Speed
Fourth Year
By Clell65619
A/N: I do not own Harry Potter. Nor any of the DC Comics Characters mentioned herein. But you knew that.
Ten minutes to go.
Have I mentioned how much I hate waiting?
The Death Eaters have gathered at the edge of the wards. There was no sign of their master, of course. A drama queen like Voldemort needed to make an entrance, after all.
Not for the first time I wondered if we could rid the world of a whole lot of evil if, we just provided each Dark Lord type with a stage and a spotlight so that they could show the world just how wonderful and talented they were.
Harry had his wand pointed to the sky as he started the chant for the defensive spell the Padma had found in her family's archives. A nasty bit of magic she called Shiva's Trisul. On the second verse of the chant, Padma and Parvati joined in. Harry was providing the power; Padma and Parvati provided the control.
Evidently, The Patil bloodline somehow powered this spell. Without a Patil in the mix, no power in the world would make the spell work. With two, the effect doubled.
Hermione called the whole idea of magic tied to a bloodline to be simultaneously very cool and exceedingly unfair. I fully expected to see a whole array of new spells tied to the Granger bloodline before terribly long.
High above us, at the peak of the dome that constitutes the range of the Hogwarts wards, a roiling mass of... something formed. With each verse of the chant, the cloud of magic got larger, and if possible scarier.
Just looking at it made you very happy you weren't anywhere near it.
Finishing his chant, Harry fell to his knees, exhausted from the effort. The Patil's finished their chants, and as one, brought their wands down with a flourish. The mass at the top of the dome began flowing down, following the curvature of the wards.
The Death Eaters saw what was coming for them, and immediately the flare of shield spells lit up their ranks. The smarter among them either ran or apparated away. Apparently, there weren't a whole lot of smart Death Eaters.
As soon as the magic of the spell washed over the Death Eaters, they turned on each other, forgetting their wands, they attacked each other using their hands and feet... and teeth.
"Bloody hell!" I breathed.
"It only last for about five minutes," Padma noted while she and Parvati helped Harry to his feet.
"Five minutes ought to be enough," Parvati said with a grim smile. "Let's hope we don't need to haul out the really nasty family stuff."
That wasn't the 'really nasty stuff? I stood in open-mouthed shock as the Death Eaters continued in their attempts to tear each other limb from limb. If that wasn't the 'really nasty stuff', what did the Patil family do to people who really make them angry?
That was when the thought hit me. Had I ever apologized to Padma for the way I treated her at the Yule Ball 4th year?
---oooOOOooo---
Fourth Year
I was fourteen.
And I was an utter twat.
It had been a very bad year and I had been lashing out at everyone who mattered to me.
The year started with Wally getting sick. Barry had reached out to his fellow heroes, to the Muggle healers and I had even found Healers from the magical community to consult, but Wally was still dying. Worse, every time he used his speed, he died a little more.
Asking someone who has known the Speed Force not to run is a lot like asking them not to breathe, but everyone was asking Wally not to run.
Then, something happened. There was some horrendous battle between the Heroes of the world (other than me. For some reason no one thought to call me.) and a group of villains lead by someone called 'Anti-Monitor'. I only found out about it after everything was over, and Barry was gone. My Mentor was killed while I was cheering for Ireland at the Quidditch World Cup, and we didn't even have his body to bury.
Wally had responded to the emergency, ignoring what it was costing him. That was what Barry had taught us. When the world is in danger, you go. When Barry died, he unleashed some sort of energy that washed over Wally and Wally's illness was healed.
At least we got that small glimmer of hope from the disaster.
However, whatever had been happening to Wally still had a cost. His link to the Speed Force was somehow reduced... limited... His top speed was just over the speed of sound. In addition, his metabolism was tied to the Speed Force for the first time, something like my own is, only worse. Whereas I have become something of a legend at Hogwarts for my ability to inhale (several) meals, I can operate normally between them. Wally on the other hand had to eat constantly to maintain his speed.
I wasn't sure how to deal with Wally, just seeing him in Barry's uniform was enough to push me into a rage. Of course, pretty much anything was enough to push me into a rage then.
Everything that happened changed Wally. My happy go lucky cousin was gone, replaced by a very focused man. He abandoned his 'Kid Flash' identity and took up Barry's Flash personae. He said that he was giving the illusion that the Flash was still on duty. Between bouts of rage and sorrow, as far as I was concerned the Flash was still on duty.
Meanwhile I, personally, reacted to all the changes in my life with all the maturity that I had.
Which is to say none.
The school year opened with an announcement that Quidditch had been canceled for the year. In all honesty, at the time, Quidditch was far more important to me than anything else in my life at school, so I stomped about the castle moaning to everyone who would listen. I know I annoyed Hermione to the point of screaming with it, and I think I even got to Harry once or twice.
Sometimes having a secret like this really hurts. I think I needed to talk about Barry, but there was no one I could talk to, not even my best friends.
