Making Friends with the “Enemy”
“Sorry to interrupt professor, but Harry is needed for something to do with the tournament.” Colin Creevey said, hovering awkwardly at the door of the transfiguration class.
“That’s alright Colin, do you know where he is to go and if he will need his belongings?” Mcgonagall replied looking at him with slight sympathy.
“Yes, he will need his things, it might take a while and I was told to lead him up myself.”
“Ok, Harry on you go then. I’m sure one of your friends will give you the notes and if you need any help don’t hesitate to come and ask me.”
“Thank you professor.” He smiled at her weakly before following Colin (who was far too chatty) out the room and upstairs to a rather small classroom where the other three champions and their head teachers were already waiting along with Ludo Bagman, Barty Crouch and Ollivander. He was rather confused why the latter was here but decided to keep quiet, all would be explained eventually.
“Harry, go join Cedric and Dumbledore over there and we will begin.” Barty waited for him to move before continuing. “As you know, last night you were all selected as champions and you are now probably curious about what the tasks will be. Well, sorry to disappoint but you will not be aware about the nature of the first task before it happens, all you can know is that it will take place on the 19th of November.”
“If we aren’t allowed to know more, then why have we all been called out here, surely this could have just been announced at a meal time. I have a lot of coursework to do.” Krum asked impatiently.
“I was just about to get onto my next point, before the tournament starts, all your wands will have to be checked over by Mr Ollivander here and a reporter will be here shortly for some photos and a quick interview with each of you. So Mr Krum if you could give your wand over to Ollivander, we will get this done as quickly as possible.”
“I would have preferred to have Gregorovitch check over my wand.” Krum grumbled handing over a rather bent looking wand.
“We all have our preferences when it comes to wand makers but I promise you I will take great care as I examine it.” Ollivander smiled at Krum before looking over the wand closely while muttering characteristics. “Hornbeam and Dragon Heartstring, 10 and a quarter inches, thicker than normal and quite rigid. Good condition on the outside. Now do you mind if I test it with a quick charm?”
“It’s fine.” Despite the go ahead, Krum didn’t look too pleased but after a quick bird-conjuring charm Ollivander announced the wand to be in good condition and passed it back.
“I will take you next dear.” Ollivander motioned for Fleur to come over and pass over her own wand which then received the same treatment as Krums. Fleurs wand was Rosewood with a Veela hair core, quite short at 9 and a half inches and was inflexible and after the wand maker cast a bouquet of flowers the wand was also announced to be in good condition and was given back.
The next person to be called forward was Cedric. The Hufflepuff boys wand was made of ash with unicorn hair as a core, it was 12 and a quarter inches and Ollivander described it as being pleasantly springy. This time the wand was tested by producing rings of smoke then was handed back to Cedric also having been in good condition. Now it was his turn, so he stepped forward and handed over his wands.
“It doesn’t feel like long since I sold this wand, Holly with a Phoenix feather, 11 inches and nice and supple. A lovely wand that I know will do great things.” The wand was tested with a fountain of wine spell then given back to him. “In my professional opinion, everyone’s wand is in perfect condition and there should be no issues throughout the tournament. Now, I have been away from my shop for too long so I must get going but don’t hesitate to contact me again if you need me.”
Just as Ollivander left, a tall blond woman entered the room with a bright green quill and a roll of parchment and with her was a short man with a camera.
“Good morning, I’m Rita Skeeter and I will be the reporter for this event. If you don’t mind I would like to just get straight into things.” Rita looked at Dumbledore expectantly.
“Of course, don’t want to drag this out any longer so our champions can get back to classes.”
“All right I think we will start with pictures and then go for one on one interviews. Once your interview is done then you may leave.” The camera man set up everything as Rita spoke and gave her a signal to show everything was ready. “Lovely, now have we got some chairs to position everyone?”
After what felt like hours of moving positions and changing angles, finally all the photos were finished allowing him to slump down in relief, the other champions looking equally as annoyed now.
