ivy | s. black ✓

34 | THE SECOND TASK

WINGLE CAN PROTECT ME.

APPARENTLY, THE GOLDEN EGG THAT HARRY RETRIEVED was meant to be a clue of some sort about the nature of the second task, but the boy was clueless on how to figure it out, as the egg just let out a horrid screech any time he opened it. This time around, Sirius and Ivy were clueless about how to help him, so he'd have to figure it out on his own.

But before that, he had something much worse to worry about — finding a date to the Yule Ball. Needing some advice, Harry requested Ivy meet him on the next trip to Hogsmead. Sure, it'd taken ages for her and Sirius to get together, but he still wanted to talk to her.

"Do you think he'd say yes?" Harry whispered as they walked around the snow-covered woods. "I mean — I don't know if he — it's dumb. I'll just ask a girl from my house."

"No way, HJ," Ivy said, squeezing his hand. "Maybe Draco says yes. Maybe he doesn't. But if you like him — this version of him that he's growing into, then you should ask him. He'd be honored to attend the ball on the arm of a Champion."

"Still," he muttered. "I don't think I can do it. Just walk up to him and ask? That sounds worse than the dragon."

"Ah, but you handled the dragon with ease," she reminded him. "It won't be that bad. Asking someone out isn't as hard as me and your godfather make it seem."

"Ron asked Fleur to the ball," Harry revealed. "Well, more like shouted at her. But he still hasn't recovered. I don't think I can go through that."

"Well, it's simple then. Don't shout at him."

Harry huffed, not thinking she was being all that helpful. But it was still nice to have her to talk about this recent development. Harry didn't know when it happened, but one day he'd been looking at Draco, who was handing out buttons with his name on it, and his heart started skipping metaphorical beats. He was getting a crush, and it was killing him, because for Merlin's sake, why couldn't Draco be a girl?

"Wait," Ivy said as they entered Honeydukes. They'd moved on from Draco, Harry not wanting to talk about him around others. "How did Ron ask Fleur?"

Harry smiled at the memory — since the first task, he and Ron had patched things up. "Walked right up to her at breakfast and yelled at her, asking if she'd go to the ball with him. And he didn't even wait for a reply — just ran away."

"Poor thing," Ivy cooed, not thinking it was nearly as funny as Harry did. She'd have to get him some candy or something to make him feel better. "Has he found a date yet?"

"One of the Parvati twins — can't remember which one," Harry said while grabbing some chocolate frogs. "I wish you were still at Hogwarts. I'd certainly feel better about the first dance if you were teaching me instead of McGonagall. You should've seen Ron's face when he had to dance with her—"