However, it took me until Halloween to become the most complete bastard I could be. That was the year that Hogwarts hosted the Triwizard Tournament, the reason they cancelled Quidditch. This was the first Tournament held in a couple of centuries. The Triwizard Tournament is a huge contest between the three largest European schools of Magic, Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, and Hogwarts that pitted a single student from each school against each other. Like most of the boys attending Hogwarts at the time, I wanted to be the Hogwarts Champion. The contest promised glory and fame, and I hoped a distraction against the parts of my life I wanted to forget. The thousand Galleons would be nice too.
It never occurred to me that despite the claims of 'eternal glory', I had no idea who the previous Hogwarts champion had been. Then it was announced that the minimum age to join in the competition was seventeen, dashing my hopes.
Entry into the contest was by magical selection of volunteers. To volunteer, one would place a slip of parchment with your name on it the Goblet of Fire. When the time came, the magic of the Goblet would select one champion from each school.
To limit the volunteers to those of age, the Headmaster had drawn an Age Line around the goblet.
An Age Line.
Well, it’s a magic barrier that looks like a thin golden line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around it in every direction. You know, an Age Line.
Well, that depends on who cast it, doesn’t it? The Headmaster wasn’t looking to hurt anyone, he was the type to use humor to make his point. For example my twin brothers were a bit less than six months short of turning 17, so they brewed up an aging potion to bump up their age a bit.
Of course they work, to a point.
Well, no. The potion didn’t confuse the Age Line for a second. It let them through the line, and let them put their names in the Goblet, before it aged them into their 90s, forced grew long beards to match Dumbledore’s on each of them, and caused their names to be spat out of the goblet in flames.
Yeah, it was hilarious.
---oooOOOooo---
Why did I describe myself as a twat?
Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire.
Yeah, he was my age, we were both 14, so no, he wasn't old enough.
No, see, that was the point. He didn't enter. Even without the benefit of hindsight, it should have been obvious from the look on his face when Dumbledore called his name that Harry was shocked to be chosen.
Of course, back then, no one ever accused me of being too well acquainted with the bloody obvious.
Oh, I completely lost my mind. Harry had something I wanted, so of course he must have cheated to get it. I was quite oblivious to the fact that this was likely the latest attempt to kill him at Hogwarts.
You would think that after three years and at least five blatant attempts to kill him, and generally Hermione and me because we were near him when it happened, that the likelihood of this being the latest attempt might have occurred to me, but no.
Oh, I ranted and raved at him, tried to force Hermione to choose between us and was, as I said, generally a twat.
I like to pretend that it was the culmination of everything that had happened that year, Wally getting sick, Barry dying, and Wally's recovery and new limitations, but I'm not sure if that was the real reason.
Maybe I'm just a jealous twat.
All I knew is that I needed to talk to someone without having to keep any secrets.
Wally was having his own problems at the time and really didn't need me whinging about mine, so I went to see Max.
---oooOOOooo---
Max was originally a scout with the US Cavalry in the 1830s. Yeah, the horse and bugle people. He made friends with local Red-Indian tribe and…
What?
'Politically correct'? What's that?
Really?
Ok, fine, Native American tribe then. Max was away on a mission of some kind, when that tribe ended up being massacred by his own unit. It turns out I wasn't the first Speedster to get his power through magic. When Max returned, he found and tried to save the tribe's dying shaman, who enchanted him, bestowing super-speed upon Max.
No, he wasn't the first of us, there have been lots of speedsters, he's just the first we've found who got his speed from magic. Max became known as Windrunner.
As far as anyone has been able to tell, Max was also the first of us to discover the source of our powers, the Speed Force. He tried to reach it, to learn what it was. He failed, claiming to have 'bounced off' the dimensional barrier and found himself decades into his future, the first time ending up in the 1890s, where he created a new identity for himself as Whip Whirlwind.
No, I don't know why he changed his name. I mean if he was as successful at keeping his secret identity as he said he was, then no one should have known the difference. Anyway, Max would live for a while in the new time period he found himself in, and then try and fail to reach the Speed force again, moving forward in his personal time line each time. He had a fair number of identities. After Whip Whirlwind, he was Wisp, Quicksilver, and then finally Mercury. It was while he was Mercury he met and mentored the first Flash, Jay Garrick, who much later was Barry's inspiration. Then his last try to reach the Speed Force had him end up in my time, where I think he was tired of the whole Secret Identity thing and just called himself Max Mercury.
From your questions, I take it you don't know him?
Anyway, I went to talk to Max. He had pretty much taken the position of the Grumpy Old Man of the Speedsters, and you could always count on him to listen to you and tell you what a whiner you were.
Yeah, I know, but it still seemed to help.
As soon as I managed to convince him that I really needed to talk to him, which wasn't an easy thing to do, he sat me down at his kitchen table, put a beer in front of me and told me to tell him what the problem was.
What?
Yeah, a beer. Why?
