Chapter - 52 : The Fiery Trial part - 3

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"How's Sirius doing?" Neville inquired.

"Loads better, both physically and mentally, he's still seeing a mind healer, but she says he's making progress in leaps and bounds."

"Good," Blaise said, "I've actually grown fond of the crazy mutt."

"I think we all have," Ron agreed.

"Don't lump me in with the rest of you," Draco said haughtily. "I want nothing to do with the madman and the wolf."

No one paid any attention to his objections, they were far too used to the blonde's attitude and knew not to take anything he said seriously.

"Now that we've got a couple of months before we start researching for the third task our schedules are free," Neville said happily, "what should we do?"

"We haven't visited Hagrid in a while."

"Let's do that then."

Breakfast was finished and the group trouped down to Hagrid's hut, they spent a pleasant morning with the half giant, Harry gave them all a blow-by-blow account of what had happened in the lake the previous day, and Hagrid entertained them with his latest exploits with all sorts of dangerous creatures. They had a filling lunch and then went out to the lake where they settled down with the intentions of lazing about for the rest of the day, however, the cold soon became too much for all but Harry and they retreated to the Ravenclaw common room to sit around the fire.

"Hello," a petite third year, with dreamy silver eyes and dirty blonde hair smiled absentmindedly at the group of fourth years, she was sitting in the shadows a few yards away from Harry's seat, not even he had noticed her until she had spoken.

"Hello," Harry greeted the girl, "I didn't see you there."

"It's all right, most people don't notice me. I'm Luna Lovegood."

"I'm Harry Potter and these are my friends," he pointed out each of his friends and introduced them to the girl.

Luna nodded politely to the others, and then stood and curtsied to Harry. "It's an honor to meet you, your highness."

Harry ignored his friends' confused murmurs and smiled at the girl in bemusement. "It's an honor to meet you as well, but your highness? No matter how much I wish otherwise, I'm just a lowly commoner."

Luna cocked her head, confusion evident in her eyes. "Aren't you the son of the trickster prince?"

There was silence as Harry observed Luna in confusion, he heard Ron mutter something that sounded suspiciously like, "Loony Lovegood", but paid him no mind.

Carefully, he expanded his magic, searching for Luna's, and almost immediately it met his. Luna's magic was odd, vast and wild and free, it was unlike anything Harry had ever felt before. It felt old and wise. From what he could see, Luna's magic was altering her view on the world, allowing her to see things others couldn't; it wasn't bad per se, but it set her apart from her peers making her an easy target for bullying. Harry had heard rumors about the crazy girl in Ravenclaw.

"Unfortunately," he said, pulling his magic back in, "I'm of no royal blood, but I certainly have the regal good looks for it don't I?" As his friends snorted and made teasingly derisive comments, Harry winked at Luna and put a finger to his lips in the universal gesture to keep quiet.

Luna grinned and nodded, showing she'd understood. "You certainly do."

"Ah, I like you," Harry crowed delightedly. "Come, sit with us, Ms. Lovegood, we're friends now."

Luna happily sat beside Harry. "You'll be a good friend," she said decisively. "You don't have any wrackspurts."

"Wrackspurts? What are those?"

"They're invisible creatures that float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy."

"Are they dangerous? Can you see them? How do I keep them away?"

Draco shook his head and scoffed derisively "Are you seriously believing this, Potter?"

"Hush, Draco, don't be rude," Harry scolded, "Luna's telling me about the wrackspurts," he looked expectantly at Luna, silently prompting her to speak.

"Well, they're not dangerous as long as you get rid of them before they settle in. You can only see them when you're looking through spectrespecs, I have an extra pair if you'd like to borrow them."

"I would."

Luna pulled a pair of brightly colored glasses from her bag and handed them to Harry who didn't hesitate to put them on, Luna put on a matching pair. Ron, Draco, Neville, and Blaise burst into hysterical laughter and Hermione gave Harry and Luna an odd look, but the two bespectacled teenagers ignored them and looked around the room.

"There are some floating around Ronald's ears," Luna pointed out.

Harry squinted at Ron's head, looking for the fabled wrackspurt, but he didn't see a thing.

"You've got to look really hard, people who've never seen them before have a hard time catching sight of them."

Harry sent his magic searching for any magical auras floating around Ron's head and, to his shock came up with seven tiny pinpricks of magic, no bigger than a grape. They weren't magical creatures, of that he could be certain, but there was something there. "I see them," he told Luna. "Seven of them, dancing around Ron's abnormally large head."

He looked down and found Luna staring up at him in shock. "You can see them?"

Harry nodded. "Kind of hard to miss them."

Of course this prompted all of his friends to dive for the spectrespecs in hopes of seeing the "wrackspurts" but because they didn't have Luna's odd magic or Harry's ability to see magic in its natural state they saw nothing.

"You're both crazy," Draco said with a small bemused smile.

"Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they're not real," Luna informed him wisely.

"Draco's just jealous," Harry threw an arm around Luna's shoulder. "He doesn't like being left out."

Draco shook his head in exasperation. "Why are we even friends?"

"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin!"

The four month hiatus between the second and third task had passed with alarming haste, one moment Harry was celebrating making it through the second task alive, and the next he's staring up at a maze that stood at least twenty feet high and was filled, no doubt, with all sorts of dangerous creatures and enchantments.

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Loving the story so far? There's a whole world of magic and mystery waiting for you with over 85+ chapters still to come! By supporting my Patreon.

You not only get early access to new chapters but also exclusive content, behind-the-scenes insights, and special perks just for fans like you.

Join us on this enchanted journey and help shape the future of the tale. Your support makes all the difference—discover more and become part of the adventure today!

http//patreon.com/Kun_kanshi

(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)

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