The next morning Harry awoke in a good mood, the events of the previous night still fresh on his mind. Checking the time, he realized that he had slept later than he normally did. Although from the sounds of his roommates' snores he guessed he was not the only one. He wasn't at all surprised by that. The Yule Ball lasted until late into the night and for those who were eager to continue the fun a couple of unofficial after parties had been thrown. Harry had decided against attending any of those and so even though he was the last of his roommates to leave the Ball he was still the first one back to the room.

Harry had slept too late to make it to breakfast, so he decided to make a quick stop by the kitchens and pick up a snack before heading out to the Quidditch pitch. The urge to spend the morning flying on his Firebolt had hit him strongly as he was getting out of bed and since he had nothing else planned it seemed like a great idea. If he had thought about it, he might have realized that all of his actions that morning were solitary as if he wanted to avoid everyone. However that thought had not occurred to him.

Harry walked out the doors of the Quidditch locker rooms and immediately realized something was very wrong with the pitch. The goal posts had all been pulled down at some point in the last couple of days and the grass had been ripped up as well, exposing the dark brown dirt below. He knew there was no reason to keep the pitch as is since there would be no Quidditch that year but the destruction of the place he enjoyed so much disturbed him. Harry gazed at the field for a few minutes, sadly wishing that he had never heard of the Triwizard Tournament. Pushing thoughts of the ruined field away, Harry mounted his broom and began to fly. He had worried that with no Quidditch practice his skills would fade, but apparently all of those people who claimed he was a natural on a broom had a point. For the next few hours Harry pushed the broom to its top speeds and forced it into tight turns that would have hurled most riders off of the broom and down onto the ground below.

Harry ended his morning flight when he noticed that it was time for lunch, he was in no mood to miss two meals in a row. Landing by the door to the locker rooms Harry took one last look at the field, wondering what reason Dumbledore could have possibly had for tearing it apart. Shaking his head at the situation, Harry turned around and went inside. When he reached the Great Hall he saw that it was now back to its original configuration. All evidence of the Yule Ball from the night before had been completely removed by the house elves. A quick glance towards the Gryffindor table revealed that neither Neville nor Hermione were there, however Ron was. Looking towards the Slytherin table he saw that Daphne was there and had noticed him walking into the room. She also happened to have an empty seat in front of her...

"Good morning, Daphne." he said, sitting down at the table across from her. The hall was mostly empty, in fact he didn't see any of the other Slytherin fourth years, but the Slytherins that did see him sit at their table began to excitedly talk to each other while trying to decide whether or not to do anything about.

"You realize this may be the first time in decades that a Gryffindor has tried to eat at the Slytherin table?" she asked, although from her smile she obviously thought it was funny too.

"Really? I guess there is a first time for everything then. So was your sister as bad as you thought she would be?"

"I spent three hours answering her questions this morning." Daphne said. "In the end she said I should tell anyone who had a problem with me to 'piss off'."

"Good, I agree. So do I have the Astoria seal of approval then?" Harry asked, still curious about her little sister's opinion. He had not thought about it much yet, but her family's approval of him seemed to be an important issue.

"Not yet. You have to go through the interrogation next, but you should be fine. She doesn't seem to care about house rivalries, I must have taught her well." Harry agreed and for a while they continued to eat and chat as if there was nothing odd about them doing so. The other Slytherins had apparently decided to do nothing for the moment, but that changed when Draco Malfoy walked in flanked by cronies Crabbe and Goyle.

"Potter! Get the hell away from my table!" Malfoy yelled, grabbing the attention of both Harry and Daphne who had not noticed him until that point. He had also managed to get the attention of all of the other people in the Great Hall.

"I don't think I will. Daphne and I are enjoying a nice, quiet lunch. Why don't you sit down and do the same?" Harry said calmly. As he talked he had turned his body in such a way that Malfoy could not see him pull his wand out of his robes.