Oh, I see. No, think about it. With my metabolism, I couldn't drink fast enough to even get a buzz. My body looks at a beer and giggles a bit at how cute it is to be trying to affect me in any meaningful way. Especially with the yellow water yanks call beer. I mean come on.
All Max was doing was showing me he was going to treat me like an adult. Hell, that’s the only reason he even had beer, since it had the same effect on him.
Anyway, I poured out my tale of woe, and Max listened. When I was done, he reached over and slapped me on the back of the head.
"Ron," he said. "Pull your head out of your ass. Barry is gone, and it is ok to grieve, really it is. Wally is wearing Barry's colors now and has taken the name. It's ok to not be comfortable with that, and it's ok to feel bad that your cousin is so limited with his speed now."
"I know that," I responded, rubbing the back of my head. For an old man, Max could smack you pretty hard.
"As far as your school friend goes, what the hell is wrong with you? You've told me since you met him that he's a good kid, that he's famous for something he had nothing to do with and doesn't even remember, and he hates it, that he'd give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. And he's almost been killed every single year, so of course you think that he stole your chance."
"Well, I guess," I sighed.
"Friends like you've made are rare treasures Ron," the old man said. "Try not to allow Barry's loss to make you throw away something you'll likely never find again."
Max looked up to the clock on the wall. "Now get out of here. Wally is supposed to be here in fifteen minutes so that we can see what is going on with his access to the Speed Force, and he doesn't need your whining distracting him."
"Thank's Max," I said as I started to run.
---oooOOOooo---
What?
Yeah, every year.
Well, when the cursed broom tried to throw him off and when he confronted Voldemort in front of the mirror first year. Second year my sister Ginny was possessed by an enchanted diary, Harry ended up having to face the spirit of a 16 year old Voldemort and a 60 foot long basilisk to save her.
Me? I was stuck with the professor who tried to obliviate us with my broken wand and ended up completely obliviating himself. I never came closer to saying to hell to my secret identity. I still wasn't fast enough to have him think I was still there. I was a minute away from leaving him and letting the bastard tell any story he wanted, when Harry got back with Ginny.
Obliviate? That's a spell that can undo memories.
'Mind wipe'? Yeah, that sounds like what Lockhart did to himself. He had no idea who he was. Anyway third year, I showed what a hero I was by getting my leg broken by a dog, which turned out to be Harry's godfather.
Oh, sorry. Sirius Black was Harry's godfather, and he was also an animagus. That's a witch or wizard with an animal form. Sirius' form was a big black dog. At the time we also thought he was a homicidal Death Eater who had turned the Potters over to Voldemort. But, it turned out he wasn't.
No, Sirius was sent to Azkaban prison without a trial because he was well and truly framed by the real traitor, Peter Pettigrew, who was also an animagus, only his form was a rat. Specifically My rat.
Yeah, I know.
No, I know. Believe me it kept me up late at night, wondering at the sheer coincidence that had Pettigrew hiding by becoming a pet for my family years before I became Harry's friend. Of course the coincidences in this story are still coming.
Harry's father James Potter had three dorm mates while he was at Hogwarts. Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin. In our third year, Sirius escaped from Prison, Peter was exposed as my pet rat Scabbers, and Remus was our Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. James, Sirius, and Peter were all animagi, a Stag, a Dog, and a Rat respectively.
No, Remus wasn't an animagus. He was a werewolf.
It's a long story, but basically they were best friends until the Potters were killed. Sirius went to prison, Peter was believed dead and Remus thought that his world had fallen apart. It was really messed up.
And then Remus tried to kill Harry and Hermione.
No, that came out wrong. We had evidence to clear Sirius in the fact that Pettigrew was still alive, but somehow, everyone forgot that it was the first night of a full moon, Remus transformed, Peter escaped, Snape of all people ended up defending us against Remus.
Yeah I know.
We ended up scattered, Hermione and I were taken to the Hospital wing by Snape, Harry and Sirius were attacked by Dementors before they were found, Sirius was arrested and was waiting to be executed and Harry joined us in the hospital wing.
I was stuck there, because of my broken leg. I couldn't just use my speed to heal myself because the school nurse had already seen me. Harry and Hermione used a time turner to go back in time and…
A time turner. It's a magical time travel device. One will let you travel into the past, and has a maximum range of about a day.
Oh, Hermione had one.
So that she could attend more classes. She was basically taking every class available, at least until she walked out of Divination because the professor was a hack.
I never said that made any sense, that's just what happened. Hermione about killed herself using it. The model she had only had a range of a few hours, so she was in class or studying for like 20 hours a day
So, Harry and Hermione used her time turner and stopped Buckbeak's execution…
Buckbeak. The hippogriff.
Look, it doesn't matter, and I'm getting way off point. Harry and Hermione rode Buckbeak to the tower Sirius was being held in and rescued him. He was still a fugitive, but at least he was free.
So, yeah. Every year we were at Hogwarts, someone tried to kill Harry, sometimes multiple times.
