Time seemed to fly by. Chris started training with Phoebe and had to admit that meditating was a lot harder than it looked. Especially since when Phoebe told him to shut the world out and think of nothing his mind kept drifting to the looming first task. Even though the meditating sessions weren’t getting him anywhere he enjoyed the time he spent getting to know his new family. Phoebe came every Friday with Paige and, while Paige and Leo were taking care of Magic School’s affairs, they trained. Wyatt showed up a little later, when he knew the training session would be over, and they usually had dinner in the quarters hearing stories of what his cousins and uncles had gotten to that week.

He liked Paige the most, she got him.

“It’s overwhelming isn’t it? I was used to taking care of myself. Having only myself to answer for and then suddenly I had these two sisters that were giving input in every detail of my life, without me asking, even when I didn’t want any, especially if I didn’t want any,”she told him when Piper had announced to him that in the next Hogsmead weekend they’d orb to Muggle London unseen so they could buy Chris some decent clothes. He had been mortified and tried to say they didn’t need to but Piper just brushed him off.

Then on one of the dinners when they kept making fun of Paige she sighed and asked, “Why didn’t I run the other way when you found me?”

“You did,” Phoebe snorted. “We were faster,” she winked at Chris.

On the promised Hogsmead weekend, which just happened to be the last weekend before the First Task, Chris went to Hogsmead with his Invisibility Cloak and Hermione. He met Leo, Piper and Wyatt on the way and Hermione and Wyatt struck a conversation. Out of the blue Paige orbed in front of them saying she needed Piper and Leo at home. Piper and Leo made a show of telling Wyatt to call if any of the students needed them and Chris took one of Paige hands while Piper holding Leo’s took another and orbed for the first time in his life.

Orbing had been a different experience. It was a little disconcerting to suddenly be somewhere else but at the same time it wasn’t as disconcerting as portkey. He felt as if he had been growing lighter, disappearing and then he suddenly felt like himself again when he appeared somewhere else. And even if he wasn’t used to it he was sure he had felt the same way that time when he was little and had appeared in the school’s roof.

They spent the day in London, Chris fighting tooth and nail about every item of clothing. Trying to convince them to go for the cheaper ones. His parents didn’t listen to him much and he got very frustrated. He didn’t want to be a bother and risk them getting tired of him. But at the same time he couldn’t deny, that walking out of the first store with clothes that actually fit felt extremely nice. And the world seemed completely different after they picked up his new glasses prescription. Clearer.

Piper had made a point of making an appointment at an optometrist for him and they had then bought him new glasses at one of those places that had the prescription ready in a few hours. The optometrist had been appalled at how poorly adapted his glasses were for him and had started berating Piper and Leo. Mortified, Chris rescued them explaining that he had lived with his Aunt up to now and the only time he had his eyes checked was one time that his school had organized for optometrist and dentists to check all the children. Piper had mumbled something about getting even as they left the doctor’s office, Paige had an expression that didn’t bode well and Leo was pretending he wasn’t hearing them plot instead of pacifying them as Chris would expect a former Whitelighter to. Weren’t they supposed to give pacifying advice? What was he turning his ear the other way for?

The bright side of the day was that Paige made a detour to Remus’s cottage before dropping them off back at Hogwarts and Chris got to see Sirius and Remus, and Paige got to meet the famous Sirius Black, she’d been very curious.

Once back in the castle Hermione and Wyatt, who had spent the day together, relayed a message from Hagrid to Chris, and Chris went to meet Hagrid. An hour later he had ran up to his room and taken his mirror running back down to the Common Room and almost yelling for Sirius.

 “Dragons! I’m dead! Dragons! Those Elders won’t have to worry anymore because this time I’ll be dead for real!”

“Calm down. What are you talking about?”

“The first Task! They’re Dragons! Nestling mothers!” he saw Sirius trade a glance to the side and supposed Remus was close by.

“We can deal with Dragons,” Sirius said calmly and Chris had an urge to shake some sense into him! How could he be so calm when Chris wasn’t? “You just have to use a Conjunctivitis Curse.”

“I don’t know how to perform a Conjunctivitis Curse! I don’t know what the hell a Conjunctivitis Curse is!” Chris cried hysterically.