"You think you're something special, don't you Potter. That Boy-Who-Lived crap has finally driven you mad. It's not enough for you to enter the Triwizard Tournament illegally and get away with it but now you are stupid enough to think you can sit at my table like you own it. You'll pay for that." With that Malfoy reached for his wand and pointed it towards Harry while yelling out "Stupefy!" Harry had the advantage of already having his wand out and ready so when Malfoy reached for his he cast a shield charm big enough to cover both himself and Daphne. When Malfoy's stunner hit the shield there was a brief sizzling noise and what looked like a red splash against a light blue dome. Angry that his first attack didn't work Malfoy switched to a more dangerous spell and screamed "Reducto!" This spell too failed when it hit Harry's shield. Harry thought Draco was going to try for a third spell when he was interrupted.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor and a week's detention, Potter!" Professor Snape said angrily as he walked up to them and forced Malfoy to lower his wand. "Dueling is not allowed in the Great Hall."

"Severus," the voice of Professor Dumbledore called from behind him "I believe I must have had a better view of what happened. Mr Potter clearly only cast a shield charm in self defense, perhaps your punishment should instead be given to Mr Malfoy who if I am not mistaken cast two offensive spells and was preparing to cast a third?"

"Of course, Headmaster." Snape answered in a low growl, clearly not happy with the outcome.

"Also, five points for Gryffindor for a wonderful demonstration of the Protego shield charm. Enjoy the rest of your meal, everyone." Dumbledore gave Harry a small wink before turning and heading back to the professor's table. Snape scowled at Harry before following him, leaving Malfoy still standing in front of Harry and Daphne madder than ever.

"I'll get you for this, Potter. You and your whore." Draco said, sending a threatening glare at Daphne. Before either of them could respond Malfoy had walked off with Crabbe and Goyle in tow. The rest of the Slytherin students at the table seemed more unsure than ever about how to react to Harry. Eventually they just went back to their lunches, trying to pretend nothing had happened. Harry looked up at Daphne and frowned.

"I guess I should have known that would happen. It's been far too long since Malfoy had tried to attack me. Should I go?" Harry asked.

"No, the damage is done anyway. He is a pest, nothing more. Did you know he really doesn't have many friends in Slytherin? Sure, he has allies but almost no one who hangs around him does it because they like him. I can handle Malfoy if I have to." she said confidently. "How are the Gryffindor's reacting?"

"It's hard to say. Nobody seems to have made up their minds yet, other than Ron of course. Then again I haven't talked to any of them today." he explained. "Maybe it won't be that bad."

"We'll see. Oh, and I before I forget I needed to tell you that I am mad at you." Daphne said, but oddly didn't look or sound that mad at all.

"What? Why?" Harry asked, trying to think of anything he could have done to upset her and not coming up with anything.

"You've been holding back on me when we practice. You cast that Protego non-verbally, how long have you been working on that?" Harry sighed, realizing that she was right. He didn't want to discourage her and thought it might be a good idea not to show her things he could do that she couldn't yet. She was learning, but he still had the advantage.

"The past two or three weeks. I can't do it on every spell, and usually when I can the spells are weaker. I didn't even realize I had cast the spell silently until you said something about it. We can work on it together from now on." Daphne nodded in agreement. "There's something else I need to tell you too. Last week Hermione asked if she could come with me one night while I trained. I told her to wait until after Christmas and ask again if she still wanted to because I didn't want to have to explain why you were there yet. I haven't seen her yet today, but when I do the first thing out of her mouth is going to be to tell me she still wants to. That's just the way she is."

Daphne sat and thought about how she felt about Hermione joining them. She was a little surprised by the jealous feeling that sprang up inside her, insisting that Hermione not be allowed to come because she would be intruding on her time with Harry. Daphne pushed that feeling away, telling herself that it wouldn't matter anymore because she could talk to him publicly like they were doing now. "That will be fine," Daphne finally said, "assuming she still wants to come."

"Great." Harry replied. "So I saw the Daily Prophet today and they didn't mention anything about the Yule Ball."

"I think that was because it happened so late last night they didn't have time to write the stories for the morning paper. You know how obsessively they have been covering everything about this tournament, they are going to say something about it. Wait until tomorrow, then we'll see." Harry nodded, his face dropping into a small frown.

"Ah, and here I thought we had just gotten a lucky break." he said with a half-hearted laugh. They then began discussing what they wanted to do with the rest of the day since they did not have classes or anything else to do. In the end they ended up taking a walk outside, enjoying the fact that they no longer had to meet in secret.

