[30]
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"So it's not a dragon egg," Harry stated the obvious the next morning at breakfast as the students came to congregate after Milo had a good night's rest. His body was still incredibly sore, enough to the point where just sitting down and standing up made his legs ache. He probably never ran so fast in his entire life as he did with the close and closed encounter with the female dragon. But Milo masked his pain with a genuine smile. He was absolutely thrilled at he had been able to witness the eggs hatching and he had witnessed the first moments of the hatchlings with their mother. It was a beautiful sight, even if it was quite painful. But Milo remembered the saying "beauty in pain" or something along those lines.
"Naturally, Harry," Milo replied to his brother, "I honestly don't think real dragon eggs come with hinges."
"Although," Silas said as he leaned across the Gryffindor table, " that would be awfully convenient if they did, right?Anyways, if it has hinges, why don't you just open it?"
Apparently, it was the morning of Gryffindors Stating the Obvious, starring Silas and Harry, leaving Milo to just glance over at Cedric, who sat beside him. Of course, it was the first thing Milo had done, but he should have known that it wasn't going to be that simple. The grimace on Cedric's face, along with Milo's revealed that the results of opening the egg hadn't been a pleasant experience at all.
"We told Angelina to open hers," Silas continued, " but she wouldn't give in. She said if she figured it out in front of all of us that the second task wouldn't be a surprise. But I'm not looking for a surprise, I just want to know what's inside."
"Silas, it's Milo's egg," Neville chimed in from where he sat, reminding his friend, " he can do what he wants with it, just like Angelina."
Silas glanced over at him, looking fully prepared to argue but instead, he let out a small sigh. "Yeah, alright," he said before plopping down on the bench, " it's your egg, Milo. Do what you will with it."
"Besides, we can't help him with any sort of clues," Neville said further, " it's against the rules."
"Rules were made for those destined to follow, not those willing to lead," Silas said crossing his arms and muttering to himself.
Only Harry wasn't so easily convinced otherwise with some words as he asked Milo to open it to see what was inside. Milo attempted to warn him, telling his younger brother that it was nothing special, but Harry insisted. Sometimes, Milo had to realise that a lot of times, the Potter men were destined to learn the hard way. With a sigh, Milo went to open the egg and just before he did, Cedric clapped his hands over his ears.
A shrill screaming sort of sound pierced the air, startling the students in the Great Hall and caused multiple students to follow Cedric's lead of covering their ears, including everyone sitting at the Gryffindor table. Milo quickly closed it, turning red in the face as he had become the centre focus inside the hall rapidly. He glanced up at Harry, to see that his little brother looked to be in a state of shock.
Suddenly, everyone began putting their input on what it was going to be, but Milo figured that if it came across as easy as a guess, it probably wasn't the answer to the egg.
"It was someone being tortured!" All eyes turned to Neville, who looked awfully pale. The smug look that was written on Silas' face suddenly disappeared as he frowned in the boy's direction. "You're going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!"
With all the commotion, Fred and George overheard and decided to join in on the guessing.
"Don't be a prat, Neville, that's illegal," George said in a joking manner, but the look on Silas' face, dared the twin to call Neville a prat again, just to see what sort of wrath would be unleashed. "They wouldn't use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions. I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing ... maybe the champions got to attack him while he's in the shower."
The disturbing mental image of attacking one of the older Weasley brothers in the shower caused Milo to shudder before shaking his head and just tossing the egg into his bag. He didn't want to discuss the egg anymore. He didn't want to discuss the tournament at all, in fact, until the second task, he wanted to pretend like it wasn't happening. But that of course, was hard to do so considering he needed to be prepared for the second task or he would be walking in blind.
He could see the concern written on Harry's expression, it was no secret that the Triwizard Tournament was proving to be as dangerous as it was claimed to be. It was just hyped up to get the excitement, the tasks really were life-threatening, at least the first one was. If Milo was correct with his assumptions, if each task became harder, he was going to be in for one hell of a ride.
"Don't worry, 'Arry," Milo said to him as the group became distracted with their own discussions. Silas and Neville whispered back and forth, looking as if Silas was attempting to comfort Neville as much as possible. The twins turned their attention to something on Fred's arm that brought them both to grin before they ran off, leaving it just Harry, Milo, and Cedric focused on what was going to be taken place soon enough.
"I'll have it all figured out in time," Milo smiled, " now, focus your attention across the way. There's a very pretty Ravenclaw girl who has her eye on you."
