Chapter 114: A Sober Friend
The Goblet of Fire shone with a dazzling light, brighter than anything else in the entire Great Hall.
The blue-white flames, spitting sparks, turned red for the fourth time, interrupting Dumbledore's words. As Draco Malfoy looked on helplessly, a long tongue of fire suddenly shot into the air, mercilessly lifting a piece of charred parchment into the palm of the astonished Hogwarts headmaster.
Dumbledore cleared his throat and read aloud—"Harry Potter."
"Now we know that Professor Dumbledore's confidence was completely misplaced," Draco muttered quietly, glancing at Harry across the table.
Amid the buzzing chatter of hundreds of students, Harry was pushed forward by Hermione like a ghost - with an extremely confused expression on his face - and finally walked into the door behind the staff table.
Exactly the same as in the previous life, what's so surprising? Draco thought expressionlessly, this incident could have been avoided if Dumbledore could have been less blindly confident.
It seems that even Dumbledore is not omnipotent.
He wasn't, and neither was his elder wand.
At this moment, some students who had reacted had begun to protest loudly in the hall: "He's cheating!" "He's not even 17 years old!" Draco saw that Zacharias Smith from Hufflepuff was shouting the loudest, and Ernie Macmillan and others were also nodding angrily.
"Shut up! I think you're jealous!" Fred shouted. The Gryffindors, having recovered from their shock, were now extremely excited, practically clapping in public. Only two people had different expressions. Ron's face seemed to flush red, becoming extremely angry; Hermione's face was full of confusion, and then revealed a deep worry.
Even though the students from Hawks and Serpents tried to stay out of the situation—maintaining a calm demeanor as they watched the unexpected drama unfold—their tables were still restless. The voices of the Beauxbatons at the Ravenclaw table suddenly became extremely shrill, while the faces of the Durmstrang students at the Slytherin table generally turned gloomy.
Not long after, amid the boos of students from Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hufflepuff, the headmasters and referees slowly stood up and entered the small door with puzzled expressions. Before entering the door, Professor Dumbledore loudly asked the students to leave their seats and return to their respective common rooms to sleep.
Draco fell behind the group of Slytherin students with a heavy heart, and was about to go down through a door on the left side of the marble staircase, but was stopped by someone - it was Hermione.
"Come with me." She said with a frown, pulling his clothes and walking out.
They quietly followed the group of sullen-looking Durmstrang students, slipped out of the entrance hall, away from the loud complaints and arguments of the students, and strolled into the atrium decorated with Halloween pumpkin lanterns.
Everything was completely still, not a single human voice could be heard. Only the rustling of her feet on the grass filled her ears.
Draco was pulled by her sleeve and followed the girl obediently, feeling a little scared - would she doubt him again?
In her previous life, she had suspected him, thinking that he was doing something behind her back, and she had questioned him about it, which made him very angry.
Is this going to happen again in this life? Whenever something bad happens, will she think of him first? He thought bitterly.
Walking to the big oak tree in the courtyard, Hermione turned around suddenly, and her serious voice spread in the night, "Draco, who do you think did this?"
"Uh—I don't know." Draco was a little stunned.
"It's definitely not Harry! I saw the look on his face when Dumbledore said his name!" She paced back and forth anxiously under the tree. "Ron doesn't believe Harry. He thinks Harry secretly voted without telling him. In my opinion, this idea is completely stupid, isn't it?"
"That's right," he whispered.
"How did you manage to get Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire?" Hermione stopped in front of him and asked anxiously.
"You—don't you doubt me?" Draco asked suddenly. "You've noticed how much I've been paying attention to the Goblet of Fire?"
"Come on, who wouldn't be paying attention to it? Everyone was paying attention to it. Why should I doubt you?" Hermione said impatiently, sneezing suddenly because of the night breeze. "Besides, Slytherin, who cares about benefits, what good will it do you to put Harry's name in?"
"It seems not." Draco smiled in the shadow cast by the leaves, and suddenly felt warm in his heart.
Hermione Granger's unquestioning trust—so precious—always made him feel suddenly relieved.
