The Potter Twins and the Goblet of Fire {4}

18. Summoning Charms

"It happens every time, I lose my courage when I need it the most" ~ Even Robots Need Blankets, Mayday Parade

I get up on Sunday morning and dress so inattentively that it is a while before I realise my shirt is on backwards. Once I finally get all my clothes on the right way, I hurry off to find Harry and Hermione in the Great Hall, where they are eating breakfast with Ginny. Feeling too queasy to eat, I wait until Hermione has swallowed her last spoonful of porridge, and then drag her out of the hall for a walk, accompanied by Harry. Here, we tell her all about dragons, and everything Sirius said last night.

Alarmed by what Sirius said about Karkaroff, Hermione believes that dragons are the most pressing matter.

"Let's just try and keep you both alive until Tuesday evening," she says desperately, "and then we can worry about Karkaroff.'

We walk around the lake three times, trying to think about a spell that could subdue a dragon. Nothing comes to mind, so we retire to the library instead. Here, I pull down every book I can find on dragons.

"Talon-clipping by charms...treating scale rot...this is no good, this is for nutters like Hagrid who want to keep them healthy..."

"Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, owing to the ancient magic that imbues their thick hides, which none but the most powerful of spells can penetrate...but Sirius said a simple one would do it..."

"Let's try some simple spellbooks, then," I say, throwing aside Men Who Love Dragons Too Much.

Harry soon returns to the table with a large pile of spellbooks and we begin flipping through them, Hermione hastily. "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 it, 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 practise papers..."

"Hermione," Harry says through gritted teeth, "will you shut up for a bit, please? I'm trying to concentrate."

*~*

"Hey, hey, Hayles, sweetheart? Darling?" Dad calls across the small that Dumbledore had given him for the purpose of seeing us so we didn't have to sit in his office every other day. He had been struggling with pet names ever since he came back; it was quite amusing, in all honesty. "Who are the Spice Girls?"

"A band," I giggle from the mirror, as I adjust the Gryffindor tie around my neck.

"Where did you get that?" Harry asks. "That's a Muggle magazine."

"Moony gave it to me," Dad says brightly, ruffling his hair. "Says here that the Spice Girls are on the rise to fame. Are you two okay?" he then asks. "You look really tired."

"I barely slept last night," we say in unison.

"Ah, the dragons?" he says knowingly. "I'll be there tomorrow, watching you two, and if anything happens I'll jump out from the Cloak and slay that goddamned Dragon myself."

"Yes, that will go down well with the Ministry," I say. "I can see Skeeter's article already."

He laughs. "Off you go, otherwise you'll be late for Herbology."

*~*

I eat my breakfast with great difficulty (my throat isn't working too well) and Harry, Hermione and I get up; across the room I see Cedric leaving the Hufflepuff table, and it dawns on me. He doesn't know about the dragons.