“If you may Miss Skeeter, Viktor really does have to hurry up so he can finish his schoolwork so he can start on his workout for the Quidditch team.” Karkaroff said as Rita was picking the first champion to interview.
“All right then, I will get him first and then come back for the next person. If you can follow me Viktor we will go through here for a bit of privacy.” Krum was led through the door at the back of the room that led to what looked to be a small office.
“I’m sorry Cedric that this whole mess has taken the attention away from you and Hufflepuff house.” He said quietly. Ever since his name was drawn last night, all people were talking about was him instead of Cedric who was the real champion of Hogwarts.
“I don’t really care about that, although if I were you I would steer clear of my house, a lot of people are very angry on my behalf. I don’t know why considering I have made it clear that it’s obvious from last nights conversation that you didn’t willingly enter this thing but I guess some people are just refusing to listen.”
“I think it’s so stupid that everyone is so angry at you.” Fleur spoke up.
“Thank you, it’s nice to know that there are some people that believe me. Even from my own house there is people who think I entered on purpose.” He sighed.
“Mr Potter, your up next.” Whatever Fleur was about to reply was cut off as Rita called for him and Krum left the room looking even grumpier than earlier. He sighed realising this interview probably was not going to be a fun experience for him. He walked into the office and took a seat as Rita sat across from him. “I’m going to be using a quick notes quill to record everything that happens if that’s alright with you.”
“Yes that’s fine.” He watched the green quill scribbling frantically across the paper trying to take down every word that had been said but his attention was brought back to Skeeter as the woman started talking.
“I am only going to ask you a few questions then I will let you go. So how about we start with how you got your name in the goblet?” Rita looked at him expectantly.
“Erm I didn’t. I don’t know how my name came out because I didn’t put it in.”
“Hmm are you sure you didn’t enter your name to impress your late parents, trying to live up to the impressive name they made for themselves and the name that you yourself have built up?”
“No, I, my parents wouldn’t be proud of this, they wouldn’t want me putting myself in danger and I don’t care for the fame I have, it causes too much trouble.”
“Is this trouble why you ended up having Severus Snape, the meanest professor in this school as your guardian? Did he take you in because no one else could keep you under control? Being an orphan you must not have been equipped to rules so you would have had to have been whipped into shape quickly and Snape is probably the only man that could have achieved the task”
“No he took me in because he cares for me, and he isn’t the evil person you are trying to paint him as now if you don’t mind I am going to go because these questions are insulting.” He stood up before she was even able to resist and stormed out the room past the remaining two champions and straight down to his quarters.
When he reached his quarters he immediately slammed the portrait and his bedroom door loudly to release some of the anger Rita had built up. He kicked his bed post and collapsed on the bed with a huff. How dare that woman make so many assumptions about not only him but also his parents and Severus, it was infuriating.
“Erm, I’m kind of scared to ask but, are you alright?” He jumped up not having heard the door open to be met by Remus looking at him in concern.
“No bloody invasive reporters making up a bunch of bullshit about stuff she shouldn’t be bothered with.”
“Was it Rita Skeeter? She has a notorius history of riling people up so she can twist their answers for a more dramatic article.”
“Yeah it was and if that’s true then I played right into her plan because I stormed out of the room midway through the interview before I throttled her.”
“That was definitely the better of the two options, although you still look like you are about to throttle something, why don’t we go for a fly together to calm you down?”
“That would be great actually, due to quidditch being cancelled I haven’t had a chance to go out flying yet. Wait, why are you here, is it for something important ? I can go myself if you have business to get to.”
“I just came here to see how you and Severus were coping, he sent me a letter about the announcement last night and I figured you would both be taking it hard so going out flying with you would finish half my business as you put it and I will find Severus after classes.”
“Well ok then I will definitely not say no to having a flying buddy let me just grab my broom then we can go.”
When they got to the Quidditch pitch they were surprised to see it wasn’t empty but once he recognised the person was Krum he remembered what Karakaroff has said about training. Not wanting to break the older boys concentration he and Remus mounted their brooms at the other end of the pitch and went in lazy circles above where Krum was speeding up and down.
