “Of course, of course!” Moody looked down, face going dark suddenly at the boy's words. “How could I forget… All I’m saying is he was no force to underestimate. And I believe you can be too.”
Once again, Draco prodded with, “Excuse me?”
“I’ve been watching you in these first three tasks, you know,” Draco unconsciously sinks himself into the chair in front of Moody’s desk as he turns in his chair to face him, both eyes still level to his. “You’re skilled, that’s clear, and clever. You and Potter made a good team in the First Task, but it takes a strong mind and will to find yourself in an animal's body. Taming an animal is no easy feat either, and your flying was quite impressive. You're a Seeker right?”
He nodded and Moody sighed, a long silence hanging over the office before he spoke once more, voice as gruff as ever.
“I want to offer my help.” He clarified, as Draco’s eyebrows went high. “Whether you think it or not, or whether your Professor’s would want to acknowledge it or not, you are in danger, Draco Malfoy, and with my help, not only do I believe I can get you out of it, but I do believe you can be like your father. Not everyone can, but I do see that spark in you, Mr. Malfoy.”
Draco licked his lips, glanced around the office awkwardly, and shifted in his seat before settling his gaze back on the Professor. “Okay.” He said, nodding along and shrugging his shoulders. “We can try, I suppose.”
Moody smiles crookedly. “I’ll expect you back here every Saturday at 3:00, sound alright?”
-*-*-*-
Harry didn’t quite have a lot of regrets in his life, seeing the sometimes reckless acts he had made had done their job in keeping him alive at the end of the day, so what was to change? There was just one thing he always woke up wishing he’d done differently…
“My dears, we have almost finished our work on planetary divination. Today, however, will be an excellent opportunity to examine the effects of Mars, for he is placed most interestingly at the present time. If you all look this way, I will dim the lights…"
… Not choose Divination. Oh would Harry’s life be filled with no regrets if he hadn’t chosen Divination. Not that he knew what he’d rather take, but even the mind bending problems he glimpsed Hermione solving sometimes for Arithmancy would be much more preferred to this awful class.
A light buzz met his ears, drowning out the sounds of Trelawney’s speech as he rolled his head over towards the bright April sun pouring in from the windows, wincing at the heat, and squinting to see the now familiar form of that wretched beetle that always seems to be buzzing at his ear. He flicks it, ending up flicking glass as he had in the Common Room what felt like ages ago, merely seeing it’s on the other side.
Observing that the bug has never bothered him before, and what possibly can a bug do to him that hasn’t already been done anyway, Harry unclicks the lock on the window to let in the cool breeze and sighs, letting his eyes flutter close and slumping into the soft cushioned chair beneath him.
What’s the harm in closing his eyes for a moment anyway? Just for a moment…
When Ron looks over to bump his friend's shoulder and mutter some joke about the ridiculousness of Trelawney’s talk about Mars he instead sees that Harry had fallen off his chair and was now convulsing on the floor, gripping his head and yelling at nothing in his sleep.
Real normal behavior for Harry Potter, he supposed.
-*-*-*-
Heading back from Ancient Runes and discussing the latest temple they’d learned about while they could without getting eye rolls from their uninterested friends, Hermione and Draco should have assumed they were in for a very eventful night as soon as they saw Ron bounding up the steps to them. And, conversely, Harry should have assumed straight away his friends would be waiting to hear what had happened in Dumbledore’s office before he stepped through the Portrait Hole door and saw the three huddled on the couch in front of the fireplace.
Unfortunately, none of these students were Ravenclaws, so the assumptions were never made.
“Harry,” Hermione instead said when he had barely landed his second foot on the ground, “What’s going on?”
It was the strict voice the Granger girl only got when she was done with one of her friends most recent nonsense of the year, and a voice she usually only had to use once per year. This was the second time, however, the first being when she’d forced Harry and Ron to be friends again. It shook the boy, just slightly, but then he remembered he had kept quite a few secrets from his friends this year, namely the nightmares, so they deserved to know now, do doubt.
Explaining the situation to Draco was considerably harder than he’d anticipated, as the blonde didn’t even know Harry’s scar could hurt, much less that it was hurting. But, worse than that, was trying to convince all his friends that he wasn’t mental.
“For Merlin’s sake, I can talk to snakes. We’ve seen worse, Hermione.”
“You still should have told us.” Ron said in a low voice, sitting crouched in the corner of the couch with his legs tucked in, looking justifiably uncomfy with the news. “Months ago.” Hermione agreed, a little less soft in her approach. Harry looked over at Draco for support, but only saw he was still pacing, like he had since Harry’s story had finished half an hour ago.
“Drac--” “I think I’m willing to propose we don’t forget about the Crouch Jr thing.” The blonde turned to face him, a light in his gray eyes that only seemed more powerful when illuminated by the fire. “He’s working with You-Know-Who himself. We have to take him down.”
Harry began to grin. “I was hoping you’d say that…” And quickly, all further ridicule of Harry’s tendency to keep secrets was forgotten as he and Ron rushed to find the map, Hermione ran for the Library, and Draco grabbed a piece of parchment, doing what he often did these days when thinking up ideas for the new issue of his newspaper, and writing down his thoughts.
It didn’t matter what danger getting involved would cause anymore. How could it? Barty Crouch Jr was working with Voldemort and Wormtail to kill Harry and Draco, and had almost succeeded with the latter one too many times. Whatever was going to happen would just get worse if they didn’t do anything about it, so in Harry’s mind, in that moment, Sirius’ warnings be damned.
