"Good to see you again at last, Harry."
Sirius smiled and gave Harry a light punch on the shoulder.
"We've actually seen less of each other since term started than we did during the holidays."
His gaze shifted to Hermione.
"Don't worry, Hermione. Harry's told me all about that Rita Skeeter business in his letters. She'd better not fall into my hands."
Harry's face finally showed the first genuine smile he'd managed in days. But it quickly faded.
"Sirius..."
He lowered his voice and leaned close to Sirius's ear.
"The first task—the one I mentioned in my letter—dragons. What should I do?"
Sirius looked at him, eyes full of concern.
"Don't worry about the dragons, Harry. We can handle them. But there are several things I need to warn you about."
"What things?" Harry asked.
"Karkaroff," Sirius said. "Harry, he's a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"
"I do—he—what?"
"He was arrested and imprisoned in Azkaban with me, but he was released. I'd bet that's precisely why Dumbledore insisted on placing an Auror at Hogwarts this year—to keep an eye on him. It was Moody who caught Karkaroff and threw him into Azkaban back then."
"Karkaroff was released?" Harry asked slowly, his mind struggling to absorb this shocking news. "Why did they release him?"
"He did quite a bit of work cooperating with the Ministry," Sirius said. "He claimed he'd seen the error of his ways, then he gave up a whole load of names... He sent a great many people to Azkaban to take his place. I can tell you, he was thoroughly despised in there. As far as I know, since getting out he's been teaching Dark Arts to his students at that school of his. So you'd better watch out for that Durmstrang champion as well."
"Right," Harry said. "But... are you saying Karkaroff put my name in the Goblet of Fire? If he did it, he's a brilliant actor. He seemed absolutely furious about it. He even tried to stop me from competing."
"We know he's good at acting," Sirius said. "He managed to convince the Ministry to release him, didn't he? And—"
Sirius hesitated. He glanced at Hermione, seeming to feel this was rather impolite, but continued anyway.
"I've been hearing some very odd things. Lately, Death Eaters seem more active than usual. Whoever put your name in that Goblet, they did it with purpose. I can't shake the feeling that if someone wanted to harm you whilst making it look like an accident, this Tournament would be the perfect opportunity."
"Yeah." Harry gave a bitter laugh. "Professor Moody, Hermione, Orli... everyone thinks so."
"Orli? Waters?" Sirius paused. "I warned you to keep a proper distance from her, Harry."
Orli rolled her eyes at him through the Invisibility Cloak.
"Orli's the one who warned me the first task might involve dragons!" Harry argued.
"But... you know she's always been rather close with Sn—Snape," Sirius said, frowning like a father watching his rebellious son.
"Don't forget, Orli was the first to discover Peter Pettigrew! If it weren't for her, how would you have cleared your name?" Harry said loudly.
"I've always been enormously grateful to her—I'll owe her for that forever. But..." Sirius wanted to say more.
"Ahem..." Hermione coughed awkwardly. "Sirius, we need to help Harry deal with the dragon problem first. He's got to survive until Tuesday before he can worry about anything else, hasn't he?"
"Right—those dragons," Sirius said, becoming animated again. "There's a brilliant trick, Harry. Don't be tempted to try any Stunning Spells—dragons are incredibly powerful and have tremendously strong magic. A single Stunning Spell won't bring one down; you'd need six or seven wizards casting simultaneously to subdue a dragon. But you can handle it on your own—there's a trick, and you only need one simple charm."
"What charm?" Hermione and Harry asked almost simultaneously.
"You're an excellent Seeker, Harry," Sirius said with a smile, taking a sip of his drink. "Think about it—what are you best at? I reckon you've already learned that spell this term."
"The Summoning Charm!" Hermione caught on almost immediately.
"My Firebolt!" Harry realised straight after.
"Hermione, I've got to master the Summoning Charm before Tuesday," Harry turned to her earnestly.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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