True friends come from unexpected places

A shock for Draco

Back at the Three Broomsticks, a 'beetle' was waiting on the front window, watching Ron dash out as fast as possible while complaining about kissing Pansy on the lips. Then the 'beetle' flew to a safe area in the woods and transformed into the notorious Rita Skeeter, who had a smug grin on her face.

"Wow, it looks like Mr. Weasley and Miss Parkinson... oooh, this is gonna be an exciting story!" said Rita ecstatically, once she had witnessed Ron and Pansy kissing through the window. "But, I'll need to think over long and hard what shall be in the article!"

Once she was finished, she left to head back to the Daily Prophet headquarters in Diagon Alley. Dobby also managed to make it back to tell Harry the evidence was delivered to Madam Bones.

(Line break)

It was finally the 24th, the day of the first task. This was also the day that Draco was going to find out what he sacrificed several years ago, and also what Ginny was bound to face as retribution for spanking Susan the other day. The task would be starting sometime after lunch, but Harry was confident because he had settled with some useful spells, but first he had to let everybody know the real Harry, once and for all. Dobby and the other house elves gave Harry a good idea on how that could be done, which intrigued Harry. He even gave his house elves several of his worst memories at the Dursleys (after Dobby told Harry that his wand was capable of extracting memories, which had to be done by pointing the wand at his head to retieve it), with Shiny giving him some pepperup potion. Once that was finished, Harry went to sit at his favourite spot by the Black Lake. Some minutes later, Tori joined him and sat down next to him.

"The ferret will be in for a shock," she said. "I'm looking forward to that."

"Me, too," said Harry. "Dumbledore also isn't going to expect Madam Bones to be here." "Yeah, he'll be speechless." agreed Tori.

Then she wrapped her arms around Harry, giving him a hug. But she wouldn't stop, it was as if she didn't want to leave Harry's side, even before the first task.

"Are you alright, Tori?" asked Harry, hugging her back in the process.

"Yeah, but I don't want to see you get hurt, or killed at worst," said Tori, with tears welling up in her eyes. "It doesn't seem like Dumbledore cares about that."

"I'll be fine," assured Harry. "I'll do anything to finish the task in one piece."

And he certainly did, this part of the plan for the task will land Dumbledore especially in hot water. Soon, lunchtime was approaching and before heading to the Great Hall, Tori gave Harry a kiss on his cheek, making him blush. Tori, in turn blushed as well, her cheeks turned bright red. Harry was still blushing, even when he approached the entrance. This resulted in Harry taking his time walking to the Great Hall, knowing that he didn't want the wrong people to ask him why he was blushing.

After lunchwas over, everybody started walking to the stadiumwhere the firsttask was goingto be held. ProfessorMcGonagall told Harry that he had to go to the champions' tent, where the other championswere going. Upon enteringthe tent, Harry saw Cedric,Viktor and Fleurglaring at him, but he didn't care.Meanwhile in the stands, Daphnefound a spot next to Neville's left and sat down, with Tracey sittingby Daphne's left.Draco approached the three, eyeing Daphne and who she was sitting with.

  "You shouldn't sit with Longbottom, Greengrass," said Draco. "He's corrupting you, just as much as Potter corrupted my girl."

"Who I choose to sit with isn't your concern, Malfoy," Daphne retorted. "And no, I don't know where Tori is. Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you, not even in a million years."

"Well, tell her that she must sit by me, over where my father and I are sitting," Draco demanded. "He wants to talk some sense into her, since she refuses to prepare for being the next Lady Malfoy."