As Harry had expected, Hermione asked him about watching and hopefully participating in his training as soon as she saw him. He agreed and gave her directions to the third floor classroom he had been using. She excitedly told him that he wouldn't regret it and that she had something for him to practice tonight. Harry wasn't very happy with her thinking she could dictate his lessons, but decided he would just have to show her what he had been doing to make her understand. Harry and Daphne actually were in the room thirty minutes, discussing what they were going to do about Hermione and what they would tell her.

Right on time, Hermione walked through the door and a small look of surprise crossed her face when she saw Daphne.

"Hello Daphne, Harry didn't tell me you would be here too." Hermione said while setting her book bag down on a desk. Daphne smiled and gave a small wave in response.

"Actually, she has been helping me out for a while now. That's part of why I told you to wait until after Christmas to ask about my training again."

"What's going on, Harry?" Hermione asked, knowing that there was a lot to the story she was not being told.

"There are a couple of reasons why she has been training with me. One, we knew that some of our classmates might not like the fact that we went to the Yule Ball together and are... well, friends now I suppose." Harry added the last part uncertainly; unsure exactly what their relationship was now. Certainly more than friends. Were they dating? Or would he have to ask her out on multiple dates before they were dating? Deciding not to confuse himself with that, he pushed it from his mind but not before Daphne saw his brief look of confusion and smiled at what she knew he was thinking.

"And the other part is that we believe the return of the Dark Lord is imminent, and when that day comes we will both be in his way so we should be prepared." Daphne said, stepping in to finish for Harry. Hermione's jaw dropped and she looked back and forth between Harry and Daphne looking for some indication that they were joking. The serious looks on their faces said otherwise.

"Harry, you're really serious about this aren't you? Surely Dumbledore wouldn't allow that to happen." Hermione argued, eliciting a small frown from Harry.

"Dumbledore is not a god, Hermione. He can't control everything. Voldemort has made two attempts to come back since we've come to Hogwarts and the only reason he didn't succeed was luck. One day we won't be so lucky, and what then?" Harry pleaded with Hermione, who though still not happy was beginning to nod in agreement with his points. "I can't escape him; he is going to keep coming for me no matter what. Daphne and her family have been preparing for this since the Death Eater attack this summer, and I respect the choice they have made. You might still be able to escape this Hermione. It's doubtful because you are muggleborn, but if you back off now Voldemort won't have any other reason to target you."

"You're talking about me abandoning you again, aren't you? I won't do it, Harry! Not even if you act like you want me to." she replied forcefully. At this Harry and Daphne shared a look and nodded, as if they were waiting on her to say what she did. Harry walked over to Hermione and pulled her into a friendly, reassuring hug.

"Thank you, Hermione." he said as he released the hug. "I just hope you know what you've gotten yourself into."

"Trouble, I assume. As always." she answered. Daphne watched the friends with a small smile. She did not think that she would ever be the best of friends with Hermione, but it was clear the other girl was now fiercely loyal to Harry. Her disappointment with her own previous behavior had pushed her to that extreme, never again would she betray her friend. When the war finally came, Daphne knew, there was nothing that would keep Hermione from standing by his side. Their job was to help her become a witch that would be useful when that day came.

"So Daphne, what do you think?" Harry turned and asked.

"Welcome to the club." she answered with a shrug. Harry and Hermione both laughed, but then Hermione got an excited look on her face and ran off towards her book bag. She had pulled out several books, looking for the right one, until she eventually found the book she was looking for. She then began rapidly turning the pages.

"She does this sometimes." Harry said to Daphne, loud enough for Hermione to hear. Hermione finally found the page she was looking for and rushed back over to Harry, holding the book out for him to take. "What's this, Hermione?"

"The answer you've been looking for, of course. Instructions on how to perform the Bubble Head Charm, which will allow you to breathe underwater." she stated with a proud smile on her face. Harry and Daphne both wore shocked expressions on their faces, thrilled that Hermione had been able to find the answer to their dilemma when neither of them had yet been able to.

"That's brilliant, Hermione!" Harry finally exclaimed, taking the book and beginning to read. Daphne sat down next to him and began reading while Hermione simply waited for them to finish. When Harry was done he handed the book back to Daphne and started practicing the wand movements. "Have you tried this one yet?"