---oooOOOooo---
Max made sense. I knew he was probably right. Nevertheless, I couldn't bring myself to do what I knew I should do. I was so wrapped up in feeling sorry for myself that I never responded when my brother Charlie tried to contact me to let me know he was at Hogwarts.
Hell, I never stopped to wonder what he was even doing at Hogwarts, which was pretty stupid.
Oh, I found out what Charlie was doing there all right. But, not until November 24th and the first Task of the Tournament.
My brother was a Dragon handler, and for the first task, the champions had to face Dragons.
---oooOOOooo---
I sat transfixed as the Champions, one by one, faced off against a nesting Dragon guarding her clutch. The goal for each of them was to remove a golden egg from the Dragon's nest, without harming the dragon or the eggs.
As I watched, it occurred to me that I didn't know a single one of the spells Krum, Delacour, or Diggory used… I wondered how Harry was going to get out of this mess.
Finally, it was Harry's turn, and he emerged from the waiting area, looking small and terrified.
That's when it really sunk in what a twat I was being. Harry hadn't figured a way out of the task. He was trapped, actually having to face a nesting dragon, with all the skills of someone three months into his 4th year. The horror stories Charlie told of other handlers who had made mistakes while facing dragons, and the ways they had died filled my mind. I started to rise from my seat to try and help Harry when Hermione's hand fell on top of mine and squeezed hard, anchoring me to the spot.
Harry summoned his broom and outflew the dragon.
Hell, yes that is unusual. Dragons are the planets apex predators, and they hunt while flying. No wizard has ever bested a dragon in the air… until that day.
Hermione evidently didn't know that, somehow missing it in her research. She was bouncing up and down in her seat, still crushing my hands babbling "It worked, it worked, it worked."
For anyone other than Harry, or maybe Krum, it would have been suicide.
I'd known I was wrong. I'd known it and carried on with feeling sorry for myself and going out of my way to blame Harry for it.
I had to make this right.
I had to.
---oooOOOooo---
"Ron," Harry said staring at me as if I were a Malfoy when he entered our dorm.
"Look, Harry," I said, trying to find the words. "I've been an arse."
"True," he agreed.
"If it will help, you can punch me in the face," I offered. "I totally deserve it."
"So, all it took to convince you that I was telling the truth was seeing a dragon try to kill me?"
"No, not really," I shook my head, more than a little relieved that he hadn't taken me up on my 'punch me' offer. "I think I knew that you were telling the truth from the beginning, but I convinced myself that if you got something I wanted without even trying, that I was being cheated, and I…"
Harry leaned into me and drove his fist into my stomach. I pitched forward gasping for breath and tried not to vomit.
"Ron," Harry whispered into my ear. "Never punch someone in the face. Too many bones in the face, you'll hurt your hand. Go for the soft tissue. I learned that from my cousin."
I looked up at him, still trying to catch my breath. His face shifted from anger to that crooked smile of his. "Don't do it again, Ron. I won't forgive you if it happens again."
"Never," I promised.
"Come on then," Harry said. "I was so nervous before the task; I couldn't eat, so I'm starving now. Let's go to the kitchen."
"We should get Hermione," I suggested.
"You're right," Harry agreed. "She'll be happy we're not fighting."
Just like that, everything was, if not ok, then at least better.
---oooOOOooo---
For all of two weeks.
Oh, Harry and I were good, and Hermione was overjoyed that we had made up, though she never understood his punching me, and scolded us both at length about it.
In short, I crawled out of my head and life was better. I'd gone to see Wally and we finally talked, really talked about what Barry had meant to us.
Then it happened. The worst thing possible.
McGonagall announced there was going to be a ball.
---oooOOOooo---
Oh laugh it up. I mean, dancing ? At school? Where everyone could see you?
And to make things worse, we had to have dates.
Sometimes I think someone up there hates me.
Harry and I reacted to this problem the same way we did most of the problems we encountered that didn't involve the risk of life and limb. We kept putting it off until the deadline was almost on top of us.
We put it off until a week before the ball. McGonagall had been asking Harry about his date, since the Champions were required to open the ball with a dance. Finally facing what was coming, Harry and I decided to aim high.
Apparently, we aimed way too high. Harry had been hung up on Cho Chang all year. Cho was the Ravenclaw house Seeker, so she and Harry had confronted each other over the pitch several times, and Harry was head over heels in lust with her.
No, it couldn't have been love, looking back on it now. I doubt they exchanged two dozen words prior to the day he asked her to the Yule Ball.
Yeah, well, we were 14, and for the most part idiots. I don't know about any of you, but I look back on how I was at that age and wonder how I managed to move my arms and legs with the minimal amount of brain power I was using.
Cho turned Harry down. She was, it turned out dating Cedric Diggory, the other Hogwarts Champion, and was going to the ball with him.
Me, I shot REALLY high. I asked Fleur Delacour to the ball. Fleur was 17, the Champion from Beauxbaton, gorgeous beyond all reason, and a Veela.
