"Merry Christmas, Ron!"
Early on Christmas morning, gentle sunlight filtered through layers of frigid air and into the windows of Gryffindor Tower, waking Harry and Ron—who were lazily sleeping in—in the most natural way possible.
Just like on Christmases in previous years, there was no one else left in the dormitory besides the two of them. The Christmas Ball was only held at the site hosting the Tournament, so Christmas at Hogwarts this year was no different from usual. Their roommates, as well as Hermione—their friend and external brain—had all gone home as expected, leaving the two of them alone in the slightly empty dormitory, opening presents…
"As expected, Hermione sent a book again—Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland… Dungbombs? These are from you?"
Harry laughed as he looked at the package Ron had sent him. "They're one of Zonko's new products, right? Thanks a lot. Now if Fred and George try slipping Canary Creams into my food again…"
"A magical pencil sharpener, and it's got little attachments that can open all kinds of locks and untie all kinds of knots—this is from that mysterious godfather of mine. I still don't even know his name, so I can't send a gift back… He can't really be Sirius Black, the supposedly wronged fugitive, like Hermione guessed, can he?"
Next was Hagrid's gift—a huge box of sweets in all kinds of flavors. Mrs. Weasley had, as usual, sent a package this year too, containing a new sweater and a large pile of homemade mince pies. Neville had sent some homemade herb specimens. Harry still had not dared open the package from the twins yet, planning to face it later with the same mindset he would use when confronting Voldemort…
"Well, as expected, nothing from Ken and the others."
After counting all his Christmas parcels, Harry shrugged helplessly.
"I guess there's no way for him to send anything either."
Ron, who was still rubbing his eyes, chimed in. "Didn't I tell you? Durmstrang's address has the strictest secrecy protections. It can easily block the magic on an owl—you forgot how yesterday, when you wanted to send Ken a present, Hedwig could only stare blankly at the address on the package and refused to take off no matter what… That was Durmstrang's protective magic taking effect."
"What a shame."
Harry flopped straight back onto his bed. After all, those pies and sweets could easily replace breakfast. "He definitely needs some holiday atmosphere right now to relax a little—he just beat a fire dragon!"
"And not just any dragon—the biggest, fiercest Ironbelly there is!"
Ron yawned and added with feeling, "Charlie mentioned it in his letter. According to him, even ordinary dragon reserves don't dare keep this kind of dragon lightly. Only the very top, most professional dragon research institutions in the world would dare raise a Ukrainian Ironbelly… And he also said it takes at least ten dragon handlers working together to subdue one. Doesn't that mean Ken alone is worth ten wizards?"
"I had no idea Ken was this strong… No wonder he dared go looking for trouble with Voldemort back then!"
When the second task at Durmstrang had been held, Hogwarts had of course watched the match live as well. In fact, when those Ukrainian Ironbellies first appeared on the screen, quite a few professors had stood up in shock on the spot—including Professor Moody, who was usually unshakable, and Snape, who always seemed grim no matter what he was doing. Professor McGonagall had also kept muttering, "How is this any different from attempting to murder students?" under her breath…
But the scenes shown on the screen afterward directly silenced everyone.
All three champions had proved with their own strength that the caliber of this year's Triwizard Tournament was frighteningly high.
"Maybe that's because defeating one and subduing one are two different levels of difficulty?"
Harry thought about it too before answering. "At the very least, dragon handlers definitely can't use that eye-damaging curse when subduing a dragon. And they can't smash it black and blue with fireballs like that half-Veela did either—they'd probably be more like Hagrid and try their best not to hurt the dragons if they can help it."
"…That makes sense."
Ron nodded. "Then we—"
"Harry? Ron?"
A blurry, indistinct voice suddenly rang out from thin air, cutting off their conversation.
"Who's there?!"
Harry and Ron were both startled by the sudden voice and sprang up from their beds in one jump. Harry in particular—who had recently been getting frequent special instruction from Professor Moody—nearly pulled out his wand on the spot. After looking around in every direction and still finding no trace of anyone, he grew even more tense, but at the same time, a sense of puzzlement rose in his heart—
That voice… sounded kind of familiar?
"It's me. Ken."
To their shock, blazing red-gold flames suddenly ignited out of nowhere in the air before them, and a figure rapidly emerged from within the flames, as though an invisible fireplace connected to Floo powder had always been hidden there. Harry and Ron were both deeply familiar with this phenomenon—they had seen it back in their second year.
This should be the light emitted when Dumbledore's phoenix transported someone.
"Ken?!"
Harry's glasses nearly slid straight off his nose. "How did you get back?!"
"We were just talking about how sealed-off Durmstrang is… Are you really Ken?"
Ron also retreated several steps with a pale face, his expression a mixture of shock and suspicion. "Aren't you supposed to be spending Christmas at Durmstrang right now?"
"As you can see, Dumbledore sent me back."
Avada explained calmly.
In truth, Dumbledore's phoenix had not brought him directly and precisely to Harry and Ron's dormitory. It had simply dropped him in the Hogwarts headmaster's office and then vanished again in a hurry with Dumbledore himself. So Avada had no choice but to first slip into the spatial interstice and secretly infiltrate Harry and Ron's dormitory, then recreate the effect of those red-gold flames to make it look as though Fawkes had delivered him directly.
The main reason for doing so was to make them believe in his identity and where he had come from.
"Harry, Ron, I need you to go to the Room of Requirement immediately. I have something extremely important to share with you, and I'll also need your cooperation and help in what happens next…"
He did not waste even a second on meaningless pleasantries, going straight to the point instead.
"Please hurry. There isn't much time—this concerns Harry's safety."
"Harry?!"
Ron's face turned even whiter. He stared blankly at his friend in shock, while Harry looked at Avada with almost the exact same expression.
Last year they had just barely managed to get one peaceful year, and now something was happening again this year??
And why was it that something concerning him was known first by Ken and Professor Dumbledore—both of whom were far away at Durmstrang—instead of by Harry himself?
He had just been about to ask more, but the Avada in front of him had already vanished again after tossing out the words, "I'll be waiting for you outside the Room of Requirement"…