"No, not yet." Hermione answered. "I don't think it is supposed to be a difficult spell, but I didn't want to risk trying it without someone else there to help me if it went wrong."

"What do you mean, went wrong?" Harry asked.

"I was worried that I might get the bubble to appear but not the air in it." Hermione answered. Harry nodded, agreeing that would be a bad result.

"Well, here goes nothing..." Harry said, starting the wand movement that began with him waving his wand around his head and ended with him tapping himself on the head. As he finished he clearly and forcefully said the incantation: "Aer Caputus!" and was rewarded with the sight of a transparent bubble forming around his head. He had been nervously holding his breath as he cast the spell, a fact which took him several seconds to realize. Hesitantly, he took in a breath and was pleased to find that it was normal, breathable air. "It worked!" Daphne rushed over to him and gave him a hug in congratulations, and then began to poke at the bubble with her finger to see if it would break. The bubble remained intact, even when Daphne stopped using her finger and started trying to burst the bubble with a quill.

"I think this will work, Harry. The bubble is a lot stronger than it looks." Daphne said approvingly. "Now try to cancel the spell." Harry nodded and tapped himself on head again which caused the bubble to disappear. "Good!" she said in encouragement.

"Now you just have to try it underwater." Hermione added.

"I was thinking about that," Harry responded, "and now that I have a way to stay underwater I want to start exploring the lake. That way I will have a better idea of where I am going for the second task. Before I do that though, I need to figure out what is living in the lake. I know there are Merpeople, grindylows, and the giant squid but what else?"

"I'll look into it, Harry" Hermione said eagerly. "Oh, and if it makes you feel any better Viktor hasn't been able to figure out how to get the clue from the egg yet."

"And how was your date with the international Quidditch star?" Daphne asked, resulting in a small blush from Hermione.

"It was... good." Hermione answered, still blushing and smiling. Daphne laughed a little seeing how uncomfortable the other girl was gossiping about her date.

"Cedric already knew." Harry said suddenly, referring to the egg, "Professor Moody told him." As he said that he got the feeling that the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor's behavior was very odd. Why would he tell Harry about the first task but not Cedric? Or tell Cedric about the second task but not Harry? If he just wanted someone from Hogwarts to win it would be better to tell them both. Moody also tried to help him plan for the first task, but he had not done anything like that this time. 'Maybe Moody is just mad, like everyone says.' Harry thought, trying to shake the confused feeling.

"That was nice of Professor Moody." Hermione said. But Daphne's face had a small frown on it, causing Harry to wonder if she was having thoughts similar to his. Before he could continue that thought Hermione was talking again, asking him a question. "Harry, is there another room somewhere in the castle we can use? This is a great location and it's private, but it's also too small."

"I can check the Marauder's Map for something else, but nothing comes to mind. Maybe I could ask Dobby." The second he said Dobby's name the small house elf popped into the room, throwing himself at Harry's feet.

"Is Master Harry Potter calling Dobby?" he asked, happy that Harry wanted him there. Harry, meanwhile, was a little uncomfortable with the affection the elf was showing him.

"Dobby, do you know of somewhere in the castle we can practice magic? We would need it to be private like this room, but bigger."

"Maybe, Harry Potter, sir." Dobby said, looking thoughtful. "Dobby will look and ask the other house elves. Dobby will not disappoint you sir!" The small house elf disappeared as quickly as he had appeared, leaving Daphne laughing at the elf's odd behavior and Hermione muttering something about 'poorly treated elves'.

"If there is a better place in this castle, Dobby will find it." Harry assured them both. "Alright, now you two should practice the Bubble Head Charm. Like Hermione said, it isn't that difficult." The rest of the evening was spent with them learning the new spell and testing what they could do with it. Neither of them was able to successfully perform the spell on their first try. Daphne finally managed to do it after ten minutes of trying, and Hermione five minutes after that. By the time they finished experimenting with the new spell if was late and they decided to call it quits. Hermione left for the Gryffindor common room while Harry escorted Daphne back to the Slytherin dorms.

On the way it was hard to miss the stares they received whenever they passed by the other students. What was most amusing to them was the variety of expressions on the faces of the people who were staring. Some were angry, others fearful, and a great many of them were simply interested or confused. Harry and Daphne either laughed it off or ignored them, not wanting to deal with people asking them to explain their relationship. Not that either of them was quite sure how to define that relationship at the moment either. Both were curious what the other thought, but neither of them had brought up the topic. For now neither of them minded that, content to just enjoy the moment. Things might get difficult in the near future and they were not eager to take on any more worries.