Veela, they're the people the legends of Wood Nymphs come from. They radiate a sexual allure that can stupefy men. Not that I really needed stupefying.
She turned me down. At least she didn't laugh… while I was standing in front of her.
So, there we were, dateless, a week before the ball.
I, of course, managed to make things worse. It's a gift I have.
Harry and I were alternating between moaning about the unfairness of it all and working on our homework with Hermione supervising, as usual, when I realized I'd been missing something very important while not paying attention.
"Say, Hermione," I said, looking up from my Charms assignment. "You're a girl."
"Well spotted Ron, I always knew I'd never be able to hide that from you," she said sarcastically.
"No, see," I continued. "You could go with one of us, and that would mean we'd only have to find one other girl without a date."
"Your assumptions aside, Ronald," she said, her sarcasm spiking, "I can't go with either of you, I have a date."
By this point, I'd known Hermione for more than three years. If she was calling me, 'Ronald' then I had screwed up somehow. Though, for the life of me, I couldn't see where.
"Funny, Hermione," I replied. "Look this is important, do you know any other girl who doesn't have a date yet? Someone hot?"
"Oh," she spat, "so my having a date has to be a joke does it?"
"Ron," Harry hissed, "shut up…"
"Harry," Hermione said as she stood up gathering her homework materials together, "I think I'm done for tonight. The last I heard, Parvati hadn't been asked to the ball yet. An intelligent fellow would ask her as soon as possible, as in right now."
With that, she stormed up the stairs to the girls' dorm.
"What's wrong with her?" I asked Harry, who just shook his head sadly before rising from the table.
I watched as he crossed the common room to where Parvati was sitting. I couldn't hear what he said to her, but she smiled and nodded.
Well Harry had a date then. He looked over at me and seemed to hesitate for a moment, and then said something more to Parvati, who looked over at me with an expression of distaste.
She returned her attention to Harry who shrugged. The pair spoke for several more minutes, before she nodded and a smiling Harry returned to our table and his homework.
"Parvati has agreed to go to the ball with me," he said quietly. "And her sister Padma doesn't have a date yet. Parvati promised to put in a good word for you, but you have to ask Padma."
---oooOOOooo---
Padma said yes.
Of course, since it was me, it wasn't that easy. First, she promised much pain if I were to get handsy. The then demonstrated that her skill with a wand was more than enough to deliver on her promise.
Why were all the girls in my life so scary?
Then she wanted to see my dress robes, so we would match. I dug them out of my trunk, where they had been since my Mum bought them. Stupidly, I brought them, still in their unopened packaging to let Padma see my outfit.
It turns out that Mum hates me. You wouldn't believe the purple monstrosity that outfit turned out to be. From the look of horror on Padma's face, I thought she was going to call the whole thing off, right then and there, but she took pity on me and told me that she could 'fix' them, but that I would 'owe' her.
I tried not to think about that.
---oooOOOooo---
I turned on the dance floor with my left hand very carefully placed on her right hip in a way that couldn't possible give any offence, her right hand in mine, and my attention fully focused on Hermione.
At some point over the last three years, our bucktoothed bookworm of a friend had, somehow, blossomed into a beauty. Moreover, it was driving me mad. She was attending the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum as her date.
Krum. The best seeker in professional Quidditch. Rich, successful, outrageously popular, not all that good looking, sort of bandy legged, and he was with Hermione.
What?
Yeah, he was the top Seeker in the league while a 6th year at Durmstang, come his seventh year, the year of the Triwizard Tournament, his team came in second in the World Cup and he became the highest paid player in the league.
Well, sure, it's unusual, but he was just that good. There had been others, before him, and Harry would have likely gone pro himself when he turned 16 if not for the war.
Back to my story, I'd already been as much of an arse as I was willing to be that year, so I tried to swallow what I was feeling, and pay attention to my date. After all, Padma had taken mercy on me, and had even fixed my hideous formal robes. Despite that, anytime I wasn't specifically speaking to the Ravenclaw, my attention moved to Hermione, what she was doing, what her expression seemed to be saying, everything.
I knew, from five tables away, that she had the halibut for dinner. I couldn't tell you what I had if you paid me.
Of course, Padma, being a Ravenclaw, knew I wasn't paying attention to her.
"Ron," she said.
"Yeah?" I asked, pulling my attention away from Hermione back to my date.
"I think we're done for the night."
"What?" I asked intelligently.
"Dinner was lovely, and you don't dance badly for someone paying me no attention," she sighed. "But I think I'd like to have a little fun with someone who wanted to be with me."
I felt my face heat up, "Sorry."
"You should be," Padma said as the song ended and we returned to our table. "Harry was surprised by how Hermione looked as well, but he's been giving Parvati his attention. I'm not really mad at you Ron, you've been rude, but I let you, so I suppose we both share in the blame, but mostly you."
She gathered her things and rose from her chair. "A bit of advice, Ron. Talk to her."