He looked at her, took off his robe, and draped it over her shoulders, wrapping her tightly. "Aren't you wearing too little?"
"Oh, thank you." Hermione sniffed the scent of cedar and hid her instantly blushing cheeks in the dim shadows of the trees. "Aren't you cold?"
"It's not cold. It's quite warm." He said softly, lowered his eyes, and in the dim light of the pumpkin lantern, slowly buttoned her robe.
Hermione quietly looked at his straight nose, and waited for him to button her clothes as usual. After a long while, she finally remembered to ask him, "What on earth are you thinking? How did the Goblet of Fire spit out Harry's name?"
He raised his eyes to look at her, and his eyes, which were light gray in the daytime, now became a little dark and deep.
"I guess someone used some means to cross the age line and put in Harry's name." Draco said softly, staring at her pupils reflected in the candlelight without blinking.
"Some say Harry asked senior students to cast their names into the Goblet of Fire," Hermione said slowly, her cheeks flushed at his gaze. "I don't think so. The Goblet of Fire spit out four names, didn't it? How could Hogwarts select two champions?"
"Indeed, you have a clear mind. This is definitely not as simple as voting on behalf of others. You have to use some method - perhaps a Confusion Charm - to deceive the powerful Goblet of Fire and make it think that Harry is the champion of the fourth school, and the only champion. I guess the Goblet of Fire has no choice but to spit out Harry's name." Draco's face gradually became serious. Combining the experiences of his previous life and a little bit of Death Eater thinking to analyze, "This is the only feasible method I can think of."
Draco guessed that if there had been a second candidate of the right age, the Goblet of Fire would not have spit out the name of a fourth-year student like Harry. In his opinion, Harry was not prepared to take on such a heavy responsibility, either in terms of ability or mentally.
"In addition to confusing human minds, can the Confusion Charm also confuse magical objects?" she asked in surprise.
"Anything with a mind can be Confounded," Draco said slowly. "Obviously, the Goblet of Fire can choose its champions on its own, so it must have a mind of its own. I suppose the Sorting Hat could also be Confused—if the wizard casting the spell is powerful enough."
"So, the person who did this must be a master spellcaster." Hermione suddenly realized, "This is definitely not a level that an ordinary fourth-year student can achieve - at least he must have learned the Confounding Charm - he must be a gifted senior student, or in other words, an adult wizard with great skills."
"That's right."
"So, Harry is absolutely innocent—" Hermione asked, "the judges should be able to figure this out, right? What exactly will they do to Harry?"
"Among the referees is Barty Crouch, a stickler for the law. He'll insist Harry play," Draco said. "And there's the magical contract in the Goblet of Fire—the champions must obey—and having their name uttered means they must play."
"But it's obvious that someone is trying to frame Harry. This is very dangerous." She said worriedly, not even bothering to study his beautiful eyes. "Everyone in our college is still very happy. From what Fred said, they are going back to the common room to celebrate for Harry."
"They really shouldn't be so happy. You should have seen the attitudes of students from other houses—especially the Hufflepuffs—they all think Harry has stolen their glory as champions." Draco turned his head and looked at the flickering lights of the large ship on the Black Lake—students were moving shadowily on it. "As for the students from the other two schools, they probably don't have the mood to consider whether Harry is innocent or that he is in danger. Instead, they will think about the problem in terms of competition or conspiracy theories."
"I think you're right. Do you think I should talk to Harry?" Hermione asked him as she climbed the stairs back to the Gryffindor common room. "Warn him?"
"Oh, he'll probably be ostracized by some of the students for a while." He grabbed her wrist suddenly - her pulse was beating rapidly - and quickly pulled her away from a stair trap.
He turned his head and gave her a lazy smile in a good mood, "You have to prepare him mentally."
"Yeah, that's right." She looked into his warm eyes, and her mind, which had just been praised by him for being "clear", became a little confused for a moment. She could only let him pull her up.
As Draco expected, the next morning, rumors were already spreading in the Great Hall, and most of the Hufflepuffs looked at the Gryffindor table with resentment. Hermione and Harry were not at the table, which made him feel a little at a loss.
