the goblet - f.weasley

- c h a p t e r - f i f t e e n -

   Gemma rubbed her eyes, snuggling deeper into her sweater as Harry whispered to her what had happened with his secret meeting with Hagrid.

   Apparently, the first task in the Tournament was dragons.

   He said that and she was suddenly wide awake, but she didn't have time to respond when she yelped at Sirius's voice which came from the fire.

   "Oh, Gemma, you're looking mighty pink!"

   She dropped her eyes and saw his healthy-looking face smiling up at her from the hearth.

   Harry had been jumping out of his skin the moment he relayed that Sirius had wanted to talk to the two of them tonight, which was why she was up in the first place. Otherwise, Gemma would be snoozing in bed by now.

   "Sirius - how're you doing?" Harry asked as Gemma dropped to her knees, holding her hair back from the flames.

   "Never mind me, how are you?" Sirius asked his godson seriously.

   "I'm..." Harry hesitated. "...fine." But then he exploded about stupid Rita Skeeter saying that he and Gemma were apparently in love in the Daily Prophet, Ron being stupid, people being stupid, his run-in with Karkaroff in the woods, and about a million other things that Gemma's muddled brain was having a hard time following. All of it. ". . . and now Hagrid's just shown me what's coming in the first task, and it's dragons, Sirius, and I'm a goner."

   Gemma grabbed his hand, holding it comfortingly as Sirius watched him worriedly.

   The man whispered, "Dragons we can deal with, Harry, but we'll get to that in a minute - I haven't got long here. . . I've broken into a wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be back at any time. There are things I need to warn you about."

   "What?" Gemma asked, seeing Harry's face turned sullen.

   "Karkaroff," Sirius pointed out. "Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"

   The two teens were baffled, "Yes - he - what?"

   "He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I'd bet everything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year - to keep an eye on him. Moody caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place."

   "Karkaroff got released?" Harry stammered, his brain trying to connect all the things he was being told. "Why did they release him?"

   "He did a deal with the Ministry of Magic," Sirius grumbled, rolling his eyes. "He said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names. . . he put a load of other people into Azkaban in his place. . . . He's not very popular in there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who passes through that school of his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well."

   "Okay," Gemma sighed, rubbing her face. "So you think he put Harry's name in the Goblet? Because if he did, he's a really good pretender because he seemed exceptionally upset about it. Harry said he tried to stop him from competing."

   "We know he's a good actor," Sirius confirmed my statement. "Because he convinced the Ministry of Magic to set him free, didn't he? Now, I've been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet, Harry..."

   "- you and the rest of the world," Harry snipped a little bit.

   "- and reading between the lines of that Skeeter woman's article last month, Moody was attacked the night before he started at Hogwarts. Yes, I know she says it was another false alarm," Sirius quickly spoke, seeing that Harry was opening his mouth to talk again, "but I don't think so, somehow. I think someone tried to stop him from getting to Hogwarts. I think someone knew their job would be a lot more difficult with him around. And no one's going to look into it too closely; Mad-Eye's heard intruders a bit too often. But that doesn't mean he can't still spot the real thing. Moody was the best Auror the Ministry ever had."