Natsu Dragneel and the Goblet of Fire

The Third Task

"Master Makarov reckons You-Know-Who's getting stronger again as well?" Gray whispered.

Everything Natsu had seen in the Pensieve, nearly everything Master Makarov had told and shown him afterward, he had now shared with Gray and Lucy - and, of course, with Weiss, to whom Natsu had sent an owl the moment he had left Master Makarov's office. Natsu, Gray, and Lucy sat up late in the common room once again that night, talking it all over until Natsu's mind was reeling, until he understood what Master Makarov had meant about a head becoming so full of thoughts that it would have been a relief to siphon them off.

Gray stared into the common room fire. Natsu thought he saw Gray shiver slightly, even though the evening was warm.

"And he trusts Redfox?" Gray said. "He really trusts Redfox, even though he knows he was a Death Eater?"

"Yes," said Natsu.

Lucy had not spoken for ten minutes. She was sitting with her forehead in her hands, staring at her knees. Natsu thought she too looked as though she could have done with a Pensieve.

"Jason Skeeter," she muttered finally.

"How can you be worrying about him now?" said Gray, in utter disbelief.

"I'm not worrying about him," Lucy said to her knees. "I'm just thinking... remember what he said to me in the Three Broomsticks? 'I know things about Gem Gemini that would make your hair curl.' This is what he meant, isn't it? He reported his trial, he knew he'd passed information to the Death Eaters. And Winky too, remember... 'Gem Gemini's a bad wizard.' Mr. Zero would have been furious he got off, he would have talked about it at home."

"Yeah, but Gemini didn't pass information on purpose, did he?" Lucy shrugged.

"And E. Fiore reckons Madame Maxime attacked Zero?" Gray said, turning back to Natsu.

"Yeah," said Natsu, "but he's only saying that because Zero disappeared near the Beauxbatons carriage."

"We never thought of her, did we?" said Gray slowly. "Mind you, she's definitely got giant blood, and she doesn't want to admit it-"

"Of course she doesn't," said Lucy sharply, looking up. "Look what happened to Gildarts when Jason found out about his mother. Look at E. Fiore, jumping to conclusions about her, just because she's part giant. Who needs that sort of prejudice? I'd probably say I had big bones if I knew that's what I'd get for telling the truth."

Lucy looked at her watch. "We haven't done any practicing!" she said, looking shocked. "We were going to do the Impediment Curse! We'll have to really get down to it tomorrow! Come on, Natsu, you need to get some sleep."

Natsu and Gray went slowly upstairs to their dormitory. As Natsu pulled on his pajamas, he looked over at Gajeel's bed. True to his word to Master Makarov, he had not told Gray and Lucy about Gajeel's mother. As Natsu took off his glasses and climbed into his four-poster, he imagined how it must feel to have parents still living but unable to recognize you. He often got sympathy from strangers for being an orphan, but as he listened to Gajeel's snores, he thought that Gajeel deserved it more than he did.

Lying in the darkness, Natsu felt a rush of anger and hate toward the people who had tortured Mrs. Redfox... He remembered the jeers of the crowd as Zero's daughter and her companions had been dragged from the court by the Dementors... He understood how they had felt... Then he remembered the milk-white face of the screaming girl and realized with a jolt that he had died a year later...It was Acnologia, Natsu thought, staring up at the canopy of his bed in the darkness, it all came back to Acnologia... He was the one who had torn these families apart, who had ruined all these lives...