“So how are you dealing with this whole tournament thing?” Remus asked him after a lap of silence.
“I am terrified, how on Earth am I supposed to compete in a tournament designed for wizards with an extra three years of training on me? How am I supposed to even survive these tasks if I don’t know spells to get myself through them?”
“You are brilliant at defence so if you read up on more advanced spells then I am sure you will pick them up easily and if you need help with a spell then contact me. I am not a professor here so hints from me is technically not cheating. I will look through the books in the library at Grimmauld place and send over anything I think could be helpful. I will not let you go through this alone and unprepared.”
“We don’t even know what the first task is going to be, how can I prepare for it?”
“Well at least everyone is in the same position then, the older kids also won’t know what they need to be good at for it all any of you can do is learn as much as possible in a broad range of subjects. Defence, transfiguration and charms are probably your best bet to go over.”
“I guess I just can’t stop worrying that whatever I do won’t be enough.”
“That’s entirely expected when you are unexpectedly entered into a dangerous tournament, even the other champions will be nervous and worried for this and they went into it voluntarily. How about we do some stunts to distract your mind even for a short while, let me see your best dives.”
Appreciating the change of topic he sped up a bit before turning down sharply straight for the ground speeding up more and more as he went down vertically until at the last second he drew up to fly parallel to the grass below and then flew up to rejoin Remus.
“That good enough for you?”
“Hmm maybe but now I want to see your corkscrews and flips.”
“Easy.” He done four corkscrews before flipping over his head to go into a dive but about half way to the ground he flipped himself 180 degrees to head straight back up again before doing one last corkscrew and going back over to Remus.
“Potter.” He heard a call from behind him and turned to see Krum flying over. “Those were some very impressive moves you pulled out there. I have finished with my training for today but If you want I would like for you to join me some other day to test your skills further. If you fly as well as that in a game, you could easily make it into a professional team even now.”
“I would love to train with you one day, maybe at the weekend some time so I don’t need to worry about homework.“
“I have Saturdays off but will be here from 10am on Sunday and will probably be out for around 1 hour and a half.”
“I will see you Sunday then.”
“See you Sunday.”
Krum flew off and looked to be headed back to the Durmstrang shift and he looked round at Remus shocked. “Did that really just happen?”
“Yes a professional quidditch star just said you were impressive and offered to train with you.”
“Good idea to go flying Remus, I am definitely not caring about skeeter anymore.” He grinned looking back at where Krum had walked off.
***
Sunday morning arrived and he made sure he was in the pitch for just before 10 so he wasn’t late not wanting to waste a chance of getting to train with Krum. The older boy arrived exactly on time and gave him an appraising look for being early.
“On a Sunday I do some ground work as well as flight work, have you done much ground work before?”
“Not really, for the house games we mainly focus on different plays.”
“I find ground work is just as important as the flight work because it builds your strength and endurance and gives you a more diverse workout than just doing the same thing over and over again. You are free to go straight to flying this morning if you want or you can join me and maybe just do less reps of everything.”
“I will join you and see how I get in with it.”
“Alright then, I am going to do a circuit. 50 burpees, 50 squat jumps, 5 minute plank, 50 sit ups, 50 leg raises, 100 mountain climbers and then run 5 laps if the pitch and will do it 3 times through. Feel free to stop when you feel like you need a break and just take it at your own pace.”
He was surprised how nice Krum was being, he had gotten the impression the older boy was serious all the time but then that might just be in front of big crowds. The set was brutal though but he wanted to prove himself to Krum so completed the same amount of reps just slightly slower and was completely knackered by the end of the third set but he was proud of himself for completing it.
“Well done, I wasn’t expecting you to manage it all especially considering you have never done stuff like that before. Keep training with that enthusiasm and you will be unstoppable. You ready to fly now?”
“Definitely going to regret this tomorrow when it hurts to move but yes I’m ready.” He joked picking up his broom and taking off with Krum following behind.
“Do you want to work on speed or agility?”
“What one were you planning on doing I don’t want to interfere with your training?”
