New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|56| Chapter Fifty-Six

F I F T Y  S I X 

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Saffron's excitement towards her Hogsmeade plans had impacted Lavender and Parvati, both of whom were positively beaming and giggling any time it was brought up or whenever they saw Olly in the hallways, much to the chagrin of Saffron who felt they were making it far too obvious. Especially considering the two of them were merely going as friends, even if Saffon wanted it to be more than that. Hermione too looked excited for her, she just didn't wear it on her face all the time akin to how their other roommates did.

But in typical Saffron fashion, luck simply wasn't going her way, as when she walked into the Great Hall on Friday morning by herself (as Hermione needed to use the library) and saw Maya and Harry sat together, at the top of the Gryffindor table, she knew something was happening and that something, if luck went the way it usually did, would impact her Hogsmeade trip.

"What's going on?" Saffron asked the pair of them, who looked around abruptly with cautious expressions but softened upon seeing it was only her.

"Come sit down," Maya said to Saffron quickly, who obeyed and the older girl then filled in Saffron in a hushed voice. "We just got a letter from Sage and Sirius, both Harry and I, and they're coming to Hogsmeade tomorrow,"

"To talk about the task?" Saffron asked the pair of them blankly.

"Yes, but also about why Harry's in the tournament," Maya confided in Saffron, sending a pitiful look in Harry's direction. "We're meeting up with them at the Hog's Head, apparently Sirius knew the owner, says he'll get us a private room, which is needed because we have a lot to discuss,"

Saffron looked from Harry to Maya in confusion. She understood that they had found something else out.

"Why, what else's happened?"

"We found out what the First Task is going to be," said Harry slowly making Saffron gasp. He nodded in Maya's direction. "Well, Maya did,"

"I didn't do anything, it was my friend Bethany," explained Maya. "You know how her family are all involved with dragons... anyway, a couple of her cousins are coming over to help handle four dragons that have been brought over to Hogwarts. A dragon each for each champion,"

Saffron clasped a hand over her mouth. Her heart immediately began to race. Dragons? How on earth were Maya and Harry meant to handle them? They were barely able to handle Norbet, Hagrid's baby dragon several years back when the pair of them, Saffron, Hermione and Bethany formulated a plan to give the dragon to some of Charlie Weasleys' friends. But Saffron already knew that these dragons weren't going to be as small as Norbert.

"No way," muttered Saffron, stunned.

Maya nodded gravely. "The way Bethany puts it, we're going to have to get past them. Which, isn't going to be easy it, and that's putting it mildly,"

"How on earth are you going to do that?" scoffed Saffron fearfully. She wasn't entirely sure what Maya or Harry would be able to do to get passed a dragon unscathed. Maybe her sister would have more weapons in her arsenal seeing as she had two more years of magical education under her belt but Saffron doubted even she would be able to complete the task successfully. As for Harry, Saffron was at a loss for thought as she felt almost positive there was very little he would be able to do to get past the dragon. Sure, he had gotten past some major obstacles in the past but a fully-grown dragon was another story altogether.

"I'm hoping Sirius and Sage will be able to help us figure that out," said Harry, his voice sounding normal unlike his facial expression which was a picture of utter dread, casting Maya a hopeful look and the older girl nodded.

"Of course they will," said Maya in agreement. "We're going to need it, I've been speaking to Bethany about it and she had some ideas, that are much easier said than done when we're actually doing it. She suggested a sleeping charm which is probably what I'm going to go with, but I'm not sure mine's going to be strong enough, I'm going to have to learn it myself. I tried it on Melanie and it worked, but she was falling asleep anyway so I'm not sure it had much to do with me,"

"Then, she thought a distraction could work. Certain dragons would easily go for a pig or a goat or whatever before it would go for a human, but that's some tricky transfiguring, especially to make it feel real for a dragon. So I'm going to try and work that one out soon enough,"

"She also thinks going for their eyes could be a good strategy, but that if it's blinded it'll probably roar fire everywhere so maybe a simple stinging jinx could do the trick, but the conjunctivitis curse would probably be more effective, so if worse comes to worst we could try them but doing the curse and actually hitting such a small target are two very different things, that's the problem,"

The amount of information Maya was telling the pair of them created a sickening hole in Saffron's stomach making her feel even worse because she knew that what Harry was experiencing was immeasurably worse.

"So what time are you going to meet up with them at?" Saffron asked the pair of them weakly.

"Right away, we'll probably spend the whole trip together. I think they'll be able to help us with what we're going to do," answered Maya, passing Saffron the letter and Saffron scanned it to see that her name was addressed on it too. Did that mean they expected her to join them? "Are you going to come?"

It took Saffron a few moments to answer. Was she going to put her own indulgence of going out with a boy she had spend the past four months fawning over ahead of meeting up with her family about paramount matters? She didn't want to make that decision right away but felt that she probably had to as the Hogsmeade trip was tomorrow and she would have to inform Olly about what was going on should it have ended up coming to that.

Both Maya and Harry realised that she was weighing up her options as she sat there so Harry said:

"You don't have to come if you don't want to,"

"It's not that," Saffron assured the pair of them swiftly before taking another pause that neither Maya nor Harry broke. "It's just... I already had plans, but I can cancel---"

Maya shook her head. "You don't have to cancel. What is it you're doing?"

"Just going with some friends I don't usually spend time with," Saffron avoided telling the whole truth. "But I doubt I'll be with them the whole time, I could show my face after a while, I just ... I really don't want to cancel, I'm sorry I know that sounds awful--"

"It's not awful," Harry insisted. "It's probably better that way, they can focus on helping us get ready for the task. Rachel and Rowan have already said they can't come right away,"

That made Saffron feel very slightly better, but not by an awful lot. She realised that she was trying to avoid thinking about what could happen to her sister and the boy who was like her brother to the extent that she was putting everything else ahead of it. She wasn't quite sure she could deal with the stress but knew she would and that what she felt didn't compare to that of the two people sitting opposite her, in particular, Harry who hadn't signed up for this.

"Yeah, I get you," responded Saffron, seeing that Harry had a point. "But just know that I'm here for the two of you, for whatever, I don't think I'd even stand half the chance that you to stand against this task. I know you'll be able to do it, both of you, if anyone is able to it's the two of you,"

Maya and Harry both offered her feeble smiles.

These smiles were much harder to read. She tried to put herself in their shoes but the shoes were far too big with someone with such small feet like her. She knew she didn't have what they had in them to get past a dragon. Perhaps the Grey would help her, but the Grey wasn't her, it was a diluted curse that had passed through her family for generations. Apart from that, there wasn't much that was remarkable about her that would help her. Whereas Maya and Harry possessed the talent to at least stand a chance and given the dire circumstances they were in, Saffron would take a chance for her sister and best friend any day of the week.