I spent the rest of the night at my table. Harry stopped by for a moment or two when getting drinks for himself and Padma. He noticed, but didn't mention Padma not being there. I watched as he returned to his date, and watched as he danced with girls who were not Parvati, including Hermione, Cho, and Padma.
Harry actually appeared to have a good time that night, while I sat wondering just when I had fallen in love. Surely it wasn't because of how she was dressed… was it?
Hermione and Krum came by the table at the end of the night and I managed to be civil… However, I do admit to asking for and receiving Viktor's autograph.
---oooOOOooo---
The world came back into focus. I was freezing, and bobbing in water. I spit a mouthful of unexplained water from my mouth, gagging a bit.
I had no idea what was going on or how I ended up in the water. One moment I was in the Headmaster's office and he was asking if I was willing to assist Harry with his task/
I said yes, of course, and then I was here. What the hell was going on? Was someone crying?
"Ron!" Harry gasped from beside me. "Ron, are you awake?"
"Harry?" I called thrashing about until I could see him, also bobbing on the surface of the water. Why were I was in freezing in a lake?
"Ron, you've got to swim for yourself, I can't pull both of you anymore!"
I turned to look at Harry and found my friend struggling to keep his head above water, while holding a young crying girl's above water as well. The source of the crying.
"Ok, I'm, ok," I said as I began to try and swim, forcing my legs to work and warm themselves. "What happened? Who is that?"
"Later," Harry gasped. "Cramping up…"
I broadened my stroke until I was in front of my friend. "Hold on to the girl and on to me," I said. "The cold isn't bothering me as much."
Harry's left arm wrapped around my neck and I took his weight on my back. Speeding up my kick I made my way toward the shore and the crowds waiting there. The hard part was keeping the speed of my swimming to a 'normal' level.
The Second Task had the Champions retrieving a 'hostage' from the bottom of the Black Lake. In Scotland. In February.
Yeah, it was insane, but utterly normal for that stupid competition. I was Harry's captive, Cho Chang was Cedric's, Hermione was Krum's and the little girl in Harry's arms was Fleur's.
Fleur and Cedric used Bubblehead charms to basically enclose their heads in bubbles of air to make the attempt, Krum transfigured himself into a shark with human legs, and Harry used a magical Mediterranean plant called 'Gillyweed" which changes a person into a water breather for an hour when ingested.
With that advantage, Harry was the first to find his 'hostage'. Of course, he wasn't sure who he was there for. I mean think about it, he arrived to find his two best friends, the girl he'd been crushing on all year, and a little girl he didn't know, tied to a statue under the water, and if the hint offered by the golden egg he retrieved from the dragon was to be believed, if he didn't retrieve the right one, he or she would die.
So, Harry, being Harry, settled down to wait to see who the others took.
Krum arrived and took Hermione. Cedric arrived not long after and took Cho.
Harry found himself alone with me and the little girl and his hour was running out. Again, Harry being Harry did the only thing he could do. He cut me free and tried to take the girl as well. The Merfolk tried to stop him, but he fought them off and made his way to the surface with the pair of us in tow, racing against the gillyweed wearing off.
As soon as we reached the surface, the little girl, who turned out to be Fleur's little sister Gabrielle and I woke up from the spell that kept us alive under water for more than an hour, I was disoriented, and Gabrielle was terrified into hysterics. Harry exhausted himself trying to calm her while I got myself together.
Together, Harry and I made it to the shore, where we found that Fleur had been prevented from finishing her task by being attacked by a swarm of underwater predators. That was why Gabrielle had not been rescued.
Fleur all but threw herself at Harry to thank him.
In all honesty, I really think he would have preferred to go back into the water. Harry never liked being thanked for doing the right thing.
---oooOOOooo---
The three of us gathered around a small table in the Three Broomsticks nursing our Butterbeers and trying to figure out what the third task could possibly be.
Hermione had stacks of research, lists of all the final tasks for all of the Triwizard Tournaments ever.
"I think," she said with a huff, "that the worst thing about the third task is that it totally cancels out the other two."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"She means that the winner of the third task wins the tournament," Harry sighed before looking up to see the surprise on Hermione's face. "What? The four of us have talked, you know. It's sort of an interest we all share. No matter the score you have coming into the third task, if you are the first to the cup, you win. The only thing that comes from the first two tasks, besides a darn good chance of dying, is the order that you start the third task."
"Cho did the research for Cedric?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah," Harry admitted. "And he told the rest of us. The first task usually involves dealing with a magical animal of some kind, the second is a rescue, and the third is some sort of race."
"Whatever they're doing," I noted, "it's ruining the Quidditch pitch."
"The pitch will be fine, Ron," Hermione said patting my arm. "Hagrid is involved, that means animals of some kind."
"Hagrid is involved?" Harry asked. "That's news to me. What did he say?"
"He's wised up to us and our interrogation techniques, Harry," I laughed, "he's taken to running off whenever someone tries to talk to him."
