Ethereal ✭Fred Weasley✭

33.

The month flew by quickly, and it was soon time for the Tri-Wizard tournament's first task. Harry had been looking sickly pale when Sophia had seen him in the corridors and when she sat with him class. He had been talking less and was agitated a lot of the time. She had heard about a little run in him and Ron had right before Professor Moody had apparently turned Draco Malfoy into a ferret. On the semi-bright side, Hermione had seemed to of chosen a side and was helping Harry learn some advanced spells in their spare time. She had told Sophia that they were practising the Summoning charm as Harry had gotten a tip off from Moody about using his broom as an advantage in the task. Of course they weren't allowed anything other than their wands, but that didn't mean he couldn't transfigure or summon something to help him along the way. And considering his transfiguration skills weren't the best, Hermione had suggested a completely new spell that he could use.

Sophia was walking towards the arena that had been made especially for the first task with Hermione. She could tell the bushy-haired girl was anxious for her best friend but confident that he'll use the Summoning charm perfectly. She had boasted about him finally mastering it to Sophia a couple of days ago, boosting Sophia's own faith in Harry.

"What's the deal with Moody though?" Sophia questioned as they entered through one of the many doors that would widen into the stadium. "Why is he helping Harry so much?"

"We still haven't worked that out yet. Neither have we worked out why he's got such a fascination with you either," Hermione explained.

"Sophia! Hermione!"

The two looked up to see Charlie Weasley waving at them, dressed in what looked to be a thick leather jacket and tailored tight trousers that also looked had a thickness to them. Sophia guessed that they were fireproof and charmed in order to protect him from Dragons' fiery fury while he worked in Romania. But she was confused on why he was wearing them now, and why in Merlin's name he was here at Hogwarts?

"Charlie! What are you doing here?" she questioned. She and Hermione were now standing in front of the second-oldest Weasley, who had a few new burns and scars that could be seen on his hands and even one on his left cheek.

"I'm here for the task," he stated with a bright smile. "Had to transport the four dragons from Romania. Wasn't a pleasant trip, but we're lucky we didn't-"

"Dragons?!" Hermione shouted with wide eyes. Charlie jumped in surprise and looked at the girl with a half scared half confused expression.

"Um yeah? They're the first task. Didn't you know?" he questioned. Hermione suddenly turned around and rushed out of the arena, leaving Sophia and Charlie to watch her leave. Sophia couldn't stop her own look of astonishment at what Charlie had told her, feeling the nerves settle into her stomach once again only with much more negative impact. Harry must have known that he would have to be facing a dragon for the task and kept it from Hermione and Sophia in fear of them freaking out. She couldn't blame him for it considering the fact of how Hermione had just reacted.

"Look I've gotta get back to my Chinese Fireball," Charlie stated, beginning to walk backwards into the stadium. But before he left, he pointed at Sophia to make sure she was listening and watching him. "And I want to hear all about you and Fred when the task is over. I've heard some rather interesting things from Fred's letters that he's sent to our mum."

With that, Sophia continued on her own into the arena and started to climb the stairs that lead up to the stands for on-lookers to watch from. Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students had separated themselves into groups to show their support for their own champions, few looking like they were supporting Harry. For the Hogwarts students, the Hufflepuff flag appeared the most compared to the occasional Gryffindor flag. Sophia spotted Fred and George weaving through the crowd with open suitcases, showing the odds of the tournament's outcomes. She huffed when she saw people betting their Knuts, Sickles and even Galleons on one of the four champions. She had purposely forced herself to not look at her sky map in recent times in order to stop her from letting slip of anything that could happen during the first task.