He yawned and opened the letter that fell in front of him - it was from his father, Lucius. The head of the Malfoy family was actively inquiring about "Harry Potter becoming a champion in the Triwizard Tournament."
It seems that his father finally saw Harry Potter's "unusual and resourceful" side. He wrote in the letter: "After all, the Goblet of Fire has recognized him."
The cursive handwriting on the parchment was written with great enthusiasm, reflecting his encouraging attitude. "I think you could get closer to this 'unusual' boy and try to win him over from the Weasley boy..."
Draco didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this. His father's mind seemed to be running wild in the direction of conspiracy theories - he seemed to firmly believe that Harry had done some clever "little trick" with the Goblet of Fire, and because of this, he liked Harry even more and recognized Harry's talent for the Dark Arts.
Let this misunderstanding continue. Draco gave Joan some juice from the table and thought to himself: As long as my father likes Harry, who cares about his reasons!
The idea of "stealing Harry from Ron" had no appeal to Draco at all. He always kept his sights on Harry's other sober friend, trying to pry her away.
"Draco, think of a way to persuade Harry. He and Ron are having a huge fight." This clear-headed friend spoke to him during the Care of Magical Creatures class. "Look at how dejected he is!"
"You don't have a solution, but you think I do?" Draco said without any motivation.
"You—you're a boy after all!" Hermione glared at the three-foot-long skrewt while trying to feed it something, looking annoyed. "Sometimes, I just can't understand boys. They're so stubborn and immature!"
"I hope you're not being insinuating," Draco said sleepily. "All right, I'll go check on him. Hermione, all I ask of you is that you stay at least three feet away from this thing until I get back. Otherwise, I'm going to try Reducto on it, or some other fun little spell, for all the worlds Hagrid will cry over it."
"Draco, are you threatening me?" Although Hermione felt that what he said made sense, she couldn't help but disagree with him - all because of his threatening tone.
She asked him, "Do you think this is mature behavior? If you harm this one, he'll probably ruthlessly deduct a lot of points from you and make you take care of the other nineteen every day."
"Then I'll kill the rest and give him a mass funeral." Draco glanced at the crackling thing with disgust, narrowed his eyes and said, "Remember, as long as you are injured by the explosion--"
"Okay." Hermione grumbled quietly, but she was a little happy in her heart. "Boys! Stubborn and immature..."
Draco could see that a cloud of frustration was gathering over Harry. The newly minted champion was clearly off his game, trying to care for a three-foot-long Blast-Ended Skrewt on his own, while his buddy Ron, uncharacteristically, had gone off to hang out with the other two Gryffindor boys instead of staying with Harry.
What? Draco thought to himself, without him having to fight for it, Ron took the initiative to give up his best friend?
"What happened, Champion of Gryffindor? Where's your knight?" Draco walked over and said slowly.
"Oh, Draco, have you come here just to taunt me?" Harry asked darkly.
"I know it's not the name you voted for." Draco casually put on his dragon leather gloves and prepared to help him bolt up the tail bolt.
"You believe me?" Harry looked up quickly, his green eyes lighting up.
"I spent almost the entire day next to the Goblet of Fire, Merlin beseeches you, and you were just looking on enviously, not even a hair above your age. Besides, you're probably not that foolish to go and die knowing that the Dark Lord wants to harm you," Draco drawled.
Harry didn't care about the slightly sarcastic tone, he only cared about the direction in Draco's words.
A flicker of emotion crossed his face at these words. Harry quickly lowered his head and pretended to study the knot. When he could speak normally again, he muttered, "If only Ron thought so too. He doesn't believe me."
"He's a fool. He's angry with you because he cares about you. He's not in his right mind yet. He'll figure it out soon enough - if he knows what kind of challenge you're facing - I'm afraid he still thinks the Triwizard Tournament is a tea party that anyone can interfere with." Draco said wearily. "You, on the other hand, need to think clearly. There must be a conspiracy behind this."
"Professor Moody said that someone wants to kill me. That's why they threw my name into the Goblet of Fire." Harry looked solemn.
"I'm actually going to admit that I agree with him one day." Draco curled his lips. "They probably won't accept your withdrawal, right?"
