Never give Dogs Chocolate (unless your name is Harry Potter)
The holidays were upon them. The last few days of classes had sped by, and Harry and his friends had spent every spare moment turning the castle upside down in search of the map. The summoning spell had failed. They had, however, been told very sternly by Remus Lupin to give up when Harry and the twins had burst into his quarters unannounced and without knocking, magnifying glasses in hand and horrified expressions on their faces.
Harry didn't know what shocked Fred and George more - the fact escaped convict Sirius Black was a welcome guest in the castle, the fact escaped convict Sirius Black and their ex professor Lupin were both shirtless and dancing to Queen whilst singing at the top of their lungs, or the fact that their ex-professor Lupin and the escaped convict Sirius Black were two of the marauders - the twins' idols.
Harry always knocked after that unfortunate timing, and covered his eyes and announced his presence when entering any room anywhere in the castle, including classrooms and the great hall, for days afterwards. To most it was just another typical crazy Potter fad, but the Weasley twins knew he was making a point, and didn't hesitate to catch on and do it too.
The map had disappeared, for good it seemed. No amount of summoning spells, tracking spells or revealing spells had identified where it had gone. George even tried a spell Bill had taught him, called "point me" but the wand just spun in circles on his hand before dropping to the floor.
Accepting defeat they moved on, hoping it would show up in due course.
The holidays began with a metaphorical bang, as once again, Harry hit the Monday morning papers.
"What have you told that Skeeter woman now?" Hermione sighed exasperatedly, reading the headline with a defeated expression.
"The truth, dear!" Harry said, patting her shoulder. "The whole truth, and nothing but the truth!"
"Poor Orphaned Saviour Survives the First Two Triwizard Tasks." Draco read, looking faintly amused.
"Read the rest out." Ginny said, stealing a slice of Draco's toast sitting next to the now disgruntled blonde. They were all sat with Luna at the Ravenclaw table. The Hogwarts Express was taking some students home for Easter, since most stayed for Christmas, but Harry's friends had all elected to stay at the castle.
"Okay, fine." Draco glared at Ginny. The two fought like cat and dog, more than anyone in the group, but it was more out of habit than anything else.
Poor Orphaned Saviour Survives the First Two Triwizard Tasks
Once again, I was given the exciting and privileged opportunity to speak to the wizarding world's favourite young wizard, Harry Potter, after his success in the first two tasks of the Triwizard tournament. I received an exclusive update on his feelings towards the tournament thus far.
"So we meet again, Harry! How are you holding up?" I of course remembered how emotional the poor boy had been when I spoke to him before the tournament tasks had begun.
"Oh yeah, he was crying all the time!" Fred said sarcastically.
"I'm actually doing okay!" He assured me, giving me a small smile. "I'm still alive, anyway, just one task left now!"
"Well, that's wonderful! So, let's go back to the beginning, shall we? The first task." I prompted him. As we all know, the first task was a test of bravery against the unknown
"Except they all figured it out."
and the champions were all tasked with getting past a dragon to reach the golden egg - which contained the clue to the next task.
"It was a silly task, really." Viktor told me in his interview (page 4). "It was cruel, to put the dragons through that."
"They were kept chained up in tiny pens in the forbidden forest, just big enough for them to pace about 3 steps in either direction." One of the dashing young dragon keepers, Charlie Weasley, informed me. "None of us were very pleased at all, but we weren't given any choice." I gasped. How awful for those magnificent beasts!
"Skeeter's good, when used right." Daphne said thoughtfully. "That'll get people questioning the morals of this tournament."
"The first task was hard." Harry admitted, emerald eyes glazing over as he remembered. "I felt so awful for those poor dragons."
"How did you complete the task?" I asked him curiously. I knew, of course, as I'd watched the task, but I wanted to hear it from the young man himself. For the other champions success stories, see their own exclusive interviews on page 4, 5 and 6.
"Well, everyone pretty much knows now, after what happened in my second year, but I'm a parselmouth." Harry said, looking mildly nervous at what my reaction would be.
"Oh come on, you didn't care at all!" Ron snorted. Harry just winked at him.
I smiled at him reassuringly. We looked at the events of Harry's previous Hogwarts years, including how he saved a young student and the entire school from the basilisk in the chamber of secrets, a story kept incredibly quiet from the ministry and wizarding community.
"Susan's aunt was fuming when she found out." Cedric said, joining them.
"Harry, dear, no one thinks you are evil for speaking to snakes. In fact, it made you a hero!" I reminded him. He smiled a little weakly, but nodded. Again, so humble.
They all looked at Harry, eyebrows raised. He shrugged at them.
"Her words, not mine!" He said innocently.
"Well, I figured if I could speak to snakes, why not other reptiles? Like how all humans speak, but with different languages, slang, accents and dialects!" He said more enthusiastically.
"Harry goes all Hermione when it comes to parseltongue." Daphne said jokily, nudging Hermione so she knew it wasn't a dig at her. Hermione nudged her back gratefully.
"It's so interesting though!" Harry pouted.
I didn't fully understand his meaning, but nodded regardless. "So when I saw the dragon, and how scared she was, I put my wand down so she knew I wasn't a threat, sat down to make myself small and vulnerable so she didn't feel intimidated or threatened
"Putting yourself in extreme danger." Hermione added. Harry just huffed.
and tried to speak to her."
"And it worked?" He nodded, smiling as he remembered. "We became quite good friends actually. We talked a bit, I explained the task, and she gave me the egg with no issues. She's allergic to bumblebees you know." I didn't take the last bit seriously. As many of you know, our chosen one has been a bit out of sorts recently, trying to process the trauma of his life so far.
