Word spread like wild fire about Harry's name being blocked from being selected out of the goblet. Rumors spread just as quickly, the one question on everyone's mind being; Why did Draco take Harry's place in the tournament?
"Aye, 'arry." Hagrid joyfully greeted Harry as the boy stepped into his hut a few days later. "Now, you know 'ow I asked ya to not let Ron an' 'ermione know about this little meet-up?"
Harry nodded as they both took two seats at the coffee table where Fang rested his furry face on Harry's lap, being treated to a scratch behind the ears. "I assume you believe I didn't put my name in the goblet if you're still talking to me?"
"Well, o' course! Why woudn't I?"
"Doesn't matter."
"Alrigh'. Well, I jus figured that, well, with Malfoy bein' in this tournamen' an such, he migh wanna 'ave a bit of a head's up." Harry raised an eyebrow as Hagrid pulled out what looked to be a map of the Forbidden forest that he'd drawn himself. "The first task is dragons. I don' know yet what they're gonna do with 'em, but it's something to do with goin' face-to-face with a giant fire-breathin' beast!"
Harry looked shocked. To think he would be the one facing off a dragon had he been selected for this tournament if Malfoy hadn't put his name in that goblet.
"You know, I would course go tell 'im maself but- well, let's jus say that even a big guy like me can be scared of a boy like Malfoy." Hagrid looked slightly embarrassed to say it, but pointed to an area on the map marked: Dragons.
Harry took a deep breath. "Okay."
Hagrid looked at him in suprise. "Really?"
Harry nodded. "I'll do it. Besides, I guess I kinda owe Malfoy after he took my place." Hagrid nodded greatfully and handed Harry the map.
Draco had been avoiding everyone for the entire weekend, and Blaise was keen to do the same to him. Draco was currently sitting at the roots of a large tree in front of a calm shallow part of the Black Lake on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, with the view of the castle off in the close distance. He was accompanied by Alicia Roberts, a charming Slytherin girl in their year with sky-blue eyes and straight platinum hair that went just past her shoulders.
Sitting on the edge of a log that just separated the water from the land, Alicia hummed a happy tune as she picked at the water shrubs and plants that were rooted to the ground underwater. "Amazing... amazing!" She muttered, as she took a colour changing water lily in her fingers.
"Alicia? You're doing it again." Draco looked up from his book on Advanced Potion Making for Fourth Years, looking slightly annoyed.
"Oh, right sorry." Alicia let the lily fall from her palm, and float down the river in the direction of the castle. She then dipped her bare feet into the shallow water, making soft movements in the ripples.
"Since when have you been into Herbology?" He eyed a few books in her open satchel.
"Since a few weeks ago when my dad and I took a vacation through the Congo Rainforest. It's quite a peaceful area." She shrugged.
Draco scoffed but smiled a bit. "You and Longbottom should go out."
Alicia looked offended. "As if I would ever go out with a repulsive Gryffindor! Especially Neville Longbottom!"
Draco just sniggered when they heard hissed chattering and footsteps through the thick trees.
"But why? Why do I have to do it? Why can't you go talk to him yourself?!"
"Because, I'm not speaking to him! And I'm paying you, now get!"
Both Slytherins turned around to see Blaise and Pansy were whisper-yelling at eachother as they walked through the trees and bushes to approach Draco and Alicia.
Draco stood up and quickly brushed the dirt and leaves off his legs, then walked to greet them both. Finally, the two cut out their whisper-yelling conversation (though it sounded more like an argument), and Pansy took a deep breath. "Blaise would like me to tell you, that Crabbe told him, that Goyle was told by Daphne that- Potter's looking for you."
Draco furrowed his eyebrows. "Potter?" Pansy nodded. "Well... well then you can tell Blaise-"
"I am not an owl!" Pansy snapped, and she left with Blaise again, leaving Draco and Alicia with the sounds of the water streams and birds singing nearby.
That evening, Draco snuck out of the great hall during dinner to meet Harry at the enormous entrance doors, where the brunette was waiting, leaning against the wall. He looked up from what looked to be a badly drawn map on some parchment when Draco arrived. "You came."
"Yeah. Now what is it, Potter?" Come to think of it, this was the first time he and Harry had made any real interaction since Draco's annual insulting match on the train ride to Hogwarts.
Harry shoved the map into his jacket pocket. "I figured I may as well help you if Hagrid is willing to." Draco raised an eyebrow, indicating he had no idea what that meant. "Hagrid asked me to warn you about the first task. He said he would've done it himself but... didn't think you and him were ever really on the best terms." He slightly lied, saving Hagrid the future teasing.
Draco scoffed and crossed his arms. "Yeah, like you and I are any better."
"All I did was reject your handshake in first year- you got overdramatic about getting scratched by Buckbeak when you were asking for it! Look, do you want to see this or not?"
"What am I gonna see?"
"I'm not telling until you agree to come."
Draco bit his lip and thought for a few seconds. "Fine."
The two boys walked in silence down the hill, toward the Forbidden Forest when Harry finally broke the silence. "Look, I guess I should really be doing this as a thanks."
"What?"
"You put your name in the goblet so I wouldn't get selected, didn't you?"
Draco bit his lip and looked away as they begun walking through tall black trees that stretched upward into the starry night. "Maybe I did."
"Why?"
Again, silenced by a simple question. "It doesn't matter."
"Yes, it does."
"No, it doesn't."
"If it didn't matter, then why are you putting yourself into a life or death tournament for me?"
Those words rang in the back of Draco's mind. For him. Again, why would you do anything for Potter? The answer was still beyond his reach, so he just stayed quiet.
After another few minutes of walking, the silence in the air was shattered by an earth-shaking roar, coming from beyond the trees in front of them that in a second, were engulfed in bright orange flames.
Harry grabbed Draco's wrist and pulled him behind a large fallen rock, just dodging a blast of fire that was directed at them. The fire beyond the trees parted to reveal the silhouette of a huge beast with horns on it's winged back, and fire being spat from it's monstrous mouth.
"Dragons?!" Draco hissed as he stood up, getting a better view from behind the boulder. "That's the first task?!"
Harry grunted as he repositioned himself next to Draco for a better view. "Yeah, ironic, isn't it? Doesn't your name translate to dragon?"
Just then, a second enourmous dragon blasted a tsunami of orange fire in their direction, and Draco instinctively grabbed Harry by his shoulders, and pinned the boy down onto the ground as he ducked below the wave of fire. The two boys locked eyes for a second before Draco crawled off the Gryffindor, and stood back up. "Was that... a Hungarian Horntail?"
Harry shrugged. "I would have no idea."
For a split second, Draco showed fear in his eyes, but he quickly hid it. "We should go back now."
Harry nodded and stood up, and the two sprinted side by side back through the forest, leaving behind the slowly growing fainter roars and blasts of fire. "So, are you ever gonna tell me why?" Harry said after a minute as they slowed down to walking pace.
"Probably not, unless it comes down to it... " Draco shivered at the thought of his father and the Death Eaters personally sabotaging the tournament.
"Comes down to what?"
Draco sighed. "I don't think I should say." He waited for a minute before saying, "But I know you didn't put you name in the goblet." To say Harry was shocked at this would be an understatement.
"You know who did it?" He asked eagerly.
Draco licked his lips and stared up at the moon, choosing his words carefully. "I don't think that matters anymore, does it? You're out of the tournament you were never in, so it's really none of your business. It's not anyone's business."
He mentally prayed to Merlin that it really would not matter in the end.