A Young Wizard's Journey - Goblet of Fire

The Mad Witch

Everything finally seemed to be looking up.

They'd acquired the Gillyweed from Professor Sprout and to be honest, she hadn't been difficult to convince. Simply dropping Neville's name as telling Y/N and Hermione about it was enough to win her over.

The clue was deciphered and whilst they still didn't know what was due to be stolen, they were feeling confident that whatever it was, they could deal with it.

All in all, it was a breath of fresh air after the first task. The stress of needing to prepare for dragons practically overnight had taken its toll both on Harry and Y/N. Luckily this time, the preparation for Harry was easy and a lot of it was simply revision of spells he already knew and was quite good at anyway.

'I'll need to be careful around you,' said Y/N at the end of their most recent practice session. 'You're pressuring my shield charm a dangerous amount. I'll need to step my game up soon.'

'That's the thing though,' said Harry, 'You can step your game up. Doesn't matter how much I improve, you're always a couple of steps ahead.'

'See it as encouragement then,' said Y/N with a smirk. 'Besides, I definitely haven't survived underwater for an hour, so you'll have that on me. For now.'

'You say that as if you're intending to survive underwater for an hour,' said Hermione reproachfully from where her and Ron sat, watching the duo.

'I mean, if the water tries to take me, I'll show it what for.'

'Are you seriously challenging water?' asked Ron incredulously.

'"Challenging" implies that it stands a chance,' said Y/N confidently.

After another half an hour or so, the quartet returned to the common room in relatively high spirits. Whilst they weren't excited about the prospect of Harry being underwater for an hour, they at least felt ready to handle it.

However, upon entering the common room, they were greeted by a sight that pushed the task out of their minds for a while.

A small brown owl came hopping over towards them, leg outstretched. Ron, who was the closest, leant in and detached the letter. Y/N reached into his pockets and pulled out one of Ves' treats, throwing it to the owl which caught it and hooted in thanks.

'It's for you, Harry,' said Ron, after reading the envelope and then passing it over.

Harry took the letter, slid it open, glanced at the page then turned it over, checking the back. Y/N could see why. Whilst he couldn't read what the writing said on the front, he could see that it was barely a full line long.

'Short letter,' he said.

'It's from Sirius,' said Harry quietly, 'But-' and he held the letter out to Y/N who took it and read.

'Send date of next Hogsmeade weekend by return owl.'

'Weekend after next,' said Hermione. 'They're quite close together this time for some reason.'

'Wonder why he wants to know that,' said Ron as Harry quickly scribbled back on the parchment and reattached it to the owl, who promptly took off back out of the common room window.

Y/N didn't say anything, but he had his theory. He just really hoped Sirius wasn't that close to the school. Though he knew he most likely was.

The remainder of the week blazed by. Between lessons and practice for Harry, both the days and evenings seemed to just skip by and, before long, it was the evening of February 23rd. The quartet were back in the training room running through some last-minute preparation. Ginny and Luna had joined them this time.