Harry didn't know what his brother was getting at as Milo and Cedric rose to their feet with smiles, only when the two departed did he catch sight of Cho Chang sitting across the way. A small grin on her face as she sat among her friends, as soon as they made eye contact she smiled at then looked away to giggle amongst the other girls.
Attempting to look casual, Harry failed as the sip of water he had taken dribbled directly down his chin just as he smiled back in her direction. It was not the most flattering look, but as Cho looked up once more to see him quickly try to cover up his mess, she smiled again.
"Another one dead, Hagrid," Milo confirmed as he pushed himself up from the cold ground as he frowned over the body of the dead Skrewt. "They really did a number on this one too. I'm guessing they're definitely feeling quite aggressive, aren't they?"
The large man walked over as the students were crowding around the dead Skrewt noting how torn its limbs were from where the other Skrewts had practically tortured it before it met its death."
Hagrid let out a loud sigh before shaking his head and rubbing his hand over his beard. " I figured it would have bin' exercised out o' 'em by now," he replied gruffly. "Guess not."
He determined that the fourth year students would be put up to the task of placing the Skrewts into hibernation by sealing them into boxes, there was still ten remaining and Hagrid was hoping to keep them all. Milo wasn't so sure but he had faith that Harry's class could manage it. He just hoped that one would manage to make it through the winter at the rate that the creatures were going.
"Oh, Hagrid, before I go," Milo said as the class was being dismissed and the other students were walking off, " I brought something for you. I thought you would probably get a bit more out of it for the time being.'
Hagrid looked confused as Milo dug into his bag and pulled out a small wooden box. "They said we could keep them and well, I know how much Norbert or rather, Norberta meant to you, so I thought...well..."
He nearly smacked Hagrid in the face as he offered the box, confusing the large man for a few moments. Although there was no hesitation on Hagrid's behalf as he took the box to peer in and see what was inside. His bulbous fingers made the box look like a small container but as he opened it, he was able to witness the smaller prize inside.
The small model version of the Hungarian Horntail that Milo had selected came to rest in Hagrid's palm leaving him to cry out in excitement. The dragon was asleep, curled up with its tail resting over its snout, looking incredibly adorable rather than vicious like its larger counterpart. As much as Milo wanted to keep it, he had enough creatures to worry about, because Paden and the little Moon Calf were proving to be quite the handful, especially since the mooncalf was growing older and becoming much more curious about exploring.
Normally,mooncalfs didn't venture out of the burrow unless it was a full moon, however, the one raised in Milo's trunk was a bit on the "different" side, since it fully enjoyed breaking out of the trunk with Paden's help and running about. Practically everyone in the Hufflepuff dorm had to be sworn to secrecy not to say something about the mooncalf to any other students or faculty members.
"I thought you might enjoy-" Milo couldn't finish as Hagrid pulled him into a near ribcage-crushing hug. "You're welcome."
With a little break in between classes, Milo thought it would be best to venture back to the dorms and focus on the egg. He was tempted to ask Angelina if she knew anything about it, but at the same time, he realised that the Triwizard Tournament was a competition and Angelina was definitely competitive. She had said it herself that anything involving the competition, it would be played between them like a quidditch match and he had to respect that above all. She had entered her name unlike him and Harry.
Fleur and Viktor had entered their names as well, which meant, they wanted to win. They were fighting for the chance to be the winner, not only for prize money but for the eternal glory as well. Milo was the only one involved who didn't really want any of that, he just wanted to make sure that Harry was safe. So far, he was keeping to that part of the job, even if it meant him getting a little beat up in the process.
Milo thought about just letting those three take the lead in the competition, but he couldn't simply sit back and do nothing or he would place himself in even more danger. He had to play the game well enough to survive it all, but he had no intentions of winning.
"Nothing more than a massive paperweight, if you ask me, it's more worth its weight in gold," a familiar voice called out from Milo's dorm room as he walked down the corridor to head inside. He spotted Artemis, sitting on the edge of the bed with the golden dragon egg in hand. The rest of the room was still and silent as the boy entered looking directly at the goddess.
"Did you just call my next clue an expensive paperweight?" Milo grinned, actually feeling happy to see Artemis. After all, her advice had come in handy during the tournament, even if he didn't think so initially when she first gave it to him.
The goddess glanced up before letting it fall onto the bed. "Have you figured out the next clue?" She questioned him.
"No," he shook his head, " I haven't bothered opening it in a while. It's so annoying how it just keeps screaming...it's what I picture how a giant whistling sounds. So abrasive...I don't know what to do with it. I was going to look it over now-"
"But you have other matters to attend to, Milo," Artemis interrupted him, " so that will have to wait."
