Chapter Sixteen: Foul Play
Time seemed to pass annoyingly slow. Harish was never a patient sort of person, so he grew increasingly irritable as it got closer to the 22nd . Rita Skeeter's newspaper came out as well, making him even more angry. The entire article was a whole load of gossip about Harish. The other champions were hardly even mentioned.
Now, being the only one in the paper did not annoy Harish. What did annoy him was Rita Skeeter writing about he and Daphne's relationship. After the article came out, people laughed at him and teased him about it. Harish trudged through the week, ignoring everyone except his own group of friends.
When the Saturday before the first task finally came, Harish was fully ready for an excuse to get out of the castle; there was a Hogsmeade trip. The sixth year set off for the Three Broomsticks and ordered himself a butterbeer. He sulked happily, enjoying being alone. Then, the silence was interrupted as the twins slid into the booth with him.
"If you're done pouting about the article—"
"We have something you might be interested in," they said.
"Unless it's something about the first task or revenge on Rita Skeeter, I do not want to hear it."
"It's about the first task," both twins said.
"Really?" Harish asked loudly. Several people turned and looked at him.
"We'll explain on the way," George said as Fred pulled Harish to his feet.
"On the way where?" Harish asked, slightly concerned.
"You'll see," Fred replied.
Harish groaned and allowed himself to be steered out of the pub.
"Have you got you're cloak?" they asked together.
"Yes," Harish replied, more warily still.
"Put it on," Fred ordered.
Harish pulled it out of his bag and threw it over himself. They returned to the Hogwarts grounds and he followed the twins, heading for the Forbidden Forest.
"Hang on," Harish said. "Are we going into the forest?"
"Yes," George said.
"Lead on," Harish exclaimed.
The twins laughed slightly and they entered the forest, walking along the very edge of it. The three teens walked along the edge of the forest for a while until finally they began heading deeper into the forest. Just as Harish was beginning to wonder if this was some sort of prank, he heard shouting up ahead. The young men went around one last clump of trees that revealed what seemed, at first, to be dozens of fires with men running around them. Then—Harish's mouth fell open.
Dragons.
Four fully grown, enourmous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing onto their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood, roaring and snorting—torrents of fire were shooting into the sky out of their fanged mouths, fifty feet above the ground on their outstretched necks. One was smooth and green. Another was red with odd spikes around its head, puffing mushroom shaped flames into the air. Finally, the one nearest them was black and looked more lizard like than the others.
At least thirty men were around the dragons—seven or eight to each one—and were pulling tightly on ropes that bound them. Harish watched the fire, mesmerized. He glanced up slightly and saw the eyes of the black dragon, with vertical pupils like a cat's, bulging with either fear or rage. It was making a horrible noise, a yowling, screeching scream.
One of the men saw them and jogged over, stretching his arms out in front of them. It took Harish a moment to recognize him, but after a moment it was hard to miss the flaming red hair and freckled face. It was Charlie Weasley, the twins' brother.
"I'm afraid you can't come any closer," he told them, pushing the twins back slightly. "They can shoot fire at a range of twenty feet! I've seen this Horntail do forty!"
"Horntail?" George asked, craning to peer around his brother's shoulder.
"The black one," Charlie replied, jabbing a finger toward it. "There's also a common Welsh Green, Chinese Fireball, and—"
"That's nice," Fred interrupted. "So how have you been lately?"
"I've been fine. How're Mum and Dad getting along?"
"Well, Dad's enjoying work," George replied.
"Like that's a surprise," Fred muttered.
Charlie let out a laugh.
"Well," Fred said, his hands in his pockets. "It was—"
"Nice seeing you," George finished and they strolled off.
Harish followed.
The moment they got out of the forest, Harish wrenched the cloak off of himself.
"Dragons?" he asked incredulously. "That's the first task?"
The twins nodded.
Harish let out a breath, looking around. It was beginning to grow dark. He and the twins began walking up toward the castle. They went inside and down to the common room. Then the long wait for it to clear out began. By about midnight, the twins fell asleep. Harish sat there in between them until finally Draco went to bed. Then, at one o'clock, the flames turned green and Sirius's head appeared in the fire.
"Sirius—how are you doing?" Harish asked, getting down on his knees in front of the fire.
Sirius's appearance was back to normal as he was no longer needing to act the role or Arata Blake. His face was fuller than it was when he had first escaped Azkaban, but his eyes still had not lost their haunted look.
"Never mind me, how are you doing?" Sirius asked.
"I'm fine," Harish replied.
"Now, let's start at the beginning," Sirius said. "What exactly happened?"
So Harish told him about how he had gotten a seventh year to put his name in for him, how it came out twice, how Moody hinted that someone might be trying to do him in, that all his friends agreed, and then finally about Rita Skeeter's article and the dragons.
Sirius looked at him in concern. He had let Harish talk into silence without interruptions. Then, he said, "Dragons we can deal with, Harry, but we'll get to that in a minute. Your father has allowed me to tell you that he is fairly certain that you passing out at the match was indeed an attack on your person."
"But why—"
"It is hard to keep a secret like your father's identity hidden. We think someone found out and is trying to get to him through you. We had already theorized this before school started, but your name coming out of the goblet twice sealed the deal."
"So you agree with us as well, then?" Harish queried.
"Of course, but listen—if your name was put in by someone else as well as you, that means that whoever the attacker is, they had to have had access to the goblet. This means that the rat is in the castle. I cannot stress how important it is to your father that you take care. You need to keep your eyes and ears peeled for anything. We need to get to the bottom of this. I've been reading the Daily Prophet—"
Harish groaned.
"And I saw about Moody being attacked right before school started back. I don't think that attack was faked—someone did not want an ex-auror coming to school this year."
"But what about the dragons?" Harish asked impatiently.
"I will just tell you this—play to your strengths. You are a bright kid; I am sure you'll come up with something good."
Harish forced a smile.
"Thanks," he said.
"Now," Sirius said. "I have got to go. Owl me if you need anything."
Harish nodded and Sirius's head disappeared with a pop. The teen let out a sigh and leaned against the couch behind him. Why did his life have to be so complicated?