Brighter Than the Sun

Chapter Fifty-Eight

"Oh, Good Morrigan," I said, relieved. "I thought something from the depths of the woods had come for me."

"No, just me," Harry said.

"What're you doing out here?"

"Hagrid wanted to show me something about the first task."

"Really? What?"

"Dragons."

"Dragons?"

"That's the first task. We have to get past them. Who was that?"

My heart skipped a beat in alarm, but I tried to keep my expression neutral. "Who was... who?"

"I thought I heard you talking to someone. I could hear two people speaking. And then I thought I saw someone behind you."

Crap. Crap. Crap.

Okay, gotta cover up.

"Okay, yeah," I said. "You can't tell anyone." I waved him over like I was about to divulge a secret.

Harry came over and shrouded us both in his cloak. "Who was it?"

"Luke."

Harry's eyebrows disappeared into his bangs. "Luke? I thought he was in America."

"He is. I was just talking to a vision of him. There's this thing we learned at camp that lets us communicate with each other."

"Sort of like a telephone?"

"Yeah, but you can see them, too."

"Nice! Maybe we could do that with Sirius!" Harry grinned. Then he frowned. "But why were you trying to hide it?"

"Um..." What was a good reason for me not to use it in front of people? "It's kind of... illegal?"

"Really? Why?"

"Ah... well... because... the Ministry can't track them. And of course the Ministry has to keep an eye on everything. So yeah."

Harry frowned. "Are you lying?"

"No," I lied.

"You have this sort of high-pitched voice when you lie."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, trying to deepen my voice for good measure. I looked down at my watch. What time was it? "Oh, crap, Harry, we gotta get back to Gryffindor Tower for Sirius! Come on!"

"But — okay, fine, but we're not done with this conversation!"

On the way, Harry told me what he'd seen before finding me — the dragons, the disgusting way Hagrid and Madame Maxime flirted with each other, stumbling into Karkaroff, who was probably heading into the Forbidden Forest.

"I bet he sneaked off his ship to try and find out what the first task was going to be," I said. "He might even have spotted Hagrid and Madame Maxime heading off around the forest together."

"Yeah, and now all Karkaroff has to do is follow the sound of voices, and he'll know about the dragons."

"I feel really bad about Hagrid, though," I said. "He doesn't know Madame Maxime is playing him and using him to get an advantage."

"And by the looks of it," Harry added, "the only champion who doesn't know what's happening on Tuesday is Cedric."

"Are you going to tell him?"

"I dunno."

We reached the castle, slipped in through the front doors, and began to climb the marble stairs; Harry was very out of breath, but he didn't slow down, so I kept up. We had less than five minutes to get up to the fire, after all.