"Wonderful," Harry said as he drained his butterbeer and signaled for another round. "If I survive this, I'm never leaving the dorms again."
---oooOOOooo---
Three hours of boredom was obliterated when a light flared before the reviewing stand. While we were all blinking the spots away from our eyes, Harry and Cedric suddenly appeared.
Cheers and applause rang out from the crowd as everyone could clearly see the Triwizard Cup laying on the ground between the two Hogwarts Champions.
Hermione grabbed my hand and squeezed hard as Harry struggled to get to his knees, but all I could see was that Cedric still hadn't moved.
Dumbledore and the rest of the judges rushed forward to where the pair, one of them just have had a sound amplifying charm on them, because we could all hear Harry's words.
"He's back!" Harry choked in terror, "Voldemort is back! Cedric is dead!"
That claim had the spectators in near hysterics, and those among the dignitaries weren't much better. The amplifying charm was disabled, and Hermione and I watched from afar as Harry was questioned, then when Dumbledore's attention was drawn away, Mad-eye Moody, our defense against the Dark Arts professor hauled Harry off toward the castle.
I hate to admit it, but I sat there for almost fifteen minutes before I realized what I had missed. In four years at Hogwarts, three different DADA professors had tried to kill Harry three different times. And the latest DADA professor had just taken Harry away.
But, Moody was a legendary Auror.
But, he was also the DADA professor. And Harry was alone with him.
"Hermione," I said, "something is wrong here."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I don't know, but Moody just took Harry away. That's not right, he would want to question him right away before Harry could forget anything. Something is wrong. Find Dumbledore, tell him Moody is acting weird. I'm going to find Harry."
"But Ron," she whispered, "what if you're wrong?"
"Then I'm wrong," I insisted. "What if I'm right?"
A look of indecision crossed Hermione's face before she nodded and headed down the stairs toward the panicking dignitaries. I was in the castle before she took her second step.
---oooOOOooo---
Despite having lived in the castle for four years by this point, I'd never really understood just how large the damned thing was. Lacking any other choice, I started in the highest tower and worked my way down.
At that age I still wasn't really fast. I mean, sure I was fast enough that I was only a blur to most people, but I still needed to make my way through all the people who had gotten back to the castle before I did. I'd wasted so much time in the stands… Room after room, so very many rooms. Why did the school have this many rooms anyway?
I finally found Harry.
He was in a locked room with some man I didn't recognize, but he was wearing Moody's clothing and pointing his wand at my friend.
I laid into him with everything I had.
By the time Dumbledore and Snape busted in, the fake Moody was a bloody mess, and Harry told them the story of Barty Crouch Junior and how an orange blur had prevented the man from killing him for the Dark Lord.
---oooOOOooo---
So, school was out for the year, and I was home, unsure of what I was going to do with myself.
Oh, Mum made sure I was busy, at least in real time. However, my normal summer activities of hanging out with Barry and Wally were over. Barry was gone. It still hurt, but not as much. And Wally, he didn't work with the Titans anymore, I doubted he'd have time for me.
Mum had me degnoming the garden. Gnomes are little furry potato looking things that infest the land around magical homes. We would degnome the garden by snatching the nasty little buggers up and seeing how far we could throw them.
Harry and I made a game of it when he was visiting, but I wasn't sure if he was going to be allowed to visit this year. Dumbledore had actually taken Hermione and me aside and asked that we not try to communicate with Harry over the summer, that we leave him alone so that he might deal with the death of poor Cedric.
That didn't seem right to me, but it was Dumbledore asking, and he…
That was when I caught sight of something moving out of the corner of my eye…
That couldn't have been Barry. Barry was gone… but then it hit me, Barry was a time traveler, maybe he had…
After checking that no one was watching, I flashed into the woods. As soon as we were out of sight of the house, the Flash was standing in front of me, coming to a stop from a speed I couldn't even track.
Not Barry. Wally. He had his speed back.
His uniform was different, rather than the stretchy fabric that mine was made of, this one was almost metallic, and it seemed to glow with arcs of electricity rippling along his body. The oddness was proven when the mask flowed away from Wally's face.
"Hey Ron," my cousin said. "I got my speed back."
Sometimes I think Wally and I were in a competition for a championship grasp of the obvious.
His new outfit was composed of speed force. His uniform was actually composed of material from the barrier to the dimension of speed.
Yeah, I know, crazy.
I didn't know what else to do, so I suited up and we ran. It had been more than a year since we had run together, and we had a lot to talk about.
Wally told of getting his speed back. His problem had been psychological, he was so terrified of taking Barry's place, he had limited himself. It was only when he had to face Professor Zoom pretending to be Barry did he get his full speed back, and more, including the ability to manifest this new uniform.
In exchange, I told Wally about my year, the wins and the losses and how we were supposed to leave Harry alone.
"Wait," Wally interrupted. "Your buddy watched a friend die, and he hasn't gotten any counseling at all?"
"Well, yeah," I admitted.
"Ron, how did you feel when Barry died?"