Milo furrowed his brow's together, giving an odd look as his head tilted to the side. "Well, I have classes in about twenty minutes, I can't skip out on anymore-"
"You won't have to, the meeting won't take long."
"Meeting?"
Artemis rose from the bed and extended her hand out to him. "A meeting of all the families. This is now the time for any gods or goddesses to present any members of their families so that we are all aware of who resides over who. After Hermes, we really cannot afford any more surprises. If it so happens that a god or goddess is helping the wrong sorts, we can find ourselves in trouble once more. Thanatos and Nyx have had their problems in the past, we do not need a repeat.
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Milo was relieved to see that he was not the only one summoned by Artemis to attend the meeting as she had brought Cedric along as well. After all, she presided over him, but it left the painful reminder for Milo that his brother wasn't there. As his mother showed with Athena, Professor Sprout with Demeter, Sirius and Elspeth, along with Silas...the clearing continued to fill up with more and more familiar faces, but Harry wasn't among them and it killed Milo internally.
Harry deserved to know and he deserved to witness the greatness that it was to be surrounded by such powerful beings, but he couldn't. He couldn't due to no fault of his own and that's what made it even worse. That afternoon, the clearing that had once held the families before, seemed to be a lot fuller as a great majority of the family members were to join. Neville was there, standing by his parents with the goddess, Soteria, and he looked wildly happy to be in their presence.
Frank and Alice seemed to fawn over him in those stolen moments of time where they could actually act as his parents, while Silas grinned from where he stood with his parents. If anyone looked to be in a massive state of shock, it was poor Remus, that stood with Willow, who continued to rub the sleeve of his arm gently and whisper soothing words to him with a small smile on her face.
Magic was one thing, but the presence of the gods and goddesses was another, for Remus, it was quite overwhelming. But as Milo looked passed Cedric, who stood beside him, he was surprised to see Fred and George standing with Hestia, rather than Molly and Arthur, but as he looked over, he understood why.
Hermes stood with a playful smirk, rocking back and forth on his heels as Indra stood beside him, looking like a lost, frightened toddler in the midst of a massive crowd. Her eyes darted from left to right and when Fred called out to her with a smile of his own, she shook her head, clearly not in the mood to talk. Very much like Remus, this was all new and it was a lot for anyone to take in, Milo understood that above everyone.
It was Athena who stepped forward first into the clearing, wearing the hint of a smile as she glanced around. She seemed pleased with all the faces she was witnessing, but her eyes narrowed in the slightest as she glanced over, each family.
"I believe it is a beautiful occasion to witness all of us, standing with our families, whether they are big or small, whether we have known them for generations or just recently, it truly is a sight. That being said, it has been an agreement that we all remain aware of our families. Whether a god or goddess is willing to take on a new family, it is best that all remain aware in order to avoid confusion or conflict."
Her words definitely seemed directed towards Hermes, as the god quickly stopped the rocking on his heels and came to a full stop.
"It is also best that we remain aware so that we are able to share the news with one another," Athena continued, Milo glanced up to see his parents standing behind him, both of exchanging a silent greeting before he faced forward once more. "As we do have more exciting news."
Milo rubbed his hand over his chest, he wasn't sure if his heart could handle any more exciting news. Were the tournament and the visions not enough for him to manage during the school year? Did there really have to be more?
"Soulmates continue to find each other, just in this small area alone. It was rare as we have stated before, for any soulmates to come upon each other, but they continue to come together. Standing in the clearing, we have more pairings to welcome."
That seemed to catch everyone off guard, Milo didn't think the discussion was going to take that kind of a turn, but he was curious to see what announcements were going to take place. His eyes flickered over in direction of where Remus and Willow were talking, she had finally managed to get him to relax and he was smiling. His eyes scanned over to where Neville and Silas had dragged their sets of parents together, only to focus on Athena as she looked at Indra.
"Hermes has discovered a way of communication, not only for his use but for the girl to communicate with her soulmate," Athena announced and that's when it clicked for nearly everyone in the clearing.
Indra and Fred.
Fred actually looked surprised, but delighted, George even appeared ecstatic at the idea. However, Indra didn't share the same reaction as she looked troubled at the thought of it. She glanced over in Fred's direction, then at Hermes' before she shook her head in a panicked manner. Slowly, her feet backed away before she turned and ran off from the group, leaving everything to fall silent, not to mention, leaving it all to be incredibly awkward.