A Question Needing No Answer

Hogwarts, Great Hall, Dec 6th

"I say we take another crack at the egg later," Harry said, piling some bacon onto his plate. "We need to hear the sound inside the egg again."

"Why would you want to listen to that?" Ron asked, looking completely bewildered. "Once was enough for me."

Harry had to bite his tongue. While he would like nothing more than to call Ron a simpering idiot, the moron and his brother had reconnected after the first task. Personally, Harry thought Nathan was still in shock, having just come face to face with a dragon, and hadn't been in the right frame of mind when Ron had begged forgiveness. Unfortunately, Nathan, Ron, and Hermione were now closer than ever, and Harry already thought the youngest Weasley would prove to be a problem.

"The sound is a clue," Calypso said, talking to Ron like he was two years old. "You do know what clues are, right? We need to decipher it to figure out what the next task is going to be."

Harry smiled. While he might be forced to 'play nice' with Ron Weasley according to his parents, he was rather thankful that Calypso had no intention of doing so.

His face flushing with embarrassment, Ron said, "The next task isn't until February. There's plenty of time till then! Nathan just finished the first task, and in second place no less! Give the man a little break!"

"A break," Calypso said disbelievingly. "You want him, someone who's already years behind the other champions, to take a break?"

"Listen," Nathan interjected, "While I agree that I need to figure out the golden egg, taking a short break won't hurt."

"See!" Ron said, enthusiastically. "We'll get back to work on the egg soon enough. Let the man have his moment."

Calypso turned to Harry, her expression eerily blank.

Knowing that Calypso was likely seconds away from losing it to Ron and his brother, Harry said, "Why don't we go work on our Charms project, Calypso." Standing up, Harry gave a disapproving look at his brother. "We'll catch up with you later, Nathan, okay?"

Sensing that their argument was far from done, Nathan nodded. "Alright, Harry, I'll see you later."

Calypso stood to leave when Hermione eagerly said, "Um, what Charms project are you working on? Can I watch?"

"I suppose," Harry said slowly. "Though, it can be a little dangerous."

Nathan seemed to perk up at the word 'dangerous' and said, "What exactly are you doing?"

Hoping to re-ignite his brother's interest in practicing by showing him some advanced magic, Harry said, "Calypso and I are going to practice Aqua Eructo. Do you want to come watch?"

While Nathan shook his head, Hermione gasped and looked torn between excited and concerned. "Aqua Eructo? Really? Have you asked a professor to supervise? I've heard that spell can be incredibly dangerous if you lose control of it."

"Supervise?" Calypso asked, sounding honestly confused as the three of them left the Great Hall. "Of course not. Why would a professor supervise us?"

Hermione looked at Calypso in disbelief. "To ensure nothing bad happens to you!"

"If something bad happens, then either we'll learn from our mistakes or decide not to cast the spell again," Calypso said certainly. "There's no reason for a professor to waste their time. Professors answer your questions, provide insights as to what you can do better, they're not there to hold our hands."

Hermione looked at Harry, who had given up trying to signal to Calypso that she should not be talking about this subject. "You can't be serious? Durmstrang just allows you to cast whatever magic you want without supervision?"

"You'd have to be an idiot to not ask for help or advice, and the professors will certainly provide it," Harry said, addressing what he thought might be Hermione's core complaint. "But, for the most part, we're allowed to go at our own pace. That's why it's better than Hogwarts in my opinion. No one holds you back. Your only limit is the one you put on yourself."

"But people could get hurt!" Hermione exclaimed as they stepped out of the castle and began the walk to the lake.

"People get hurt at Hogwarts too I imagine," Calypso shrugged.

Hermione refused to budge. "It's not the same. Durmstrang should do a better job keeping its students safe!"

"It's a different philosophy, you have to be there to fully understand," Harry said, not liking the way Hermione was starting to bad mouth his school. "You don't get your hand held at Durmstrang, and you become a better wizard or witch because of it."

"But what about those that need the extra attention?" Hermione countered. "The ones that need the extra help? What happens to them? "

Harry paused. He honestly hadn't thought about that. "I don't know. Maybe they go to Hogwarts?"

Hermione frowned at the slight before disregarding it to stick with her original point. "Don't you see? Unless you're one of the best at the school, Durmstrang is actually a horrid educational environment. At least at Hogwarts, the professors –"

"Don't," Harry snapped back. "Don't you dare try to say Hogwarts is a better school than Durmstrang. What fourth year would even be attempting to learn Aqua Eructo at Hogwarts? None. Hogwarts restricts its best and its brightest to keep pace with people like Weasley. Be honest, Hermione, you can't say that the Professors don't hold you back at times."

"I'm perfectly fine with the pace of my class at Hogwarts," Hermione said, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"Liar," Calypso and Harry said immediately.

Hermione flushed, falling into silence as she followed Harry and Calypso. After nearly five minutes of walking around the lake, she exasperatedly said, "Just where are we going?"

"The Forbidden Forest of course," Calypso said.

Hermione paled. "What? But we're not allowed in the forest!"

"We kind of got that from the name, thanks," Calypso said sarcastically, "but it's the best place for us to practice."

"Why don't you practice on the ship?" Hermione asked, hesitantly following Calypso and Harry into the forest. Idly, she noticed how the path they were walking on had been well traveled of late.

"Calypso and I don't want them to see our final project ideas, at least until it's too late for them to try to copy them. It has happened before, not to us obviously, but in Viktor's year someone stole a final project idea because they couldn't think of one themselves."

"Originality and difficulty are parts of the evaluation for the project," Calypso explained, seeing Hermione look confused. "Two people with the same project can't get the top yearly award because it's obviously not original and not too difficult if two people thought of the same thing and did it."

Unable to see a flaw in their thinking, Hermione nodded, continuing to follow Harry and Calypso until she stopped walking. "We need to stop. We shouldn't be here."

Smiling, Calypso said, "It's just a little further. Come on."

Hermione seemed to take a few steps forward before she shook her head violently. "No! We're not supposed to be out here! This isn't safe. We need to leave. Now!" Turning quickly, Hermione ran back down the path, unwilling to spend another second inside the forest.

Watching her run off, Calypso smiled. "Another hundred feet and she would have made it past the Notice-Me-Not Charms."

"I'm still trying to get used to including someone besides myself in the ward." Harry frowned slightly. "Did you feel at all uncomfortable?"

"Not really. I kind of feel like being here is wrong, but it's not anything I can't ignore," Calypso replied honestly,

"Hmm," Harry said, "Well, that's some improvement."

Calypso leaned slightly into Harry, looking particularly smug. "So what do you want to do? Now that you had your little ward test, do you want to help me with Aqua Eructo?"

Feeling a little nervous, Harry did his best to push those feelings aside with Occlumency. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh?" Calypso asked curiously. "What about?"

"Well, Viktor mentioned that they're having a dance over holiday to celebrate the tournament. I was hoping you'd go with me?" Harry asked, unable to keep his cheeks from heating up a bit.

Placing a very light kiss against Harry's lips, Calypso leaned back and said, "Of course."