The mirror was pulled farther away from Sirius and Chris could see Sirius becoming smaller but making room for Remus.

“Let’s keep our heads on Chris,” Remus said. “You need to calm down. I don’t think the Conjunctivitis Curse is the best answer, you’d not only need a clear shot but you’d have to master the spell all by yourself by Tuesday. Do you know what you have to do?”

“Charlie said he thought we had to get past the dragon.”

“Okay,” Remus thought. “And you’re only allowed a wand right?” Chris nodded and Remus frowned in thought “Maybe the answer isn’t to subdue the dragon but to distract it so you can get past at it somehow-“

“Flying!” Sirius cried “Flying, you have to outfly the dragon. You’re a great flyer Chris, even better than James was. What you need is to get your Firebolt to you.”

“Can you perform the Summoning Charm?” Remus asked. “It’s fourth year curriculum.”

Chris cringed, “I’ve been having trouble.”

“Get Hermione to help you. Practice that charm Chris. It’s your best chance to-“

“Who’re you talking to?” a voice came from behind Chris and he quickly stuffed the mirror in his pocket startled. He turned around and was face to face with Ron.

“What’s that got to do with you?” Chris snarled annoyed at being interrupted. “What are you doing down here anyway?”

“I just wondered where you-“ Ron broke off shrugging. “Nothing. I’m going back to bed.”

“Just thought you’d come nosing around did you,” Chris knew Ron did it by accident but he was at the end of his rope. He had no idea how he’d get through that dragon. He’d had his life turned upside down and all he had wanted was to tell Ron. All he wanted was to tell Ron right now how scared he was, but Ron didn’t care. Ron did want to know or to believe Chris and right now Chris let all his frustration come up and directed it at Ron, hating everything about him and completely ignoring the faint concern he felt from Ron before.

“Sorry about that,” Ron said his face reddening. “You’re probably training for your next interview or is your new best friend coming down so you can train together? I’ll leave you in peace,” he said turning around and without thinking Chris caught one of the POTTER STINKS buttons that Malfoy had made and spread around school and the Creevey brothers had been trying to change and now said POTTER REALLY STINKS and threw it at Ron’s retreating back. It hit Ron on the forehead and bounced off.

“There you go!” Chris cried. “Something for you to wear on Tuesday. You might even have a scar now, if you’re lucky, that’s what you want isn’t it?”

He strode across the room and towards the stairs.

---

Piper looked at her husband calmly. He had just come back from talking to Wyatt, who had talked to Chris that morning and at Chris’s request had alerted Olivia and Cedric, since Chris figured that Olivia and Cedric were the only champions that didn’t know what they were facing, and then had gone to let his father know.

“Funny, I thought I heard you say they had to face dragons,” Piper said calmly to Leo.

“I did.”

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FRIGGING MIND?”  she yelled.

“I’m not the one who decided on the tasks!” Leo cried back.

“Well, object then!” Piper said in a no nonsense tone.

“I can’t Piper,” Leo sighed rubbing his temple. “The agreement signed by the schools says we can’t object to the Tasks unless there is a clear violation of safety.”

“Don’t you think dragons are a clear violation of safety?” she hissed at him.

“Yes, I thought that,” Leo said annoyed. “Which is why I went to the other Heads and Dumbledore introduced me to the dragon handlers which showed me all of the precautions they are taking. Theoretically the Task is safe because the dragon handlers will intervene at the slightest chance that the dragon might get out of control.”

Piper raised a skeptical eyebrow. Dragons, to her, were out of control by definition, “Theoretically?”

“Well, if Sirius and Remus are right whoever put Chris’s name in the Goblet could find a way to neutralize said precautions. But unfortunately that wasn’t an arguable point seeing as no one believes Chris didn’t put his name in and Maxime and Karkaroff don’t want the Task changed.”

“You’re saying Dumbledore did?” she asked incredulously.

“He said he wouldn’t be opposed to the task being changed.”

“Then that’s a tie,” Piper nodded satisfied.

“No,” Leo sighed. “I told you, there is no breach of contract, for the task to be changed without one all schools had to agree. And all the other two Heads are saying is that I don’t think Olivia is able to handle it and that is why I want it changed.”

“Will she?” Piper asked.

