Daughter of a Criminal

The First Task

Harry hurried off to find Hermione, and Ann, locating the two at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, where Ann was eating breakfast with Ginny. Regrettably Hermoine was talking with Ron. Feeling too queasy to eat, Harry waited until Ann had swallowed her last spoonful of porridge, then dragged her out onto the grounds, Hermoine noticing this headed after the two. There, he told the two all about the dragons, and about everything Sirius had said, while they took another long walk around the lake. Alarmed as they were by Sirius's warnings about Karkaroff, they both still thought that the dragons were the more pressing problem.
"I'll go research dragons," said Hermoine, running off to the library.
"Hermione's right, let's just try and keep you alive until Tuesday evening," Ann said desperately, "and then we can worry about Karkaroff." They walked three times around the lake, trying all the way to think of a simple spell that would subdue a dragon. Nothing whatsoever occurred to them, so they retired to the library instead where they met Hermoine who was also stumped. Here, Harry pulled down every book he could find on dragons, and All of them set to work searching through the large pile.
" 'Talon-clipping by charms . . . treating scale-rot . . .' This is no good, this is for nutters like Hagrid who want to keep them healthy. . . ." said Ann putting the book aside
" 'Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, owing to the ancient magic that imbues their thick hides, which none but the most powerful spells can penetrate . . .' But Sirius said a simple one would do it. . . ." said Hermoine
"Let's try some simple spellbooks, then," said Harry, throwing aside Men Who Love Dragons Too Much. He returned to the table with a pile of spellbooks, set them down, and began to flick through each in turn, Hermione whispering nonstop at him and Ann.
"Well, there are Switching Spells . . . but what's the point of Switching it? Unless you swapped its fangs for wine-gums or something that would make it less dangerous. . . . The trouble is, like that book said, not much is going to get through a dragon's hide. . . . I'd say Transfigure it, but something that big, you really haven't got a hope, I doubt even Professor McGonagall . . . unless you're supposed to put the spell on yourself ? Maybe to give yourself extra powers? But they're not simple spells, I mean, we haven't done any of those in class, I only know about them because I've been doing O.W.L. practice papers. . . ."
"O.W.Ls arn't till next year!" said Ann shocked
"I know but-," Hermoine begun
"Hermione," Harry said, through gritted teeth, "will you shut up for a bit, please? I'm trying to concentrate." Hermione fell silent, and Ann went back to her book.
"Oh no, he's back again, why can't he read on his stupid ship?" said Hermione irritably as Viktor Krum slouched in, cast a surly look over at the three of them, and settled himself in a distant corner with a pile of books. "Come on, guys, we'll go back to the common room . . . his fan club'll be here in a moment, twittering away. . . ." And sure enough, as they left the library, a gang of girls tiptoed past them, one of them wearing a Bulgaria scarf tied around her waist.
Time Skip
"Hermione, Ann," Harry whispered, when he had sped into the greenhouse three minutes later, uttering a hurried apology to Professor Sprout as he passed her. "Ann, Hermoineâ€" I need you two to help me."
"What d'you think we've been trying to do, Harry?" Ann whispered back, her eyes round with anxiety over the top of the quivering Flutterby Bush she was pruning.
"Guys, I need to learn how to do a Summoning Charm properly by tomorrow afternoon." said Harry
And so they practiced. They didn't have lunch, but headed for a free classroom, where Harry tried with all his might to make various objects fly across the room toward him. He was still having problems. The books and quills kept losing heart halfway across the room and dropping like stones to the floor.
"Concentrate, Harry, concentrate. . . ." Hermione said
"What d'you think I'm trying to do?" said Harry angrily. "A great big dragon keeps popping up in my head for some reason. . . . Okay, try again. . . ."
"You know what they say practice makes perfect, but you got a flick your wand like this," said Ann pulling out her wand and flicking it just so. Harry started at her in awe, Ann was good at wandwork, unlike Harry who could feel his wand almost slip out of his hand. Harry and Ann still had to endure over an hour of Professor Trelawney, who spent half the lesson telling everyone that the position of Mars with relation to Saturn at that moment meant that people born in July were in great danger of sudden, violent deaths.