In fact, in all the chaos of that night, no one even considered or thought to write to Sirius.
-*-*-*-
Harry had no clue how the time had breezed past, but next thing he knew McGonagall was calling him and Draco up to the front of Transfiguration and informing them of the Fourth Task, something that in all the chaos of both Barty’s, and his dreams, he had forgotten to prepare for. He had heard Draco was having private lessons with Moody however, so that had to mean something.
This didn’t mean the whole school had forgotten about the Task, however. Harry could vaguely recollect kids theorizing what the next Task would be, hoping it would be the biggest yet, ‘for the fun.’ Though his fellow students' idea of ‘fun’ sounded like a death sentence at this point. Everyone agreed they’d go for anything that wasn’t standing in the ice cold of the morning staring at a lake, even if it was killing a puffskein.
Unfortunately, things could never be that simple.
“Your next Task, as a means to determine the best candidates for the final Task, will test your skills in every aspect of magic. Meaning, simply; Charms, Defense, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, and, if need be, the Dark Arts. This shouldn’t prove to be too hard for the two of you, I believe. Am I correct?”
Harry and Draco glanced at each other, and shrugged. “I suppose.” “Yeah.”
As soon as they were pushed out of her office, the two boys sighed and slumped against the wall, shaking their heads. “At least we’ll be well prepared for our OWL’s.” Draco pointed out, forcing himself to laugh while Harry could only half heartedly smirk. He turned and headed down the hall in the direction of the Gryffindor Common Room, biting his lip.
“I’m gonna… Train, okay?” He said over his shoulder, giving Draco no other goodbye as the blonde himself waved and said, “Okay then. Er--Bye!” in a shaky voice. He wasn’t mad at him, not by any means, just not in the mood. He had to agree, however, that there was no way he was going to get low scores on the OWL’s next year now.
-*-*-*-
“Again.”
Draco groaned as he gripped the desk beside him and used it to push himself up onto his feet, trying hard not to look angry when he met Professor Moody’s eyes and said, “Really? Can’t I have a break--”
“No. You cannot.” The Auror responded sternly, flicking his wand and sending another book Draco’s way, which he did successfully block with a wordless Protego this time, but only barely. “Do you think you’ll be able to make it past this next Task as a slack off? Do you think I got to where I am today if I took ‘breaks’?” Another book, another Protego and Draco winced, clenching his wand so tight he was sure an indent would be there for hours.
“No.”
“Then… again.”
This was only the second day of training with Moody, and he was already trying to get Draco to use nonverbal spells, not even introducing any new ones. And yeah, it had been fairly simple at the start, but these long hours of deflecting books was tiring if you are pushed through it for too long. Undoubtedly, Draco had reached that point, but Merlin forbid Moody to let him go now.
In a moment's pause where the blonde tried to take a breath Moody sent the next--very large and very heavy--book flying right at his head, causing him to be knocked backwards and fall hard on the cushions beneath him that only existed due to Draco’s insistence. Moody clicked his tongue and Draco could hear his leg slamming against the floor as he hobbled forwards, opening his eyes to see the man frowning down at him.
“Please, just a moment's break.” He practically begged, only causing the Auror to roll his eyes. “There are none.” He sternly replied, flicking his wand and causing the boy's body to rise in the air and land on his feet. “You want to have a break? Fine by me. But this is the lesson for today; there are no breaks in the real world. There is only your life, and the life of the person you're fighting, and do you think they’ll call for a pause on your duel to breathe? No. And if they’re dumb enough to? Take them by surprise, but never from behind. You're a Slytherin, right? Do you think your ancestors would’ve attacked from behind? Never! It’s a foul, cowardly thing to do. Always face the opponent head on. So, attack. Once more.”
Moody had backed up, now standing a good ten feet away, and clearly was asking for a proper fight now. Draco sighed, shaking off the weariness creeping onto him and instead raising his wand, flicking it just so to send a jet of red light towards his Professor, wordlessly. He deflected it, sending three books his way, but Draco pivoted on his heel, spinning the three right back at him, and watching in awe as Moody cleanly transfigured each one into three little birds, which then rose to the air and circled around their heads.
But he didn’t let himself be caught by surprise as another book was flown towards him, seeing the test, and aptly responding by casting yet another Protego wordlessly, causing the book to bounce off the shield. He then cleanly transfigured it into a bird as well, with the exception that this one's feathers were patterned with the style of the book's cover still.
It seemed to impress Moody enough, however, as he gave a crooked smirk and a nod to his student. “Well done, Mr. Malfoy.” Draco smiled back, feeling his chest rise in pride.
That concluded their lesson, and Draco was left walking back to his Common Room, turning his wand over and over in his hands, biting his lip and thinking over how he had considered Moody earlier in the year. He wasn’t all that bad, really, just a bit paranoid. And, he himself had been a piece of dragon dung at the beginning of the year. He probably would’ve turned himself into a ferret too.
-*-*-*-
The day before the Fourth Task was a cold, rainy day for the school, typical of April, but it also was a day many Herbology prodigies were quick to point out meant the upcoming May would be filled with bright, full blossoms of beautiful flowers. It was the sort of thing you went along with when students said it, because it seemed like a truly nice thought.
And, after a fast, eventful April, a beautiful May would be a paradise in all the Champions eyes. If they could get through this next Task, that is, hoping that there weren’t any more death attempts or Champion sabotages coming.