The whole group laughed.
"It was incredibly foolish, is what it was." One of his good friends told me. "He could've gotten himself burned to a crisp!"
"Daphne or Hermione?" George asked.
"Me." Hermione said.
Aware of the time, I moved the conversation along to the second task.
"Mermaids." Harry told me, grinning. "I actually enjoyed this one a lot! I learnt a lot about Mermaid customs and culture. Did you know they've been feuding with the Veela for years? Thankfully Fleur was okay."
"I still can't believe they knowingly let a Veela in a lake with mermaids." Ginny said, shaking her head.
Fleur Delacour, Beauxbatons champion, revealed to us her Veela heritage and worries about the second task on page 6.
"But you didn't just take this task at face value, did you Harry dear?" I asked him, and the boy's grin became mischievous.
"Well, let's just say, me and my fellow champions were a bit... unhappy about this task." He said. "So to prove a point, we may have a pulled a little prank on the judges." The prank included the four chosen tributes to be switched using polyjuice potion with 4 other students.
I can understand Harry's reasoning. Sending 4 students into the territory of mermaids whilst asleep is incredibly dangerous, not to mention they were not given the chance to consent.
"Oooo, that'll get people annoyed." Daphne said, looking pleased.
"So, did switching the tributes make you feel better?"
"Not really, to be honest. It gave everyone a shock for sure, but in the end it just made us as bad as the people who were willing to create this task in the first place." Harry said, looking guilty. "We did technically get permission from them all, they played dumb really well. Well, except Crabbe. I think he just says yes to everything to be honest. But still, we probably shouldn't of done it."
"How are you feeling about the third task?" I asked Harry. His face fell and he grew serious again.
"Honestly? Terrified." He said solemnly. "We were told what it was yesterday, a maze. But I have a really horrible feeling something is going to go wrong."
"Do you actually?" Hermione asked, looking at her friend in concern. He nodded.
"A bit, yeah."
"You'll all survive." Luna said, and Harry breathed a small sigh of relief. Luna was always right.
"Why is that?" I asked gently, although I had a feeling I knew why already.
"All the worst things happen to me at the end of the year." He said, tears welling up in his eyes. "What if one of my friends dies? What is you-know-who attacks me again? or comes back properly?"
I stopped the interview here, as I could see the lad was getting worked up. How awful that a 14 year old has to worry about being attacked all the time! Hopefully one day, these fears will be alleviated by those around him, but until them, our hearts and prayers are with you, Harry Potter.
"Well, that ended emotionally." Harry said, looking unbothered by his friends concerned glances. "Anyway, Gred, Forge, I need your help."
"Anything for you-"
"Harrykins!" The twins said, eyes lighting up with their usual mischief.
"I think it's time we paid Sirius back, don't you?" The group gave each other wary looks as the twins and Harry started to plan.
Sirius had been unbearable since he'd moved into the castle. Whilst he was still mostly confined to dog form, he had, somehow, been sneaking around the castle fully human and pranking the Weasley twins, Harry, and other Hogwarts students every chance he got. And when he targeted those unsuspecting Hogwarts students, the twins and Harry almost always got the blame, especially if it was Snape who witnessed it.
"He owes us, like, 50 detentions." Fred said grumpily. George huffed in agreement.
Harry grinned. "Trust me, I have just the thing."
Saturday evening, before school started up again, saw Harry in Remus' quarters again, with Remus, Sirius, Minerva, and a reluctant Severus that Minerva had dragged along. Sirius, out of protest, remained in dog form to avoid speaking to Severus. Although Harry swore he saw the two talking perfectly amicably on one of his midnight jaunts under the cloak.
Speaking of the cloak.... Harry glanced ever so briefly over to the corner of the room, where he knew the twins were hiding.
"Hey Padfoot, come try this!" Harry said, holding his hand out. Padfoot sniffed the cake suspiciously, but ate it nonetheless.
"Uh oh." Harry said. Padfoot's ears pricked up and he tilted his head. "That was chocolate cake." Padfoot quickly became Sirius again, patting Harry's shoulder reassuringly.
"Don't worry, pup, I've eaten plenty of chocolate as a dog before."
"Erm, no, you haven't." Remus pointed out. "James always stopped you in case it was poisonous for dogs, remember?"
Sirius completely freaked out. It was glorious.
After half an hour of watching chaos unfold, Harry got bored.
"APRIL FOOLS! He shrieked, and darted out of the room before Sirius could catch him. Sirius tried to follow, but the Weasley twins pulled the invisibility cloak off with a flourish and began shooting him with muggle water guns they had charmed to fire glitter that multiplied every time you tried to vanish it instead.
Even Severus found himself laughing.
Dear Mr Potter,
Your presence is requested at a ministry trial as a witness for Sirius Black. Please do not discuss or share this information with anyone until it becomes public information. The trial will take place on the first of August. Please do not bring anything with you.
Best Wishes,
Amelia Bones
Harry,
Don't tell the ministry I slipped an extra note in, I'll get in trouble. We've been looking into your housing situation and have found out all we need to know in order to remove you from 4 privet drive permanently. However, Sirius cannot take guardianship of you until his name has been cleared and he's had the required therapy. Unfortunately, the creature laws still stand and Remus is not allowed to be your guardian in the meantime. Molly and Arthur Weasley have stepped in and offered to have you, and hope you accept. No one has told Dumbledore any of this, don't worry.
Keep safe Harry,
Amelia.
Harry grinned. "200 points to Amelia Bones."