"Mr. Bagman says the age limit is an extra safety measure this year. Now that my name's been sprayed out, there's no running away..." Harry muttered, his face gradually turning pale as he repeated the conversation that took place in the small room filled with portraits.
"Knew it would be like that. So, what are your thoughts on the first project?" Draco asked him, mentally regurgitating what Harry had told him.
"The first project must be completed on November 24th. Mr. Crouch said that the courage to face the unknown is an important quality of a wizard. All the warriors know nothing about the content of the project, and their only weapon is their wand." Harry said nervously.
"That's like there's no hint at all." Draco frowned.
He knew that Harry was about to face the dragon, but how could he warn him subtly and unobtrusively?
"Sirius said he's living in Hogsmeade and will come to Hogwarts to see me tonight. He told me to wait for him near the Whomping Willow," Harry whispered to him.
"You'd better put on your Invisibility Cloak," said Draco.
"Will you come with me?" Harry said cautiously. "I'm sure Sirius would like to see you, too."
Draco narrowed his eyes at Harry. He could see that Harry looked a little vulnerable.
He asked one more question, "Isn't Hermione going?"
"Oh," Harry glanced at him in panic and whispered, "She's been trying to get me to be SPEW's secretary lately. You know, I'm really not interested in that..."
No surprise.
Ambitious Hermione Granger would of course take advantage of the situation to sell her ideas to her lonely and helpless friend.
It was too early for her to give up! Draco glanced at the girl in the distance who was excitedly shaking the SPEW badge box at a Gryffindor student, and said to Harry with a suppressed smile, "Okay, I'll go with you."
As the moonlight fell over the Forbidden Forest, a huge black dog was already waiting beside the Whomping Willow.
When the big black dog turned into Sirius Black, Draco almost didn't recognize him.
His thin face had become much fuller, the sallowness had completely disappeared, and he could even be called radiant, which made his handsome appearance and elegant temperament even more difficult to ignore.
He greeted Harry and Draco animatedly, laughing and hugging them one by one, a certain excitement on his rejuvenated face.
"You must follow me immediately. I think I know what the first task is! Put on the invisibility cloak!" After he said that, he suddenly turned into the majestic black dog and rushed in front of them.
Draco and Harry looked at each other, seeing a mixture of confusion and excitement in each other's eyes.
They donned Harry's Invisibility Cloak—a piece of clothing lighter than any cloak Draco had ever seen—and followed Sirius curiously.
The air was quiet, with only the faint sound of branches and dead leaves being crushed.
The black dog seemed to have a good sense of humour, and when their footsteps failed to keep pace with it, it would amuse them by catching the tip of its own tail, which made Harry laugh out loud under the Invisibility Cloak.
Which was rare—considering how gloomy he'd been lately.
They walked a long way around the edge of the forest, and when the castle and the lake were out of sight, they kept going until they heard loud shouts from the men and several deafening, shrill roars.
Draco held his breath, as did Harry beside him.
They saw it.
It's a fire dragon - that's what the first project is about.
Four adult fire dragons that looked very ferocious were being dealt with by at least thirty adult wizards, with balls of flame spewing out of their fanged mouths.
"Fall down!" seven or eight dragon trainers shouted in unison.
The fire dragon weighing several tons fell to the ground with a loud bang, and the surrounding trees were shaking.
"Oh my god," Draco heard Harry mutter, shock thick in his voice.
Draco felt Harry's shock. He had seen dragons in the stands before, but they had been far away; this was the first time he had ever seen one up close like this.
There is no boy who doesn't like the extremely cool species of fire dragon; but if you need to deal with a fire dragon, it is another matter.
That would be the most difficult and terrifying thing in the world.
The boys continued to watch from the bushes with wide eyes - along with the black dog - silently gazing at the ferocious dragons. At this moment, Draco saw Hagrid coming from another direction. He looked trance-like, as if he had seen his first love, and walked towards the dragons with fascination.
So he gestured to Harry, and then to Sirius.
They quietly retraced their steps, not daring to breathe, until they reached the Whomping Willow.