“It doesn’t matter which one I do because this is the 5th session this week so I have already done an equal amount of both.”
“Ok then speed, my agility is fine but sometimes I feel I could go faster.”
“Most seekers work agility but speed is also a very important skill. For speed I do a pyramid of times across the pitch. We start at a reasonably slow time, probably go for 5 minutes and we will take the time down 30 seconds each length until we get down to 1 minutes then build it back up to 5 and repeat that multiple times.”
“Sounds good, is it a race or just get within the time?”
“We can race if you want but the important part is to get within the time for each one so it is working on both endurance and speed. If you’re ready let’s start.”
He hadn’t realised how hard it would be to do the entire length of the quidditch pitch in 1 minute but refused to miss the time so kept pushing on and on until finally it was the end of their training session and he was sweating profusely and his legs were cramping.
“Really well done today, you are an incredible flyer and have a great work ethic when it comes to pushing yourself. You are free to come join me in a training session whenever you like.”Krum said as they started heading towards the castle.
“Thank you that would be great, with quidditch being cancelled this year I was kind of lost on what to do, it’s great having someone so knowledgeable on the subject to follow. If there is anything you are needing help with around the school, just come and ask me I’m happy to help.”
“I do have one question, where might I find the library. I have tried multiple times but the stairs kept turning and I was getting to frustrated to keep going but I really do need to start studying for the first task considering it is in less than two weeks.”
“I was planning on going up to study a bit actually so you can come up with me if you want? I have no idea where to start with studying but I need to hurry up if I have any chance of catching up with the rest of you.”
“That would be great if you could show me up.” They had reached the castle now and he turned so they could make their way up to the library. “Also if your schoolwork is anything like your quidditch then you will be just fine, I also know a few good books I know off for you to have a look through.”
“Why are you being so nice to me? Surely we are supposed to be each others competition not giving hints.”
“I believe you deserve some support considering you are at an obvious disadvantage age and skill level wise and you didn’t voluntarily enter so you didn’t even sign up for this. I am just evening out the playing field by helping you. Also, you are one of the only students who haven’t spent their time gawking at me and I appreciate not being treated like a zoo animal.”
“Yes I know what it feels like for everyone to be so focused on what they “perceive famous” you to be like and completely overlook you as a person and I didn’t want to do that to you because I know how awful it is.”
“This is why I’m nice to you, you are respectful of me so you deserve my respect.”
They entered the library now which was nearly empty except from a few Ravenclaws and Fleur who when she saw them immediately called them over.
“Do you want to sit with me, I’m currently trying to go over stuff I think will be useful for the first task and could use some company?”
“Yes sure, let me get a few books and Harry I will get the ones I think might be helpful for you and I will be back in a minute.” Krum disappeared into the stack as he sat down.
“I’m sorry about how Rita portrayed you in that article, and for all the hate your receiving round the school. It’s not fair on you.” Fleur said.
“Thank you, but I’m sort of used to it, something like this happened in second year with the school and I already predicted Rita would do something like that.” Rita’s article has basically laid him out to be a misbehaved orphan who was being kept under a close eye but still was managing to cause mischief to rebel against his parents death. As soon as he had read it, he had promptly placed the paper in the fire and watched it burn.
“Well I and the majority of beauxbatons believe you. There are a few that don’t like that you are stealing the spotlight but not many.“
“Same with Durmstarng.” Krum said returning with two pile of books, one of which was placed in front of him. “Although Karkaroff isn’t too happy about it but he isn’t happy about anything really.”
“It’s good to hear some people believe me, maybe the others will realise when I have no clue what I’m doing.”
“Don think like that, we will help you however possible.” Fleur said kindly.
For the rest of the morning and into the afternoon they sat quietly going over books, sometimes asking the occasional question about a spell or showing something that could be of some use. He enjoyed the company and found it comforting that at least two of the other champions were completely on his side, he wasn’t sure about Cedric. Sure the boy believed him and was being polite but nothing more than that. He didn’t worry about that though and just focused on getting through as much as possible so he could be prepared for what was to come in less than 2 weeks.