Unknown to them, at that very moment a fresh round of attacks from the Daily Prophet was being printed and prepared for delivery courtesy of their least favorite reporter: Rita Skeeter.

RISING DARK LORD PICKS HIS DARK LADY?

by Rita Skeeter

Have the fears of the wizarding world that Harry Potter has turned dark now been confirmed? This reporter has long argued that there is something very wrong with the young Triwizard Champion and his actions this year have done nothing to refute that. My faithful readers will surely remember the Boy-Who-Lived's reckless use of dark magic which turned a wild dragon into his mindless slave, an event the Ministry still refuses to investigate.

The fact that Potter has been lost to the darkness was all but confirmed at Hogwart's Yule Ball. For weeks the student population had been speculating on who Potter would take to the Yule Ball, with most sources claiming he would attend with his long time love interest Hermione Granger. In a shocking turn of events Granger spurned the affections of the young Triwizard Champion in favor of his Durmstrang rival, Viktor Krum! Perhaps it was this rejection that blackened the young man's heart and soul, we can only guess.

Freshly rejected by Hermione Granger, Harry Potter turned to the dark embrace of Daphne Greengrass from Slytherin house. The Greengrasses, as you may remember, have a long history of supporting dark wizards. In fact, Daphne Greengrass's uncle Gabriel Greengrass is a convicted Death Eater and resides in Azkaban to this very day! Dear readers, I shiver when I think of what it might mean that the defeater of You-Know-Who is embracing not just the dark arts but the followers of the former dark lord as well. Now is the time for the Ministry to step in and act, before Dark Lord Potter becomes a menace even they can not stop.

But perhaps there is hope. Our sources at Hogwarts tell me that Potter and Greengrass were not known acquaintances before the Yule Ball. Very few could recall the two ever talking to each other. There is therefore a chance that Ms Greengrass has somehow managed to gain control of Mr Potter, perhaps through use of love potions or the Imperious Curse. Her control over Potter was evidenced during an altercation during the Yule Ball in which Potter's best friend, Ronald Weasley, attempted to bring Potter to his senses and break Greengrass's influence over his friend. His brave attempt failed when Greengrass threatened Mr Weasley (with all sorts of dark magic no doubt), an action which drew no protest from Harry Potter. Action must be taken now if there is any hope of saving Harry Potter's soul! Will anyone act? Only time will tell.

The article in the Daily Prophet circulated quickly and within hours of its delivery almost everyone in Hogwarts had read it. Once again the fickle nature of the student body was evident in their reactions. However, there was a growing minority that had noted the inaccuracies in the Daily Prophet's reporting and was beginning to question whether or not their main source of information could be trusted. This small, but growing, group mainly consisted of fourth year students who had come to know Harry over the past four years. It was possible, they believed, to think that Harry could have gotten past the age line and put his name in the Goblet of Fire. Several people, including Fred and George Weasley, had attempted that and were not thought poorly of. Why should Harry be treated any different? But could Harry Potter be turning evil, as the Daily Prophet alleged? The claim was too ridiculous to accept for many of them. One thing was certain: opinions were starting to polarize. The amount of people who had yet to make up their minds was rapidly decreasing.

Support for Harry was strongest in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, where Cedric Diggory had been able to convince many of his housemates to ignore the slanderous articles from the Daily Prophet. The Hufflepuff's trusted Diggory, and if he approved of Potter that was enough for them to give the subject a second thought. Cho Chang was acting as Ravenclaw's voice of reason, although not as successfully as her Hufflepuff boyfriend. Most of the Slytherins were against Harry out of habit, but a few were more curious about Daphne's relationship with him.

The Daily Prophet's vicious lies about Harry were beginning to have an effect that no one had foreseen, because the more the newspaper attacked him the larger the group of people who realized they were being lied to grew. And if the Prophet was lying about Harry Potter, what else could they be lying about? Slowly, a still small number of them were beginning to ask questions and think for themselves. Though hardly noticeable to most observers, things were starting to change.