Chapter 62: Warn Cedric!

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"Remember the Void, if you need it," I suggest softly. Harry nods and closes his eyes. Hermione also picks up on his somber mood so we both follow suit.

"He specifically said 'a simple spell,' but that doesn't narrow it down much at all," Harry points out after some minutes.

"Yeah, simple is relative, anyway," Hermione points out. "There are a lot of spells that are simple for Dumbledore, but not many that are simple for a First Year."

"Sirius probably took that into consideration, Hermione," Harry says.

She bites her lip and turns to me. "What do you think, William?" Then her gaze intensifies. "I can see you know something."

I can feel my face heat in embarrassment, so it's no use trying to hide, now. "A dragon's scaly hide is practically impervious to spells from a single caster..." I say, trying to allow Hermione to fill in the blanks.

She either doesn't pick up on that or ignores it. "Yes, and? Come on, don't leave us hanging!"

"...and some parts of the dragon aren't covered by it," I finished.

Her eyes widened. "Of course! Its eyes are the weak point. You could probably damage the wings with an overpowered Cutter, but that would only make it angry. So what could he use?"

"Why ask me?" I try to act innocently.

"Because you know," Hermione says as if it's obvious. "I told you I can see right through you now." I guess it is obvious to her.

I sigh. "I suppose you can. There's the Conjunctivitis Curse, for one."

"I haven't heard of that..."

"I'm not surprised, because if you had I'm sure you would have mentioned it by now," I say with what I hope is a reassuring smile. 

"But that will still make it angry. Here's what I think, Harry: Summon your Firebolt, transfigure some decoys, hit it with some pink eye so it has trouble figuring out which is which, and go get...past them or whatever Charlie said." I almost said the egg. 

I quickly continue to hopefully cover it up. "You might want to practice making a powerful Shield charm just in case it gets a lucky shot with its breath, and the Flame-Freezing Charm or some cooling charm or water conjuration in case it gets past that. Maybe we can figure out what Charlie meant by Extinguishing Spells? I'm not sure if it would work, but you might also try an overpowered Banisher in case you can't get away when its tail is swinging toward you or something."

Hermione stares at me open-mouthed. "H-how did you come up with all that?"

I shrug and then grin. "Didn't we agree my middle-name is 'Awesome' last time we spoke?"

"The knowledge you inherited?" Hermione asks, ignoring my non-answer.

"That's a fair statement," I say.

Hermione raises an eyebrow at my choice of words but doesn't call me on it.

"I'm not sure about transfiguring decoys," Harry says. "There was a spell Ollivander used when he was testing my wand: Avis, which conjured some birds. Maybe I could use that?"

"Was there a wand motion?" Hermione asks. At Harry's response to the negative, she lifts her wand. "Avis." Two bright yellow canaries shoot out of her wand with a bang.

"Good thinking, Harry! We'll practice that today." She giggles at the birds twittering madly while flying circles around her. "I think you actually have a good chance of coming out on top of this thing."

Harry looks shocked at first, then turns pensive. Apparently a solid plan of action is as comforting to him as it is to Hermione.

"You should warn Cedric," I say.

This startles her. "What?"

"He's right, Hermione," Harry says. "I know for sure that Maxime will tell Fleur and Karkaroff will tell Krum. It's not fair to Cedric."

"I know you're both right, I was just surprised is all," she says with a small frown. "That hadn't occurred to me yet."

"I know, but it was going to," I say with my best attempt at an enigmatic smile, "you know, I can see right through you now. In fact I can predict exactly what you're about to do. You're about to argue that I can not, and then you're going to glare at me."

Right on each cue, Hermione closes her mouth and then glares at me. I laugh quite heartily at the scene, and Harry joins in. "Wow, William, that was impressive!"

"Well, I admit it would be funnier among Muggles, without the whole Legilimency thing. Here it's not a terribly impressive trick."

"I'm sure it isn't there, either," Hermione sniffs.

"I dunno, at least it was nice and specific, and it actually came true. Maybe I missed out on my calling in Divination."

"So, Cedric?" Hermione says, once again neglecting to acknowledge my existence.

"Let's grab him at breakfast," Harry says. "That way he'll have almost as much time to figure it out as the rest of us."

I'm half-tempted to make a joke about using my newly discovered aptitude for Divination to just tell him exactly what Cedric's going to do. 

Though, honestly, how is Transfiguring a single rock into a dog supposed to distract a dragon long enough for him to grab the Golden Egg? Maybe he'll do something a little more believable.

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After our morning run, I'm surprised to see Daphne sitting outside with two other people, who I immediately identify as her friends Blaise Zabini and Tracey Davis. I veer in their direction and I'm a bit surprised when everybody follows me. 

Once I reach them, our two groups stare at each other in an uncomfortable silence. Except for Luna, of course, who hums happily and rocks back and forth on her heels.

"Come on, Harry," Hermione says, finally breaking the silence. "Let's go practice. Do you want to help, Neville? Luna?"

She grabs Harry's hand and leads him off, and Neville looks torn. "Go ahead, Neville," I say.

"You sure, mate?"

"I'm sure."

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