Love at First Sight (Harry Potter)

The First Task

|ALEXANDRIA WEASLEY'S P.O.V.|

Sunday morning came with a chill in the air. It slipped through any and all open doors, traveling through the corridors into the towers and rooms. It was devious and shaking, bitter and full of bite. It went deep beneath my skin and clawed at my bones, making my body ache from the will of it.

But was that truly the breeze, or was it my own fear?

Harry had sat beside me on the couch in the common room the night prior. It was just the two of us, shoulders pressed together, his Cloak of Invisibility draped thinly over our laps, as we stared out at the dwindling fire burning to ashes. He told me all about the dragons that he had seen with Hagrid, and he therefore had told me what the first task would entail for him.

And the chill had started then. My blood had run cold, my fingers froze — but my heart burned. It sizzled in my chest as though it was over an open flame.

I had not gone to bed. Instead, I stayed there — staring at the hearth beneath the mantle, unseeing. Harry did not depart from me. He did not ask that we go upstairs, nor did he say any more words at all. He simply wrapped his arm over my shoulders, holding it lightly into the back of my neck. His warmth felt welcome against the goosepimples that riddled my skin there, making the hairs stand on end.

He brought us back against the plush cushions. We sank into them soundly. And there we had sat, until the sun had risen over the horizon and the first of students began passing through the common room for breakfast.

It was only then did we take leave. Him up to his dormitory, I to mine. I dressed myself in silence, hardly listening to whatever Hermione had been saying to me. She wanted to know what had happened with Hagrid, but I could not bring myself to tell her. She was the first out the door; she flew down the steps two at a time, caught Harry waiting by the portrait hole, and demanded the answers from him herself.

Afterward, I was sure that she wished she hadn't been so quick to know.

"Sirius's warning about Karkaroff sounds dangerous," said Harry as the three of us walked the grounds, having skipped breakfast entirely. Hermione did not seem to agree; she was tsking beneath her breath, her steps at more of a pace than a stroll.

Alarmed as she was by Sirius's warnings about Karkaroff, she still thought that the dragons were the more pressing problem. I had agreed.

"Let's just try and keep you alive until Tuesday evening," she said desperately, "and then we can worry about Karkaroff."

We walked three times around the lake, whilst attempting to think of a simple spell that would subdue a dragon. Nothing occurred to us, and so we retired to the library instead. Here, Harry pulled down every book that he could find on dragons, and we each set to work searching through the large pile.

" 'Talon-clipping by charms . . . treating scale-rot . . .' This is no good, this is for nutters like Hagrid who want to keep them healthy. . . ."

"'Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, owing to the ancient magic that imbues their thick hides, which none but the most powerful spells can penetrate . . .' But Sirius said a simple one would do it. . . ."

"Let's try some simple spellbooks, then," said Harry quickly, throwing aside Men Who Love Dragons Too Much.

I had already been skimming through my own personal copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4. I continued to flip through the pages, but my mind was distracted and plagued as I watched Harry rise from his seat. I studied his back as he stood beside the nearest bookshelf, his hand running along the spines of the hardcovers as he read their titles soundlessly.