Chapter 513: Nightmare (Edited)

Another Divination lesson.

Harry listened drowsily to Professor Trelawney's lecture, the heat in the dimly lit classroom cutting off his breath and making the smell of tea even stronger than usual.

As Professor Trelawney untied the shawl hanging from the lamp, Harry peeked out the crack in the window and leaned back in the Indian calico-covered armchair, a light breeze blowing in his face, much to his relief.

Then...

Slowly he drifted off to sleep.

On the other hand, Professor Trelawney, who was teaching astrology to the students, turned off all the lights in the classroom, leaving the fire as the only source of light.

She then bent down and pulled out from under her chair a small model of the solar system in a round glass box. The model was beautiful, with the fiery sun, the nine planets and their moons floating in the glass envelope, glowing in their places.

"Nya!"

?(=?ω?=)?

Fish, in cat form, hopped up to Professor Trelawney's desk and leaned over the glass cover and looked at the little solar system inside.

"Do you like this?"

Professor Trelawney happily hugged Fish in her arms, scratched Fish's chin with her ring-covered hand, and said, "I'll give you one when it's your birthday."

"Nya~"

(=?ω?=)

Fish happily rubbed against the back of her hand.

Then Professor Trelawney, under the admiring gaze of the students, continued to explain the wonderful angle between Mars and Neptune while petting the cat.

A few moments later...

"Ah~!"

A shout interrupted Professor Trelawney's class, and the crowd looked up to see Harry covering his forehead and rolling frantically on the floor.

"Nya!"

Fish was the first to jump up and give Harry a rejuvenating slap.

However, it was not a traumatic injury that was the cause of Harry's headache, so Fish's treatment had no effect.

"Harry! Harry!"

Ron rushed over, knelt on the floor and pinned Harry, who was rolling, and shouted his name loudly. After a while, Harry gradually came to his senses.

He lay on the ground, opened his eyes and dropped the hands covering his face.

"Huh? Is Harry crying?"

?(ΦωΦ)?

Fish, who had returned to his human form, looked at the tear stains on Harry's face and said inquisitively.

"Are you all right?" asked Ron quickly.

"Of course not!" Professor Trelawney cut in, looking excited. Her large eyes glanced at Harry, moving eerily close to him. "What is it, Potter? An omen? A vision? What did you see?"

"Nothing." said Harry nonchalantly, not wanting to be disturbed by her.

But Professor Trelawney was relentless, "You were covering up your scar!" She continued excitedly, "You were rolling around on the floor covering your scar! Come on, Potter, I have experience with these things!"

"I think I need to go to the hospital, I have a terrible headache."

Harry didn't bother with her, excused himself to go to the infirmary, quickly packed his backpack to Professor Trelawney's disappointment and left the Divination classroom.

After leaving the Divination classroom, Harry did not go to the infirmary, but instead went to the Headmaster's office to find Dumbledore, as Sirius had instructed him to do.

The statue at the door stopped him again.

"... nya?"

Harry tried Fish's knock again, apparently behind the wall this time, no Snape was there to open the door for him.

So Harry had to try a snack name each time, and managed to open the secret door to the Headmaster's office with the password "Cockroach Cuckoo Cuckoo."

...

Harry's headache in the Divination classroom didn't cause too much of a stir among the student body, and classes at Hogwarts continued to run in an orderly fashion, with several of the champions preparing for their third test.

Fish was preparing in the same way as before, going to Professor McGonagall's office and pestering her to read him stories of wizarding fights, and after listening to them with Hermione, the two of them would go to the Room of Requirement to practice.

And so, a month had passed and final exams at Hogwarts had begun.

"What? Champions don't need exams nya?!".

∑(?ΦДΦ?)

When Hermione told Fish about it, Fish was overjoyed.

"So there's a Triwizard Tournament next year? Fish is going to do it again."

?(?≧?≦?)?

It's fun and no exams, more of these please!

"Of course not..." explained Hermione dumbfounded. "Even with the old rules, the Triwizard Tournament was only held once every five years."

"Nya... this rule is no good nya!"

(?≥△≤?)

Fish, disappointed, sighed.

Fish and Harry, who did not have to take the exam, were free to move about, but Harry preferred to sit in the exam classroom, looking for a useful spell for the third test...if it was a written exam, he would sit at the back of the classroom and read.

Fish, of course, chose to sleep in the sun.

After a week like that, June 24 arrived, the last day of Hogwarts final exams and the start of the third test.

Once the daytime exams were over and dinner was served, the four champions headed to the quidditch pitch to run the maze.

Earlier that morning, however, the Daily Prophet published the news that Rita Skeeter had exposed Harry's sudden headache in Divination class a month earlier, suggesting that he had probably faked it for attention.

But Harry was so used to Skeeter's unwarranted attacks on him that he didn't take them seriously.

"Looks like he was just outside the window." Harry said to Ron, "Maybe his Animagus form is some kind of bird, like George and Fred."

"It's a pity Fish won't tell us exactly what Skeeter's Animagus form is," Ron shrugged, "Or we could have put her in Azkaban."

He sighed and said, "Why does he always manage to befriend some nasty bloke? Skeeter does, and so does Snape... and Malfoy and the others."

"Malfoy probably thinks so too." said Harry with a grin, and put down his knife and fork, intending to go with Ron to the History of Magic exam.

At that moment, however, Professor McGonagall approached.

"Fish, Potter, the champions will meet in the meeting room next to the Great Hall after breakfast." She said.

"But the tournament doesn't start until tonight!". Harry accidentally spilled his scrambled eggs, thinking he had misremembered the time.

"I know, Potter," said Professor McGonagall, "The champions' relatives have been invited to watch the final, so you can meet them."

"Relatives?" Fish blinked, "Isn't Fish's relative you, Minerva?"

?ω?

Professor McGonagall smiled and said, "You'll find out when you get there." She turned and walked away.

And Harry looked at her back, a little dazed.

"She doesn't think the Dursleys are coming, does she?" he asked Ron, puzzled.

"I don't know," said Ron, "Harry, I have to go, I'm late for exams. See you later."

Ron left with most of the students, leaving only the four champions in the Great Hall, except for Fish who was still eating and drinking, Fleur and Krum had put down their knives and forks, but from the looks of them, they seemed to be waiting for Fish to finish eating so they could pass by together.

Harry sat back in his seat with a worried expression on his face, he didn't think he had any relatives willing to see him risk his life.

But before he could think about whether he should go take a look around or go straight to the library to read, Fish, who had already eaten his fill, dragged him over.

"Harry, let's go fast! Don't worry, if that bad guy of yours comes, Fish will beat him up for you!"

(?`?′?)

Fish patted his chest and assured.

Harry couldn't refuse Fish's offer, so he followed him, along with Fleur and Krum, to the meeting room next to the Great Hall.

Upon entering the meeting room, Harry was startled to see how many people were there.

"Fish!"

The group gathered with glee at the sight of Fish.

Only then did Harry notice that most of the people coming were people he knew, except for the Granger's, the rest were basically Hogsmeade residents, like the Flume's from Honeydukes, Mrs. Rosmerta from the Three Broomsticks and others.

"Hi nya!"

(?ΦωΦ?)?

Fish was happy to see them all and greeted them with a cheerful smile.

"Harry, over here."

Just as Harry was filled with envy, he suddenly heard someone calling him from the side, he followed the sound and saw Mrs. Weasley standing in front of the fireplace and waving at him, next to her was long-haired Bill.