"Well, that's good," said Harry loudly, his temper getting the better of him, "just as long as it's not drawn-out. I don't want to suffer." Ann laughed loudly, that beautiful pretty laugh that Harry wanted to stay on her face forever. Harry forced down some dinner after Divination, then returned to the empty classroom with Ann and Hermione, using the Invisibility Cloak to avoid the teachers. They kept practicing until past midnight. They would have stayed longer, but Peeves turned up and, pretending to think that Harry wanted things thrown at him, started chucking chairs across the room. Ann, Harry and Hermione left in a hurry before the noise attracted Filch, and went back to the Gryffindor common room, which was now mercifully empty. At two o'clock in the morning, Harry stood near the fireplace, surrounded by heaps of objects: books, quills, several upturned chairs, an old set of Gobstones, and Neville's toad, Trevor. Only in the last hour had Harry really got the hang of the Summoning Charm.
"That's better, Harry, that's loads better," Hermione said, looking exhausted but very pleased.
"Good wand work," said Ann, looking just as exhausted as Hermoine.
"Well, now we know what to do next time I can't manage a spell," Harry said, throwing a rune dictionary back to Ann, so he could try again, "threaten me with a dragon. Right . . ." He raised his wand once more. "Accio Dictionary!" The heavy book soared out of Ann's hand, flew across the room, and Harry caught it.
"Harry, I really think you've got it!" said Hermione delightedly.
"Definitely, you'll do great tomorrow," said Ann
"Just as long as it works tomorrow," Harry said. "My broom's going to be much farther away than the stuff in here, it's going to be in the castle, and I'm going to be out there on the grounds. "
"That doesn't matter," said Hermione firmly "Just as long as you're concentrating really, really hard on it, it'll come. Harry, we'd better get some sleep . . . you're going to need it."
Time Skip
Time was behaving in a more peculiar fashion than ever the next day, rushing past in great dollops, so that one moment he seemed to be sitting down in his first lesson, History of Magic, and the next, walking into lunch . . . and then (where had the morning CHAPTER gone? the last of the dragon-free hours?), Professor McGonagall was hurrying over to him in the Great Hall. Lots of people were watching.
"Potter, the champions have to come down onto the grounds now. . . . You have to get ready for your first task."
"Okay," said Harry, standing up, his fork falling onto his plate with a clatter.
"Good luck, Harry," Ann whispered. "I believe in you!"
"Yeah," said Harry in a voice that was most unlike his own as Ann's belief that Harry could do this made him even more nervous, he desperately wanted to impress her.
Ann also wished Cedric good luck before heading out to the stands
Time Skip to After the Task
Harry didn't want to sit still: He was too full of adrenaline. He got to his feet, wanting to see what was going on outside, but before he'd reached the mouth of the tent, three people had come darting inside â€" Hermione, followed closely by Ron.
"Harry, you were brilliant!" Ann said, hugging him "Absolutely brilliant,".
"You did great, Harry," Hermoine said squeakily. There were fingernail marks on her face where she had been clutching it in fear. "You were amazing! You really were!" But Harry was looking at Ron, who was very white and staring at Harry as though he were a ghost.
"Harry," he said, very seriously, "whoever put your name in that goblet â€" I â€" I reckon they're trying to do you in!"
"Caught on, have you?" said Harry coldly.
"Took you long enough." said Ann, Hermione stood nervously between them, looking from one to the other.
"It's okay," he said, before Ron could get the words out. "Forget it."
"No," said Ron, "I shouldn't've â€""
"Forget it," Harry said. Ron grinned nervously at him, and Harry grinned back. Hermione burst into tears.
"There's nothing to cry about! Ann told her, bewildered.
"You two are so stupid!" she shouted at the boys, stamping her foot on the ground, tears splashing down her front. Then, before any of them could stop her, she had given both of them a hug and dashed away, now positively howling.
"Barking mad," said Ron, shaking his head
"Shut up, she just really cares about you two, so do I," said Ann before going after
Hermoine.

