Forgotten *A George Weasley Love Story*

Chapter 16

I walked with Harry towards the hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Words unspoken. Without me asking, Harry grabbed the bag from my shoulder. Truthfully, I was getting tired of carrying them around anyway. As we closed in on the hut, we saw Hagrid standing in the garden. "There you two are!" He said in that thick accent of his.

"Hi, Hagrid!" I hollered, waving my now free arm. Harry was smiling next to me. I'm convinced that Hagrid saved our lives on more than one occasion. He also gave me the first birthday cake in the ten years I had been with the Durselys.

Hagrid gestured towards his hut. "Come on in." There were already giant mugs of tea poured and biscuits laid out. Harry and I sat across from one another and took a small sip from the mugs. The tea was never half bad. It was the biscuits I had to shove down that were the worst. But Hagrid tried, and I appreciated that too much to refuse them. "I have something very important that you both need to see. Tonight, meet me in the Forbidden Forest at eleven. Bring the cloak." He explained. I'm sure if we pressed, Hagrid would tell us what was going on. But I let it go. We'd find out soon enough, and I trusted Hagrid.

"Are your classes going well?" I asked, dipping my biscuit into the tea to soften it up some. I didn't have Care of Magical Creatures often, but when I did, the class was always a blast.

Hagrid beamed. He truly loved teaching. "Incredible! Fourth years are my favorite. You Potters are such good students." Fang came up to set his head on my leg. "What about you? How's school? Keeping up those grades?" The conversation with Hagrid was effortless, and an hour went by before we had to leave.

Once back in the Common Room, Harry slipped up to his dorm like he did every night. I went to bother the set of twins on the couch. Their conversion stopped as soon as I settled between them. "Why does it feel like I'm interrupting something, boys?" I asked. Shifting, I put my head in George's lap and my feet in Fred's.

"Because you were." Fred rolled his eyes and pushed my feet off. With a pout, I threw them back on. We had a small back and forth before he finally gave up. George didn't intervene, focused instead on twirling a piece of my hair around his finger. "Is Harry ready for the First Task?"
"He could be if we had any idea what the hell the First Task was." I closed my eyes. "Do you two know something I don't?"

George froze for a millisecond before continuing. "Charlie is here. I'll make sure he says hello before leaving." So there was something they weren't telling me. It didn't matter at that moment. I was completely content.
~~~
At a quarter till eleven, I met my brother in the Common Room. I had a jumper and the Marauders' Map. Harry's eyes flickered down to the now open map in my hands. "Alexandra, could you please ask before taking things? I was looking for that." He said with an exasperated sigh.

"It was our father's, which means it belongs to both of us." I countered. It wasn't like I left him without anything. Harry held onto Dad's Invisibility Cloak. We left the Common Room, and Harry flung the Cloak over us both. We've both grown since first year, so fitting under together took a little more management. The castle corridors were quiet and clear as we maneuvered through them. It wasn't too late, but late enough that we weren't allowed out of bed. But patrols hadn't begun. We slipped out to the Forbidden Forest without any complications.

Shredding the Cloak, Harry kept it on his arm. I muttered a 'Mischief Managed' to close down the map. We didn't have to wait long for Hagrid to meet us. He wore his usual clothes but had a large flower clipped to the front of his jacket and bits of comb stuck in his unruly hair. "Come along, kids." Harry and I exchanged an odd look before following Hagrid deeper into the forest. This forest wasn't exactly pleasant. At least from some of the experiences I've had in it. "Did you bring your father's cloak like I asked you?" Hagrid broke the silence.

Harry showed him the Cloak as proof. "Yeah, we brought the cloak. Hagrid, where are we going?"

Hagrid cleared his throat and held the lantern higher. "You'll find out soon enough." He grunted. I studied Hagrid's face. He seemed a little rigid and nervous. "Now, pay attention. This is important." Hagrid instructed. Harry looked at me, then back at Hagrid. He seemed to have noticed the same things I did. Before I could stop him, Harry started running his mouth.

"What's with the flower?" he asked with eyebrows raised. Hagrid shuffled a bit, adjusting it. I elbowed my brother in the ribs but that didn't seem to faze him. "Hagrid. You've combed your hair." I nudged him again.

"Leave him alone, Harry."

"As a matter of fact, I have. You might not want to try the same thing now and again." Hagrid muttered. Not a minute later, we all heard a roar in the distance. That sounded suspiciously like a dragon. No wonder Charlie was here...

A few more roars sounded before a voice floated over them. It held a thick French accent that could only be owned by Madame Maxime. "Hagrid?" The voice was unforgettable. I smiled a little. Hagrid was on a date!

Hagrid smiled too, quickly forgetting about us for a minute. Then he turned back around. "The cloak!" He rushed. "Put the cloak on." We huddled closer together and threw the invisibility cloak over the both of us. "Hello, Olympe" Hagrid grinned as the headmistress came closer to where we were standing.

"Oh, Hagrid... I thought that you wouldn't remember. I thought perhaps you have forgotten me."
"I could never forget you, Olympe." he said passionately. Harry and I looked at each other and started fake gagging. Mostly to tease, but on the other hand, it felt too private of a moment to be watching.

Madame Maxime gave an exasperated sigh. "What is it that you wanted to show me? When we spoke earlier, you sounded so... exhilarated."

"You'll be glad you came. Trust me." Hagrid and Madame Maxime began walking towards some bushes. Each couple meters, the roars became louder. Hagrid pulled away some brush. On the other side were four cages. Each had a group of men working furiously around them. Fire blew from the cages. My suspicions were confirmed. Dragons.

Madame Maxime gasped in front of us. "Can we get closer?" she asked, completely mesmerized. Easy for her to say. She didn't have to go up against one of these things. Without an answer, she went on ahead. Hagrid stayed behind with us.

As we watched the dragons, Harry's eyes widened beside me. He tore the Cloak off of our heads. "Dragons?" I gasped before Harry could begin to talk. He was really too shocked to speak anyway. "That's the first task?"

Harry finally found his voice. "You have got to be joking!"

I draped the Cloak over my arm, watching Harry watch the dragons. "Oh c'mon, Harry." Hagrid began. Ahead of us, wood planks that surrounded the one cage fell away and revealed a Hungarian Horntail. They were the fiercest of them all. "They're seriously misunderstood creatures." Then the Horntail blew a string of fire towards its handlers. Harry grabbed my arm and pulled me back. The bush in front of us caught on fire. "Although I have to admit that Horntail is a right nasty piece of work. Ron nearly fainted just seeing them, ya know?"

"Ron was here?" Harry asked. More hurt than angry. I'm starting to think Pavarti, Dean, and Seamus had nothing to do with this little excursion.

Hagrid nodded. "Well, sure. Fred and George too." He motioned out towards the group of guys. "His brother, Charlie, brought them over from Romania. You remember Charlie. Didn't Ron tell you that?"

"No, he didn't." Harry said, distaste leaked through his words. "He didn't tell us a thing."

I'm not going to pretend that this made me feel much better about the task, but at least we had some sort of idea what Harry would be up against. "Go on, Hagrid. Go see Madame Maxime. Harry and I are going off to the Common Room. Thank you for giving this to us."

Hagrid smiled sadly. "Good luck, Harry." He thumped off.

"We'll think of something." I nudged Harry's shoulder with mine. "You and me. We're smart. We've got this."

Harry shook his head. "Are you trying to convince me or yourself, Alex?"