⚡️ Chapter 41 ⚡️

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Back at the Castle, Vega, Harry and Ron met up with Hermione in the common room. From there on, the four of them decided to head up to the Owlery to find Pigwidgeon so that Harry could send Sirius a letter telling him that he and Vega had both manged to get past their dragon fairly unscathed. Vega herself had written a letter home and was sure that Aquila would be waiting for her to come.

The evening was already falling – as Vega could see outside the corridor windows. She was content with that and wondered how the weather was going to be that night. She was looking forward to go relax in front of the common roof fireplace with everyone, she was really happy they were together.

And on the way over to the Owlery, both Vega and Harry filled Ron in on everything that Sirius had told them about Karkaroff. Though shocked at first to hear that Karkaroff had been a Death Eater, by the time they entered the Owlery Ron was saying that they ought to have suspected it all along.

"Fits, doesn't it?" Ron said. "Remember what Malfoy said on the train, about his dad being friends with Karkaroff? Now we know where they knew each other. They were probably running around in masks together at the World Cup...

"I'll tell you one thing, though, if it was Karkaroff who put your names in the goblet, he's going to be feeling really stupid now, isn't he? Didn't work, did it? You both only got a scratch! Come here – I'll do it –"

Pigwidgeon was so overexcited at the idea of a delivery he was flying around and around Harry's head, hooting incessantly. Ron snatched Pigwidgeon out of the air and held him still while Harry attached the letter to his leg. Vega and Aquila both shook their heads at their small owl's antics.

"Take it home, alright?" Vega said to Aquila, stroking his head and letting him fly out and away from the Owlery, ahead of Pigwidgeon so the latter wouldn't follow him in foolish excitement.

"There's no way any of the other tasks are going to be that dangerous, how could they be?" Ron asked as he carried Pigwidgeon to the window. "You know what? I reckon you could win this tournament – Harry, Vega – I'm serious,"

It was clear to both Vega and Harry that Ron was only saying this to make up for his behaviour toward the two of them during the last few weeks, but they appreciated it all the same anyhow.

Hermione, however, leaned against the Owlery wall, folded her arms, and frowned at Ron.

"Vega and Harry's got a long way to go before they finish this tournament," Hermione pointed out seriously. "If that was the first task, I hate to think what's coming next,"

"Right little ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Ron asked. "You and Professor Trelawney should get together sometime," He threw Pigwidgeon out of the window.

"You need to be more careful with Pigwidgeon," Vega told him as she moved to look outside the window and make sure that the owl hadn't soared a mile with just that.

Pigwidgeon plummeted twelve feet before managing to pull himself back up again; the letter attached to his leg was much longer and heavier than usual – Harry hadn't been able to resist giving Sirius a blow-by-blow account of exactly how he had swerved, circled, and dodged the Horntail.

They watched Pigwidgeon disappear into the darkness.

"Well, we'd better get downstairs for your surprise party, Harry, Vega," Ron said as he looked at them. "Fred and George should have nicked enough food from the kitchens by now,"

"I almost forgot about that," Vega replied, running a hand through her hair.

Sure enough, when they entered the Gryffindor common room it exploded with cheers and yells again. There were mountains of cakes and flagons of pumpkin juice and butterbeer on every surface; Lee Jordan had let off some Filibuster's Fireworks, so that the air was thick with stars and sparks.

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