“I vaguely talked to her afterwards. I couldn’t be direct or else I’d let on that I not only knew but I knew she knew, and she said she was confident.”

“And Chris?”

“Hermione and Wyatt are helping him with an idea Sirius had. They wouldn’t tell me what it was though,” he said pulling her into an embrace. “Let’s have faith that Dumbledore knows what’s he’s doing.”

Piper snorted.

“He won’t want to lose Chris this way,” the implicit remark that Dumbledore thought Chris would have to die at Voldemort’s hand was left unsaid.  Lately just talking to Dumbledore without strangling him was an ordeal. Leo wanted to believe Dumbledore was trying his best. That he didn’t want Chris dead and might be looking for a way to save Chris just as they were. But he was taking no chances with his son’s life. “He can’t afford to,” he kissed her hair. “And besides, a dragon isn’t a witch or wizard.” he smiled at her. She looked at him and her mouth formed an ‘oh’, “if it gets out of hand you can freeze it while we get Chris, or any of the other champions for that matter, out of there.”

“The freeze probably won’t last long. Dragons are very magically resistant.”

“I’m sure it will last long enough.”

 “Fine,” she mumbled. “Dragons.”

---

“It doesn’t work,” Chris grumbled. They’d been trying for him to master the summoning charm in the Room of Requirement all day Sunday and for hours already on Monday and nothing. The Task was the next day and he was getting desperate. “All I’ve managed to get is a headache,” he rubbed his temples. “Are you sure you won’t get into trouble?” he asked again. All three of them had basically skipped all classes to help Chris train. Which he knew to Hermione was worse than pulling teeth out. The other two glared at Chris as an answer.

“It’s because you’re nervous,” Wyatt insisted but Hermione was looking at him in a calculating way.

“No I don’t think it is,” then she turned to Wyatt. “What powers did you say he had?”

“You mean future him?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, we’re not sure about all of them,” Wyatt stroked his chin. “He was tight lipped, but mom knew he had to have a lot more than he showed them because he handled a lot of demons, high level demons, alone.”

“Was telekinesis one of them?” she asked.

“Yeah, actually. That’s the one they saw.”

“Thought so,” she nodded.

“Why?” both Chris and Wyatt asked.

“Because that is why this isn’t working. You’re trying to do it the wrong way.” she said firmly.

“But the swish is perfect-“ Chris started protesting but Hermione cut him off.

“I know, but your magic doesn’t accept it because it’s programmed differently.”

“I thought Leo said we all have the same magic,” Chris said and Wyatt nodded.

“Yeah, I’ve even tried a few spells myself.”

Hermione took a deep breath and entered her lecture mode, “Yes, the core of our magic comes from the same place. But this is evolution, centuries ago the two worlds divided and each world started focusing their magic in a different way, remodeling the way magic worked in us. It’s like wisdom teeth for instance, how some people don’t ever develop them, why? Because at some point we stopped needing them, and going from generation to generation our DNA realized that and mutated making it so that new generations don’t have them. The same applies here. Our magic mutated and even though it’s similar at the basis and someone like you and Wyatt can learn to use some of your magic to cast spells through a wand instead of a rhyme, you can’t do the same for your active powers. Because your magic knows that’s not the right way. Telekinesis is moving objects with your mind, and you’re trying to do it through a wand when you don’t need it, so your magic short circuits and doesn’t accept it. For instance; here, Wyatt, take my wand.”

Wyatt cautiously took her wand, with all the respect in the world, he knew how a wand meant for a witch.

“Telekinesis is one of your powers; I’ve seen you do it. So we can’t try that. Can you produce water alone?”

“No”

“Good, then try this,” she showed him the wand movement, “And say Aguamenti.”

He did and he smiled as a gush of water came out of the wand, as he knew it would. He had tried this spell before when sitting on the sixth year’s charms lessons.

“Good now try the summoning spell.”

He did, nothing happened. He frowned and tried again. Come on, he conjured a dragon before he was one! This should be easy! At least a little twitch should have happened. But the more he tried, the more nothing happened, the more wrong it felt and a dull ache started forming in his temple. He stopped and looked at Chris.

“She’s right! We’re going at this the wrong way. Loose the wand.”

So Chris pocketed his wand and looked at the pillow he’d been trying to summon. “So what do I do?”

