Chapter 114:

Because that was so much easier.

It was pretty quiet in the library, as it often was on a Sunday morning. He wasn't entirely surprised to find Viktor Krum sat near Harry's usual table, a stack of books beside him. Harry gathered his own reading material, then approached quietly. "Mind if I join you?" he asked. Krum glanced up, then shrugged, gesturing to the empty seat.

He hadn't spoken much to the Durmstrang champion. They had eaten dinner together a few times, all four champions sitting together, but Krum had stayed mostly silent throughout. Still, he'd stood up for Harry against Skeeter, so that counted for something. "Only a few more days," Harry murmured. Krum's dark eyes flicked up to him.

"Are you scared?" he asked, sounding more curious than taunting. Harry chuckled breathlessly.

"I think I'd be daft not to be, at least a little bit. You?"

"I haff learnt to ignore fear," Krum replied simply. "In quidditch, fear stops you winning."

"Your Wronski Feint at the cup was pretty fearless," Harry agreed. Krum raised an eyebrow. "You vere there?"

"Yeah, you were brilliant! I play seeker as well," he added, blushing slightly. "For Gryffindor. Cedric is the Hufflepuff seeker, actually. Maybe it's a sign. We're all reckless and crazy, exactly what the Goblet is looking for." That actually drew a chuckle from the reserved Bulgarian wizard.

"I vonder if Fleur plays quidditch," he mused absently. "It vould be fun to all fly together sometime."

Harry took a moment to realise the international quidditch star had just invited him to fly with him, and almost had a small heart attack. "We'll have to ask," he said instead, trying to keep it cool. Krum hadn't bat an eyelash at him being Harry Potter. Harry refused to kick up a fuss about him in return. "Did you bring your broom with you, then?"

"I bring my broom everywhere," Krum assured. Harry hadn't seen him out flying; then again, he probably kept it secret, so he wasn't disturbed. If the hordes of fangirls got excited about watching him in the library — there were three around the corner, even now — they would lose their minds at watching him train for quidditch.

Bored of reading the same paragraph over and over in the hopes it might magically provide him with an answer, Harry let his gaze trail over to the books Krum had out. He froze. Several of them were about dragons. The ones that weren't were on eye-related hexes.

Krum knew about the dragons.

Harry shut his book quickly, straightening up. If Krum knew, and he knew, and Madam Maxime knew which meant Fleur knew — then… Cedric was the only champion going in blind. Harry couldn't allow that. "I've got to go," he declared suddenly, grabbing his bag and getting to his feet. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

Krum only nodded tersely, going back to his reading, and Harry about sprinted from the library. "Point Me Cedric Diggory," he muttered with his wand out, hoping the older boy wasn't in his common room or somewhere else Harry couldn't get to.

He was in luck. The spell led him to the Transfiguration courtyard, where Cedric was lying on a bench with his head in Cho's lap and a book propped in front of him, surrounded by several other Hufflepuffs. He looked up when Harry came thundering towards him. "Harry? What's the matter?"

"Can I talk Privately?"

to

you

for

a

second?

Cedric shot him a bewildered look, but stood up and followed Harry across the courtyard and out of earshot. "It's dragons," Harry told him urgently. Cedric's brow furrowed. "The first task. It's dragons. Krum knows and Fleur knows and I didn't want you to be the only one going in with no idea."

"How— Hagrid," Cedric realised, remembering the odd interaction the day before. "Harry… seriously?" He looked pale.

"Seriously," Harry confirmed grimly. "I'm not sure on the specifics, only that we have to get past it, I think. I know it's cutting it a little close to actually be helpful, but, well; it's a start."

"No, it's great," Cedric assured. "Thanks, Harry. I owe you one."

Harry waved him off, and the two parted ways once more, Cedric no doubt off to the library to do what Harry had just finished doing. As Harry walked away, he heard a different voice call his name; this one much less welcome. It was followed by the telltale sound of Moody's wooden leg on the flagstones. "That was a decent thing you did for Diggory there, Potter," he said gruffly.

"It's only fair," Harry replied, not sure how he felt about Moody eavesdropping on his private conversations. It was bad enough that Snape had done some snooping and confirmed that the eye could see through invisibility cloaks.

"Come with me." It was snapped like an order but he had no grounds for it, and Harry shook his head.

"No thank you, sir; I said I'd meet Neville in the common room." A lie, but Moody didn't need to know that. Harry had no desire to be alone with anybody that Albus Dumbledore trusted.

"Potter!" Moody called, but Harry was already walking.

"Sorry, sir, I'm already late. Another time!" He turned the corner, and hurried for the stairs before Moody could chase after him.

Everybody knew about the dragons. Now Harry just had to figure out what to do about it.

.-.-.-. Harry was dreaming.

He knew that, because while he was on his broom and wearing his Gryffindor quidditch uniform and flying with the rest of his team, the opposing team seemed to be made entirely of dragons. Huge, terrifying Hungarian Horntails, like he'd seen in the woods. It was also definitely a dream because Harry was playing chaser, the quaffle in his hands as he tried to fly past the dragons without getting set on fire, watching Viktor Krum do an effortless Wronski Feint a few feet away. He was so close, the goal was in sight, he just had to fly a little further and…

He woke up with a gasp, eyes snapping open. It took a minute for his heart rate to go down. Even when it did, his eyes were still wide.

Flying.

Could it work? He was only allowed a wand, but… he'd been getting pretty good at the Summoning charm over the summer. Snape always accused him of being a lazy teenager, so Harry had summoned more things just to be a brat. He was pretty confident he could summon his broom from Gryffindor Tower down to wherever the task was being held, as long as he left the dorm window open.

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