PHANTOM FIGURES | harry potter

48. the first task

     Aspen got up early on Sunday morning and got dressed the quickest she ever had in her entire life. She hurried off to find Hermione and Jasmine, who were eating breakfast with Ginny. A few moments after she arrived in the Great Hall, Harry came racing in. The two champions, too queasy to eat, waited for Hermione and Jasmine to swallow their last bits of porridge before dragging them out onto the grounds. Then, they told them all about the dragons, and about everything Sirius had said, whilst they took a long walk around the lake.

     Alarmed as she was about Sirius' warnings about Karkaroff, Hermione still thought that the dragons were the more pressing problem.

     "Let's just try to keep you two alive until Tuesday evening," she said desperately, "and then we can worry about Karkaroff."

     "Do you know what you're doing, Aspen?"

     "Disillusionment Charm," the Ravenclaw girl answered, she had a lot of experience with it.

     "Where did you learn that?" asked Hermione.

     "Books," shrugged Aspen. "I've used it like three times before."

     "Well, I'm sorry to say it, Harry, but you won't be able to use the same thing because people are going to think you've worked together." Hermione paused with furrowed brows. "Yet they probably already assume you are, but would still be a bad look."

    They walked three times around the lake, trying all the way to think of a spell to help Harry subdue a dragon. They couldn't come up with anything so they retired to the library, but Aspen and Jasmine split from the quartet.

     "Harry will be fine," Jasmine voiced as they walked through the castle corridors, unsure of where to go. "He'll find something to do, whether that is from Hermione, or maybe a teacher illegally helps him, considering he's the favourite... well, everyone's except Snape's."

     Aspen felt like it used to always be her reassuring everyone else things would be fine, now suddenly the roles had reversed and she was the one who needed the constant words of comfort.

     Aspen barely slept that night. She kept having dreams of the Blinding Brazilian burning her corneas. She had a difficult time swallowing her breakfast. For a second, Aspen debated on running away from Hogwarts, but then she looked around the Great Hall and knew she couldn't.

     As Aspen, Harry, Jasmine, and Hermione got up, they saw Cedric Diggory leaving the Hufflepuff table.

     Cedric still didn't know about the dragons... the only champion who didn't, if Aspen was right in thinking that Maxime and Karkaroff would have told Fleur and Krum...

     "Hermione, Jasmine, we'll see you in the Greenhouses," Harry said, taking Aspen's hand in his, seemingly wanting to follow Cedric and inform him of the vicious creatures. "Go on. We'll meet up with you."

     "Harry, you both will be late, the bell's about to ring-"

     "We'll meet up with you, yeah?"

     By the time Aspen and Harry had reached the bottom of the marble staircase, Cedric was at the top. He was with a load of sixth-year friends. Aspen didn't want to talk to Cedric in front of them; they were among those who kept quoting Rita's Skeeter articles at Harry every time he had been near them. Aspen separated her hand from Harry's, the action of hand-holding would only make their teasing worse. They followed Cedric at a distance and saw that he was heading toward the Charms corridor. Harry stopped walking, making Aspen look at the boy weirdly, he pulled out his wand, and took careful aim.