Twist of Fate

Chapter 7

When Harry woke up Sunday morning his first thoughts were filled of dragons. He rubbed his hands over his eyes hard as if he could rub the images of the claws, flames and dragon scales from them. He had dreamed of dragons, snitches and Draco all muddled together. Ever since his name had been drawn from the goblet he had been trying to imagine what the first task could be, dragons had never been one of the hundreds of scenarios he had imagined.

Sirius had had an idea on what to use to fight the dragons but the firecall had been interrupted by Ron. Harry stared up at the canopy. He refused to think about Ron, he needed to focus on how to survive the dragons. He needed Hermione. She would know where to start to find a way that would allow him to survive. He also had to talk to Cedric. He was sure that Karkaroff and Maxime would be telling Krum and Fleur about the dragons. He couldn't let Cedric walk in unprepared to the arena.

Ron had already left the room by the time Harry climbed out of bed. Harry got ready and went downstairs for breakfast. He looked for Cedric over at the Hufflepuff table but he must have already had had breakfast. As soon as he was alone with Hermione he told her about the dragons. He felt a rush of relief when, instead of panicking, she just paled a little and said, "Right. Library." They spent the rest of the day in the library with all of the books that they could find about dragons.

By suppertime Harry was exhausted, and they were no closer than before in finding anything that would help Harry with the dragons. Harry looked for Cedric; there was still no sign of him. Deciding there was nothing to do but ask a Hufflepuff where Cedric was Harry walked over to Susan Bones as she was leaving and asked if she knew where Cedric was. "Why do you want to know?" she glared at him. She was wearing the Potter Stinks button.

"I just need to talk to him." Harry said quietly, trying to ignore the hostile stares from the other Hufflepuffs.

"I'm sure he doesn't want to talk to you." Bones turned around and walked away from him.

The next morning Harry woke up with the familiar feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. Only one more day until the tournament. He and Hermione had snuck back in the library under the Invisibility Cloak and searched until midnight. He had given up long before then but Hermione struggled on sure that the next book would help them.

Harry slowly walked out of the castle heading towards the greenhouses for Herbology class. Across the courtyard he spotted Cedric walking with a group of Hufflepuffs. It was the first time he'd seen him but he needed to talk to him alone. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at Cedric's book bag and said "Difinido". The bottom of Cedric's bag fell out, dropping all of his books and parchment on the ground.

Harry heard Cedric tell his friends that he would catch up and he bent down to pick up his belongings. Harry hurried over to help him pick up everything.

"Hey, Cedric. Sorry, that was me" Harry pointed at the bag, "I needed to talk to you alone."

"What's wrong, Harry?" Cedric stood up and looked over at him, "Did something happen with Draco after I left?"

"What? Oh, no. It's just that, erm, I learned something this weekend. And Fleur and Krum already know so I had to tell you."

"What?"

"Dragons. The first task is dragons." Cedric's face grew pale.

"How do you know? Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, I saw them myself. Someone showed them to me, they're in the Forbidden Forest. And Maxim and Karkaroff were there too, so you know that they told the other two. I've got to go, I just wanted you to know..."

He left Cedric standing in the middle of the courtyard looking stunned.

OoOOOooOO

The rumors about the dragons had been flying since Sunday. Draco looked over at the Gryffindor table and watched as Granger leaned over and whispered into Harry's ear. He didn't appear to hear her. He was staring down at his plate, not eating. From where Draco sat the Gryffindor's face looked almost gray. Across the table from Harry, the Weasley was glaring, his freckles standing out in sharp contrast to his pale face. Draco wished he knew what was going on with the red-haired freak and Harry. He had refused to talk about it, but it was clear there was something wrong between the two of them. They had been inseparable and now they didn't even speak.