Harry, Ron, Ann, and Hermione went up to the Owlery that evening to find Pigwidgeon, so that Harry could send Sirius a letter telling him that he had managed to get past his dragon unscathed. On the way, Harry filled Ron in on everything Sirius had told him about Karkaroff. Though shocked at first to hear that Karkaroff had been a Death Eater, by the time they entered the Owlery Ron was saying that they ought to have suspected it all along. "Fits, doesn't it?" he said. "Remember what Malfoy said on the train, about his dad being friends with Karkaroff? Now we know where they knew each other. They were probably running around in masks together at the World Cup. . . . I'll tell you one thing, though, Harry, if it was Karkaroff who put your name in the goblet, he's going to be feeling really stupid now, isn't he? Didn't work, did it? You only got a scratch! Come here â€" I'll do it â€"" Pigwidgeon was so overexcited at the idea of a delivery he was flying around and around Harry's head, hooting incessantly. Ron snatched Pigwidgeon out of the air and held him still while Harry attached the letter to his leg. "There's no way any of the other tasks are going to be that dangerous, how could they be?" Ron went on as he carried Pigwidgeon to the window. "You know what? I reckon you could win this tournament, Harry, I'm serious."
"But the other tasks are probably going to be harder," said Ann frowning.
"I'll bet Harry could win no matter the tasks," Ron said to Ann. Hermoine leaned against the Owlery wall, folded her arms, and frowned at Ron.
"Harry's got a long way to go before he finishes this tournament," she said seriously. "If that was the first task, I hate to think what's coming next."
"Right little ray of sunshine, aren't you?" said Ron. "You and Professor Trelawney should get together sometime." Ann snorted. Ron threw Pigwidgeon out of the window. Pigwidgeon plummeted twelve feet before managing to pull himself back up again; the letter attached to his leg was much longer and heavier than usual. They watched Pigwidgeon disappear into the darkness, and then Ron said, "Well, we'd better get downstairs for your surprise party, Harry â€" Fred and George should have nicked enough food from the kitchens by now." Sure enough, when they entered the Gryffindor common room it exploded with cheers and yells again. There were mountains of cakes and flagons of pumpkin juice and butterbeer on every surface; Lee Jordan had let off some Filibuster's Fireworks, so that the air was thick with stars and sparks; and Dean Thomas, who was very good at drawing, had put up some impressive new banners, most of which depicted Harry zooming around the Horntail's head on his Firebolt, though a couple showed Cedric with his head on fire. Harry helped himself to food; he had almost forgotten what it was like to feel properly hungry, and sat down with Ann, Ron and Hermione. He couldn't believe how happy he felt; he had Ron back on his side, he'd gotten through the first task, Ann seemed impressed by his daring, and he wouldn't have to face the second one for three months.
"Blimey, this is heavy," said Lee Jordan, picking up the golden egg, which Harry had left on a table, and weighing it in his hands. "Open it, Harry, go on! Let's just see what's inside it!" "He's supposed to work out the clue on his own," Hermione said swiftly. "It's in the tournament rules. . . ."
"He was supposed to work out how to get past the dragon on his own too," Ann muttered, so only Hermione could hear her, and she grinned rather guiltily. Harry overhearing this grinned at Ann.
"Yeah, go on, Harry, open it!" several people echoed. Lee passed Harry the egg, and Harry dug his fingernails into the groove that ran all the way around it and prised it open. It was hollow and completely empty â€" but the moment Harry opened it, the most horrible noise, a loud and screechy wailing, filled the room.
"Shut it!" Fred bellowed, his hands over his ears.
"What was that?" said Seamus Finnigan, staring at the egg as Harry slammed it shut again. "Sounded like a banshee. . . . Maybe you've got to get past one of those next, Harry!"
"It was someone being tortured!" said Neville, who had gone very white and spilled sausage rolls all over the floor. "You're going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!"
"Don't be a prat, Neville, that's illegal," said George. "They wouldn't use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions. I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing . . . maybe you've got to attack him while he's in the shower, Harry."
"Want a jam tart, Ann?" said Fred. Ann looked doubtfully at the plate he was offering her. Fred grinned. "It's all right," he said. "I haven't done anything to them. It's the custard creams you've got to watch â€"" Neville, who had just bitten into a custard cream, choked and spat it out. Fred laughed. "Just my little joke, Neville. . . ." Ann took a jam tart and studied the tart before biting into it. She ate the rest of it in one bite. Just then, Neville caused a slight diversion by turning into a large canary.
"Oh â€" sorry, Neville!" Fred shouted over all the laughter. "I forgot â€" it was the custard creams we hexed â€"" Within a minute, however, Neville had molted, and once his feathers had fallen off, he reappeared looking entirely normal. He even joined in laughing. "Canary Creams!" Fred shouted to the excitable crowd. "George and I invented them â€" seven Sickles each, a bargain!"
It was close to one when Ann finally went to bed with Hermoine.