I thought for a moment before answering. "I wanted to talk to anyone who would understand. But you had your own problems and didn't need mine, Max was busy and the Titans were trying to get over you leaving."
"And you couldn't talk to your friends and family here without giving away a secret that wasn't yours to reveal," he finished for me. "It seems to me that your friend Harry is in pretty much the same boat, Ron, down to being alone among people he can't break a secret to."
I looked up at my cousin suspiciously. "Since when are you the voice of reason and restraint?"
"The curse of getting old," Wally laughed. "I'm 20 now you know. Here."
From a pocket that formed in is uniform he produced a roll of oddly colored papers and put it in my hand.
"I hit the lottery a while back," Wally explained, "and I wanted to share the wealth a bit. I couldn't get my hands on any of that magical hocus pocus money you wizards use, but these pounds will be better, because you can take your buddy out and party a bit."
"Thanks," I breathed. Normally I'm against being given things, but this was from Wally. I'm closer to him than to any of my siblings.
"And maybe that Hermione girl would like to party as well," Wally said with a grin.
"Sod Off!" I responded reflexively.
"Hey now," Wally said, laughing again. "Spread around a little cash and maybe she'll forget what a clod you are."
He took off at a dead run, with me on his heels with murder in my heart. Like I said, Wally was closer to me than any of my siblings.
He was faster than me, again.
---oooOOOooo---
"Hey," I said, leaning on the doorframe of Harry's bedroom.
"Ron?" Harry gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, see, it's a funny thing," I said, crossing my arms across my chest. "Dumbledore took Hermione and me aside before we got on the express and told us that you needed to be left alone to get over Diggory's death and the return of You Know Who."
"Dumbledore said that?" he asked incredulously. "Then, why are you here? And how did you get in?"
"Back door is unlocked," I lied. Well, I didn't actually lie, it was unlocked then, it hadn't been when I arrived, but moving through a door wasn't really all that hard, and doors open easy from the inside. "As far as coming here, I was working on the garden, you know, perfecting my gnome toss, and it occurred to me, that what the Headmaster was asking me to do, didn't make much sense."
"What are you saying?" Harry asked, his eyes shining in the dim light of his crappy little bedroom.
"Well, basically," I grinned, "and don't repeat this to Hermione, but what I'm saying is 'Fuck Dumbledore.' Come on; let's so see the Muggle sights."
"Ron…"
"Look Harry," I said, "your family is gone, your chores are done, and this crappy little room makes my crappy little room look good, and I find that depressing."
"All I've got is galleons."
"Lucky for you, I'm fairly flush with some Muggle cash," I laughed, "Come on, I'll pay you back for all those butterbeers you paid for."
"Deal," Harry said, offering me the first real smile I'd gotten from him since Cedric had been killed.
---oooOOOooo---
After a month of Harry teaching me how to conduct myself in the Muggle world without making too much of an arse of myself, I was standing in front of the door of a house that absolutely had to be as fancy as the place Draco Malfoy was always bragging about.
Harry had assisted me in buying some clothes that would fit in without being too casual or too fancy. He had even helped me find this house, by using some arcane tome called a 'phone book'.
I resisted the urge to polish my shoes on the back of my trouser legs and reached out to push the glowing disk next to the door.
From beyond the door, I heard several notes of music that I had previously heard from a big clock in London. That was neat.
After a few seconds, the door opened to reveal Hermione Granger.
"Ron?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I caught the Knight's bus," I lied. "I wanted to see you."
"Come in," she said opening the door for me.
The interior of the house was as amazing as the exterior, all the furniture matched; the photos on the wall were static and all in the same type of frame. It was a display of opulence I'd never seen before.
"How did you find me?" Hermione asked as she gestured for me to sit on the large leather sofa.
"Harry helped me," I explained.
"Harry?" she gasped. "Ron, we're not supposed to be talking to Harry. The Headmaster said…"
"Professor Dumbledore is a great man," I interrupted. "But he's only the headmaster of our school. If he said that you needed to stay on your property and not leave the house for the summer, would you listen to him?"
"Well," she said hesitantly, "no."
"Exactly. I've been going out to see Harry, who really needed someone to speak with, by the way. When I found him he was in his bed, staring at the wall. The Headmaster can't say who I will or will not communicate with outside of school, especially, not my best friend."
I think I surprised her with my argument… after all it didn't include Quidditch or food. She just stared at me for several moments. "You're right Ron. I've been a coward."
"No, you haven't," I assured her. "You trust the Headmaster, the same as Harry and I do. We just have to remember, that even though he's a wise man, he's just a man."
"We should go see Harry," she said.
"No, not today," I disagreed. "Harry's spent the last month teaching me to act Muggle. Today I want to take you out for lunch."
"Lunch?"
"Well, yeah," I nodded. "I've shown you parts of the magical world, now you can show me some of the Muggle one."
She took my hand and I decided that ignoring Dumbledore was the best move I had ever made.