“Well, let’s start in a simple way. We first need to see what type of Telekinesis you have. I know you have the same as Aunt Prue had, but maybe you can also orb stuff to you. I can do both, so maybe you can too since that has to do with our Whitelighter side. So, first things first. Focus on the pillow and try to move it. Just move it not bring it to you. I like to make the movement with my hands, helps to focus, but with time you shouldn’t need to. Mum for instance can blow stuff up and freeze. She used to need to put her hands up, she still does for blowing stuff up so it helps her aim. But she doesn’t for freezing anymore. She just has to want it, and she can even freeze just one person in a room. She didn’t have that kind of control before. So think of moving the pillow and swish your hand.”

Chris nodded, he concentrated on the pillow and slashed his hand through the air. The pillow went flying away and Chris’s eyes widened.

“Wow, I never got it on the first try,” he said awed.

“Because you were trying to force your nature,” Hermione nodded satisfied and Wyatt agreed. That Aguamenti spell had taken him a whole week to get it right, and not just the few droplets he had gotten at first.

“Good, now extend your hand and call for the pillow. Picture it appearing in your hand.”

Chris obliged, “Pillow,” and the pillow disappeared in a flurry of blue and white lights and reappeared in his hand.

“Good,” Wyatt smiled widely not only because Chris managed it but because a theory he had was confirmed. “That poses a problem”

“Uh?” both Hermione and Chris stared at him.

“Well, you see. Every time I need to summon something, I orb it to me. I never tried using my Telekinesis to summon something.”

“Can’t I just orb my Firebolt to me?” Chris asked.

“No you can’t or people will know something’s wrong when they see it appearing in a flurry of orbs,” Hermione rolled her eyes. “And someone might figure out who you really are and we don’t want that now do we?”

Chris shook his head vigorously.

“No, we need to train your Telekinesis. At least now we know how to do it.  Just try beckoning the pillow towards you, “she continued. And that’s how they spent the next hours. When Chris was finally happy because he had managed to summon every object successfully. Hermione told him to get his wand out.

“What for?”

“Well now you have to train summoning stuff with your wand in your hand-“

“But you said I can’t focus my magic-“

“Exactly, you can’t focus your magic through your wand but you need your wand or else people will get suspicious. You’re too young to master wandless or non-verbal magic at that level. So now you have to get used to holding your wand and saying the spell but not using it. Just think of it as any old stick and silly words.”

Easier said than done, Chris’s instincts after four years of training was to let his magic flow through his wand. It was dark outside by the time he finally managed to master it to Wyatt’s and Hermione’s satisfaction and they allowed him to go back to the dorms to rest for the Task the next day.

---

Piper had thought that after seeing Cedric, Krum, Delacour and Olivia getting past their dragons and taking their eggs she couldn’t have had any more heart attacks. There was no way. She’d seen it all. She was proud of Olivia, who Astral-projected to make the dragon confused as to whom to follow and while her projection was keeping the dragon busy she took the egg. Cedric had done something similar by transfiguring a rock into a dog but the dog couldn’t really goad the dragon as Olivia did. Piper was left imagining if Prue would have had that level of control of her Astral-projection had she lived. She never had been able to stay conscious while projecting. Unfortunately Olivia never had been the most gracious girl and while running away with her egg she tripped and smashed some of the eggs. She wasn’t the only one, Krum’s dragon smashed some of the eggs too.

She was relatively confident that whatever Chris came up with could not scare her more than she had already been watching the other champions. How wrong she was. Chris had walked to the arena yelled a spell and just stood there, and Piper was going to yell at him to do something when a broom zoomed towards him and what happened next almost killed her from fright and she couldn’t help but cry:

“What the hell is he doing on that stick?” she shrieked.

“Flying?” McGonagall, who was seated in front of her, said proudly as Chris zoomed in and out of the dragon’s reach. “He really is a great flyer. Takes after his father. Youngest seeker in a century. Picked him out for the Quidditch team myself.”

Piper looked at her aghast, “Quidditch involves flying?”

“Of course,” McGonagall said without missing a beat. Piper searched the bleachers for where Wyatt had been seated and zeroed on the blond boy who was cheering his brother on. Oh, he was so grounded!