A Marauders' Daughter

61

The full moon was a few days ago and Harry decided to stay at Sirius's place with us since it fell in a weekend. Not that he could do much, he was forbidden to come inside Remus's room. But he didn't mind. In the early evening, Sirius went to sit with him while I stayed with Moony. Sirius stayed with him until Harry went to bed and Sirius slipped back in the room. He grinned when he saw us playing checkers. While Scotty took a nap, Sirius and I talked. And talked some more. And we agreed to finally send letters to each other once every two weeks or so. The next morning Harry had made breakfast for ten, but Remus and Sirius didn't mind, they ate almost everything.

And now it was the day, THE DAY, the day of the first task and Harry and I didn't sleep at all. None of the Champions did. Because when Harry and I went downstairs at four am, Viktor and Fleur were already sitting at the breakfast table. The elves must've known we were there because a small breakfast appeared in front of us. Not that any of us ate much, more picking at the food than actually eating it. We all slipped out of the great hall when students started to wake up, none of us were particularly excited for all the well wishes and good luck.

The four of us were camped out outside, sitting under a large willow tree. The branches hanging so low, they hid us from view. We didn't talk about how we were going to beat or get past the dragons, we just talked about classes, and Harry asked about Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.

"Oh, Harry, I saw those awful badges those Slytherins wore," Fleur said, even with the spell it was heavily accented.

"Not only Slytherins." Harry muttered. But I already took care of the few Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. They won't try something like that again.

"Something funny happened." She continued. "When they say Alexandra, the real champion, they do nothing but the moment they tap the badges to turn into Potter Stinks, the badges get teeth and start snapping at their robes, fingers, whatever is in close contact. Apparently, one of the big dumb ones lost the tip of his wand because of that."

"Really?" Harry and I grinned in surprise.

"Yes, I saw it happen," Viktor said. "Almost took his finger too." His laugh boomed underneath the tree.

"Who do you think did it?" Harry asked. "The twins?"

"It seems up their alley, but they would have said something. Maybe Hermione?" I asked, but I had a feeling I knew who it was. A dear little cousin of mine.

"Too violent for her, she would do something like vanishing them."

"Her-min-ny is your girlfriend?" Viktor asked.

"My girlfriend?" Harry looked surprised at the question. "Uhm, no. I care about her a lot but-" He was blushing fiercely, and I didn't know if it was because he still had a thing for her, or it was just uncomfortable to talk about. "We're friends, great friends."

That last sentence was like a punch in the stomach because it brought me back to when George said it to me. Forget about them, forget it. I glanced between the vines when I heard people come closer.

"We should get to the tent. People are coming up."

Nobody answered, they all just stood up and the four of us walked to the Champions tent. Just when I was about to step in behind Fleur, my name was called.

"Alec!" I turned to see Jack jogging up to me. He was breathing a little harsh when he stopped in front of me. "Geef me een second." He said, holding his side.

"Maybe it was a good thing you weren't chosen." I joked and Jack glared at me with a grin.

"I want to disagree, but -" He took in a few deep breaths. "But the evidence says otherwise." He laughed, and wrapped his arm around my waist and stepped closer. "Good luck, be careful and don't do anything stupid."