A Young Wizard's Journey - Goblet of Fire

The Rumour Mill

The quartet left the castle at noon the next day to find a weak silver sun shining down upon the grounds.

Y/N had already bid goodbye to Ginny in the Entrance Hall as she'd moved over to stand with Luna. Or at least he had after assuring his red haired friend that he'd tell her everything he learnt from Sirius and Remus.

The four of them began the walk down to the village just casually chatting about random things before Y/N saw a look of trepidation on Harry's face, and spoke up.

'What's bothering you, mate?'

'Nothing,' said Harry quickly.

'Is it about...?' asked Ron and Harry nodded.

'He knows what he's doing, Harry,' said Hermione consolingly. 'He's not stupid enough to go walking into the village, he avoided capture for a full year, remember?'

'That was before I was in the picture. You've seen what he'll do when he knows somethings up with me. I told him my scar hurt once and he came out of hiding.'

'To be fair, you told me your scar hurt and I started trying to learn every protective spell in the book,' said Y/N. 'I know you don't think it's a big deal Harry, but it's essentially an early warning system for us at the moment. It means we know something's happening somewhere in the world.'

'Yeah, I guess... but still, it didn't mean he had to come back.'

'Whilst I agree it's dangerous, it's good to have him so close,' said Y/N. 'He can give us answers that no one else can with no strings attached. I can't exactly ask mum, or she'll begin interrogating me about everything.'

Once they'd arrived in the village, they spent a short amount of time simply window shopping, occasionally stepping into the odd shop but mostly just trying to waste time.

Then, at half past one, they made their way up the High Street, past Dervish and Banges, and out toward the edge of the village.

Y/N had never been in this direction before. He'd come out this way during his first trip with Hermione, in which they'd tried to see everything they could. But they'd headed back to the high street after seeing that this was mostly empty land.

The winding lane was leading them out into the wild countryside around Hogsmeade. The cottages were fewer here, and their gardens larger; they were walking toward the foot of the mountain in whose shadow Hogsmeade lay. Then they turned a corner and saw a stile at the end of the lane. Waiting for them, its front paws on the topmost bar, was a very large, shaggy black dog, which was carrying some newspapers in its mouth and looking very familiar.

'Hello, Sirius,' said Harry when they had reached him.

The black dog sniffed Harry's bag eagerly, Harry had brought a large amount of food and drink with him following Sirius' request, wagged its tail once, then turned and began to trot away from them across the scrubby patch of ground that rose to meet the rocky foot of the mountain.

The four of them climbed over the stile and followed.

Sirius led them to the very foot of the mountain, where the ground was covered with boulders and rocks. It was easy for him, with his four paws, but Y/N saw Harry, Ron and Hermione were soon out of breath.

'How... are you... fine?' asked Hermione indignantly between shallow breaths, looking at Y/N.

'Babe, I duck, twist, and turn almost daily teaching you lot spells, I need to be somewhat fit for that. Come on, get on.' They'd reached a small ledge and Y/N lowered himself to offer Hermione a piggyback. She happily clambered on, and Y/N continued the climb.