"That's it!" Sirius said to them eagerly, transforming back into his human form. "Do you see it clearly?"
"That's about right." Draco pulled down the Invisibility Cloak and noticed that Harry looked choked.
Fear spread across his face, draining all the color from it.
"How can I deal with them?" he said with difficulty, his voice sounding a little strange.
Sirius patted his godson's shoulder nonchalantly.
"It's okay! Don't worry at all, we can handle it! Harry, you just need to cast an eye-blinding spell." He looked relaxed.
"A what?" Harry didn't understand.
"The Eye-Blocking Charm. It can impair the dragon's vision. If it can't see you, you'll be much more relaxed." Sirius said with a grin, "But don't even think about using a Stunning Charm. A dragon this big would require the combined magical power of seven or eight professional dragon trainers to render it unconscious. If you use it on your own, it's probably just like tickling it."
Draco knew the eye-blight spell.
In his previous life, Krum had used this spell, and it was quite effective. However, the Chinese Fireball, blind as he was, crushed a lot of eggs, and for that, points were deducted.
"Or, using your best skill, flying, you can summon your Firebolt," Draco said.
Since Harry did this last time, he was just telling Harry the same method again.
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Yes, it's doable." He gave Draco an admiring glance.
At this moment, Harry was no longer as panicked as before, and he was obviously thinking about the feasibility of these suggestions.
"Look, Harry, you're going to have to practice a lot, these two spells aren't easy," Draco said.
Harry nodded silently.
"I'm sure he'll do it. No need to nag." Sirius waved his hand at Draco nonchalantly. He stared at Harry and raised the corner of his mouth. "You can do it, right? James—will be proud of you."
Harry finally regained some of his fighting spirit after hearing this. He said, "I will. I will try my best."
"Good boy." Sirius said comfortingly and patted Harry's shoulder again.
"Sirius Black, don't you consider the danger of this matter?" Draco asked in disbelief, "He's only fourteen! His opponents are all adult wizards over seventeen years old!"
Draco couldn't understand why Sirius Black acted so proud and didn't show any of the concern that a clear-headed and mature godfather should have!
"Oh, speaking of this - Harry, I do have something to remind you." Sirius glanced at Draco disapprovingly, a layer of worry quietly superimposed on the relief on his face. "Rather than those opponents themselves, I think you need to be more careful about Karkaroff. I'm not sure if he will do anything to harm you."
"Why would Karkaroff do this?" Harry asked.
"Karkaroff was a Death Eater before—he might have had connections with Quirrell and Voldemort who escaped earlier. In addition, Death Eaters appeared at the Quidditch World Cup, and someone conjured up the Dark Mark. These things combined are very unusual—perhaps there's a conspiracy behind this," Sirius said calmly. "Also, I heard that Mad-Eye Moody was attacked the day before he came to teach at the school. This is something that concerns me very much. It seems someone tried to stop him from coming. You know, he's the best Auror the Ministry of Magic has ever had, and the Death Eaters are all afraid of him."
Professor Moody—he's really scary, like a Death Eater, Draco thought absently.
"You can't let your guard down, Harry. If someone wants to harm you and wants to make it look like an accident, this tournament is a perfect opportunity." At this moment, Sirius finally began to feel a sense of crisis.
"Professor Moody thinks so," said Harry bitterly.
"I've said something similar to Professor Dumbledore before, but he didn't take it seriously," Draco said with a straight face.
"He has too many things to consider. There's the Triwizard Tournament, the management of the school, and other things to do... We can't expect him to do everything." Sirius glanced at the moon in the sky and suddenly woke up. "It's getting late, you have to go back to the castle. Harry, Hogwarts may not be safe, and the enemy may be hiding there. Don't act alone, and don't leave your friends. Draco, keep an eye on him, help him. I have to go!"
"Why me?" Draco said angrily to the suddenly transformed big black dog, "Sirius Black! Who is Harry's godfather?"
Then he reacted, turned around hurriedly, and said to Harry with a sad face, "Oh, Harry, this is not directed at you. It's not that I don't want to help you..."
The dog let out a laugh that sounded very much like a human's, turned around on the spot, and ran away slowly.